Edutoons

Peering from the unique professional vantage point afforded an educator and journalist, longtime cartoonist Ron Hill turns his skills of observation and illustration to a topic of local and national concern: public education. Hill presents his first compilation of editorial cartoons from 2009 to 2015, "Edutoons." His "toons" are particularly lethal and humorous when they expose the steady politicizing of education that Hill has observed as a teacher, parent, and regular...
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Peering from the unique professional vantage point afforded an educator and journalist, longtime cartoonist Ron Hill turns his skills of observation and illustration to a topic of local and national concern: public education. Hill presents his first compilation of editorial cartoons from 2009 to 2015, "Edutoons." His "toons" are particularly lethal and humorous when they expose the steady politicizing of education that Hill has observed as a teacher, parent, and regular citizen.Throughout "Edutoons," Hill manages to tackle, tickle and tease - sometimes simultaneously in a single cartoon. Head on, Hill addresses a variety of education matters, usually by targeting specific education issues in various communities. However, the topics touched upon are so universal that all who care about education in any community will nod their heads in recognition of shared challenges.The relentless and sometimes random march of political mandates by state and federal education departments are judged by Hill as supplanting the power of local schools and governments. In addition, the follies and foibles associated with labor negotiations, teacher and student assessment, and the use (and misuse) of technology in our schools are also universal across the land.However, nobody can possibly agree with all of Hill's viewpoints - his topics and opinions cut across multiple agendas and opinions. But if you share the belief that education is a transformative force that can convey individual lives and even our entire nation into a better future, then you owe it to yourself to dive into "Edutoons," get informed, form an opinion - and have a laugh.The cartoons in "Edutoons" are reproduced from the pen-and-ink originals, and are divided into four chapters dealing with funding, politics, safety, and testing. In each chapter, cartoons are presented in the order of publication and are supplemented with researched captions for many of the issues to provide regional and historical context. Often, the narratives offer a second chance to poke at a questionable practice or politician. "Edutoons" is the first in a series of planned editorial cartoon collections, gathered by important themes from Hill's library of thousands of cartoons.