Should multicultural literature be included in the high school curriculum?

Students will see themselves reflected in literature

Question: Should multicultural literature be included in the high school curriculum?
Position1 of 3›: Yes, multicultural literature should be taught in schools
Argument‹5 of 5: Students will see themselves reflected in literature

The literature will empower students, who identify with the culture, identity, and race of the characters within the literature, to read more.

The argument

The argument for multicultural literature in the high school curriculum rests on what a student takes from seeing their own life represented in what they are asked to read. Literature can be a source of affirmation about a reader and their culture, and proponents treat that affirmation as an educational outcome rather than a matter of comfort: a student who encounters their background in the books a school has chosen receives the school's implicit judgement that such a background belongs in serious literature. The second element concerns engagement. The ability to relate to characters and situations is a major factor both in which books students choose and in their overall desire to read. When students do not find themselves reflected in the literature they are given, they are less likely to be engaged readers, and disengagement compounds: a student who reads less becomes a weaker reader, which makes subsequent reading harder and less rewarding still. The third element concerns the specific work a high school literature curriculum asks students to do. Students are frequently asked to make connections to what they are reading, drawing on their own experience to interpret a character's decision or a situation's significance. That exercise depends on there being some purchase between the reader's life and the text. A curriculum drawn narrowly from one set of experiences leaves some students performing the task at a remove, working out what connection they are expected to report rather than making one, while their classmates draw directly on what they already know. It therefore matters, proponents argue, that students find characters and situations they can relate to in the literature they are assigned, not as a supplement to the curriculum but as a condition of the curriculum working as intended for everyone in the room.

Premises

[P1]Literature that affirms students' own identity and culture lets them relate to characters and situations, which is a major factor in book selection and in the overall desire to read. [P2] When students cannot find themselves reflected in what they read they are less likely to engage, even though they are constantly asked to make personal connections to the text. [C] Multicultural literature should be taught in schools so that students see themselves reflected in the curriculum and stay engaged with reading.

Counter-arguments

Students might feel ashamed or embarrassed about certain aspects of their culture that could be illustrated in the literature. In turn, it will create cultural barriers between them and other students who don’t identify with the culture.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Introducing multicultural literature will make students feel alienated rather than represented.