Final Course Post!

Wow! Looking back at my initial reflections on diverse literature I found that I was caught up in the race factor, but now I’ve learned that diversity encompasses so much more than the color of a person’s skin. Diversity deals with socio-economic status, family/household make-up, religious affiliations, sexual preference, and so much more; I feel as if diversity encompasses all of the unique qualities that exist within us and should be represented as such in literature.

The more I learn about diverse literature, the more questions I am left with: Who decides who should author specific types of diverse literature? Who has the right to critic diverse literature? What qualifications are needed? How do you represent the diversity that exists within our world into one school year? Most importantly how do you combat misconceptions and stereotypes that have persisted throughout the years? I realize that there are no easy answers and that some of my questions will remain unanswered until society changes, but I still hope to take what I’ve learned within this course as well as Te 348 and improve the role that literature has played in the lives of all children, but especially those often underrepresented and/or misrepresented. It is my greatest hope to use what I’ve learned to one day write children’s novels.