Native American Readings - Extra Credit

Unfortunately due to a prior commitment I was not able to attend the entire list of invited readers, but after hearing the few that I did, I really wish I could have been there the whole time. I came in for the last hour and a half of the readings and was able to hear about half of the reading by Daniel Heath Justice but I was able to listen to the readings of LeAnne Howe, Debbie Reese (and her daughter) and David Treuer in their entirety. I came out of this experience in a way questioning myself and how I have reacted to certain situations throughout my life. I am a Native American, not full or even half but 1/8 and I am a decedent from two different tribes in the Mid-West region. Growing up I remember bringing in photo albums that my Grandmother has of a few of my more recent ancestors and I remember my classmates always being jealous that I had access to something so cool. That always made me feel proud, but after listening to the speakers last Thursday, especially LeAnne Howe and Debbie Reese's daughter (unfortunately I forget her first name) I had to ask myself why was it only at these certain times that I felt pride? Why did it take someone else being jealous of my ancestry for me to acknowledge how great it really was? LeAnne Howe read a passage of her book pertaining to baseball and a game between an all white school and a school of Native Americans. Hearing some of the verbal harassment that LeAnne described was almost shocking to me. I guess I never quite realised how much the Native American people were despised, for lack of a better term, by other people in society. I knew from my history classes that the Native American people lost much of their land and were treated horribly upon the arrival of the European settlers but I never realised how far into the present that treatment was carried. My grandparents on both sides never talk to me about the way they were treated growing up, my grandmothers especially who both have very prominent Native American features. In fact, I even remember my grandmother reading me stories about Native Americans that are very similar to the ones we shun during class for being too stereotypical. This just makes me wonder why my grandparents accepted the stereotypical portrayal of Native Americans in story books and why they didn't feel as strongly about the roots as the speakers I heard. There was so much passion in their words, Debbie Reese's daughter especially. For a 16 year old girl she really knows how to get someone to listen to what she has to say. In a way I envy that passion and now I am motivated even more to understand the current treatment of Native American people and they ways they are depicted in literature. I want to find those stories that move beyond the stereotypes and really present readers accurate representations of Native Americans and their ways of life. In looking at my reaction to these readings and what if felt like for me, a person of Native blood, to be so out of touch with my ancestry I wonder if there are others who go through the exact same reaction when they encounter their family history in a way that has rarely been expressed to them. This encourages me to really make an effort to learn about my students and learn about their backgrounds. I want to be able to give students the opportunity that I didn't necessarily have as far as reading literature of accurate representation of my cultural background. I wonder how I would be today if I had heard the readings I heard last week when I was in grade school, and I wonder if exposing students to literature of their own backgrounds can also have as big of an impact on them as it has for me. In a way I feel like my obsession with my personal feelings during the reading actually hindered me from taking them for full value. But none the less, I left the Union last Thursday having learned a lot about what it means to have passion and love for your culture. Oh, and how can I forgot! I also learned that if you are going to cook locusts and eat them as snacks that you need to ONLY choose the ones with their heads facing up. Otherwise you will get a rather disgusting surprise when you open the oven. Thanks Debbie, and thank you everyone who I previously mentioned. Your words really touched me and I feel privileged to have been able to hear them.

*** For those who read this, please do not assume that I am angry with my grandparents but more that I am curious about why I didn't learn more about accurate portrayals of Native Americans through the stories they read to me***

Why am I here in a Multiculture Literature course?

To be completely honest, I taking TE 348 was one of the main reasons that I enrolled in this course. I had never discussed children's literature in the ways we did in that class and I didn't want the conversations I took part in there to end that semester. An emphasis throughout TE 348 was the incorporation of diverse literature into the classroom and I really wanted more ideas on how to go about doing that. Growing up in a public school I was never really exposed to much diverse literature until I reached my junior year of high school and by that point it was difficult to incorporate because there were some in the class that were so hesitant they made it very hard for others who wanted to get into the literature to do so. I feel like incorporating diverse literature at an early age and continuing that is so much more beneficial to the students. In my professional career as a lower elementary teacher my goal is to incorporate as much diverse literature as possible. It is very important the each child in the classroom can find a piece of literature that relates to them on a personal level and I want to be able to make that an opportunity for each and every one of my classes. TE 448 is giving me the skills I need to decided what diverse literature I should incorporate and how to decide what is in fact "good" diverse literature. Issues of diversity are key to teaching literacy, especially if you are teaching in a very diverse school district. One thing to keep in mind is that no matter where you teach, there will be differences between the students in the classroom. One way to teach literacy and to prompt learning of the material is to choose activities and literature that is interesting to the students and is something which they can relate to and make a connection with. We have been taught through many education classes at MSU that sometimes it just takes getting students to read about something they are interested in or about something that is close to them to get them motivated to read more and also learn more about reading and writing. By incorporate diverse literature there is more of a chance that students will encounter a subject they are interested in which could be the difference in how they look at reading and writing. As a TESOL minor I think that multicultural education is extremely important. If I am in an ESL classroom I may have students from many different backgrounds with different values and outlooks on society and life. I think that the incorporation of multicultural literature into the multicultural education classroom would benefit them and make them feel more comfortable in a new setting. It is intimidating coming moving to a new place, let alone not knowing the language of that place very well. If I could reach out to the students with diverse literature and show them that their input is valued it may make a better classroom environment for them to open up and learn on a deeper level. My ability to incorporate diverse literature effectively has always been a concern of mine. I feel like because I did not grow up being exposed to such works, I may not know how to relate them to children. It is one thing to have discussions and voice my opinions in a college classroom but it is very different when interacting with students. Also, I have never had the first hand experience of incorporating diverse literature into the classroom and not knowing the response I am going to get from students makes me cautious. However, I do not want to underestimate children because a lot of times children are much more opened minded than adults. This is one of the things I look forward to about incorporating diverse and multicultural literature. I may end up in a situation where my students are very enthusiastic about learning of other cultures and I may find myself listening in on some very deep discussions, or at least deep in comparison to the age of the students. I always like a good surprise and watching my students really dive in and want to learn about diverse and multicultural literature will be an experience i would never forget. I have always said that if through teaching I can make a difference in one students life, all of my years of studying and working would have paid off. In relation to diverse and multicultural literature, if I can help bring one student into the light and understanding of diverse literature and help that student question issues in the world, all of my hard work would have paid off.

Stereotypes

A few weeks ago I attended an even at the Wharton Center with the women of the Greek community and other women from different organizations around campus. Jessica Weiner came to speak to us about body image and respecting ourselves as women. I was extremely moved by the whole experience, however when I read the paper a few days later I was completely appalled by what was said regarding the event and the attendance of over 1500 Greek women. Now, you are probably wondering how this relates to multicultural literature. Although there is not a direct relation, the sequence of events really caught my attention in regards to stereotypes and why the happen. In the news paper article the author wrote about how the sorority women were dressed, how we walked and how we acted during the speaker. There was a large generalization made that none of the sorority women were paying attention to the speaker but instead were texting and flipping through magazines. Yes there may have been a few disrespectful individuals but they should in no way be the basis for a description of an entire community. This really frustrated me because the main point the speaker was making was that we bring down each other to make ourselves feel better and in my opinion the author really missed that point. But why, even after hearing how people should group other people, or cut other people down, do some still do it? This is where I began to think about the stereotypes that we often see in multicultural literature. We are always talking in classes about how we shouldn't use stereotypes and that we should try to pick literature that avoids the use of negative stereotype but how are we supposed to do that and know the difference between a generalization and a stereotype when that is all we see in the media? It makes it really difficult to think about incorporating multicultural literature into the classroom knowing the hurtles that will need to be overcome to break the stereotypical images that students are exposed to day in and day out on TV, on bill board adds, in magazines. I just wish that the efforts to accurately represent a group of people were being exercised by every individual. But at the same time, magazines, advertising companies and news papers use what sells and unfortunately stereotypes are what sell and the individuals within the community are buying into those money making stereotypes. I know I am guilty of this but doing that is so easy. Negative stereotypes are not going to be broken over night. It is going to take groups of individuals making a commitment and coming together to bring awareness to the issue.