Teaching and Learning about Cultural Diversity: All of Us Together Have a Story to Tell

Author(s): Howard M. Miller

Source: The Reading Teacher, Vol. 53, No. 8, Voices of the Other: Understanding Emerging from
the Controversy (May, 2000), pp. 666-667
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the International Reading Association
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and

Teaching
About

Learning

Cultural

Diversity
HowardM. Miller

All

of us

together

With every good intention in the

world, Ruth Sherman, a third
grade teacher in the United States, read
aloud to her students a multicultural
of
book from her personal collection
It was

favorites.

an

award

winner,

an

exuberant family tale by the African

American writer Carolivia Harron.
the black and
By all accounts,
in
students
Sherman's
class
Hispanic
time
and
the
espe
storytelling
enjoyed
cially liked this book. Entitled Nappy
Hair (1997, Random Books for Young
the book recounts the story
Readers),
about the origin of a young girl's "nap
py hair" as a glorious gift from God and
a tribute to her African heritage.
and U.S.
As reported in Newsweek
in their
News
& World
Report
a
December
1998
14,
issues,
parent
heard about the story being read by a
white teacher to her minority students
and viewed it as an act of racial conde
scension, because references to "nappy
hair" sometimes have been used as a
racial put-down of African Americans.
The parent rallied many in the neigh
borhood to her cause, and together they
stormed the school to express their out
rage. In the confusion of this emotional
episode and the limelight of publicity
that accompanied it, Sherman resigned
her position and has since been reas
signed to another school.
Here

was

a young,

enthusiastic

cator finding herself victimized

666

The Reading Teacher

edu

by her

a story

have

own efforts at infusing her teaching

with multicultural perspectives. Or is it
as clear and straightforward as all that?

Preparations forchallenge
When educators embark on a multi
cultural journey with their students,
they need to recognize the potential for
stirring up controversy. Sherman's gen
uine desire to offer her students a posi
tive, upbeat story backfired when, for
all her goodwill, a negative context was
put around her intentions.
In seeking to prevent such an inci
dent, a good dose of professional com
mon sense is called for, both in terms
of materials selection and in preparation
for a challenge. The first rule must be
this: Avoid being isolated. Teachers
who choose to select their own materi
als based on personal likes and dislikes
may find themselves out on a limb and
all alone when challenged. Here are
some questions we need to consider
long before we find ourselves in a sim
ilar situation:
Is there a schoolwide or districtwide
procedure for selecting books to use
If there isn't,
in the classroom?
should there be one?
To what extent have teachers, other
professionals,

parents,

and

commu

nity members been given appropri

to participate
ate opportunities
in
the selection process? If they have

Vol.53,No.8 May2000

to tell

not been given these opportunities,

should they be?
Do

we

have

a rationale,

a reason,

purpose for using a particular book,

and does it tie in with curricular
goals? One source for assistance
here is a compact disk entitled
Rationales
for Challenged Books,
created through a joint effort of the
International Reading Association
of
and the National
Council
Teachers of English. It offers rec
on procedures and
ommendations
policies, assistance in lesson plan
ning and preparation, and ideas for
defending over 170 different books
and films against challenges.
Have we sought the advice of
who have
teaching peers?those
in
the school
successfully
taught
and who know the community?
whose opinions we value and trust?
Have we interacted with the parents
of our own students, so that they
have learned to value and trust our
judgment?
Have we sought guidance
from
in
the
teacher organizations
(e.g.,
U.S. the National Education Asso
ciation or American Federation of
Teachers) and professional literacy
organizations? NCTE, for example,
has aWeb site offering resources
and support on censorship
(www.
Its
listserv,
ncte.org/censorship/).
is also a goldmine of
NCTE-Talk,

?2000 International
ReadingAssociation (pp.666-667)

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advice

and

ceivable
English

support

send

scribe,

on

every

con

issue related to teaching

and language arts. To sub
an e-mail

to

message

majordomo@lists.ncte.org.

Leave

the subject line blank. The message

should read

SUBSCRIBE
NCTE-TALK

Y0URF1RSTNAMEYOURLAST
NAME.
These preparations offer no guaran
tee that our choice of books will go un
challenged, of course, but they certainly
and we stand a
lessen the possibility,
much better chance of emerging rela
tively unscathed ifwe are prepared.

Cultural"theft"
There

is another twist to the issue of

education,
challenges to multicultural
in the experience of Judi
exemplified
author of a children's book
Moreillon,
called Sing Down
the Rain (1997,
In composing
her book,
Kiva).
Moreillon

strove

to re-create

in verse

form the rainmaking ceremony of the

Tohono O'odham
American
Indian
Nation. Moreillon,
who is white, has
written about her efforts to portray the
spirit of the ceremony, amidst a growing
fear that she was becoming a "would
be cultural thief (1999, p. 131) by ap
elements of the Tohono
propriating
O'odham culture to serve her own ends.
The author did her homework,
thor
oughly researching the rainmaking cer
emony, consulting with members of the
Tohono O'odham Nation,
and doing
ensure
to
she
could
that she
everything
was meeting the standards of authentic
she fre
ity and accuracy. Nevertheless,
under
found
herself
attack
quently
"by
indigenous and other people, who, al
though having never read my book,
have demanded to know what gives me
the right to write
about Tohono
O'odham culture" (p. 132).
This story raises a difficult and sen
sitive question. Should the inability to
truly live another's life be the determin
ing factor in deciding whether an "out
sider" has the right to relate the stories
of another culture? Can Gary Paulsen

legitimately write about slave life in

(1993, Laurel Leaf)? Was it
Nightjohn
for
Steven Spielberg tomake
acceptable
the movie
Amistad
(1998, Dream
Works), depicting the inhumane treat
ment of captured Africans during the
Middle
Passage? Both of these are
white men, after all, with no personal
knowledge of slavery.
The answer lies in understanding the
nature of storytelling itself. Every story
told or written is a reflection of the
storyteller whose words, word order, and
emphases give rise to infinite variety. The
storyteller constructs meaning in creat
ing the story; the listener or reader con
structs meaning in interpreting the story.
What is authenticity? What is accuracy?
These terms elude clear definitions.
Few would question the importance
of teaching children about the issue of
movie
and
slavery, and Spielberg's
Paulsen's account of John, who dares to
defy the antieducation laws by bringing
literacy to slave children, can provide us
with genuine insights into slavery. Only
let's not permit these stories to be the
sole sources of our knowledge. For in
stance, we might want to read aloud to
our students some of the vignettes
in
Virginia Hamilton's Many Thousands
Gone: African Americans From Slavery
toFreedom (1995, Knopf). In this book
the noted African American
writer
to
and
voice
both
victims
heroes
gives
of slavery. We could also share Tom
Feelings's breathtaking drawings in The
Middle Passage:
White Ships Black
Cargo (1995, Dial).
Let's mix things up even more by
in selections
from Before
tossing
Freedom
editor,
(Belinda Hurmence,
1989, Blair), a collection of oral histo
ries of former slaves gathered in the
1930s under the auspices of the U.S.
Federal Writers' Project. Offer up ex
cerpts from Sarah Jane Foster: Teacher
of the Freedmen (Wayne Reilly, editor,

a
1990, University Press of Virginia),
of
letters
and
collection
written
by
diary
one of the white school teachers who
were among the first legal teachers of
the freed former slaves and their chil
dren following the U.S. Civil War.
If we are to provide children with a
more complete picture, then they must
learn that slavery was not an "invention"
of Colonial America, but had a long dis
reputable history well before the first
European set foot in the New World.
Milton Meltzer' sAll Times, All Peoples:
A World History
(1980,
of Slavery
Harper & Row), for example, places
slavery in a historic context. It goes back
some 10,000 years and shows slavery to
be an issue of power and powerlessness
affecting all races and cultures.

No one owns the stories

to
We cannot allow multiculturalism
be turned into a game of blame, shame,
and guilt, yet if we do feel the need to
uncover examples of intolerance, preju
dice,

and

racism,

we must

and

recognize

acknowledge that they exist in every so

ciety, among all ethnic and racial
groups. Xenophobia is a great, humbling
equalizer representing the bleak side of
what itmeans to be a human being. For
better or for worse, these dark tales, too,
are part of themulticultural story. But no
one owns the stories, neither the tales of
suffering nor the paeans of exultation.
For multicultural education to thrive, it
must be multicultural itself. All of us to
gether have a story to tell. It is a story
with many chapters and verses, told in
from many points of
many voices
view?the
magnificent,
awe-inspiring
story of humanity.

Reference
J. (1999). The candle and the mirror:
Moreillon,
One author's journey as an outsider. The New
Advocate,

12,127-140.

on this column. E-mail: Middle

The editor welcomes
reader comments
Doc@aol.com.
Mail: Howard M. Miller, Department of Education, Lincoln
University, 404 MLK Hall, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0029, USA.

Teaching and Learning About Cultural Diversity

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667