Quotable quotes- The Emporer Was Devine

"Is there anything wrong with my face?" she said (Otsuka 15)

    Children can develop a lack of confidence when they see themselves different from their peers. The young girl notices others staring at her, and therefore decide she must be different, an outsider, that there is something wrong with how she looks. Though her mother tells her she is beautiful, it is the views of fellow children around her that seem to dominate her opinion of herself.
   It is so important that children see themselves in the literature provided in the classroom. When children do not recognize characters that look like them or representations of their culture, they feel separated from their classmates. It is crucial that students are able to recognize themselves and see a variety of cultures, people, races, genders, etc. in the materials a teacher uses in the classroom. Children should be exposed to many types of people not only for personal confidence and acceptance but also to prepare them for a diverse world and show them how different people can accept one another.

"The next day, for the first time ever, she sent the boy and his sister to school with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in heir lunch pails. "no more rice balls," she said. "And if anyone asks, you're Chinese" (75).

   This quote got got me thinking more about the discussion we had in class about our identities and how they affect so much of how we are seen by others, how we see ourselves, and how we act in different situations. I remember some of the class saying that when they had brought in lunches to school, and they were different then other children's because of their cultural food, how differently they were looked at. It is amazing to think that children so young could separate each other so easily based upon something as simple as food.
  People do change based on the situation they are in and in this case the mother is telling her children to do so. More for safety than anything, she wants them to remain as far from their Japanese roots as possible. In growing up this way, they could lose so much of their culture. I feel like this is what happens to many of feel separated from the norm. Children especially never want to feel separated from their peers, so falling in to the blend of children and disregarding their heritage often occurs. I feel like schools should celebrate individuality more and highlight different cultures, instead of trying to make everyone seem the same and avoiding diversity.