Multicultural children's literature

I'm teaching a class up at OSU (on the COCC campus) today. It's for the Masters of Education program, and it's a class on multicultural children's literature. They don't really have anyone up there who can teach it, so they'd asked the library if any of the children's librarians would consider teaching the entire course (Sept-Dec). I seriously thought about it, but with my trip, it just wasn't going to work. So instead, five of the children's librarians are each teaching one class, and the education teacher is doing the other three or four.

My class today is on fiction and folklore with a focus on Native Americans. Wow. Daunting task!!! There is so much.....bad literature featuring Native Americans...and some of them are "classics." For example Little House on the Prairie (which I never liked...Loved the TV show, but not the books), The Matchlock Gun or The Courage of Sarah Noble. I don't think these books should be used in the classroom! They're so....bad! Go back and read them if you don't believe me. Others are just bad...but with good intentions. Sometimes the writer meant well, but misrepresents so much about history and culture. Then there is The Indian in the Cupboard and My Heart is On the Ground (a Dear America book)...I do think those writers meant well...but their books just perpetuate stereotypes and My Heart is on the Ground is historically innacurate (suggesting that the boarding schools Native American children were forced into were good!!!)

It's a huge controversy, and one I'm not sure which side I'm on. Can people, not from that culture, write about it? Can whites write from a Native American perspective? Can an African-American writer write about an Asian child??? I'm not sure. I think yes, if it is well (and I mean WELL) researched...but mistakes are still made. I don't know. It's a difficult topic.

And one that has been consuming me since the conference was over! But by tonight I'll be free and clear! Hooray!!!!!!