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....