MultiCultural+Sec+2

Literature incorporated into the curriculum is a great way to introduce new schools of thought, philosophy, and ways that people of other religions and culture look at the world. In the United States, the Constitution supports the separation of church and state in all federal organizations, including public schools. However, the United States Department of Education has set up guidelines for the religious expression of students in public schools. It states that students can wear religious garb or clothes with religious messages in school, may speak to other students and persuade them about religious topics, and attend before or after school events with religious content. The students even have the right to engage in voluntary prayer but the school cannot organize prayer at school-organized events. As far as outlines for the schools, the guidelines state that, “Though schools must be neutral with respect to religion, they may play an active role with respect to teaching civic values and virtue and the moral code that holds us together as a community (pg. 129).” Emphasizing that a lot of these values and morals are instilled in religions, making them valuable in the classroom. The best way to teach religion in the classroom is through literature, presenting religious beliefs, practices, and philosophy through a story. The Department of Education guidelines proclaim, “Public schools may not provide religious instruction, but they may teach //about// religion, including the Bible or other scripture; the history of the religion, comparative religion, the Bible (or other scripture)-as-literature, and the role of religion in the history of the United States and other countries all are permissible public school subjects (pg. 128).” This means that even religious doctrine can be taught as literature in school, despite the United States policy of the separation of church and state. As a teacher this is important to know, because teaching in a diverse school means a lot more than racial difference, there is also a lot of diversity of religion and culture in the United States. A lot of issues occur in the classroom when students do not understand the differences of their peers, and understanding can open doors to other ways of thinking and of acceptance of other schools of thought and cultures. There are some young adult novels that are being used in schools today that do just that. Amy Tan’s novel __The Joy Luck Club__ follows the lives of four daughters and their mothers. The mothers grew up in China and immigrated to the United States. There is a lot of conflict as the daughters try to embrace their identity as Americans, and adapt to the popular culture around them. Meanwhile their mothers struggle to hold on to their Chinese roots and show their daughters the Chinese culture and beliefs. Tan uses the story, and the story the mothers tell in the novel, to reveal the conflict between popular American culture and the philosophy and ideals of Confucianism that is prevalent in Chinese culture. This novel is a good literary tool for religion and culture because it shows the struggle and conflict of immigrants from a drastically different society coping with one that does not accept or understand their views on life. The novel __Siddhartha__ by Herman Hesse follows a young Indian Hindu born into a high class in society and his journey to find enlightenment and Atman. The story illustrates the culture and religious philosophy of Hinduism and of Buddhism. This is because it discusses Hindu society in India and the caste system that is still alive today, and shows the evolution of Hinduism into Buddhism through Siddhartha, who became the Buddha, and was worshipped as a God. It discusses his religious philosophy, his search for enlightenment, and the conclusions he came to as a result of attaining enlightenment or achieving Nirvana, realizing that all things are one, all are Atman. This novel is a good tool to teach about culture in India, and the philosophy of Hinduism and Buddhism so that student’s eyes are opened to a totally different way of looking at the world, and understanding our peers. Most curriculums require that Native American history and culture are taught as part of the class content. Literature can be used in this aspect as well, to teach about Native American religion and philosophy, culture, and identity today. One of these novels is __The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian__ by Sherman Alexie. It follows the life of Arnold Spirit, who lives on the Spokane Indian Reservation, and decides to attend an all white high school off of the reservation. Arnold struggles with the issue of racism on the reservation and in high school, and his conflict with the poverty on the reservation and the traditions of his community versus the culture of his new school. This novel is a useful tool to educate students about diversity in poverty and traditions with religious or spiritual purpose. This allows students to become aware of such issues on a broad scale, and begin to realize the struggles of other religious and cultural groups, finding similarities and understanding of differences. These novels used in the classroom help bring diversity and philosophies which allow students to draw parallels, and understand others and their opinions to find acceptance of others and their differences. These three books can be used in many different activities within the classroom to achieve the goals stated above. __The Joy Luck Club__ can be used as a guide to help students realize the diversity within their own family, by interviewing their parents and exploring the different values of their parents and themselves, as was seen in the relationship of the mothers and daughters in the novel. __Siddhartha__ can be used to teach students about Indian culture today, and could draw comparisons to the way that Religion has formed Indian society and the caste system, and how Religion has affected American society in the past to the present. Alexie’s novel __The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian__, can be helpful in exploring American history. Students can explore Native American society pre-colonialism up through the large displacement of Native groups during the Trail of Tears, and come to understand how Native American reservations were formed and the culture of the community that exists within them today. Also, students can discover their own family history, how they came to become American, and what traces of their ancestors culture they believe still exists within their family today. There are many ways in which religious and multicultural literature can be used in schools today for students to gain a worldview and a new understanding of their own identity.

Currently a great debate within schooling is the amount in which we are representing the diversity within our classrooms. Our focus as educators should always be our students and the way we present information they can connect to in order to create positive classroom environments and create engaging lessons to get students involved with their learning. Through literature we can let students take the reigns of their own imagination as they dig deeper into the content and get a larger understanding of big picture items and goals set before them. The problem most commonly seen within conventional classrooms including the state of Maine is largely homogeneous classrooms overemphasizing the white Judeo-Christian male perspective that was the foundation of education in America. As time progresses we must realize that the underrepresented makeup of our classrooms (based on gender, creed, race, and sexual preference) are rising in numbers and within our time as educators serve to become the majority. On the emphasis of gender we must try and combat the large male prospective we have within our course work and literature and try to balance this with a level of diversity. Through research of several novels both fiction and non as well as articles we can have more materials to better reach the students whose perspectives have been conventionally silenced within mainstream public education. On the collegiate level we have opportunities to have more specification within our course work and have larger emphasis on the things we divulge as personally important. Why shouldn’t students on the secondary level have more impact on the way we shape curriculum? **Gender** **Equality** is something that we as a nation have made great strides towards in the equalization of pay scale and civil rights regardless of a person’s gender. Within our classroom we should be including literature and information to help make sure that both the male and female perspective is demonstrated in order to enhance our students perception and understanding of the world around them. The first book that our group found through research is, //“Well Behaved Women Seldom Make History”// written by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich. This book is a Non fiction approach to teaching about the historical achievements based on her invention of the slogan she invented during the Feminist Movement within the middle of the 1970s. This is an interesting piece to use within an academic setting because it is eloquently written stories about the women who helped fight for equality and the voice of women throughout time. Though the problem that comes across in this book is the same as our problem within conventional classroom is narrowing the vast rich culture of women throughout our past. The spectrum of this book is far too focused to depend on just this novel but it is a great way to create conversations within classrooms about prominent female figures while still remaining historically accurate. In contrast the book, //“Women of Valor”// is probably a better resource in terms of giving students better perspective within a specific time period. This gives students a chance to get a better-rounded image of what life was like for the women during the Great Depression. Since the sources used within this text are primary autobiographical accounts of famous women striving for the betterment of all society during such a tough period of our nation’s history it is very engaging and hits the reader in a very emotional way. Interspersed throughout the text is a large range in the stories, which chronicle both the tremendous successes of these women as well as the atrocious horrors that were so common during this era. When students can see the lives of people represented in a personal narrative during the time period in which they are learning the information comes alive for them as they can see how average Americans went above and beyond in dire economic times and helped others less fortunate for the betterment of their community. Another interesting thing to note about this book is that although it is written about women it is not voiced within feminist theory or thought it is merely stories of individuals (who happen to be female) and how they made a difference in the world. Another hot topic within multicultural literature is one that caused great debate in the state of Maine during the last election. **Sexuality** in the classroom is a very racy issue that has a lot of people up in arms about the way it is represented within education today. In order to appease a lot of conservative parents who are extremely nervous about indoctrination and radicalization of their children by presenting contrasting ideals to their moral beliefs, our group decided it was beneficial to try to find materials that didn’t overemphasize sexuality but just make it an important part of the definition of a character. We’re not here to discuss private matters but really to show perspective and preach tolerance and empathy towards other human beings regardless of how they may be different from your culture. The book //“Boy Meets Boy”// written by David Leviathan was an interesting resource as a piece of fiction whose protagonist happens to be a homosexual teenage boy named Paul. Within this alternative reality defined by Leviathan, Paul lives in a world where sexuality is of little importance to people and there is a large acceptance regardless of preference (In vast contrast to a lot of places within our country.) Within the book there are still the nay sayers of the religious zealots and homophobic parents but most kids within the high school are comfortable with their sexuality and it isn’t an issue for them. Overall this is a novel about what it is like to be a gay teenager in love and the social issues most high school students have to face within a daily basis. That’s why to use it as a piece to teach tolerance within the high school setting this would be a great resource because of the connections students could make regardless of what their actual sexual preference is. The book itself is a universal tale of love and struggle within young adulthood and could be a great resource in connecting kids to the diversity within their own

All of this raises the important question: what does it mean exactly to use multicultural literature? The history of multicultural literature is based in the Civil Rights movement, and served to provide alternatives to the literature used in schools, which was by and large written by white men.

Arlette Willis’ book //Teaching Multicultural Literature in Grades 9-12: Moving Beyond the Canon// explains that the textbook industry, by design and review, marginalizes and suppresses the cultural identities of minorities. Entries for textbooks are run through a review panel that removes anything that they find distasteful, and textbook manufacturers and editors are by no means compelled to include pieces from varying perspectives. Because of this, textbooks often regurgitate the worldviews of their predecessors, teaching only the white male perspective. A recent push for multiculturalism has prompted the addition of “multicultural moments” in textbooks, which are frequently treated as sidebars to the white, mainstream text. In this regard, Willis gives a negative answer to the question of what it means to use multicultural literature – it does //not// mean to tack on an appendix or a special section on multicultural representation. The use of multicultural literature, in this instance, may be to correct or account for the hidden biases of textbooks, providing a hopefully more authentic representation of cultural groups. Ian Barnard’s article “The Difficulties of Teaching Non-Western Literature in the United States” addresses this same topic, citing educational philosophy to explain why the “supplementary” use of multicultural literature harms all students. The random or careless inclusion of non-white literature can prompt one of two immediate responses in students who “do not relate” with the piece. Firstly, the student can simplify the situation by putting themselves in the position of a character. While this can seem like a positive situation – in fact, one that teachers often overtly request of their students, this can be dangerous when dealing with cultures different from the students’ own. Asking students to universalize their own cultural identity by necessity robs literary characters, and any students who identify with those characters, of //their// cultural identities. Barnard denounces the “everybody is the same” ideology. Secondly, however, students can respond with the “I don’t relate” technique, which cuts them off from differing cultures and gives them permission to other cultures different from their own. This can have the effect of building real-world disconnects between the cultures, as well as make students in represented cultures feel cast aside or misunderstood. Both of these two outcomes harm the learning and development of all students in the classroom.

There are a multitude of multicultural literature reviews, which list examples of literature focusing on and frequently written by people of non-white cultures and backgrounds. While this does have the effect of othering this literature, putting it aside from dominant-cultured works, it is presumably done pragmatically, and with hopes that the instructor will not treat it as separate. This plays on the reality that because Anglocentric textbooks and literature are so deeply entrenched, that it is the responsibility of educators to both demystify and prevent oversimplification of non-Anglo-cultures.

Sources: > > >
 * Tan, Amy. //The Joy Luck Club//. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.
 * Hesse, Herman. //Siddhartha//. Bantam, 1978.
 * Killian, Earl. //Excerpts From Siddhartha//. 14 Oct. 2010. The Literature Network. 7 Oct. 2010 .
 * Allen, Cynthia. “Multicultural Literature.” Web. 14 Oct 2010.
 * Alexie, Sherman. //The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian//. Little Brown Books, 2007.
 * //The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian Quotes//. 14 Oct. 2010. 7 Oct. 2010 .
 *  Teaching multicultural literature in grades 9-12 : moving beyond the canon / Arlette Ingram Willis, editor
 * United States Department of Education. //Student Religious Expression in Public Schools: United States Department of Education Guidlines//. Washington D.C: 1998.
 * Burner, J. A. “Finding Common Ground.” 56.5 (2010): 46-50. Print.
 * Barnard, Ian. “The Difficulties of Teaching Non-Western Literature in the United States.” 87 (Spring): 44-54. Print.