i think naoki urasawa's works are too advanced for the average high schooler. there's a reason why pretty simple books are used in teaching critical thinking and analysis, they are used to open your mind to subjects you might not normally engage with, and are used mainly with the idea of challenging you to form you own thoughts and interpretations on difficult topics. something like Monster is simply too high level for a 16 year old to fully appreciate, especially if it's their introduction to a medium such as manga. almost everybody at that young of an age needs to be slowly weened into stuff, find what they like in a medium, and they'll branch out eventually. you cant climb a mountain if you start at the peak. theres nothing to gain when you have no experience. im not sure if i would pick anything for manga being used as reading in school. you also have to think about the time it takes to get through a book in a semester in high school. a good month on average for a normal length book. now imagine that with a shonen manga for example. that would take forever to teach, read together in class, make activities/homework around. it would take too much time to even get started. you also have to factor in what might be deemed as inappropriate or distracting for students. you might be thinking about the complicated history of a character, most of the students are definitely just thinking of the fanservicey bits and nothing else. i remember my classmates eyes would light up when something problematic would happen in a book we had to read, it was all they were focused on in any book, or all they would remember about the book. but anyway, thats why the books that are used in high school english classes are so short. digestible, easy to teach in a short amount of time, but very layered. for manga, it would absolutely have to be a one-shot volume, not a giant 300+ chapter story.
really interesting point. Another reason why this topic was so interesting to me, but your points make sense, I think his works would be great, or certain mangas in general, would be fantastic for a maybe higher level college course, where more time could be dedicated to one particular work possibly.
i think naoki urasawa's works are too advanced for the average high schooler. there's a reason why pretty simple books are used in teaching critical thinking and analysis, they are used to open your mind to subjects you might not normally engage with, and are used mainly with the idea of challenging you to form you own thoughts and interpretations on difficult topics. something like Monster is simply too high level for a 16 year old to fully appreciate, especially if it's their introduction to a medium such as manga. almost everybody at that young of an age needs to be slowly weened into stuff, find what they like in a medium, and they'll branch out eventually. you cant climb a mountain if you start at the peak. theres nothing to gain when you have no experience.
im not sure if i would pick anything for manga being used as reading in school. you also have to think about the time it takes to get through a book in a semester in high school. a good month on average for a normal length book. now imagine that with a shonen manga for example. that would take forever to teach, read together in class, make activities/homework around. it would take too much time to even get started. you also have to factor in what might be deemed as inappropriate or distracting for students. you might be thinking about the complicated history of a character, most of the students are definitely just thinking of the fanservicey bits and nothing else. i remember my classmates eyes would light up when something problematic would happen in a book we had to read, it was all they were focused on in any book, or all they would remember about the book. but anyway, thats why the books that are used in high school english classes are so short. digestible, easy to teach in a short amount of time, but very layered. for manga, it would absolutely have to be a one-shot volume, not a giant 300+ chapter story.
really interesting point. Another reason why this topic was so interesting to me, but your points make sense, I think his works would be great, or certain mangas in general, would be fantastic for a maybe higher level college course, where more time could be dedicated to one particular work possibly.