Beach Articles

After reading the Beach articles, the concerns I've had with teaching multicultural literature in classrooms have been confirmed. Although teaching multicultural literature is a great stepping stone for students to understand things about different cultures, ethnicities, and socioeconomic backgrounds, it doesn't justify the true history behind the lives of the characters in the books. When reading Esperanza Rising, a student who has not been brought up to understand Mexican culture will not be able to grasp some of the concepts within the book. It is possible for them to pick up a little Mexican history from this story, but they will not fully understand where these characters are coming from unless either they or their families have went through something that these characters have gone through. In Copper Sun, there are things that a student would not understand about African culture unless they have African heritage or they have been taught about African culture. Even so, it is impossible to fully grasp what these characters in these stories have been through unless you have been in their position no matter if you are taught about the history or not. However, I still think it is a great idea to incorporate multicultural literature in the classroom because it does give a student a little insight into the lives of ethnically diverse characters nonetheless.