Literature and the education process, if carefully selected, can give students a more realistic view of themselves, their history, their families, their peers, and others unlike themselves. The teacher should be able to select reading materials that will better acquaint students with similarities and dissemilarities in the lives of different racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural groups. "Reading Ladders for Human Relations" lists books and develops themes that may be useful in helping students to understand better those individuals whose color, nationality, or religion is different from their own. This process enables students to discuss and examine preconceived ideas that they may have held about groups of people, and it may also help them to understand differences and to foster better human relations. A possible goal of a multicultural curriculum is to develop a program that will enable students to learn that people of different sexes, religious, and ethnic and social backgrounds can have common concerns. (SW)