Atomic Romance

At work, a couple of days ago, I overheard one the higher-ups talking to a colleague about how he’s having problems with his daughter. He’s worried because she doesn’t like to read. His son, on the other hand, is a voracious reader and rabidly consumes almost anything. The discussion soon turned to hiring a specialist and such. Now, I don’t like to butt into other folks’ business but I figured with the conversation being so public it wouldn’t be a problem if I suggested something. I went back to my computer and printed out a few articles from the net. This guy is a busy person and has some level of concentration he has to maintain at all times, so I didn’t really have more than a moment to talk to him. But I gave him the articles and said something to the affect of “I overheard your problem and I thought I could make a suggestion… Comics”

I think also, I said something about how comics are good for getting kids interested in reading. He seemed thankful for the idea and took a quick glance at the papers I’d given him before his duties called his attention back. Who knows, he could have just thrown them in the garbage for all I know, but maybe I planted a seed. He seemed really exasperated about his daughter being illiterate (he did use this word). So, I feel he was thankful for any suggestion. I really wanted to talk to him about Shojo manga, but there wasn’t any time. Shojo was one of the topics I did included in the documents I gave him, so hopefully he read it.

I’m 99.9% certain that I’m the only person in my workplace that understands that comics can be used as a literacy tool. Because of this, I guess I felt responsible on some level to mention it. I hope it helps.