Response to "How is blogging going?"

Blogging is not something I regularly do outside of coursework for this and one other course I in which I am enrolled through MSU's college of education program. Sometimes I think it is a little difficult to remember that I need to post in my blog, so I appreciate reminder emails :). While blogging on a regular basis is something that I think is taking me a little while to get used to, I feel that it is useful for a couple reasons. I think it is a great way to get my thoughts out on 'paper' which organizes them. Also, it allows me to reflect on the past weeks session and our readings for that week so that I am ready to contribute in the coming class session. Finally, I like being able to look back on my recorded thoughts from previous posts. I think it will be a good way to document my learning through the semester, and will be a good habit to get into for my future in education.

Reflecting on Al-Hazza/Lucking

While reading the Al-Hazza/Lucking article, The Minority of Suspicion: Arab Americans, I came across one quote in particular that stood out to me near the end of the article. "To increase fair treatment of all minorities, teachers and administrators should try to ensure that Middle Easterners are represented fairly in textbooks and other reading material throughout the school curriculum. There must be a vigilant and ongoing evaluation of materials for negative stereotypes." This was an important quote for me for two reasons. First of all, I liked it because it made me reflect on the types of representations of Middle Easterners that were represented to me when I was in elementary school. Honestly, looking back, I cannot really remember any history lessons or even stories with the main character being a Middle Easterner. I think this says some negative things about the amount of multicultural literature that was provided for me and my classmates. It also encourages me to provide more than enough for my future classroom.

Secondly, the quote made me think of the discussion and video we watched last week about Native Americans. Specifically, it reminded me of the part in the movie that directly related derogatory Indian sports team names to other outlandish stereotypes like Sambo. It is really sad that there has not been a "vigilant and ongoing evaluation" of the team names we choose and cheer today.

Diverse Lit.: Insiders or Outsiders?

I think that diverse literature should be reserved for  'insider' authors only. Not to stifle freedom of the press, but to accurately and respectfully represent an entire culture. I do not use the term 'entire' lightly, because if someone - child or not - reads just one book about a particular culture, that my be the only source they have for creating generalizations, which, as Cortes describes, can easily turn into harmful stereotypes. I think it is important for minority groups to voice their own experiences, rather than read an interpretation of a culture by a majority party. Bishop's article Selecting Literature for a Multicultural Curriculum addresses this issue quite nicely: "the father a writer's background, knowledge, and experiences are from the culture of the person or people about whom he or she is writing, the greater the necessity for the author to fill the cultural gaps, the greater the effort needed to do so, and the greater the risks of mistakes." (Bishop, 17) I think this quote brings out the true issue at hand: accuracy. Is it truly accurate to write about anyone else's life experience but your own? I have a hard time arguing that it would be, which is why, for my initial thoughts on this issue, I think 'insiders' should be writing diverse literature.