House on Mango street

I thought the book House on Mango Street was a very intense book. It's interesting to see the ups and downs of Esperanza. It's interesting to get to know the life of someone in her situation. I think it's important to know about your students surroundings, and adjust to it with necessary literature. I think this is true with wherever you are. Whether you are at a big suburban school or an inner city school. I think that this would be a great book to use if you were in an area that was heavily populated with Hispanic students, I think it would help them connect with literature easily, and I think it would help let them know that you understand the struggle of some of those students.
I hesitate to say that this would be a great book to use at a suburban predominantly white school. In this class, we constantly discuss culture and how to use this approach in our classrooms. We talk about a cultural awareness, and I always wonder what exactly we mean by this? I know that we want our students to be aware of their own culture, but what is the move on educating about others culture? For instance, it was really hard for me to connect to this book. You've got a poor, hispanic girl, although I can appreciate the story and I thought it was a good read, I didn't really connect with it.
I am obviously a white suburban student, so it was hard for me to find similarities between Esperanza and myself. I am always constantly evaluating what I read and why I think it is a good read, or a not so good read. When I think about what I used to like to read in High school and what I did not like to read. A lot of the stuff that we read in class was on the Canon, and I always had a hard time making a connection between myself and the characters. I think it was because they took place in the past and a lot of stuff they would reference would be stuff I didn't get. I always connected better to readings that applied more to myself. Stuff that took place in 2000's. Either way, I still was able to appreciate the readings we did because of their significance to our culture. In this respect, I think a book like House on Mango street would be great to use in a white suburban classroom.
As I understand it, there was a heated discussion between some people last Thursday about Majority and Minority in the classroom. Well, when it comes down to it some students will love what you read, others will not. It's up to you to realize what most of your students need to read.
So, with that being said, tying it all back together now- I think House on Mango Street could be one of those books that you could read in almost any classroom.