The influence of cartoons in children’s writing.

It’s been a tiring 2 months, visiting schools and helping students with their writing. But it is an extremely fulfilling job for us and we wish all the students from our holiday programmes the best of luck in their upcoming SA1.

In today’s blog, we would like to show you how the cartoon world has influenced students’ writing significantly. Look at the following written excerpts:

A. The robber rushed into the bank and took out his gun. He pointed the gun at the counter girl. Everyone held their breaths. My mum was frozen to death. and do nothing. So I wasted no time. I grabbed my mum’s black pointed umbrella and javelined it through the robber’s head. His brain all spilled to the floor. The robber died instantly.

B. I spotted him. He was struggling in the water. I must save my brother ! I jumped into the water and swam to him. As I drew nearer, I saw what was it that he was fighting with. A shark! I can’t let that shark take my brother’s life. With all my might, I gave the shark a big punch, right in its eyeball. The shark immediately turned upside down, dead, floating like a log. My brother was saved and East Coast beach is now a safe place again.

C. The primary one student had fallen into the gorilla’s den . He was pushed by his naughty friend. The gorilla was a fierce animal. Visitors were screaming for help. They were afraid the gorilla would eat the student up. I was his class prefect. I had no choice but to jump into the enclosure. I stood between the gorilla and the injured primary one student. I roared as loudly as I can, louder than a lion ! The gorilla beat his chest and backed off. All the visitors clapped and cheered for me. I felt proud of myself.

Storylines like the above do not go down very well with examiners. To reign our young writers back to the real world, we suggest that parents minimize the influence of cartoons in their children’s lives or expose them to life dramas that take place in the real world or take time to explain to them that ordinary folks are just not superheroes.