Week 3: "Esperanza Rising"

After reading Esperanza Rising, and the article by Yu Ren Dong, I have gained a better perspective on the importance of teaching multicultural literature to students. Esperanza Rising, along with the other books that we have read so far in this class work to convey the importance of representing many different cultures and writing styles in teaching a literature class. These books move students away from the traditionally “white” novels, and push their minds to expand and gain a better understanding of many different cultures.
Esperanza Rising moves away from the typical black and white cultures that are seen in most multicultural literature, and expands the children’s understanding of the Latino culture. Esperanza is a young girl that is faced with many different hardships which she must overcome, and ultimately serves as a beacon of hope for all children going through hard times. This novel is important to be taught in classrooms because it helps to give students a better grasp of the Latino culture and hardships that those people have had to endure. The more cultures that are represented in classrooms, the better students are able to relate to stories, as well as broaden their perspectives on life.
Yu Ren Dong’s article, “Bridging the Cultural Gap by Teaching Multicultural Literature”, serves to illustrate the importance of providing works spanning over a great assortment of cultures to students. I agree with Dong’s belief that the more diversity that students are exposed to, the greater and more informed their worldly views will be. Dong also makes a point of expressing the importance of the educators to be well informed themselves of different cultures, so as to better express the importance of cultural diversity to students. I believe that all of the novels and articles that we have read so far in this class have helped to better educated us in the importance of multicultural diversity and have expanded our worldly views as well.