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Beyond "Multicultural Moments" Teachers, schools, and school districts across the country often eloquently express the value of teaching their students about respecting people of every ethnic and racial origin through a multicultural approach to teaching literature and writing. At the middle school where I used to teach, my colleagues and I confirmed this value by incorporating it into the language arts outcomes statement for our school: "The students will engage in reading and writing activities which will encourage understanding, tolerance, caring, and respect for all humanity" It is easy enough to make such a lofty statement of our beliefs; the real challenge lies in putting into practice what we say we value. How do we teach these values of "understanding, tolerance, caring, and respect"? How do we engage our students in ways that will help them to understand and appreciate cultures other than their own?
If we are to begin instilling in our students an appreciation for others, especially for those who are different from themselves, we must do more than merely celebrate "multicultural moments." It is not sufficient to observe Black History Month by offering our students momentary glimpses of heroic African Americans; it is not enough to insert into the curriculum brief exposures to Native Americans, Latinos, Asians, or other ethnic and cultural groups. NMe must begin by recognizing the complexity of the issues involved in learning and teaching about diversity; then we must work toward achieving the same level of understanding that we have strived to achieve in all the content areas that we teach. A natural place to startwith our students' help-is with the creation and building of the classroom library.
LEVEL 1: BUILDING A CLASSROOM LIBRARY OF MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
Choosing books which represent a wide range of cultures is important, especially if the school population tends to be representative of a single race or ethnic group and where students have had little exposure to other cultures. Selecting and collecting books for the classroom library can be a step in the direction of opening our students' minds to the richness and diversity of our nation's and the world's many cultures. Myths, legends, folk tales, fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and picture books, too, can enlarge their cultural perspectives. Most book catalogs, book stores,...