Multicultural Education and Books that Shaped the 20th Century - Assignment Example

 Fairy Tale, Fable, or Myth The English word Myth is derived from the ancient Greek word Muthos which refers to a story about a divine being. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines myth as “a usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon”. In easier terms, a myth should have something to do with a divine being, or alternatively a natural phenomenon that cannot be easily explained (an erupting volcano may inspire a myth about an angry god). A fairy tale is fictional story often with a far-fetched set of circumstances. Fairy tales draw small children as an audience because they easily identify with the simple character archetypes. Fairy tales are stories about “make-believe” characters such as goblins, fairies, elves, trolls, and talking animals. Fairy tales often end in a happily ever after, everything turns out right way. Fairy tales often center on “real people” as opposed to gods and deities one would find in Myths. A Fable is defined as a narration intended to enforce a useful truth. The word fable derives from the Latin fabula which means conversation, story, or play. The most widely known example would be Aesop’s fables which generally involve some sort of animal teaching a lesson to another animal. The main difference in between a myth, fairy tale, or a fable is the subject matter. The main subject in a myth is a god or deity or natural phenomena that is difficult to explain. The main subject in a fairy tale can vary, but it is invariably about a “real person” involved in an extraordinary set of circumstances. The fable’s main subject is the lesson it is trying to teach. The fable may employ fantastical characters as in a fairy tale, but the main idea of the story is the moral at its core. Multicultural Education Nations characterized by religious diversity, such as the United States, have a history of hostility and mistrust between people of different backgrounds. Research shows that by age 5, some students have already developed high levels of racial intolerance towards others (Bigler & Liben, 1993). This means that even in a first grade classroom, the children are hostile and intolerant toward other races. The demographics of the classroom as also changing with up to one third of the students being of some non-white ethnicity and by 2020, up to one half of the elementary population will be non-white. There is a clear and definite need for an education system that acknowledges and embraces students from varied backgrounds. The goals of multicultural education are to “try to create equal educational opportunities for all students by changing the total school environment so that it will reflect the diverse cultures and groups within a society and within the nation's classrooms.” (Banks 1997) This means that the school environment will embrace all students and create equal learning opportunities for them all. The first step in embracing all students is in addressing the bigotry and racism that is unfortunately learned at a young age. Good multicultural literature is essential in providing opportunities to introduce new cultures into the classroom. The introduction of new cultures allows the students to be exposed to them in an accepting manner. Reading aloud is well received by elementary students, and this would allow the educators an opportunity to introduce the lesser known cultures. Once the students have been introduced to them, they are more likely to desire to know more and this knowledge will lead to acceptance and harmony. Books that shaped the 20th Century In order for a book to shape a century, it must have a large, far-reaching social impact. The book must be widely-read in order to affect enough people to make an impression. That being said, most truly ground-breaking books are not recognized in the author’s lifetime as there is a significant period necessary for the book to gain necessary circulation to shape the century. This list of books that shaped the century would be much disputed, as everyone will have a different understanding of the material. I am presenting several that I believe had an impact and my reasoning behind it. The first book that I believe had an impact on the 20th century was the Oxford English Dictionary published in 1928. The OED's official policy was to attempt to record a word's most-known usages and variants in all varieties of English past and present, world-wide. Other comprehensive dictionaries had been previously published, but none with the sourcing and referencing of the OED. Since it was such a major undertaking, the help of the public was enlisted, thus creating cultural phenomena that lasted throughout the 20th century, with the second edition being published in 1989. The second book that had a major impact on the century was Anne Frank, Diary of a Young Girl. This book, which is in reality a published version of a young girl’s diaries, came to symbolize all the horrors of the Nazi Regime. As it was published shortly after the end of World War II, the suffering of the Jewish people was still coming to light. This simple diary seemed to impact the population in a way that no news story could. Achingly simple and yet brilliantly complex, this book moved many. The third and final book that I believe to have shaped the 20th century was Mein Kampf. Allowing for the fact that the author and not the book itself did most of the shaping, I still believe this to be a book that greatly affected the century. The ideas in this book were the founding points of the Nazi party, which was the major reason behind World War II. This book has come to symbolize the greatest evil that the world has yet to see. Pre-school and reading The developmental age that I have chosen is pre-school, meaning the ages between 3-5. This age is typically only being read to aloud, and just learning to read independently. As their exposure to literature is primarily auditory, this age group is most interested in books with rhyming, or alternatively with interesting illustrations. Dr. Seuss exemplifies this simple, sing-song wording perfectly. His perennial popularity is due as much to his word choices as to the quality of his stories. The most popular of his stories, the achingly simple Green Eggs and Ham is a story of a little boy who thinks he won’t like green eggs and ham and refuses to eat them. “I would not like them here or there. I would not like them anywhere. I do not like green eggs and ham. I do not like them, Sam-I-am.” (Seuss 1960) This book uses only 50 words, which makes it easy for early readers, but the true beauty of the book is in the repetition of phrases, which allows the kids familiarity with the book. This makes the book fun for this age, and at that age, it’s all about what’s fun. The second factor in interesting a 3-5 year old is the illustrations. Since children of this age are often unable to read on their own, the pictures are what tell them the story. This explains the popularity of “picture books” where there are often little, if any words in the book. The children are able to study the pictures and in a sense, read along with the story. A popular example would be Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak. The book was a Caldecott award winner. The illustrations are lively and interesting, inviting the reader to examine the drawings while the story is being read. This action leads the children to better comprehension and an easier transition into reading the books themselves. Milestones in the development of Children’s literature Children’s literature is somewhat hard to define at it’s origins. The most broad definition is literature that is read and selected by children. It can also be defined as literature selected for children by guardians or educators. There is a rich oral history which is mostly undocumented. Traditionally, stories were committed to memory and then passed down through generations. It is believed also that rudimentary cave drawings were attempts at documenting stories. It is unclear how much of the early story-telling was specifically geared toward children, but it’s hard to imagine someone telling a story and not being surrounded by curious children. The Brothers Grimm, Jakob and Wilhem of the early nineteenth century, were initially responsible for the writing down of the oral traditions and stories. Their book, Grimm’s Fairy Tales was not a collection of their own fairy tales, but rather a collection of the oral stories that had been passed down through generations. This collection was rather harsh and seems quite unfriendly to children when viewed from today’s standards. James Amos Komensky published the first illustrational informational book, Orbis Pictus geared toward children in 1658. Charles Perrault laid the foundations for fairy tales by writing “Little Red Riding Hood”, “Sleeping Beauty”, and “Cinderella” among others before his death in 1703. John Newberry’s 1744 publication of A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, sold with a ball for boys or a pincushion for girls. This is considered by many to be a landmark publication since it is the first documentation of gearing reading toward a pleasure pursuit. Prior to this it seems most of the stories and literature were intended to instruct, rather than entertain. Authors who made contributions to the advancement of enjoyment of reading were Laura Ingalls Wilder, C.S. Lewis, E.B. White, and more recently J.K. Rowling. These authors all used their particular stories to mainly entertain young readers. Also of notable milestones were the publication of books not originally intended to be Children’s literature, but due to the subject matter were often adopted as such. Prominent examples are Alice in Wonderland, Gulliver’s travels, and Huckleberry Finn; none of which were intended to be primarily children’s literature. These books were adopted by children because they often featured children as the main character(s). Over time, Children’s literature has graduated from the telling of tales to warn children of bad behavior to a network of complex and engaging books meant to both teach and entertain children. This type of literature has gone from the grim warnings of the Grimms brothers to the light hearted nonsense of Dr. Seuss. Children’s literature has indeed exited the Dark Ages. Bibliography Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/ Bigler, R., & Liben, L. (1993). A cognitive development approach to racial stereotyping and reconstructive memory in Euro-American children., 64, 1507-1519. Banks, James A, Center for multicultural education, Multicultural Education Goals and Dimensions http://education.washington.edu/cme/view.htm Seuss, Theodor Green Eggs and Ham, Random House, 1960 Read More