http://www.ric.edu/astal/multicultural/books.html
I want to do my Multicultural Review on 5 books for young adults. These books will all be looking at Native American culture. This website is a great source for finding multicultural books for children or young adults.
The reason I want to do Native Americans is because when we think of minorities, blacks and hispanics are the first to come to mind, usually. I think Native Americans can be overlooked a little bit.
I want to do young adult books because I want to be a Children's/Youth Librarian and those are the kinds of books that I'd be suggesting to children. Right now I can't really name any Native American young adult books off the top of my head. I think this assignment will be helpful for when I really am a librarian!
I thought it was cool that the first book listed on the website is about Amish people. I wouldn't automatically think of them as a different culture, but they really are! The book also covers classics like Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou and The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan.
It looks like a great website for people who want to read multicultural books, but aren't quite sure where to start. I like how the website covers different reading levels. There are short picture books as well as long novels. Additonally, there is nonfiction as well as fiction represented on this book list.
I also like how at least one book (Goodnight Opus by Berkeley Breathed) is about the multicultural difference between a grandmother and a grandson. There are so many ways to be multicultural!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Social Bookmark #3
http://wilderdom.com/games/MulticulturalExperientialActivities.html
This is a fun site that has several activities that help to bring social awareness to children and adults alike. I thought that this was a good site as I plan on being a Children's/Youth Librarian and many of the activities can be done for or with children.
The first activity they suggest is to get a group and ask how many different ways they can say 'hello'. I think that'd be fun as many different languages and cultures can be represented. Children learn to say 'hello' from their parents, relatives, T.V. programs (such as Dora the Explorer) and through many other mediums. It'd be fun to see how much they remember and if they can say both the word hello and what country the language is from. For instance 'Hola, Spanish!' or 'Bonjour, French!'. Either way, it sounds like a good way to introduce more cultures to children.
Another activity mentioned is to have each person explain their name. Why are they named _____? What does it mean? Who named them? Where they named after a relative? What does their name mean? For instance my name, Amanda, is Latin and means 'worthy of love'. My first name is a name that both of my parents happened to like. My middle name is Jane. It is Hebrew and means 'grace'. It was my mother's middle name, and my grandmother is named Janet. I have an aunt with the middle name Jane as well.
My last name is Finnish. It is the Finnish word for beach, actually. I married a Finnish man and took his last name. Taking his last name is a cultural thing to do. Also just telling someone about my name, and its heritages, imparts many different layers of culture. I have a Latin name and a Hebrew name, and a Finnish name! In addition, being named after a relative -or more than one, in my case- is also cultural.
Another activity listed is The World Meal. It is explained as such:
A World Meal consists of a limited amount of rice and beans. This is the average meal for the average person on the planet. Cook this for a group of others and encourage them in turn to cook a World Meal for others. (Neill, 2005)
Children especially may take it for granted that there will always be enought to eat. This is a good thing in that they can feel secure, and not worried. However, showing them that not everyone is as nourished as they are may be helpful. The webpage I linked to shows an interesting chart listing the average number of calories people in many countries eat. Ethiopia tops the list of malnourished nations with 1,667 calories per person while Austrians consume 3,495.
This is a fun site that has several activities that help to bring social awareness to children and adults alike. I thought that this was a good site as I plan on being a Children's/Youth Librarian and many of the activities can be done for or with children.
The first activity they suggest is to get a group and ask how many different ways they can say 'hello'. I think that'd be fun as many different languages and cultures can be represented. Children learn to say 'hello' from their parents, relatives, T.V. programs (such as Dora the Explorer) and through many other mediums. It'd be fun to see how much they remember and if they can say both the word hello and what country the language is from. For instance 'Hola, Spanish!' or 'Bonjour, French!'. Either way, it sounds like a good way to introduce more cultures to children.
Another activity mentioned is to have each person explain their name. Why are they named _____? What does it mean? Who named them? Where they named after a relative? What does their name mean? For instance my name, Amanda, is Latin and means 'worthy of love'. My first name is a name that both of my parents happened to like. My middle name is Jane. It is Hebrew and means 'grace'. It was my mother's middle name, and my grandmother is named Janet. I have an aunt with the middle name Jane as well.
My last name is Finnish. It is the Finnish word for beach, actually. I married a Finnish man and took his last name. Taking his last name is a cultural thing to do. Also just telling someone about my name, and its heritages, imparts many different layers of culture. I have a Latin name and a Hebrew name, and a Finnish name! In addition, being named after a relative -or more than one, in my case- is also cultural.
Another activity listed is The World Meal. It is explained as such:
A World Meal consists of a limited amount of rice and beans. This is the average meal for the average person on the planet. Cook this for a group of others and encourage them in turn to cook a World Meal for others. (Neill, 2005)
Children especially may take it for granted that there will always be enought to eat. This is a good thing in that they can feel secure, and not worried. However, showing them that not everyone is as nourished as they are may be helpful. The webpage I linked to shows an interesting chart listing the average number of calories people in many countries eat. Ethiopia tops the list of malnourished nations with 1,667 calories per person while Austrians consume 3,495.
Friday, October 8, 2010
Scholarly Review 2
"Note, too, the telling absence of specialized services to groups of northern-European descent; German Americans of Swedish Americans, for instance, are presumably too well absorbed into the librarians' mental mode of the 'normal' American to need special designation along with the supposedly more disadvantaged Italians, blacks, Asians, and so on, while the very idea of 'British American' probably makes little sense in this context." (Pawley, 2006)
This is a very interesting phenomenon to note, and something I have seen played out in the American culture. I think that what is described above is an almost invisible form of racism. When we think of 'white people' the could be anyone who has a European heritage. Russians, Welsh, Norwegians, Greeks and others are all lumped together in a form that is, supposedly, cohesive.
I would argue that this group is not at all cohesive and pretending that they are is a form of racism. If I were to fly to Greece, for example, I would understand very little of the culture and absolutely none of the language. Yet librarians and others would place me, as I am 'white', in the same race as these people. I went to England a few years ago, and even though I am partially English, I felt culture shock. The language was much different than American English, and the customs were different such as looking left for oncoming traffic instead of right. In short, it was adifferent culture completely.
My in-laws are Finnish-American immigrants. When they arrived in the United States in the 1970s, I doubt they didn't feel some culture shock. Yet, presumably, 'whites' are all the same. Thsi presumption means that European immigrants are overlooked in our culture. Immigrants like my in-laws are such a minority that they aren't even thought of when the word 'minority' is said. When people say 'minority' Blacks are the first group I think of, then Hispanics and Asians. People like my in-laws are, as the above quote says, supposedly absorbed into the label 'normal' when they may not even be able to read the same language as most Americans.
Is this not a form of racism as well? Librarians, and really, all Americans, need to remember that this country was built on immigration. Not everyone who 'looks white' is the same and special considerations should be made for those who are new to this country.
Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: race and multiculralism in the lis curriculum. Library Quarterly, 76(2), 149-168.
This is a very interesting phenomenon to note, and something I have seen played out in the American culture. I think that what is described above is an almost invisible form of racism. When we think of 'white people' the could be anyone who has a European heritage. Russians, Welsh, Norwegians, Greeks and others are all lumped together in a form that is, supposedly, cohesive.
I would argue that this group is not at all cohesive and pretending that they are is a form of racism. If I were to fly to Greece, for example, I would understand very little of the culture and absolutely none of the language. Yet librarians and others would place me, as I am 'white', in the same race as these people. I went to England a few years ago, and even though I am partially English, I felt culture shock. The language was much different than American English, and the customs were different such as looking left for oncoming traffic instead of right. In short, it was adifferent culture completely.
My in-laws are Finnish-American immigrants. When they arrived in the United States in the 1970s, I doubt they didn't feel some culture shock. Yet, presumably, 'whites' are all the same. Thsi presumption means that European immigrants are overlooked in our culture. Immigrants like my in-laws are such a minority that they aren't even thought of when the word 'minority' is said. When people say 'minority' Blacks are the first group I think of, then Hispanics and Asians. People like my in-laws are, as the above quote says, supposedly absorbed into the label 'normal' when they may not even be able to read the same language as most Americans.
Is this not a form of racism as well? Librarians, and really, all Americans, need to remember that this country was built on immigration. Not everyone who 'looks white' is the same and special considerations should be made for those who are new to this country.
Pawley, C. (2006). Unequal legacies: race and multiculralism in the lis curriculum. Library Quarterly, 76(2), 149-168.
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