Final Post for TE 448

What I have learned...

Before this course began, I assumed the focus would be learning how to use multicultural literature in the classroom. I quickly found out that instead of coming up with ways to use books, we would be looking at the books themselves. It is hard to fully describe how useful this has been. First, I think it was a great idea to have a course that forced us to read adolescent literature critically. It showed me how many issues can arise in a single book. There were so many questions and topics that came from the readings we did in class that I don’t think I would have ever thought about. I can’t imagine how many other questions and issues would arise if I were giving these books to children to read. I think that one of the biggest and most important aspects of the class was learning the importance of being critical about a text. It is crucial to take the time to read through a book and really question its content and messages. This is not to say that every book should be picked apart for what may be considered negative, but that it should be analyzed so that we are better prepared to have meaningful dialogue in the classroom. Overall, I learned that each book can be used as a springboard to start discussion about diversity and multiculturalism, and that is a beautiful thing no matter which book it is.

I also learned a lot about myself during the course. I learned that everyone, no matter how open-minded you consider yourself to be, comes into a classroom with biases. This is because everyone has different life experiences, and brings something different to the table. Recognition of biases is the first step to ensuring that your biases do not become an obstacle to learning about others. It is also the first step to realizing how stereotypes are formed. But in order to understand these things we must recognize them in ourselves, and sometimes that means talking about some of the challenging topics that we discussed in class.

Finally, the class really opened my eyes to how sheltered I was throughout my own education. After discussing issues of multiculturalism in this course, I cannot understand why they are not integrated into elementary curriculum more frequently. This was the first time a lot of us had the chance to really dig into these issues, and we are in college. I think that creating this dialogue with children at an early age is the only way to foster true open-mindedness. Breaking down stereotypes and fostering discussion about issues is so important, as I have seen in person in class, and I hope to be able to do so with my students.

Reflection of the Books as a Set: Female Heroes

Reflection

Reversing Stereotypes with Female Heroes

All three of the books chosen address combat the issue of female stereotypes in children’s books. While researching this topic, I began to think about fairy tales. This genre of literature was one that I was very familiar with as a child. Many of the stories that I read or were read to me, were fairy tales or folk tales. Not surprisingly, almost every fairy tale that I can remember included a “damsel in distress character”. The damsel in distress is a very popular character in world literature. This character is typically a young female, who is put into some sort of dire predicament by a monster or villain. What makes this theme both unique, and damaging to young female readers, is that each situation calls for a male hero to save the female. The damsel is often portrayed as naïve, helpless, and ineffectual. These messages are sent to young female readers each time they read a fairy tale with this type of character. Because of this, I chose three books that reverse the “damsel in distress” stereotype. Each of these books has a female character, which is not just a main character, but also the hero in the book. The first is a collection of actual folk tales that provide strong female characters in place of the typical male heroes that readers may normally find. The second is a single story of a young girl who takes responsibility when no one else in her family can. The third is a story of a young girl who becomes her own hero in order to follow her dreams. Each of the three, although they do so in different ways, presents strong female heroes who do not need men in order to overcome obstacles. They show readers that women can be heroes full of self-determination, bravery, and wisdom, reversing the more widely seen role of “damsel in distress”.

Female Protagonists and Beyond: Picture Books for Future Feminists

Professional/Critical Resource

Female Protagonists and Beyond: Picture Books for Future Feminists

Vadergrift, Kay. "Female Protagonists and Beyond: Picture Books for Future Feminists." Feminist Teacher 9 .2 (1995): 61-69.

This article begins by introducing the problem of trying to “introduce women’s ways of knowing into established male canons”. What would be better is a time where this would no longer be necessary. Instead, young people would be “immersed into a truly gender-fair, multicultural world view from their earliest memories”. However, with the type of stories that children are hearing today, that is not yet reality. As a first and important step, teachers can, the article argues, choose stories that “offer alternatives to traditional gender expectations”. This becomes the main goal of the article, and is strengthened by research and examples throughout.

The article goes on to discuss the need to have picture books that not only include female protagonists, but also really shape the lives and perception of young women. What is interesting about the article is that it breaks down pieces of literature that have female characters into levels of female voice. For example, some books may have women as secondary characters whereas others may have a female protagonist. Some books may have universal characters that seem to almost ignore gender, and some may have strong independent females that represent self-determination. The article stresses the importance of having books that do the latter. In fact, the article states that books must “go beyond just having female protagonists” and that they must not just be “gender-fair”. Because literature has not presented a gender-fair world throughout history, doing so not is not enough. Instead, the article suggests, there must be strong female characters that reverse the negative female stereotypes that have been presented thus far. This is the first step to reaching gender-fairness.

Another important aspect of the article is that it addresses the impact of illustrations in a book. It says that picture books are “twice-told tales” in that illustrations not only go along with the text, but can also bear just as much weight in conveying meaning. It is crucial, then, to choose books that have pictures that demonstrate the determination and confidence of female characters.

Lastly, the article provides examples of books that cut across the different ranges represented in the “Model of Female Voices” mentioned above. This portion begins by highlighting books that include universal characters where gender does not matter. However, focus is put on books that go further, including Dulcie Dando, Soccer Star and A Ride on the Red Mare’s Back, where females are not just characters, but heroes in one way or another.

Dulcie Dando, Soccer Star

Book Review

Dulcie Dando, Soccer Star

Stops, Sue. Dulcie Dando, Soccer Star. New York: Henry Holth & Co (J), 1992.

Sue Stops is a teacher and language coordinator in England. She created Dulcie Dando, her second picture book, because she wanted to have a story that showed a young girl, the age of her students, as her own hero. The book begins by showing the “long line of daring women” in Dulcie Dando’s family. From the very beginning, the reader is presented with women, some of whom are great-grandmothers, having daring and untraditional hobbies. However, these women are not the role models that the book presents, necessarily. Instead, Dulcie Dando becomes her own hero, and the hero that is taken away from the story. She has these extraordinary women to look up to, but still decides she wants to be different. She is a very talented soccer player, and wants to be a part of the team. The boys on the team are so unhappy about letting a girl play, that the coach makes Dulcie a back up player. However, because of her self-determination, Dulcie comes to the game with soccer shoes just incase.

When a uniform mishap leaves the team short one player, Dulcie steps up. Playing beautifully, Dulcie barely notices when the button on her shorts breaks and she is left in her underclothes. Instead of getting embarrassed and letting the incident ruin her chance of proving herself, Dulcie continues on to score the winning goal. Here, the author presents the reader with a young girl who will not let anything get in the way of her dream. She is determined and not afraid to stand up for herself, making her quite a powerful female hero.

The illustrations in this book show Dulcie’s emotions as she goes from being angry about the unfairness of the team, to being proud of herself for overcoming an obstacle. What is even more interesting, though, is the fact that the illustrations completely reverse female stereotypes. At one point, Dulcie’s mother is shown fixing a car, while her father is ironing shirts. This, being merely in the background, is a perfect example of how pictures and text work together to reverse stereotypes as well as promote female strength and heroes.

A Ride on the Red Mare's Back

Book Review

A Ride on the Red Mare's Back

Guin, Ursula K. Le. A Ride on the Red Mare's Back. New York: Orchard Books, 1992.

The author of the book, Ursula Le Guin, received a little painted wooden horse as a parting gift when she left Sweden. When she learned that there was no legend behind the red horses that were so popular there, she decided she would create a tale around them. Growing up, Le Guin lived with her three older brothers. Although she says that she never feels as if she were treated unequally compared to the boys, she says she wanted to create a story where the girl saved the boy, something she never knew as a child.

This story focuses on a young girl who lives with her little brother, mother, father, and baby in a house along the woods. The father decides to take the little boy to teach him how to hunt. The father soon returns to tell the family that the boy was taken by trolls. Overwhelmed with grief, he refuses to talk to anyone. Her mother must take care of the infant and cannot go out to find the boy. The girl, then, is the only one who can save the boy. She takes responsibility and plunges out into the cold. She brings with her some interesting objects that really lend to the powerful theme of female hero.

First, she carries with her a small, red, wooden horse toy that is painted with flowers. The horse comes to life, and together, the two female characters fight off the evil trolls. She also uses homemade bread to outsmart her enemy, and her only weapon is a pair of knitting needles. Here, the author subtly presents a powerful message- girls can be heroes even if they enjoy doing some of the stereotypical “female hobbies” such as baking or knitting. The girl in the story takes responsibility for her whole family, and is so brave that she saves her brother from a situation that even her father could not handle.

The illustrations in the book are beautiful, and do not shy away from showing the girl looking fearful in some parts of the book. This works for the overall theme that no matter what the girl may have been afraid of, self-determination and bravery allows for triumph. In the end, the picture shows her leading her brother across the once dangerous path. Because she has been brave, she can safely pass, and this time looks confident.

Not One Damsel in Distress

Book Review

Not One Damsel in Distress World Folktales for Strong Girls

Yolen, Jane. Not One Damsel in Distress: World Folktales for Strong Girls. San Diego: Silver Whistle, 2000.

This collection of stories includes folk tales from all around the world. The book has thirteen retold tales that introduce strong, brave, female heroes. The stories are Atalanta the Huntress (Greece), Nana Miriam (Niger), Fitcher’s Bird (Germany), The Girl and the Puma (Argentina), Li Chi Slays the Serpent (China), and Brave Woman Counts Coup (United States/ White River Sioux), Pretty Penny (United States/ Ozark Mountains), Burd Janet (Scotland), Mizilca (Romania), The Pirate Princess (Poland/Jewish), The Samurai Maiden (Japan), Bradamante (France), and Molly Whuppie (England).

One of the best parts of the book is the beginning, which is titled “An Open Letter to My Daughter and Granddaughters”. Here, Yolen sets the tone for the book, explaining that girls can he heroes too. As a female that grew up with all brothers, she talks about how she never knew stories with strong female characters. All of the heroes in the books were males. While researching for a novel, she discovered folk tales of female heroes. She uses the word hero purposely, saying that “heroines sound like lesser or minor heroes”. This book retells these folktales about heroes, and each hero is a woman. She also mentions how the stories were not only in folklore, but were a real part of history. This is powerful because it gives young girls the strong female role models that they need, and will be able to see that there were strong women in history. To give the stories more authenticity, the last few pages are titled “Notes on the Stories”. Here, background is given to each story, with historical references and information that prove that these stories are real legends from all over the globe.

The worldliness aspect of the book adds to how beneficial it is for young readers. Not only does it reverse the negative female stereotype of a “damsel in distress” by telling the tales of powerful, brave and smart, the book also presents pieces of cultures from all over the world.

Although there is some violence within the book, it is important to note that it is within the folklore genre. The amount of violence is appropriate for the genre as well as intended age level. Additionally, it adds to the strength and bravery of the female heroes. Although there are not many pictures, there is at least one black and white illustration for each story, and they show the women in the most crucial part of her journey.

GLBT event

What I learned from Gwen


PRISM, a GLBT group on campus, sponsored an event where the mother of a trans gender person spoke. She told the story of her daughter Gwen, who was born male. Gwen was beautiful and full of life. When she was seventeen years old, she went to a house party in her hometown in California. There, she was confronted by four boys who asked her if she was really a woman. Gwen's response "Isn't it obvious?" infuriated the boys. After tackling her to the floor, and seeing that she still had male parts, they beat her. But they did not just beat Gwen, they killed her. The thought of these men and their hate taking someone else's life is so disturbing. Worse, they buried her in a shallow grave and then ended their night by going to breakfast at McDonald's. I cannot explain the emotion I felt as Gwen's mother told us these horrible details. She just kept saying that it was not those men that killed her daughter, hate killed her. This really struck me because I realized that horrible events like the murder of Gwen will not end until people stop hating others because they are different. Gwen may have been different than the men that killed her, but everyone is different in some way, and no one has the right to hurt someone else because of who they are.
After she told her story, Gwen's mother asked for any questions. Earlier, she had mentioned how hard it was for Gwen growing up. She was constantly teased, picked on, and harassed, especially in school. I asked her if teachers were supportive of Gwen and her transition. I asked whether or not the teachers and administrators did anything to make school safe for Gwen, as they should for all students. Her response was very saddening. She told me that Gwen did have some good teachers, but for the most part, none of them gave her any support. Her teachers, and the school, turned a blind eye to the harassment that Gwen received at school every day. As a future educator, I am appalled that no one in the school did more to help Gwen. No matter what your beliefs or opinions are, as a teacher or school faculty, it is your responsibility to make school safe for every student. The fact that Gwen's mother's eyes teared up as she talked about Gwen's experience in school proves that this was not the case.