1). Connection to nature and animals
2). The combination of "old" and "new" Eskimo traditions and people
3). Love and respect for family, community, and culture
The five books and these three main themes can be combined to teach students acceptance, understanding, tradition, and relativity. The theme of combining "old" and "new" traditions and people is so important to cultural preservation. Through this theme students understand their personal responsibility in carrying out the traditions held by their families, cultures, communities, ancestors, etc. in order to continue the traditions. Many of the texts discussed the transfer of cultural knowledge, beliefs, and values from the elderly to the young. Additionally many of the texts portrayed the combination of American culture and Inuit culture. This is important for students to understand in order to halt stereotypes and generalizations about different groups. These books combine to cover this issue in a thorough way. In Arctic Son the idea is relayed visually and subtly in simple ways such as the characters having both a pickup truck and a dogsled or more boldly in Julie of the Wolves when her father has a motorcycle and she is still driving a dogsled and he wears an Americanized jacket while she continues to wear her sealskin parka.
The love and respect for family, community, and culture is evident in all five books I selected. This theme is an important one because each student must be able to feel this way not only about their own background but about different backgrounds. This theme also helps students of all backgrounds to connect together because all backgrounds understand the concepts of love and family and value them highly but in different ways. The discussion of how different students value family and love is an excellent way to build acceptance and understanding as well as learn about the cultures and values of others. Because love is as universal a theme as one can get, it is an excellent theme on which to connect a wide variety of students with many backgrounds together.
Lastly, the theme of connection to animals and nature is a strong value in almost all Inuit traditions. Additionally, animals are something that almost all children show interest in and value themselves. If animals can be used as the connecting point or the foundation on which to base love and understanding of the differences of others, I think it is a great place to start. Animals can also teach students a lot about different places based on what they look like and what behaviors they have. The role of the animals in this set of books is very complex but I think it is to connect all children to the values and beliefs of Inuit people as well as to teach children about the arctic and all parts of it both human and nonhuman.
In conclusion, I feel as though this collection of books works well to promote understanding of Inuit people in a way that indicates to students that Eskimos still exist in a wide variety of places and forms. Through these books students will come to understand the basis for the Inuit traditions and how Americanization has played into these traditions. Lastly, students will be able to connect to the beliefs and values of Inuit people through the connection points in the text such as the common story line in The Three Snow Bears or the connection to family in Arctic Dreams or Mama, Do You Love Me? It is a line up of books like these that a teacher hoping to promote diversity and acceptance in a classroom would use in a way that was smoothly integrated into the curriculum. In the end students through connection ports such as common themes of love and family, would come out of experience with the literature having experimented with Inuit traditions and language beginning back from its start to its connection with American popular culture today.
No comments:
Post a Comment