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.

Nokemos lecture on Two-Spiritedness

Native Americans and Two-Spiritedness

After I saw how beneficial the first lecture I went to at Nokemos was, I decided to check out another one. I thought that the lecture on Two-Spiritedness would be interesting because it combined what we talked about with Native Americans as well as GLBT issues. The speaker at this lecture was a Native American woman, who was also African American. She began the lecture by saying, "I am black. I am Native. I am a lesbian. These are all parts of me". She described how she used to struggle with understanding her own identity. People would often ask "what she was", and she said that she would choose either Native American or black, but never both. Now, she is comfortable saying that she is black, native, and is also not afraid to tell people that she is a lesbian.
What I want to address in this post, though, is a comment made by someone in the audience. During the lecture, the speaker used the word "queer". Immediately, a woman raised her hand. She told the speaker that she has been an educator for thirty years. She said that she thought that the word "queer" was bad, and that it should never be used. She also commented that she always thought of herself as "colorblind", and that every year, she teaches her students to not see color. She said that she tells them that color and race do not matter. The speaker began by addressing the woman's concern about her use of the word queer. She told us all that you need to know the people that you are speaking to. Some members of the GLBT community prefer the word queer, some prefer the word gay. However, she said that it has become a general consensus in the community that queer is not necessarily an offensive term. I thought this was interesting because it tied into one of the topics we discussed in class. We talked about language, and how important it is to know who you are talking to.
Next, she repeated the words she spoke at the beginning of the lecture. She told the woman in the audience, "I am black. I am native. I am a lesbian". However, this time she went into greater depth. She told us that those are all parts of her identity. She said, "People see that I'm black. That is reality. It is also important to me. So is the fact that I am Native. And I do not want it to be ignored". When I left the lecture, this is one of the things that I kept thinking about. I've heard people use the term "colorblind", and how we are all members of the human race. While this is true, we are all humans and all equal, I think it would be very detrimental to ignore someone's race or ethnicity. These things contribute to someone's identity, and saying that you will look past them seems like you are saying that they do not matter. Race and ethnicity, along with gender or sexuality, all play an important role in someone's identity, and should be appreciated.

Nokemos lecture on boarding schools

Native American boarding schools


In the beginning of the semester, we watched the film about Chief Illini and how this mascot was affecting the Native American culture. During the film, Native American boarding schools were brought up, and a few minutes were dedicated to talking about the affect they had on the culture. I had never learned about these boarding schools or the awful treatment of Native Americans who attended them. Since then, I have attended one of the lectures at Nokemos that focused on the schools. One of the speakers, a Native American woman, told the story of her mother's experience in the boarding schools. Her mother was forced to attend the school when she was only eight years old. Her brother, who was three at the time, was not allowed to have any contact with her once they were there. Not only was she split up from her family, she was not allowed to speak her own language or wear her own clothing. The boarding school forced her to leave her culture behind. The woman went on to tell of the mistreatment and abuse that her mother, and all of the other Native American children at her school, faced daily. If they were not silent and obedient at all times, they were punished. Punishments typically involved being locked in a closet, and according to her mother, the one time she refused to do what she was told, she was locked in a crate outside for three nights with no food. Overall, her mother learned to be silent, learned to follow the rules, and learned to not be affectionate.

Now, years later, the woman who spoke is dedicating her life to making a documentary about the affects of the boarding schools. What I found most interesting, is that many of the interviews that she told us about did not involve people who actually attended the schools. Instead, they focused on their children and grandchildren, and the effects that are still present today. Many times, when I think about events like the boarding schools, I only think of the impact that they had at the time. What I learned was that the abuse that the people in the schools faced as a child greatly impacted the way they raised their own children. One of the men interviewed for the documentary said that his mother also grew up in a boarding school. Similar to the speaker's mother, she learned that being affectionate led to punishment. As a result, she never hugged or touched her own children. She never told them that she loved them. Now, her son has a daughter of his own and told our speaker that he "never actually played with his daughter". He never hugged or cuddled her, and never took the time to play with her. He is very afraid that she will feel the way that he felt when he was growing up, but does not know any other way.
I learned a lot from this lecture, but I think what I got out of it most was the understanding that someone's suffering does not end when the pain stops. The terrible effects of the boarding schools last through the generations, and are affecting the lives of Native Americans today.

more proposal 8

As I was writing the previous blog, I began to really think about how issues like the ones raised by Proposal 8 impact schools. I wondered how much these issues are talked about in a school setting, if at all. While searching around for more information, I came across an article that I found very interesting that seems to answer a few of my own questions.
The California Progress Report had an article titled Schrag: Yes on 8 Campaign Tries to Scare and Mislead Voters into Writing Ban on Same Sex Marriage into California Constitution before the proposal passed. The article describes how the campaign in favor of Proposal 8 ran a TV ad that featured a law professor from Pepperdine University. In the ad, the professor cited a federal appellate court decision in Massachusetts (where gay marriage is legal) which affirms a lower court ruling denying parents of a couple of young children the right to be notified when gay marriage is discussed in their classrooms. This really stands out to me for a few reasons.
First, the court rulings in that case are very interesting. For one of the kids in the case, the court said, "(T)here is no evidence of systemic indoctrination. There is no allegation that Joey was asked to affirm gay marriage."In the case of the other kid, the court ruled that the books were read in his classroom "do not endorse gay marriage or homosexuality, or even address these topics explicitly, but merely describe how other children might come from families that look different from one's own." The object of the books, the court said, was tolerance toward different lifestyles and different kinds of relationships. Further, the court ruled that "Public schools are not obliged to shield individual students from ideas which potentially are religiously offensive, particularly when the school imposes no requirement that the student agree with or affirm those ideas, or even participate in discussions about them. …" I think this is so important because it directly relates to what we talk about in class. During the last class session, we were discussing whether or not controversial topics can be discussed in class. Here, the court ruled that literature that includes issues such as same sex parents do not need to be left out of the classroom. What I liked most was the fact that the court used the words "shield individual students". We should not be shielding students from these issues, and instead, we should be talking about them.

Secondly, the article really pointed out how misleading media can be. The TV ad that this article focuses on talks about these two cases as if the schools were telling the students that they need to agree with gay marriage when in fact, the literature and discussion presented to the students was just increasing awareness of the types of families that students could come from. Of course, advertisements from the other side may have been just as misleading, as most media and propaganda for political events can be. But what this showed me is that as a future teacher, I must pay close attention to the media that I am seeing. It is crucial to not believe every ad, and to really look into what information these ads are presenting.

Overall, I thought that it was interesting to see just how much current events such as Proposal 8 relate to my life as a future teacher. To me, the article represents what obstacles I may face as a teacher. The court cases mentioned occurred because students were introduced to diversity and their parents were outraged by it. Balancing providing students with awareness of the world around them with respecting their home life and possible "shielding" from parents will be a constant struggle that as teachers, we must deal with on a daily basis.

proposal 8 and schools

In class today, we mentioned Proposal 8 and how it may be an important issue when we start discussing GLBT issues in class. I wanted to research the proposal so I was at least a little bit informed when that time came. What I found was surprising.
First, Proposal 8 changed the California Constitution in order to eliminate the right of same sex couples to marry. This means that the only recognizable, and therefore valid, marriage is that of a man and a woman.
The biggest trouble I have with this idea is that I find it hard to determine who can give validity to someone's relationship. The fact that the love felt between a homosexual couple is the same love that a heterosexual couple shares, but it can not be recognized is very unfair. Additionally, if we have a separation of church and state, and religiously marriage is considered the union of a male and female, why should that religious belief be what dictates the lives of people?
Looking at the very foundation of our country, one would think that freedom and equality would be upheld in all aspects of the constitution today. However, banning gay marriage, and in turn deeming the marriage between same sex couples as invalid, is hardly equal.
It seems as if Proposal 8 gives two different sets of rules- one set for heterosexual couples, and then another, very unfortunate set, for heterosexual couples. This is unfair, and unequal.
I am very disappointed to learn that ban-gay-marriage amendments were approved in Arizona and Florida as well. But most shocking to me is that Arkansas voters approved a measure banning unmarried couples from serving as adoptive or foster parents. I feel as if this is even more important than banning gay marriage. The right to have the union between two people recognized is as right that everyone should have. Take the actual ceremony of marriage out of the picture, gay couples should still have rights as a union, such as health care benefits, etc. They should also be allowed to adopt children. The fact that voters feel as if they have the right to tell a same sex couple that they are not "qualified" to raise a child is absurd and offensive. I started to think about what this means to me as a teacher. Students hear the news, or others talk about the news, and what are the children of same sex parents now going to think? How is one of my future students who may come from this type of family going to feel knowing that America's voters took away these rights from same sex couples?

it's elementary!

I came across this article while I was searching for something online for another class. I thought I would put it on my blog because I thought it was encouraging to find out that there are resources made to help teachers to talk about gay issues in the classroom. I have heard many times that talking about these types of issues with elementary school is inappropriate because kids are too young to handle such a controversial issue. The truth is, as Debra Chasnoff points out in her film It's Elementary: Talking about Gay Issues In School, kids already know a lot about the world around them. Students are not hearing about gay issues for the first time in the classroom. Instead, they are coming into the classroom with knowledge, and often times, with biases and prejudices that they may bring from home. This video, although I have only watched clips, shows that students are really knowledgeable and compassionate when they are given the chance to discuss homosexuality. As one reviewer says, "One of the most striking aspects of the film is the depth of awareness and sensitivity students illustrate regarding the issue". What I think is especially interesting is that Debra shows classes of students grades K through 8 talking about the issue, and the first graders were the kids who were more open minded and offered the most insight. This helped me to realize that it is crucial to be talking about these types of issues at an early age, before students become stuck in a certain negative mindset. Additionally, this particular review addresses the fact that we are not hesitant to bring about topics of race or ethnicity in the classroom, so why is homosexuality still such a taboo? One's sexuality is just as much a part of their person as their race, and we should be able to have a discussion regarding homosexuality with students, as it is reality and something that they are aware of and have an opinion about at all ages.

review of film:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3935/is_/ai_n9093531

offers video clips:
http://newday.com/films/Its_Elementary.html

blindness

I remember seeing the preview for the movie Blindness a couple of weeks ago. To be honest, I didn't think anything of it, other than I thought it looked like a movie I would not want to see. To me, it just didn't seem interesting, but I never thought about what the movie was presenting to its audience.
After talking about it briefly in class, I already began to form an opinion on the film. Reading the articles on the blog, my opinion got stronger.
We talk a lot about seeing diverse characters in literature, and the last topic of people with disabilities really made me think. Do I remember ever reading a book with a character that had a disability as the lead? I don't. My group and I talked about how important it is to have these characters, not just so kids that do not share the same disability can become exposed to it, but also so that the kids who are living with that disability can see characters like themselves in literature. More importantly, they can see these characters not struggling, not being seen as "closer to god" as one of the articles described, but just living.
This is important not just in books, but in other types of media too, such as film. One of the articles also mentioned how people with disabilities are often made villains in the media. Thinking back on the movie Blindness, I can see how this has detrimental effects.
The movie includes characters who lose their sight. A movie with a blind person as a lead would be great, but this movie turns blindness into a dangerous disease that not only negatively affects those who "contract" it, but also threatens society as a whole. This is not only very offensive, but is also very hurtful to those who are blind, and to all those who may see the movie and not think about it critically. What image is this movie presenting to us? It is showing those who lose their sight as animal-like, unable to control themselves and unable to think. As the articles posted said, it is presenting blindness as not something that is simply different than what people may experience, but as something that is dangerous, and something that should be feared. This is the complete opposite image that should be presented, and is something that is rightfully getting furious responses.
I think it is very interesting that in defense of the movie, one of the articles mentioned how blindness can have two meanings- and that this movie was merely a metaphor for how society tends to turn a blind eye to important issues. This may be true, but the same metaphor could have been accomplished without creating a film that was so offensive. Also, then, I think the fact that the creators of the movie were "blind" to this issue, and ignored how offensive its images truly are, is quite ironic.

te448 blogging

How I feel...

This is the first semester that I have been asked to blog for a class. Before now, I never attempted to create a blog, nor read any other blog online. I found it kind of troublesome at first, and to be honest, was a little bit annoyed that it was another thing I would have to remember to do for some of my classes. My first blog was a disaster- I didn't publish it correctly and no one could even read it. After figuring out how to correctly post, I never found myself going to the Angel website to find other classmate's blog sites. Blogging, then, seemed useless. However, now that everyone's blog site is on our class blog site, it is very easy to just visit them all. It is nice to be able to hear the opinions of everyone, being that a huge class discussion on every topic is just impossible. I love that we are discussing issues that are important to multiculturalism in class, and I think that in order to really understand these issues we need to listen to and learn from everyone's ideas. Blogging allows us to do this, and it gives me a sort of ownership over it. I can choose to really put effort into it, and take the time to read other blogs, or I can ignore them. So far, I have been trying to make that time, and knowing that it is my choice makes it seem more like a hobby than a task.

Do I think it is worthwhile?

I think this is an awesome thing to get used to so that I am comfortable using blogs with my students in the future. Having students create a blog will enhance their technological skills, but also give them the opportunity to learn from other students not just in their classroom or school, but all over the country and world as well. I think that blogging is a great tool, and I am glad I have been introduced to it now.

Insider/Outsider Debate

I have sort of mixed feelings about whether or not an outsider can create an accurate account of a culture that is not their own. In the readings we did for class last week, there was a lot of talk about the need for multicultural literature to depict a culture accurately. I think it is very important for children to be able to see representations of themselves in the books they read, and it is just as important for children to see other cultures represented positively. However, the only way this can be done effectively or correctly is if the text, illustrations, language etc. is completely accurate. I think that if I were writing a text about even my own culture it may not be accurate. Therefore, I think that whether the author is an insider or an outsider to the culture they are writing about, they have to make sure they did enough and appropriate research. Still, there is always room for someone to make a mistake or offend someone else. That is where creating an accurate portrayal of a culture in a multicultural piece becomes tricky and why it is such a debatable topic.
I also went to a lecture today where a Native American woman spoke about the boarding schools. It was surprising to me that there was this tragic piece of history that I knew nothing about. I had heard of the boarding schools maybe once before the video we watched in class, where they talked about them briefly, but could not remember learning anything about them. This scares me. We talk a lot about the holocaust and other terrible things that happened to groups of people in history, but I learned nothing about the brutality that was faced by Native Americans when they were forced to leave home, separate from their loved ones, and were stripped of their identity. A lot of this mirrors the horror stories of those who suffered in concentration camps, why is it all ignored? Perhaps because it happened here. In the United States. It was not Hitler it was "Americans" who did this to them. And because of that, we do not even mention it, and instead focus on the terrible things that "other" people did. How this relates to the debate of insider and outsider, though, is that the woman who spoke said that because she was not in the boarding school herself, she could not give it justice by speaking of what she had heard. Although her mother was forced to go to one, and told her many times about all of the bad things that happened to her, she did not feel right being the one to talk about it. It affected the way her mother raised her, yet she didn't feel she was an insider. I think this speaks to the fact that even if you are of a certain culture, you have not had all of the same experiences as those who share the same culture as you. Therefore, outsiders can exist within a culture, and that reinforces the idea that it is very hard to determine what an insider really is.