Is multi-cultural only about race?

I started reading our next book, Boy Meets Boy, this week for our next class. I like to discuss the books/subjects we are discussing in TE 448 with friends and family on occasion but I was surprised that everyone I talked to didn't seem to agree that a book like this belonged in a multicultural class. Is this just a sign of multicultural not really being quite the right word to use to encompass everything we discuss, perhaps if I said diversity like the class title does I would have gotten a different result. I like to think of multicultural as encompassing themes and ideas that typically do not crop up in mainstream children's literature. With this definition, I think Boy Meets Boy fits in nicely. Perhaps because this topic is such a hot button in the news right now people are just less comfortable with talking about it than with various racial issues.

more stereotypes

On the first day of class we discussed what books we enjoyed/identified with when we were younger. I listed one of my favorite childhood books, Walk Two Moons. Tonight I was spending time on D. Reese's blog looking for some articles to accompany the novels that I have read when I found a review for this book. It was sorted under the label of Not Recommended. The main character identified herself as being part Indian (it is set in contemporary times) and there were many references to "Indian" ideas that were not at all correct. I am still amazed at the prevalance of these stereotypes. I am starting to feel like up until this class every single book that I've read with an Indian character in it was somehow stereotypical. Equally disturbing, it seems like very few people see this as a problem or even think there is another way to learn about Native American culture. Oyate is a website/book store that specializes in selling books from Native authors. Most of these books have only been published by small independent presses. On the site, a list of approved books is included for teaching students about Thanksgiving for those that want their only unit on the subject to occur the week before Thanksgiving. At least this way their information will be correct.

Also on that site is a collection of stories that are quite disturbing about teacher's using books in schools that were historically inaccurate and how much they were willing to defend their choices. I would check it out http://www.oyate.org/livingstories.html and also some of the other books on Oyate's site.