Chapter 2: Culturally Responsive Literature

It is astonishing, that living in the United States with so many other cultures in our communities that we know so little about them. Growing up in a military family I had the advantage of moving around quite a lot and having the exposure to many different cultures. When I lived on Guam, an island in the Marshal Island system, I was exposed to Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Pilipino, Thai and so many other cultures. In school while I was there we took courses to learn Chamorro, the native language, and even learned native dances. It was an amazing experience. When I moved back to the states I was once again exposed to a plethora of other cultures from Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, and other Latin American countries by way of the public school system. Because I had developed a keen curiosity about these different cultures it was not uncommon for me to pick people’s brains about their cultures and I learned a lot. I think that every child should be curious about those people who come from different backgrounds and in learning about them they become better people and better citizens.

Fostering this curiosity about other cultures lowers the stereotypes about them by teaching them about the culture and respect for it. This will create better citizens and better people because they understand the differences in their cultures and do not adhere to the stereotypes that society has put out. Learning about the people that live around you through books also can make a child more likely to want to read because they see these people everywhere they look. Evelyn Francis started teaching multi-cultural books in her classroom and over the span of the school year she found out that her students like reading multicultural books as well as were less likely to consider stereotypes as the norm. They also enjoyed reading about the issues that these cultures faced and were interested in them. I admire what Evelyn did and in this post 9/11 world it is much important now than it ever has been in the past to be aware of cultures.

Teaching multicultural novels in a high school English setting that is done in time periods will be hard but also beneficial. Being able to see how far some of these cultures have come since say the Victorian Era in England will be a real eye opener for the students. They will be able to see the stereotypes that are still in existence today that were created back when these peoples were conquered or enslaved because they looked different. Overall I am a firm believer in teaching multicultural books because we can learn from our treatment of people in the past and change it for the future, as well as learn something new.