How Does Accessibility Affect Our Success as Students and as Citizens

     I grew up in a house full of books.  Anyone who knows me fairly well knows that I'm a bibliophile and that books are like candy to me.  When I look at my bank and credit card statements, I spend the most money on two things beyond rent, groceries, and gas: 1. Books, and 2. Going out to eat/drink coffee, etc. with my friends.  Of my two luxury expenses listed at the end, I am reasonably pleased with both of them because they give me more access to words and thoughts, both of which color my world.  In reality, I love words, both in written and spoken form.  Not only do they help me to connect to others, but they intellectually stimulate me.  While I believe that my overly-active imagination is part of what makes me quirky (although I hope pleasantly so for the most part), I also believe it is what will enable me to change the world, if I continue to learn how to develop it right. Yet  I was lucky enough to grow up in home and school environments that encouraged this creativity.  I do believe that today's public schools don't do enough to encourage imagination and creativity of the students.  Sometimes, as a teacher, I know it's hard to think of how you individually can be more empowered to change the system, but you can change the classroom for your students.  I think what it comes down to is giving your students more access to books and to innovative teaching strategies.
     In my children's literature classes. we talk a lot about accessibility to multicultural and international texts.  I believe that it's important to access students to texts that are high quality multicultural literature and take a step beyond choosing the "tokenized" books.  I do believe that access to quality multicultural literature is growing in this country, and I hope it continues to do so.  Also, there are many wonderful international children's books out there that some students just do not have access to due to financial, political, and other constraints.  A friend of mine recently wrote a blog that explores this issue in more depth, which I encourage you to read: http://criticalchildrenslit.blogspot.com/2014/01/a-world-of-books-seeking-international.html.  We had a whole class discussion about how we can increase access to high quality international children's books, which I found enlightening and encouraging.   I think the more able children are to relate to the characters in children's books, the more likely they are to be engaged in reading.  In an increasingly diverse and global world, it's important to offer a plethora of books from a variety of cultures and countries.  
     Also, while it can be hard in today's educational climate, I think student creativity can be further encouraged by more problem-solving based teaching methods.  A friend and colleague of mine have been observing at a local elementary school that utilizes the Schoolwide Enrichment Model.  The SEM is based on the theories of Joseph Renzulli, who believed in more problem-based educational methods to bring out the gifts and talents of all students.  In other words, the SEM advocates exposing all students in the school to methods traditionally used in gifted education classes.  In the school where we've been conducting our study, the students spend one hour a week in a self-selected "cluster" class where they get to explore a topic of interest, such as reading, health, writing, sports, gardening, etc.  In the class, the teacher and the student decide together a project they'd like to do, related to their topic, that will help the school and/or the community.  Examples I've seen so far include a vegetable garden, a "little free library", and a cultural quilt.  What I love about this approach is that the students can see the fruits of their labor and also how they can use their talents to help others.
     I myself was a student who benefitted from gifted classes and programs, along with my sister.  While I think gifted education should continue to exist, I think we should reframe how we structure it.  Studies show that Culturally and Linguistically diverse students tend to be underrepresented in gifted programs.  As someone who used to teach gifted classes in a very diverse school, I believe this statistic based on personal experiences.  Therefore, I believe in the SEM as a way to give all students access to gifted methods and also as a means of identifying a broader range of students for gifted services.  I realize, realistically, that many teachers are in schools that do not utilize clusters or the SEM.  If that is the case, though, I still think one could have a class project that encourages students to use problem-solving skills and creative thinking to help the school or community.  I know it's an extra hour or two out of an already busy school week, but I really believe it's worth it in the long run.
      Part of why I have been successful in school is because I've always worked hard and believed that education is important.  Also, I've had access to books and to educational resources. Yes, the importance of education is a social construct, but it is also a key to career success and to personal fulfillment. I believe that if more students had accessibility to books and to problem-solving based instruction, then there would be more opportunities for success both in future scholastic endeavors and beyond.  I think we've made great strides in equalizing education for people of all races and socioeconomic backgrounds, but I also think there's further progress that could be made.