My Personal Philosophy

To be honest, the reason why I'm taking this course is because it took the place of one of the horrible English credits I would have had to take. I hadn't really thought about the issues of diverse literature or the importance of it. Before taking this course I hadn't really been exposed to that much diverse literature. I don't remember reading a lot of it when I was in elementary school or in high school. This class has really opened my eyes and given me a different perspective to look at. I have realized how important it is to start exposing young children to it at an early age. I think that by doing this it will help them see this other perspective and be more open to it than if they aren't exposed to it until they get older, like me. It's been hard for me to relate and find agreement with some of the issues we have been discussing in class. For example, when we were discussing the book Little House on the Prairie I had never thought about any of those issues before. When I was younger I would read a book for enjoyment, I can't remember it ever crossing my mind that a book was being stereotypical in any way. I always just believed what the author was saying and trusted their words and opinions.
So when it comes to my personal philosophy I think that it's extremely important for people to grow up learning about different cultures and diversity issues. This will help clear up any misconceptions and give people a better understanding of people and cultures around the world. I think that it's important for young children to develop the mind set that everyone in this world is unique and different in their own way, and that's perfectly okay. That doesn't make one person better than another. I think that if I would have been exposed to it more when I was younger I would definitely be more open to some of these diverse issues. I don't consider myself a racist person by any means, but some things I don't find to be as big of an issue as others. I'm glad I'm taking this course because now I will have a different mind set when I'm teaching my own students than I would have been before. I can now see how important it is to expose children to diverse literature because it is something that affects how people view things later on in life.