Final course Blog

This course has really opened my eye's to many different issues of diversity. If I hadn't had taken this course I would still be thinking about issues of diversity in a way that isn't right. The first issue that was brought up in the class was the issue of insider and outsider writers. I had never taken into consideration before this course that it mattered. While choosing literature to read about a certain group for myself I never bothered to look to see if the author was an insider or was knowledgable. I just looked at the book and believed to an extent that the writer knew what he or she was talking about. Now I understand the importance for texts to be written by an insider or someone knowledgable about the group so that stereotypes and misconceptions can be prevented in writing.
This course has really opened my eyes to the effects of literature that I used to think of as diverse actually being hurtful to the people depicted in the stories. I understand now how important it is to make sure when you're writing or picking out literature for a classroom to consider if the text if offensive. A way to do this is to research the topic and the author to make sure that the author is an insider or is informed. This will help to prevent possible problems with teaching a book. It is imposibble to write a book that has no stereotypes or misconceptions about a people, but writers should try as hard as they can.
Before this course I thought that diverse literature was literature about different ethinic groups of people. I was partially right except its a lot more involved. The literature needs to be an accurate representation of those peoples portyrayed. Insider writers and writers that had researched the topic were usually better representations of the peoples in the stories. Also, I didn't realize that GBLTQ literature was considered diverse literature and that there was such an array of diverse books out there for GBLTQ readers. I hope that when I am a teacher I can bring diverse literature into my classroom and be able to successfully teach my students. I hope to help promote understanding and accecptance for all people.