a) Throughout my whole life, my education, family, society and the media have played a tremendous role in shaping me and the beliefs I carry. I grew up in Regina and went to a very diverse elementary and high school. I have been exposed to a diverse classroom as early as I can remember but I understand now that I am one of very few who can say this. I was taught at a young age to accept all no matter their age, race, gender, and I did. We were a friendly, happy community, but I assumed the rest of the country was like that too. It wasn’t until I was in my adolescence when I realized that not everyone had the same demographics in their schools, especially those who are from rural Saskatchewan. I was ignorant to the fact that not everyone’s education and general society was as diverse as mine was because it was all I had ever experienced, so it was the only thing I ever knew.
I was inadvertently taught to believe for so long that all schools had a diverse community within them, just like mine, because I was not taught that we were essentially considered to be privileged to be exposed to many different cultures. The world knows Canada as a diverse country. We most definitely are in certain parts, but there are also many parts of Canada that are not diverse but that is not recognized and you really don’t know that unless it is what you grew up in. The way I read the world now is much different than it was 6-7 years ago because I have realized how much is hidden from us and I have learned more about the reality of things.
A big way that we can unlearn/work against these biases is not hiding the reality to our students. If a classroom does not have much diversity within, then one way educators can expose those students to diversity is through books. That is something Kumashiro informs readers about in his book. “When students read literature by only certain groups of people, they learn only about certain experiences and perspectives, especially those of groups that have traditionally been privileged in society (such as white, middle class men). The writings of different groups of people in this world can expose students to experiences and ideas different of their own” (Kumashrio, 71). If students only read the traditional European style books that include all caucasian characters, then that is all they will know. For someone like me who did experience diverse school communities, students should be taught and understand that not all schools are like ours and that there are communities in our country who are not exposed to diversity as young as us. Had I known at a young age that my school was not like other students, I would have not felt so ignorant to believe everywhere else in the country is as happy and diverse as we were.
b) One of the single stories that Chimamanda Adichie discussed in her talk was that she was only exposed to children books that included characters with blonde hair, caucasian skin, blue eyes etc. I still have the majority of my children’s books and after watching this video I went and found my books. I skimmed through all of them and there was not one character that was diverse from caucasian. Even though I was exposed demographically to a diverse community, it was not until in my later elementary years and high school when our books started to have diverse characters. A lot of the books I own were available in our elementary library, which then we can assume the majority, if not all, of our selection of children’s books would have similar characters.