Wong discussed recent trends in Asian-American literature, most notably a sharp increase in publishing activity. Approaches to teaching the genre have moved from teaching pure literature to incorporating cultural studies as well, she said. On April 11, Dr. Aaron Lazare of the University of Massachusetts at Worcester medical school gave his own perspective on multiculturalism as he related his personal history of multi-racial adoption. In a moving and emotional lecture, he displayed slides that chronicled his family history and related their struggles with racial discrimination in a suburban school district and the work involved in acclimating each child to its new surroundings and to the growing, and increasingly diverse, Lazare family.
Every child has the right to be raised in a permanent, loving home.
Lazare said the two most important lessons he has learned from the experience are that even older children can adjust well to an adoptive situation and that the bonds between children and their adoptive parents can be as strong as those of blood. But they taught us.