books books and more books

Last week in TE, my lit group was assigned an award to research and bring in a few books about it. We got the Pura Beplre Award. I did my research and I looked up my books. However, being the poor college student that I am, I decided to go to the library to get the books. I had two books that the class was reading or had read but I wanted a picture book and a new book. I got to the library around noon and it was packed. I live in a town. We are talking small! So to see so many people in one place was a little scary. After waiting in line to get help to find the books, it was finally my turn. As I explained the project to the librarian, she looked at me with a smile and said, "We dont carry Hispanic books. There isnt a great need in the population for the books." I was dumbfounded. Just because there is a lower hispanic population in my area doesnt mean that people would not want to read them. The library should have more of these book just because there isnt a great population. This is how students learn. Without the books to teach them, children now have to depend on the information for other areas...other bias areas. An insider book about hispanic culture would have a better impact then a cartoon TV show.

Eye Opening

After reading Heart of a Cheif, I found that I was not effected by the book. In all honesty I hated the book. I found it confusing and it jumped around way too much. I wanted the book to have one problem and have the one and only problem solved at the end. However, with everything that was going on it the book, I had to work at keep focused on reading the book.

On the other hand, after attenting class on Wed. the new book Habbi was much better at keeping my attention and focus. But I missed the message completly. I did not realize that the love interest of the main character was Jewish. For a Middle Eastern woman to be interested in someone completely different was a major break through. I was in culture shock from this new concept. I live in an area that is open to most differences, so to see two different cultures coming together was no big deal for me. However, for a young student who has not see this it is a good learning experiance.

are you In or are you Out?

The difference between an insider and an oustider is like mixing oil and water. No matter how hard you shake them, sooner or later they seperate again. Over the past few weeks, I have been stuggling with the concept of what an insider and what is an outsider. I have not come to a complete conclusion. What I have figured out is that they are hard to explain. Something completely different, yet related at times. From my point of view, an insider is a person who has insider knowledge on a topic. For example, I have insider knowledge of what it would be a girl or a college student. An outsider is the complete oppsite of an insider. An ousider has little to no knowledge of a topic. These terms come in handy when writing and researching book topics. Researching a topic is where the lines of an insider and an outsider blur. The novel The Heart of a Chief gave the reader a good understanding of what it would be like to be Native American in this generation. However, what could be debated is how realistic and closly connected the topic is to what it really is like. While the author maybe Native American and know about the topic he is writing about, some authors choose to write freely on topics they know nothing about or do not research completely. This makes the material harder to believe and learn from because the facts might not be completely correct. For students, the books they read will be windows in to ideas and places I will not be able to teach them. If they do not know if what they are reading is true or not, then does that help their learning? To learn broken pieces of information is worse then learning nothing at all. Children build off of what they learn each year. Building off of incorrect information leads to major misconceptions later in life. Learning what information is factual and what is not, is the most important part in chosing a book. A book may have the most beautiful cover and words, but if it is filled with lies then what good is it?

Thus, the search for an insider and an outsider defination continues....