this class and my career

In all honesty, I wouldn't have taken this class if I already had my 120 credits.  That was my mindset coming into this class.  But, I was also thinking that if I had to fill my final semester here at Michigan State with something, it might as well be something useful.  The title of this class was intriguing and I figured it would be more beneficial for me than bowling II (which does mean that I have already taken bowling I) or some other blow off class.  I have always been very interested with what other people think about when it comes to race and ethnicity and religion.  This is probably because of my own insecurities and unawareness, but either way, a class bout multicultural literature seemed just the medicine I needed.  One day, I want to teach elementary school.  But not just any kind of elementary school, it has to be a certain kind.  I want an urban setting, like the one I had in Southwest Detroit this past summer.  I liked being around people who were different than me.  Different in their culture, their clothing, their ways of thinking.  I want to meet people that aren't going home to the same thing as me every night.  I feel like I learn more.  If I am going to have a classroom like this, I need to culture myself and expand my mind so that I will feel comfortable in every situation and likewise make those around me comfortable.  In my own head, there are times when I just want to ignore all the differences in people.  The skin color, the voiced accents, the different places of worship on Sundays or Wednesdays or any other days.  I think of the John Lennon song "Imagine."  The second verse goes like this: "Imagine there's no countries;  It isn't hard to do; Nothing to kill or die for; And no religion too."  I'll be the first to admit that it is a bit of an idealist idea, but I think it would honestly solve a lot of the problems.  However, there are times when a student in one of my classes will tell me something about their culture from home or explain to me what they do with their families on the weekends and I can see such pride in their stories.  Surely, that is a good thing.  I am truly on the middle of the fence on this one.  I am sure that I will be able to manage my own classroom and make decisions according to who is in their with me, but I would like to show all my students what other types of people exist in the same world as them.  I want to give them a little bit of who I am and have them take with me a little of who they are.  That said, one thing that I worry about is the way society is so easily offended today.  Or, maybe not even how easily offended people are, but to what lengths they feel they need to go to correct what they see as a problem.  I like to think that people, humans, are inherently good-intentioned beings that have one-of-a-kind senses of empathy.  Offensive comments are not always meant that way and with a little further explanation, it probably wouldn't be taken as offensive at all.  I guess I'm just trying to say that you never know what is or is not going to offend strangers.  For that reason, I think that getting to know my students on a personal level is the key to having a culturally sensitive learning environment that would be suitable for any students of any background who might walk through the door.  Think about it, maybe John Lennon's ideas weren't so crazy.  Just imagine.  Peace.

Instead of blindly diving into this final project of under acknowledged areas in children's literature,  I need to do a little bit of research.  I wanted to find out what books and resources were out there and who was writing them.  Being mixed myself, I sometimes feel like I don't have a real personal history or past.  You never read a whole lot about mixed race people in history books or social studies classes, so sometimes my views about history are apathetic at best.  However, upon doing a little bit of internet research, I was able to find several great resources for people interested in mixed race literature.  Cynthia Leitich Smith has a wonderful website that has a plethora of resources available to people looking for such information as books about commonly faced situations for mixed race people, lists of children's books on the topic, and mission statements and a bill of rights for mixed people.  That site can be reached through cynthialeitichsmith.com  I think that i will use this site to select books for my project and also some of my own research.  If you have any other websites out there that you think I might benefit from, you know where to find me.  peace.