TE 348 Wrap-up

I did not really know what to expect when first enrolling in TE 348. I knew that I would be reading children’s novels but did not know what the rest of the class entailed. I was excited that we spent the majority of the class discussing how social issues play into children’s literature. I feel that social issues are very important, not only in analyzing literature but also in education as a whole. Many concerns with our current school system can be traced to inequalities in race, class, etc. Discussing how these issues were represented in children’s literature gave insight into one of the many reasons that these problems exist.

My roommate is a political theory and social relations double major and a woman’s studies minor. Discussing my readings and findings with her proved very interesting. We talked a lot about the different types of literary theories, especially Feminist literary theory and Marxist literary theory. She would bring up points discussed in her classes and I would bring up topics discussed in this class. A few points that we discussed in depth were the representation of gender, race, and class in children’s literature. She did not know how much of this was important in analyzing literature, especially literature that is being read by children and I did not realize the magnitude of the issues we were discussing. Being able to discuss the class material outside of class with many people, not just my roommate, made many of these people realize what teachers have to consider before assigning a book.