Young Adult Lit and Multicultural Learning

Susan Landt provides a unique insight to using Young Adult Literature that is very similar to mine.  I really love her idea of literature being a “kaleidoscope” because I think it is a great metaphor for what literature really should be.  Literature should provide readers with the opportunity to develop a different view of the world around them with each piece of literature that they read.  Her main idea is to use multicultural young adult literature in order to teach adolescents and young adults about different cultural societies.  She quotes an article by Ford, Howard, Tyson & Harris by saying “Providing a multitude of perspectives through literature at this point in students’ development is an effective way to help facilitate their engagement is self and understanding.”  I think this is her main argument.  She is trying to argue that it is important to introduce adolescents and young adults to multicultural literature at a younger age so that they can develop an understanding of different cultures before they develop any kind of prejudice against those cultures.  I agree with this argument, but I question waiting until the adolescent age.  I believe that children develop prejudices at a young age because they are introduced to whatever prejudices their families have and by waiting to expose them to other cultures we allow them to solidify and justify their prejudices.  I have to counter my argument though by saying that it is possible that younger children are not developmentally prepared to learn about different cultures.  I agree with her idea that there are many different multicultural young adult pieces and I think that they are an excellent way to expose young adults to various cultures.  In this class alone we have learned about so many different cultures spanning from Caucasian to African American growing up in Harlem to the wealthy and the poverty ridden, and even to some people who struggle with mental illness and disorders.  Young Adult Literature is an entertaining way to allow young students to develop an insight to different cultures that they may have never been exposed to.  Her article really exposed me to the idea that I can use YA literature in my classroom to teach very serious subjects to my students.  I have really been interested in using Young Adult Literature in my classroom but have struggled figuring out exactly how to incorporate it.  Landt revealed to me that I can use Young Adult Literature to teach my students about different cultures which I think is an extremely valuable lesson for young students.  When I graduated high school I had only been exposed to very few different cultures and coming to college has allowed me to be exposed to more cultures.  I think that we can learn a lot from different cultures but in order to learn about them we must first be exposed to them.  Exposing students to different cultures allows them to learn more than I did earlier than I did that way it won’t be so difficult for them to open their eyes to the different challenges and privileges that certain cultures have.  Using Young Adult Literature to teach students about cultures is a fantastic way to let them learn about different cultures around the world.