Bishop and Flint

After reading the Bishop article, I found that I disagreed with many of her thoughts, as well as some of what Flint has been discussing. This is all in regard to multicultural literacy. After reading the article, I felt that the "norm" students (Middle class, white, Americans) are being ignored. All the other students get to partake in literacy that discusses their own personal histories, yet the "norm" students are left behind. I feel as if there is such an emphasis on diversity and multiculturalism in the classroom that we forget to discuss the other students, many of whom have just as diverse backgrounds. I also felt that Bishop used words like "norm" that made student like myself feel as if we have nothing special or unique about our backgrounds and because we are not labeled as "different" we don't deserve any recognition. Now I know that is not what she intended, but some of her language gave me that impression. I also noticed this in Flint's work and how she has stressed the importance of validating the multiple languages of all students. I do think this is important, but I think the extent that the subject has been taken is far too much. Some students who may be labeled as "different" may not even see themselves that way, or do not want to be seen in that way and putting them in the spotlight would make them uncomfortable. I think the push on how much diversity is brought into the classroom should depend on the students themselves. Yes, there should be some multicultural texts in all classrooms because America is a very diverse country and the students should be aware of that. However, I don't feel that there should be such pressure to make sure all the texts are perfectly authentic and that every culture in the classroom is represented in a text unless the students themselves want it that way.