The Presentation of Native Americans In Children's Literature

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The Presentation of Native Americans In Children's Literature In the 1970's the seed of change began to grow in children's literature. Because American Indians and knowledgeable cultural anthropologists became authors of children's books, Native American people and culture is now being seen in a more true and distinguishing light. Literature is immensely important when it comes to learning. There are four areas of development that literature takes a huge part in. The first area is language development, which is very rapid during the preschool years, and becomes more refined as time passes. The second area is cognitive development, and "there are basic operations as- sociated : (1)observing; (2)comparing; (3)classifying; (4)hypothesizing; (5)organizing; (6)summarizing; (7)applying; and, (8)criticizing. Children's literature is especially effective for developing these operations."(Norton,13) The third area of development is personality. Books give children characters to connect with. By connecting with characters of the same ethnic and cultural background, children can achieve self-approval and pride. When seeing the portrayal of these characters in a positive way. Self-approval is critical , even at an early age. Social development is the fourth and final area. Being socially accepted is important to most of us. Children can learn morals and establish beliefs by reading literature. Because children's literature is such an important tool in development, we should be aware of the types of books we give our children to read and listen to. Multicultural literature is a type of literature that we specifically need to look for when choosing books. Multicultural literature is "literature about racial and ethnic ... ... middle of paper ... ...they may leave a lasting impression on them for the rest of their lives. Negative stereotypes only build walls and keep us from seeing people for what they really are. There is so much that we can learn from others, and hiding the truth behind pretty painted or dehumanizing pictures is not the way to do it. Works Cited: Burns, Paul C.,Roe, Betty D., and Ross, Elinor P. (1992). Teaching Reading in Todays Elementary Schools. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Gage, N.L. , Berliner, David C. (1992). Educational Psychology (5th edt.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. Norton, Donna E. (1991). Through the Eyes of a Child, an Introduction to Children's Literature (3rd edt.). New York: Macmillan Publishing Company. Sroufe, Alan L., Cooper, Robert G., DeHart, Ganie B. (1992). Child Development, Its Nature and Course (2nd edt.). New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc.

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