Final Post

To say the least this class has been very beneficial for me. I have been exposed to new levels of multiculturalism that I haven't even thought of before in such depths. One of the most interesting things that I have discovered through this class is that there is always two sides to a story. I say this while I am thinking about the analyzations of different books. A book that may seem incredible to one person may be the worst book ever written to another and the most offensive thing they have ever read. With this in mind one of the key things I have learned is that you can never take a book a face value when you are presenting to your students or even when you are reading it for yourself. You may be thinking that the book you are reading is presenting you with very valuable information, while it is feeding you completely off the mark information. It has been amazing to see the books that have been well known and prominantly read in school that have presented great problems with certain groups of people. I have learned that I have to be able to take the time to do a little bit of extra research so that I am doing myself as well as my future students justice when I say that I am presenting to them a book deserving to be read and studied.

I enjoyed being able to dig deeper into finding out about a minority I didn't know much about and also practicing these necessary research skills during the final project. This project expanded my level of thinking when considering what books to present before others. It also made me realize how uneven the representation of groups can be. I chose to research muslim-american books and quite honestly this was quite a difficult thing to do. It made me sad to realize that a people that are becoming quite prominent within the United States do not have the ability to often see themselves in literature; as if life in the U.S. isn't already hard enough for muslim-americans.

So all in all I have gained a new appreciation for the importance of simply building a library that is as much inclusive for all as possible. For some students it may mean the difference between mediocracy and greatness. And if I can play any part in a student being the greatest they can be then I will do whatever enables that. And I have come to find out how much this does enable that . I really appreciate what this class has exposed me to, and I will apply what I have learned throughout my career.