Towards Developing A Personal Philosophy

When I initially enrolled into this class I was hoping to find diverse literature representing people from all backgrounds. I also had many questions regarding how to incorporate these pieces of literature into everyday lessons. My hope is to have the opportunity to represent many backgrounds rather cultural, ethnic, religious “depending on the type of school”, sexual orientation, economic status, and family makeup in an authentic and accurate way. I want my students to feel that they belong and that they are represented often, not just once or twice a year. I also want them to have an understanding of different ways of life and to develop an appreciation and acceptance of these differences. The most compelling reason for me wanting to accomplish all this is because I believe that diversity plays, well should play a major role in literacy teaching and learning. Even when not considering the increasing impact that globalization is having on all aspects of our lives and without considering students that speak english as a second language; I believe that students need to know about others, so we start wiping away the ignorance that exists today.
Personally I believe that there is a place for learning about all aspects of life from all types of perspectives in education. The purpose of education is to prepare our children for the real world. Math, English, and Science aren't nearly enough to prepare children for the social and moral scopes of the world. I believe that teaching similarities and differences can easily be integrated into children’s literature because it can be taught without the wordiness of a history textbook or the formulaic aspect of math and science and provides children an opportunity to discuss their misconceptions and allows teachers to set the record straight. I guess what concerns me most about my personal philosophy on literature is that I have not received answers to my questions and it seems as though there might not be any simple answer, so it leaves much of the determining of authenticity on my shoulders. I’m terrified that I will offend a student or family for not accurately depicting a group.