Generations of children grew up reading comic  books secretly, hiding out from parents and teachers who saw them as a waste of time and a risk to young minds. Comics are now gaining a new respectability at school. That is thanks to an increasingly popular and creative program, often aimed at struggling readers, that encourages children to plot, write and draw comic books, in many cases using themes from their own lives. The Comic Book Project was started in 2001 by Michael Bitz at an elementary school in Queens. Since its creation, the program, which is mainly conducted after school, has spread to more than 850 schools across the country. It has gotten a big push from the craze   among teenagers for comic book clubs and for Manga, a wildly popular variety of comic from Japan. The point is not to drop a comic book on a child's desk and say "read this". Rather, the workshops give groups of students the opportunity to work together on stories and characters that they then revise, publish and share with others in their communities. Teachers are finding it easier to teach writing and grammar with material that students are fully invested in . And it turns out that comic books have other built-in advantages. The pairing of visual and written plotlines  that they rely on appear to be especially helpful to struggling readers. No one is suggesting that comic books should take the place of traditional books or for standard reading and composition lessons. Teachers who would once have dismissed comics out of hand are learning to use a style that clearly has a powerful hold on young minds. They are using what works. The main purpose of the Comic Book Project is to  _  .
develop the cooperation among teenagers make sure that students live a rich and color1ful life after school help students who have some difficulty in reading popularize a new method of teaching