The Importance of Diversifying Literature Read in Class

No matter what age or level you’re teaching, you must incorporate diverse types of books into your required reading for your class. Classical literature is great; there’s much we can learn from it and it should by no means be discounted or ignored. However, as educators, we must also incorporate diverse literature; it’s the best for students and our world. Here are some of the top reasons why you should be incorporating diverse the literature you have students read in your class.

It prepares them for the real world

Students who read a wide variety of literature are more prepared for the world at large. While reading any kind of fiction has been shown to increase empathy and other abilities, reading diverse types of literature give students an insight into the diversity of the world at large. For many students, reading about an event or experience in a book is the first encounter they’ll have with it. Once they get outside of the classroom, they’ll be more likely to encounter different events and may be better prepared for these after reading about them.

It presents other experiences and cultures

All people have different lives and it’s important for young people to recognize this fact and realize their life is likely completely different from the person next to them. By reading books that feature different perspectives and cultures, students can have a greater understanding of the world at large and the variety of people in it. It’s known that the more someone is exposed to a person different from them, the more accepting they become of that person. Literature is a great way to cultivate this open-mindedness.

More students can relate to it

In her TedTalk, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie discusses how revolutionary it was for her to read books that featured people like her. No matter what background your students may come from, they’ll find it hard to relate to people who lived decades or centuries ago and led lives completely removed from their own. Including more recent and varied literature helps students relate to authors who may have had experiences like their own or come from a similar cultural background.

It’s often easier to understand

Literature written in the 18th, 19th, or 20th centuries is going to be drastically different from something written in the last few decades. Incorporate some more recent literature into your reading lists in order to make it easier for your students to comprehend. Reading difficult literature can be enriching and a positive experience, but it gets a bit stale if those are the only options for students to read.

You’re supporting new writers

Even if the author of a work is no longer alive, you’re still supporting lesser known writers. Whether it’s financial support or simply spreading around knowledge of an author’s name, having students read lesser known writers helps support these authors and get their work more exposure.

Raising Conservation Awareness

As people and businesses go about their daily activities, environmental conservation is often the last thing on their minds. People buy products with excess packaging, use water carelessly, and damage the habitats of wild animals by improperly disposing of trash. Reminding people and business owners that conservation is a vital activity can be challenging, but the benefits can spread to every living thing in the environment.

In today’s landscape, there are so many political and social causes that conservation awareness can be lost in the shuffle. People are jaded and feel like they can’t spare any more energy to care about the world. It’s important to promote environmental awareness in positive ways, rather than using scare tactics, which may only make some people care less about the environment. For example, local businesses can be encouraged to reduce waste and recycle by using a social media campaign.

Use social media

Social media can be a perfect way to raise awareness without lecturing. Internet users love to utilize hashtags. Encourage visitors to parks and forests to take photos and tag them with conservation-related phrases. In social media campaigns, people can also be challenged to do one more environmentally friendly thing a day and to post about it. For example, users may post about turning off the lights in a room when leaving, or about picking up trash around their homes. A small action each day is better than none.

Teach children

The most important way to raise awareness is by teaching our own children to take care of the environment. Children naturally look up to parents and authority figures and model their values after them. Parents should be aware of their own actions and make sure they are environmentally sound. For example, lecturing children about wasting water falls on deaf ears when the child sees a parent letting the water run while brushing their teeth.

Children can effect powerful change on their own. A child who learns about environmental conservation at school is likely to go home and share the information with his or her family. Led by the children, the whole family may use resources more wisely. When children in youth groups, for example, encourage a business to behave in a more environmentally friendly fashion, the business is more likely to pay attention as opposed to an adult activist’s message being brushed off or ignored. Children can encourage businesses to use packaging that is less wasteful or to use recycled materials.