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Taylor Morris English 112 Meagan Keaton 2 May 2013

The topic of these two comics is whether or not physical education should be required in schools or not. One side argues that it should be required because students need their suggested physical activity for the day and it also just gives them a break from learning and focusing on textbooks and math problems. The other side argues that it should not be included in the students curriculum because it takes away from things that matter which are the basic math, English, science, and social studies courses. People say that the students can get their physical activities in at home or on their own time.

In the first comic, the layout is a teacher and a student running while the teacher is teaching him math at the same time. At the bottom of the comic, it reads Weve had a hard time keeping physical education in our curriculum. One thing about this article is that they are outside, usually where a physical education class takes place. This leads to believe that it was favoring more towards keeping physical education in schools. The next thing noticeable was that the teacher is wearing a tie and the student is wearing gym clothes, but they are both running. This infers that they shove teachers who are not qualified to teach physical education classes because they are not important, or that there is not enough time to have physical education as a separate class. The teacher is running with a chalk board and there is two teachers standing watching. In this comic, it shows two other teachers or people of importance watching the

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teacher and the child run with the chalk board. These people could represent the people trying to take physical education out of the school systems. The way these teachers symbolize this is by the way they are standing and watching over this student and teacher. It is symbolic of the school systems watching over the physical education department determining if it is worthy enough to stay in the school curriculum. On the other side, the teacher running with the student could represent those who are working very hard to keep physical education as a part of the curriculum. The people who are standing there watching the student and teacher both have suits on. They are dressed very well, more so than the teacher, so they must be higher authority than the teacher. The teacher has a sort of worried look on his face like he is trying to impress the people with suits on. The teacher could be trying to persuade these people to keep physical education in the schools. Another noticeable characteristic of this comic is that every person in the comic is very close together, which could be intimidating. This could also represent how close the battle is with either keeping physical education in or out. The appeal that is used in this comic is logos. When a person looks at this picture, they think that it is not logical to do two subjects like this at the same time. With this comic not being logical, it persuades the reader that the schools should just make time for physical education. Overall, this comic is saying that schools dont make enough time for physical education, and they just tend to cram it in wherever it fits. This picture sides with keeping physical education in the school curriculum just based on the caption in the bottom, but also the other clues pointed out.

In the second comic, the layout is a student and teacher in a hallway. The teacher has a thought bubble with a heart in it and it appears the student is talking to the teacher. On the bottom it reads Mrs. Walls, I love physical education. It is one of my favorite educations! One

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thing that is noticeable in this picture is that the teacher is extremely taller than the student, which could symbolize authority. They are also in a hallway instead of a gym which could indicate that education is more important. One big thing that is noticed is when the student says It is one of my favorite educations! This is implying that physical education is only bringing down a student and not helping them excel in their academics. The thought bubble with the heart shows that the teacher thinks that the student is cute for saying what she said. Another thing in this comic that is noticeable is that the teacher has a kind of condescending look towards the student, and she is also looking down at the student. This could mean a lot of things. One is that she thinks that what the student is saying is wrong. Although the teacher has a smile on her face, it is a smile that most adults get when they think what the child is saying is cute, but completely wrong or not logical. With this comic it is portraying that physical education is just a game or a pointless class that is only seen as fun and has no point to it except for being just a silly subject. The logic used in the comic is pathos. This approach is the one being used because the student talks about loving a subject and also the reader has a sort of soft spot for cute little students like this little girl. The audience sees the little girl and they tend to feel bad for her. Seeing this little girl looking up at the teacher talking about how gym is her favorite subject makes the readers feel bad for her and makes them want to keep physical education in the school curriculum. Overall, this comic is siding with not keeping physical education into the school systems. One clue to figure this out is that they are in a hallway, not a gym or physical education atmosphere, the teacher is looking at the student in a condescending way, and the students grammar is not the best, which are all proving points to which side this comic takes.

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Both of these comics represent both sides of the arguments very well. If you dig deep with the meanings, you can really tell what they are implying or what side or the argument that they are on. The two sides can be argued very logically.