Insider/Outsider Debate

When it comes to who has the right to tell and illustrate stories about specific cultures I believe that anyone, both insiders and outsiders should be allowed to partake in this. I don't think it's fair to say that an outsider cannot write about a culture they are not from. I do believe that if an outsider is going to write about a specific culture, I think they need to do an extensive amount of research on that particular culture and/or have physically been around that culture before. This gives the author more accurate knowledge and experiences that they can write about and use in their stories. I also think that it gives a new perspective to the reader when it's written by an outsider. I do think although that a book may be a little bit more accurate and believable to the reader when it's written by an insider. I think this because insiders are able to write about real-life experiences they may have faced at some point in their life. I do believe that people should be able to write about whatever they want to write about. Who knows, someone who is not from a Chinese background could have lived there for years and could potentially write an amazing story about the Chinese culture. Although they have to be given the chance to do this.
There is just so much that plays into the idea of insiders and outsiders being able to write about a specific culture because it can be seen either way.

Introduction to TE448

My name is Jennifer Metz and I am a senior right now at MSU. I'm studying Elementary Education with a specialization in Language Arts. I am interested in learning about diverse literature because it is something I have never really studied in-depth before. Even though I am a Language Arts major, I have never read and/or focused on children's literature books, especially books that are related to diversity. So by taking this course I hope to be able to reach the needs of all my students by including texts that are diverse. Diversity is such an important issue that is often times over-looked in elementary classrooms. So throughout this semester, I hope to become more aware of diverse issues and how to approach or solve those issues. I also hope to accumulate a large list of good diverse books that I could use in my own classroom. I know we have already focused on a few diverse books during the first two class, so I hope to continue adding to that list.