Should Manga be Used in High School Math Textbooks?

The results of the school textbook authorization of 2006 were announced on March 30th in Japan. "Manga Textbook" appeared on the results as a Mathematics II textbook for high schools. However, the textbook's publisher, Keirinkan, had to delete more than half of the manga-related contents the draft version of the textbook.

Working with the idea that students tend to "avoid subjects related to math and science," Keirinkan made the textbook through the process of trial and error, but according to an editor, "MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) decided that manga just isn't suitable as the main content of a schoolbook."

Keirinkan has prepared three kinds of textbooks. Out of the three, the manga textbook is made for students that do poor in math. A total of 183 pages contained manga in the draft of the textbook. According to an official from MEXT, "This book could be the first textbook to carry so much manga."

The story of manga begins with 5 students picking up a textbook. After the students tear out a page of the book by mistake, the Greece mathematician Archimedes appears and proceeds to take them to various times and places, such as the Great Pyramids and palaces in Europe, where the students are met with math challenges from different types of people, including a man from the European palace a Native American and a samurai. The students are not allowed to return to their own time until they understand the solution of the math problems contained in the book.

In the Trigonometry chapter, one of the boys sees a problem and yells: "I know this! I used to do this, yay!" And the samurai replies "Yay!" and winks. During the authorization trial, several committee members claimed that "the relationship between the actions of the characters and the object of the textbook don't connect" - "We don't understand the meaning behind the words said by the samurai."

MEXT official commented that within the Textbook Authorization Committee, some supported the approval of using manga for educational purposes: "We won't disapprove a schoolbook containing manga, but the manga in the textbook must also focus on education. In this textbook, students could simply read the manga without reading the texts." On the other hand, an editor of Keirinkan said, "We intended to make a textbook that even students not good at math will be able to read, thus giving them a chance to enter the world of mathematics."

Sources:
- Yahoo! Japan
- Mainichi Daily
Translated by T. Ohara