“… Today marks the fifth anniversary of the initial outbreak of hostilities between the United States of America and the so-called ‘Free States.’  It is also the third day of a tentative ceasefire, and despite all predictions, it appears to be holding.” … “For the few remaining residents of the beleaguered island of Manhattan, a formal ceasefire is of little consolation when faced with the realities of the war zone they live in: looters, roving gangs of neighborhood militia, insurgents, car bombers, contract killers … this is daily life in the city.” … “Tune in for what will be, we’re sure, unforgettable television.”

So begins Brian Wood’s DMZ with “Every day is 9/11!” scrawled on a wall.  A second American Civil War is in full swing and Wood gives readers an indictment of the role of media in active combat areas, criticism on our inability to talk to each other in this country, and the everyday lives of non-combatants.

Wood hits all the right universal questions: When is it appropriate to rebel against a government? What is the proper role of the media in a war zone? What is the appropriate role of government during a civil war? When it is (in)appropriate to use deadly force, or suicide bombing? And perhaps most importantly: what does it mean to be a non-combatant in the middle of a combat zone?

DMZ is highly usable in an American Government class, or current issues course, and it could probably be used near the end of a U.S. History course.

Modern Civil War:
The obvious topic here is whether or not the United States will have a second Civil War, but this is not necessary a unique topic.  Orson Scott Card explores this in his Empire series very effectively and a quick search will find plenty more examples.

The concept, as explored by Wood, is that a second civil war would not divide by North/South, or East/West, or even by specific states.  Wood’s second civil war would divide along ideological lines that do not nicely correspond to geographic lines – a topic that feels more plausible now than when it was first published in 2006. Wood’s divide is red and blue. Urban and rural. The vast majority of the story focuses on the island of Manhattan as a demilitarized zone microcosm of the greater war.

DMZ is about far more than a second civil war though, the piece lives through it’s characters and their experiences as non-combatants within the context of war.

Morgan Spurlock captures this in his introduction to the 8th volume Hearts and Minds:

Insurgencies.  Suicide bombers.  Nuclear Armed States.  These are all scary scenarios that could be ripped each day from the world’s top stories, but in the hands of Brian Wood and [artist] Riccardo Burchielli, they create something much more frightening. …They open our eyes and our ears to events that, while fictional in the frame of this groundbreaking creation, are links in the chain of our global existence.  Each story, each character and each page is undeniably tied to the whorl in which we live, and for me – that is DMZ’s greatest triumph.”

And that’s just it.  DMZ resonates.  DMZ reads like truth in a way that can only be achieved in fiction and is reinforced by the combination of words and images that can only be found in comics.  Brian Wood makes sense from the first page through to the last panel of issue 72.

At its core, DMZ is about telling the war story of the non-combatants.  The people who have to live in a war zone they never asked for.  The people who are trying to survive despite everything working against them.  This story goes untold all too frequently.

There are plenty of war stories about soldiers, and politicians, and reporters.  Since World War One, and again after Vietnam, our narrative about war shifted in a strong way away from honor and glory, and into the realm of horror and brutality.  For soldiers. We’re still missing stories of civilians.

Wood gives us regular people.  He gives us war on Main Street.  He shows us the doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, and the small business owners.  These are the people who live under nightmare circumstances and can’t put a spin on it.  They exist amidst constant terror and their behavior reflects that desperation. And from a 2017 perspective, they are the kind of people fleeing violence in Syria and coming to use for refuge. DMZ is the everyday reality that a war zone creates for the non-combatants.

In Class:
The beauty of using fiction to discuss political issues is that it forces students to get beyond our sound bites, spin, and the 24-hour news cycle.  You don’t have to discuss Republicans, or Democrats, or specific – highly polarizing – political policies.  You can discuss Matty Roth, Parco Delgado, and the Free States of America.  The hope would be that these fictitious symbols for very real ideas can free students to discuss the ideas in a civil manner, investigating ideas and making reasoned judgments. The concept works in English class when we use Of Mice and Men to examine race and class. It can work in social studies too.

DMZ spans a total of 72 individual comic books, collected in 12 trade paperbacks.  Unless you’re running an entire class on the current political climate as depicted in comics (which sounds fantastic) it’s unrealistic to use the whole run.  So what do you use?
The piece that sticks strongest in my mind is the “Day 204 Massacre” collected in the Friendly Fire volume.  The volume explores justifiable use of force alongside issues of perspective.  The story centers around whether or not soldiers should have fired into a (potentially) peaceful protest.  This is the same question as who shot first on Lexington Green, but Wood’s setting and storytelling are exactly right for the current time.  He is brutal without being excessive.  He is honest without losing nuance.  Wood speaks the language of the millennial generation – students who are uninterested in sticking to pre-defined categories. Unpacking the perspectives in the “Day 204 Massacre” align directly with how social studies asks students to understand multiple causation and the reliability (or not) of eyewitness accounts.

There’s strong language and plenty of violence throughout so a high school teacher will have to take care when using DMZ. I argue that there is enough thoughtfulness and commentary to justify the violence. There’s no more violence here than in All Quiet on the Western Front, or The Things They Carried – DMZ just has pictures.

I’ve been out sick for the last two days, and writing sub plans was a miserable experience.  I know some of it is the fact that I was sick and just completely uninterested in work.  I pretty much spent three days on the couch drooling on myself.

The other part is that I’m still not sure how to make a sub day worthwhile.  Part of it is finding a good sub, but that’s pretty tough right now since I’m new to high school, and a good sub in middle school is not the same as a good sub in high school.  It’s also just difficult to know what a sub will actually get through.  I’ve had subs finish my plans in 20 minutes, and I’ve had them only get through half my plans.  There’s also the case that a sub will say they got through everything well, but the kids disagree and are totally confused.  (This is definitely something they don’t teach you in grad school.)

The common default is show a video.  That way the sub can’t really mess things up.  Ok fine.  You know what they’re getting, but are they actually learning?  My default in AVID was to run a peer study group (PSG).  That’s because it’s 100% student directed, and the sub doesn’t even need to be in the room. The students have issues to bring to the table, and they also have a vested interest.  Best of all the students write a reflection as part of the PSG so I get an additional 30 sub reports.

What do you do in a content class though?  This year so far I’ve mostly gone with read book and take notes.  It’s not the most interesting day, but since the students will have a quiz on the material, and they’re getting class time instead of homework there’s some motivation to do the work.  It’s not a great plan but it gets the job done. 

The hard part this time was the two days in a row, and then coming back into a block day.  The whole week has to be built around our block days (2, 4, 6 on Wednesday, and odd numbers on Thursday).  It’s extremely hard to go into the block days with no real knowledge of what happened on the previous two days.  I guess it’s one of those lovely eternal problems of teaching.  I can’t help but think that someone has figured out a real solution to the sub issue though.

Had another chat with 7th period.  Things had been going downhill for a while.  Attitude issues, compliance with getting work turned in and things of that nature.

In particular I’ve been pushing a project-based approach with government and yesterday I introduced a new project: a mock legislative session.  I’d planning it well, students we taking issues that they’ve already chosen, researched, and written about.  Then they’re going into committee and they’ll have discuss, debate, and compromise in order to write a bill.  Sounds great.  Model the legislative process instead of talking about it.

Oh man did I get pushback.  Kids were off task, many of them just completely canned the idea out of hand, and in general I did not get the benefit of the doubt from the class.

So today we had a talk.  We talked about attitude, we talked about graduation requirements, and we talked about providing constructive criticism.  In general I was really pleased.  Many of the students really went to bat for me honoring the hard work I put into the class and thanking me for making the class more than just lecture, notes, and tests.

In particular my two newest students took the chance to be vocal about their views on the class.  On international student mentioned that in his home country you can’t ask teachers for help, or ask them questions.  All you can do is taken notes during lectures, and take the tests.  He mentioned rampant cheating and the general feeling that no one learns anything.  He said that he was really happy to be here because now he knows how to do real things like write a proposal, research, and find solutions to problems.  The second new student mentioned her old school in Pennsylvania where her entire grade was based on four tests, telling my students “you shouldn’t complain, you don’t know how good you have it.”

I hope that these comments coming from students will help to add weight to them.  I gave students the opportunity to voice concerns in a constructive way and the feedback was largely positive.  I’m sure some students are still upset, but maybe they will at least see that others do find value in the work we do.  Maybe it will give them cause to give the class another shot.  My hope is that my transparency can continue to lend some authenticity to the class and let the students feel like they have some agency.

I also told them that if they don’t feel comfortable talking to me or the class they can write me an unsigned letter, write a note to our principal, or put a note on my car.  We’ll see what happens.

I’ll be using this blog to review articles, books, films, music, etc… within the framework of education and how they can be applied to make sense in and educational setting.

I draw from a wide range of sources and as such there should be a fairly eclectic mix of information.  Hopefully this can be a sort of resource as well for educators looking for ways to use media in their classrooms.