Frazz by Jef Mallett follows the adventures of an unexpected role model: an elementary-school janitor who's also a Renaissance man. While he's sweeping the hall, he's whistling Beethoven. Or Lyle Lovett. He paints the woodwork in the classrooms; he paints a Da Vinci on the cafeteria wall. He's a trusted authority figure who is every kid's buddy. He took the janitor's job while he was a struggling songwriter, and when he finally sold a hit song, he decided to stay on at school. Frazz appears in 200 newspapers worldwide, including the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times, Chicago Tribune and Detroit News. "A few years back, I wrote and illustrated a children's book," says Mallett. "When I was traveling around reading it at school assemblies, I noticed that often, the most respected, best-liked grown-up in the building was the janitor. And I thought, 'Hmm, there's a comic strip in that.'" Often praised for its intelligent wit, gentle spirit and effortless diversity, Frazz won a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council in 2003 and 2005 for excellence in communicating values and ethics.
© Jef Mallett - All Rights Reserved.
Frank & Ernest by Thaves
Fred Basset by Alex Graham
Comments (24) (Please sign in to comment)
Arianne said, 6 months ago
“This is the mystery of the quotient…” ~ Led Zeppelin
KasparV said, 6 months ago
Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results.
Notsoastute said, 6 months ago
How long has she been teaching?
TheWildSow said, 6 months ago
@KasparV
Rebuttal to that:
a) Practice makes Perfect
b) If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again
or
c) If at first you don’t fricassee, fry, fry a hen!
ailurophile17 said, 6 months ago
@TheWildSow
Or as W.C. Fields was wont to say, “If at first you don’t succeed, give up. There’s no use making a damn fool of yourself.”
Varnes said, 6 months ago
Her number’s up!
puddleglum1066 said, 6 months ago
Mrs. Olsen could observe that being able to divide two numbers just might turn out to be a lot less “pointless” than making it to the far end of the pool before the other guy.
T_Lexi said, 6 months ago
Well… If there’s a hungry shark in the pool, you’d want to make it to the far end before it divided you into bite-sized pieces…
OotenAboot said, 6 months ago
@ailurophile17
‘Or as W.C. Fields was wont to say, “If at first you don’t succeed, give up. There’s no use making a damn fool of yourself.”’
WCF got into show business as a juggler. I doubt that he took that advice himself.
catzilla23 said, 6 months ago
“if at first you don’t succeed, don’t try skydiving”
annieb1012 said, 6 months ago
@Sharuniboy
“Just ask a generation of those caught in that experiement how well it can balance its checkbooks, even after shifting over to simple drills.”
I wonder how many of them do anything at all with their checkbooks! They’re too busy for that old-school stuff, preferring to use debit cards (without recording anything) and check their accounts online. Of course, you’re talking about a generation back, and I’m thinking of the kids I know now. My college student was in elementary school in the 90s, and she got a pretty standard version of arithmetic at her ultraconservative Core Knowledge charter school. Wasn’t the “new math” a 70s thing? Maybe 80s? When I was a kid in the 50s, we memorized “math facts,” and I can still compute some things faster in my head than my daughter can on her high-tech calculator.
comicsssfan said, 6 months ago
Caufield just has to spend more time with the numbers to gain facility with them. It happens naturally when you go into the higher levels of math. Same thing with swimming.
Redkaycei Repoc said, 6 months ago
@annieb1012
The new math came in the early 60’s. I was first exposed in 6th grade in 1963.
Night-Gaunt49 said, 6 months ago
@comicsssfan
I don’t think Caufield has a problem with math. He may have already reached the limit and is now bored.
K M
said, 6 months ago
@Notsoastute
More to the point, how long has she been teaching Caulfield!? Is that kid determined to stay in the 6th grade (or whatever) for the rest of his life?