Project Mulberry

Project Mulberry was a very interesting read for me. In our class discussion a text from India was included in the Asian literature that Claire brought in for the class. This sparked the discussion of who qualified as being from Asia. I know that I never had thought that India, Pakistan and other surrounding countries made up Asia. I only thought countries such as china, Japan, Korea etc made up Asia. The idea of being not knowledgeable about certain cultures and then to just assume where they were from was an issue that was brought up in the book. Mr. Dixon, an African American, was guilty of this. He assumed that Julia was from china just because she was Asian. I as well as many other people are guilty of making assumptions of where people are from based on their appearance.I think the reason that many do is because they haven't taken the time to understand cultural differences between groups of people.

Another issue that was a big issue in the book was the issue of racism. Julia's mother was the character that I noticed as being racist and Julia didn't like her mother's views about her African American teacher and Mr.Dixon. I had to wonder if being raised by a racist would cause the child to be racist. I have to also wonder if Julia would grow up with some of the prejudices that her mother has projected upon her about certain groups of people, like African Americans.

Personal Philosophy

This class connects to my professional goals in a number of ways. This class has given me insight into many of the issues of diversity that are in children's books today. Class discussions and the books we have read have opened my eyes to the issues that surround diverse literature. It is important for people to read diverse literature because it makes people aware of other cultures that they may have misconceptions about because they have never read a story by an insider from that group. Reading diverse literature opens people up to new ways of thinking about topics and groups of people that they may have never thought of from that perspective. My philosophy on multicultural education is probably similar to many of my classmates. I think that it is necessary that people grow up learning about different groups of people and different perspectives. By learning about different perspectives and groups of people hopefully it can promote more respect for others. Looking from a teachers perspective I know that it is impossible for people to be open to learning about different perspectives that differ from their own but I know that if I promote respect for people from different groups and perspectives that I can have an impact on many more students.