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Curricular Artifacts

Lauren Carr

EDCI 585 Multicultural Education

Instructor: Jake Burdick

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Description of the Artifact

For this assignment, I have chosen to dissect the narrative A Bike Like Sergio’s by

Maribeth Boelts. The story follows a young boy, Ruben, who navigates growing up in a low

socioeconomic household. Ruben is surrounded by children from families with disposable

income, which makes Ruben jealous and wanting for more. One day, Ruben’s luck changes when

he finds a $100 bill on the ground. From this moment, he is faced with a difficult decision: return

the money to its original owner or buy a bike so he can be like his friends.

This book has been used in various elementary classrooms (including mine) as an

instructional tool. In my classroom, I utilized this text to discuss character evolution. During this

lesson, I solely focused on the character’s actions and if they changed substantially throughout

the narrative. Looking at the book without a multicultural lens, you would not recognize that

anything was wrong with the book. The author intended for readers to learn a vital lesson, always

be honest even if it stands in the way of what you want. This message is essential for young

students to learn. However, this fictional story poses a few implications for readers.

Reason for Selection

At first glance, this book is a perfect fit for various lessons in the elementary setting. It

could introduce story elements (plot, characters, setting, problem, and solution), theme, first-

person point of view, how to write dialogue and more. The instructional possibilities are endless

with this text. Many elementary teachers present this narrative in front of their students every

year. Consequently, I have used this text for three years in my classroom. Since ample students

are introduced to this text, I believe it is essential to bring awareness to the systematic racism

lingering on each page.

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Systematic Racism Representation

In the story A Bike Like Sergio’s, the main character (Ruben) is black. Choosing to

introduce a leading black character often yields no consequences. However, in this story, this

choice is detrimental to developing students’ perceptions of others. According to Ladson-Billings

& Tate (1995), “race is a matter of both social structure and cultural representation” (p. 50). That

said, students will latch onto the ideas surrounding race seen in literature and utilize them when

forming opinions about certain groups of people.

For instance, when thinking about the black community, students could believe it is

common for black people to be poor. In the story, Ruben mentioned on various pages that things

were financially tight in his family, which made him different from other kids. Since the author

notes it repetitiously throughout the narrative, it would be hard for students to ignore it. From

this, students could begin to stereotype the black community as financially inferior to other racial

groups. Consequently, this could result in many people believing that the black community

cannot provide for themselves sufficiently.

After reading this fictional piece, another stereotype about the black community can be

formed, resulting in increased systematic racism in the educational setting. Due to Ruben’s

actions at the story’s beginning, individuals might think black people are untrustworthy and

selfish. In the beginning, Ruben found a $100 bill lying on the ground. Instead of returning it to

its owner, he kept it for a while. He initially did not see that it was wrong to keep something that

was not his because his wants and desires blinded him. This lack of integrity and selfishness

could sway some opinions regarding the black community’s character when faced with a difficult

decision.
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Enduring Impact

Individuals believing in stereotypes can have copious impacts on the community. These

misguided viewpoints cloud the judgments and decisions made by various members of society,

resulting in intolerance of others. This assignment taught me that these stereotypes are created by

exposure to various diverse outlets. Some outlets are seemingly harmless until further dissection

with a multicultural lens is incorporated. Once the detail-oriented investigation concludes, it is

challenging to avoid or dismiss the implications the artifact presents.

The first significant impact of engaging in curricular artifacts like A Bike Like Sergio’s is

that individuals could develop a distaste for a particular racial group. A single interaction with

the artifact will not create these opposing perspectives. Although, continuous exposure to various

artifacts will lead to prejudice and racism. The level of action upon one’s distaste vastly differs

from individual to individual. Some employ racial discrimination by avoiding interaction with

that race, making small harmful comments, or taking things to the extreme by inflicting physical

violence.

Chandrashekar (2017) details how education can alter a person’s opinions of a particular

group. As a result, this alteration led to a violent act against a specific racial group. In his article,

he describes the impact of Page’s experience at Fort Brag and how it influenced his white

supremacist mindset. Through his experience, he became increasingly discriminatory toward

other racial groups, especially those of Muslim descent. Unfortunately, as time progressed, he let

hate and prejudice (learned through his military training) overpower good judgment and ended

the lives of six Sikh worshipers (Chandrashekar, 2017). Page had no personal connection to these

innocent worshipers. He murdered them simply because they “looked” Muslim, and he had a

hatred toward them (Chandrashekar, 2017).

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This example shows what can occur when the educational system caters to discrimination

and racism. The educational setting is powerful and influences many individuals daily. Thus,

educators must look critically at their instructional materials before presenting them to a class of

impressionable minds. If not, systematic racism will be alive and present in many classrooms.

Unfortunately, it will not stop when students leave the classroom. They will bring what they

learned inside those four walls into society, resulting in increased racism in all aspects of life.

Moving forward, I think teachers must tackle the tough conversations regarding race and

stereotypes in the classroom. To achieve this, teachers should utilize literature introducing race

and stereotypes for students to dissect. For instance, A Bike Like Sergio’s could be used to

analyze stereotypes about the black community. The teacher would then guide students to make

inferences about why these stereotypes exist and look at the situation from a different vantage

point to see another side of the person. Following that experience, students could then apply

what they learned about race and stereotypes and try analyzing real-world examples. This

extension activity would provide students with a meaningful and authentic context to understand

the impact of racism in society better.

The only way to combat the implications of artifacts that display racism is to introduce

students to strategies and knowledge that will influence them to live with a multicultural

mindset. Educators and the educational setting are highly influential. Therefore, we must reduce

the number of instructional implications and racial discrimination seen in the classroom.
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References

Chandrashekar, S. (2017). Engendering threat in the guise of protection: Orientalism and Sikh

vulnerability, Journal of Multicultural Discourses, 12(4) 366-38.

Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W, F. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education.

Teachers College Record, 97(1), 47-68.