1.
What is the central
issue/problem/focus of the article? What are the solutions proposed?
“Teachers
who incorporate multicultural literature into their curriculum expose students
to viewpoints and experiences that can broaden young adolescents’ visions of self
and the world.”
Too
often are today’s young adult students taught about a life that is both real
and pertaining to them. Schools
incorporate books that are out of date and convey a world that, while is the
bases of today’s society, is not reflective of today’s issues. Landt acknowledges
this issue within her article in some ways by attempting to affirm young adult
literatures place in the class room. As stated in the previous quote, young
adults need to be exposed to more views than their own upbringing. It is the responsibility
of teachers and educators to accomplish just that: educate. “Adolescence is a
time of questioning and searching as young people strive to comprehend who they
are and how they fit in the world”. Of course, it is difficult to understand
who we are, and how we fit, in relation to the rest of the world without acknowledging
where we come from. That in mind, I would be remiss to suggest that the classic
novels being taught today are not important, and I feel Landt agrees. But,
young students need to be able to relate in order to understand the severity of
these subjects. Young Adult Literature is that bridge.
“Teachers
may not feel that they are sufficiently knowledge- able to select appropriate
multicultural literature for their students.” This is another of Landts focuses.
Of course, this is a natural concern for any instructor. The best option, in
this case, is simple: the instructor should educate themselves on the subject.
Read the novels yourself, brush up on current events and how they relate to the
classroom, etc. Literature studies is about understanding, discussing, and analyzing
the concepts within the pages. The best way to do this in the classroom is to
do it yourself.
“Teachers
may decide it is better to avoid integrating multicultural literature with
their curriculum rather than take the chance of including inappropriate
choices.” I feel that this relates back to the original idea of the article;
students needing a real world view to comprehend with concepts that relate to
them. If instructors are afraid to broaden horizons then nothing changes and we
create the same generations over and over, creating exponential distance
between social realities and beliefs. This is a dangerous game to play.
2.
How does this affect the way you
think about teaching YA lit?
As
you can most likely assume, this piece mostly reinforced my beliefs on YA
literature. It would be redundant of me to answer this question in depth as I, inadvertently,
incorporated it into my first response. I think Landt makes decent points about
the importance of Young Adult literature but I don’t believe she adds much to
the existing discussion.
