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Children's responses to Birchbark House
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From: Uma Krishnaswami <uma>
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 13:42:47 -0600
Debbie, thank you for sharing your daughter's response to Birchbark House. I believe that the stereotyping of people of color in text and life has implications not just for children of those communities but for all.
In response to someone else's comment (I'm sorry I can't recall who it was) I actually enjoyed the sprinkling of Ojibwa words - it added flavor, and sometimes I don't think "slowing things down" is negative.
I thought about Gretchen's remark, seeing the greater world through the lenses of culture, forgive me if I am botching your words. I think children don't tend to think of the greater world and their cultural world
-- those are our adult boxes. Kids take the entire package at face value, just the way it comes, and if they hurt inside from it, well, mostly they take that at face value too. Which is precisely why the image of Native peoples that has been sold over the years is so insidious. I run a writing workshop for 3rd through 5th graders at Aztec Ruins National Monument (an outlier of the Chaco system,and so held sacred by people from some of the Pueblos in New Mexico). I'm amazed at how kids who live within shouting distance of this place nevertheless bring out the feathered headdress and princess rescue stories.
Books like Birchbark House help kids get the vitally important idea that history as traditionally written is: 1. always told from the perspective of the victor; and 2. not always reflective of absolute truth.
Unfortunately, I think Beverly is right.
Let's face it, there was a time when any people of color were portrayed in English literature as less than human, to be feared, converted, educated, conquered, governed, civilized, exterminated (pick your place and time for the appropriate verb). How many centuries it will take to eradicate the remnants of those points of view is anybody's guess. In the meantime we can be grateful to Louise Erdrich for this gem of a book.
Uma Krishnaswami Writer 765 County Road 3000 Aztec NM 87410 50525H17
Received on Thu 14 Oct 1999 02:42:47 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 14 Oct 1999 13:42:47 -0600
Debbie, thank you for sharing your daughter's response to Birchbark House. I believe that the stereotyping of people of color in text and life has implications not just for children of those communities but for all.
In response to someone else's comment (I'm sorry I can't recall who it was) I actually enjoyed the sprinkling of Ojibwa words - it added flavor, and sometimes I don't think "slowing things down" is negative.
I thought about Gretchen's remark, seeing the greater world through the lenses of culture, forgive me if I am botching your words. I think children don't tend to think of the greater world and their cultural world
-- those are our adult boxes. Kids take the entire package at face value, just the way it comes, and if they hurt inside from it, well, mostly they take that at face value too. Which is precisely why the image of Native peoples that has been sold over the years is so insidious. I run a writing workshop for 3rd through 5th graders at Aztec Ruins National Monument (an outlier of the Chaco system,and so held sacred by people from some of the Pueblos in New Mexico). I'm amazed at how kids who live within shouting distance of this place nevertheless bring out the feathered headdress and princess rescue stories.
Books like Birchbark House help kids get the vitally important idea that history as traditionally written is: 1. always told from the perspective of the victor; and 2. not always reflective of absolute truth.
Unfortunately, I think Beverly is right.
Let's face it, there was a time when any people of color were portrayed in English literature as less than human, to be feared, converted, educated, conquered, governed, civilized, exterminated (pick your place and time for the appropriate verb). How many centuries it will take to eradicate the remnants of those points of view is anybody's guess. In the meantime we can be grateful to Louise Erdrich for this gem of a book.
Uma Krishnaswami Writer 765 County Road 3000 Aztec NM 87410 50525H17
Received on Thu 14 Oct 1999 02:42:47 PM CDT
