Everyone has their individual differences. Diversity is understanding what makes each human unique. This is a particularly important aspect in schools because it allows students to learn to respect those who have different ideas and understand other cultures, eventually opening their minds and helping them in the future. For instance, in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Junior, an adolescent boy living on a reservation, makes the decision to attend Reardan, a “rich, white farm town” (Alexie 45). While Junior deals with characteristic changes, collaboration with his classmates, and stereotypes and prejudice, this drastic change of environment ultimately positively influences not only Junior, but also his peers at Reardan.
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It is important that they close the cultural student-to-teacher gap in schools and recognize that “cultural diversity helps us recognize and respect “ways of living” that are not necessarily our own...we can build bridges to trust, respect and understanding across cultures” (Belfield, Lisa). Billie, a Lakota teen says “a bunch of teachers here think they know what’s wrong with us...If people want to help us, they have to see what we’ve been through, not what their own experiences tell them” (“Culture in the Classroom”). This demonstrates that to truly engage students, educators have to reach out to students in ways that are culturally responsive and appropriate. On top of this, teachers are often an adolescent's first regular, “ongoing contact with someone outside their home community and culture” (“Culture in the Classroom”). This is an important position as a mentor, and it is vital that they understand their students’ cultures and acknowledge their differences without stereotyping or undermining their need for support. An example of the importance of diversity is after Junior attends many funerals on the reservation. When he goes back to school, Mrs. Jeremy, who has been teaching at Reardan for 35 years, mocks him for not attending class. Junior wishes he could stand up to her, but “it was Gordy who defended me. He stood up with his textbook and dropped it...And his courage inspired the others...Then all my classmates walked out of the room” (Alexie 175). This shows how the students have grown to accept Junior, but the teacher has not. Junior helped his peers understand others’ perspectives by attending Reardan, gaining their respect, and befriending them. In contrast to this, Mrs. Jeremy, an adult, who has been teaching at Reardan for thirty five years, is not comfortable with diversity. More understanding and respect towards others brings about bigger and
The novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part-Time Indian and the movie Smoke Signals both originated from the mind of a man named Sherman Alexie. The novel and the movie have some similarities, but each similarity has a subtle difference. Some subtle differences between the topics in the novel The Absolutely True Diary of A Part Time Indian, and the movie Smoke Signals is the emphasis the author puts on each of the topics. There are a few topics that are shown in both the novel and the movie such as racism, identity, and loss. These topics are expressed very strongly in the novel but are vague in the movie.
The essay, “Diversity: The Value of Discomfort” is an argument written by Ronald L Leibowitz in which he addresses a group of graduates about the value of diversity in college. To me, diversity means the unique backgrounds which influence people’s thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Each of the factors in an individual’s background makes them unique, and creates an important facet of our communities. However, we need to recognize and understand diversity, and simply “celebrating” it is not enough—we must embrace it in our colleges, workplaces, neighborhoods, and larger societies.
...I feel it is my duty to encourage my students to see the beauty in such differences as opportunities for possibilities. I feel it is important to recognize one’s own heritage and race and values, but I also feel at times it is equally important to detach one’s self from such in order to allow for one to be exposed to new perspectives and alternative ways of life.
Have you ever wanted something really badly, but couldn’t afford it? This is a common occurrence, but what about food? Have you ever went to be hungry because you couldn’t afford to eat? Unfortunately, Junior, the main character in the book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, felt exactly this way for food. Even though Junior didn’t have as many resources as the other “white kids,” he still chose to look at the positives. This novel shows that even in times of great hardship, people can still choose to have hope and look at the good in their lives.
Adolescents experience a developmental journey as they transition from child to adult, and in doing so are faced with many developmental milestones. Physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes are occurring during this tumultuous stage of life, and making sense of one’s self and identity becomes a priority. Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian addresses the challenges of adolescence in an engaging tale, but deals with minority communities and cultures as well.
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie is a novel about Arnold Spirit (Junior), a boy from the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to attend high school outside the reservation in order to have a better future. During that first year at Reardan High School, Arnold has to find his place at his all-white school, cope with his best friend Rowdy and most of his tribe disowning him, and endure the deaths of his grandmother, his father’s best friend, and his sister. Alexie touches upon issues of identity, otherness, alcoholism, death, and poverty in order to stay true to his characters and the cultures within the story. Through the identification of the role of the self, identity, and social behavior within the book, the reader can understand Arnold’s story to a greater depth.
“I’m never going to act like my mother!” These words are increasingly common and yet unavoidable. Why is it that as children, we are able to point out every flaw in our parents, but as we grow up, we recognize that we are repeating the same mistakes we observed? The answer is generational curses: un-cleansed iniquities that increase in strength from one generation to the next, affecting the members of that family and all who come into relationship with that family (Hickey 13). Marilyn Hickey, a Christian author, explains how this biblically rooted cycle is never ending when she says, “Each generation adds to the overall iniquity, further weakening the resistance of the next generation to sin” (21, 22). In other words, if your parents mess up you are now susceptible to making the same mistakes, and are most likely going to pass those mistakes to your children. In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie shows the beauty of hope in the presence of a generational curse. Even though the elders are the ones who produce the curses, they are also the ones who attempt to break Junior from their bond forming mistakes. The curses that Arnold’s elders imprint on him lead him to break out of his cultural bonds and improve himself as a developing young man.
Ever wondered what gets readers hooked on a book? In “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” by Sherman Alexie the authors have many ways to grab the reader's attention by using many techniques from humor to emotional and traumatic to suspense. In the book the main character named Junior is an Indian boy growing up on a reservation. By growing up on the reservation junior makes a choice to leave the reservation and go to a white school which gives Junior obstacles in his life.There are many obstacles that happen even before Junior decided to go to another path with his life. With the obstacles that happen to Junior it creates an emotional and traumatic impact on junior as well as getting the readers hooked to turn the page and keep reading.
The cartoon shows that Junior understands what the reservation does to people's dreams and what is could just as easily do to his own. The cartoon also gives insight to the reader by foreshadowing to later in the book where this sad fact will be brought upon Junior and his life. Junior decided to go to Reardan which took lots of courage. When he got there he told himself he didn’t belong there as he filled with regret. Junior said Rearden was, “the opposite of me” (56).
the Absolutely True diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie, is about a young boy name Junior, who life gets affected with racism and alcoholism. He was a part time Indian that left his Rez to go to a school for Rich people even though he was very poor. During the time he was there, he is treated different then everyone just because he was an Indian. His family and friends were affected by alcohol and junior realized that alcoholism and racism affected family, friends, and the community around him. All around the world people has had a defect with a family members that know or have been affected by alcohol related deaths and Junior was one of them.
Hating the fact that even his education is effected by pennilessness of the Reservation, Junior leaves the public school he attends at and goes to a school outside the reservation, called Reardan High School. After that decision, death and despair follow his family around like a
How often does a reservation kid get told that?” (141). This is a great representation of how Reardan is always opening up new opportunities for students. The reservation has taught Junior that his tribe is his family and that they are always there to support him which every path he chooses. They are a community that has rough bumps along the way, but they will always be a family to Junior no matter what the situation.
It challenges America’s status quo by breaking the standards of American classroom traditions. Back in the days, the typical American classroom was taught by white women and white men, filled with white students. They all came from the same background, culture and economic status. There is no wrong in having people of the same culture, and race, come together in one classroom, but students and teachers do not gain as much opportunity or rich experience as they would if they were surrounded by diverse students and teachers.... ...
Using the differences to promote a more global classroom can be perceived in a positive light that exposes students to diversity within their schools, as well as exposes them to global concepts and understanding. When leaders are positive about certain things, that positive light becomes contagious among the school staff and community. According to Smith (2005), “They model the behaviors that they would like their staff to emulate. In doing so they value diversity by creating an inclusive environment and encouraging a variety of perspectives in the decision-making processes at the school” (p.