Kids Are Our Future

By Lustig and Koester (2003), culture is defined as “a learned set of shared interpretations about beliefs, values, and norms, which affect the behaviors of a relatively large group of people.” Therefore, culture goes far beyond the food and clothing of ones’ native country.

Culture undoubtedly is complex. In the global society, we need to understand the common elements are of people from race, e.g. politeness, friendliness, kindness, fairness, respect and empathy. Even people from the same race have differences e.g. different tastes in food, clothes, music. It is the fact that every single person is unique that makes the world such an interesting place and everybody has something positive to contribute to the world, no matter how small that thing may be, that makes a new culture despite of heritage. It’s not where or what we’ve come from but how we choose to act and interact that makes a difference.

Living in a global society with so much cultural mixing, we are called upon to work with team with very different ethnicities and beliefs. We must understand important ways in which cultures differ and how this affects the ways in which people behave. We should help children to gain further understanding of inter-cultural communication, culture, and cultural difference through the study of specific geographical regions and topics of global interest.

In the global society, we need to educate a generation that will accept difference and value a global culture separate from national identity, to explore differences as well as similarities in thinking and understanding. Global teams succeed because they see their cultural differences as assets, not liabilities. We should welcome the cultural immersion, which is effective in promoting self-awareness and cultural empathy and reducing racism. By communicating, we can develop healthy relationships, and then build trust, as a result to share cultural experiences, which shape our worldviews.

We need intentional listen to what others say. People usually learn a lot when they listen well without trying to argue or defend, by respecting for others, as well as our self-respect will grow. The other suggestion is to learn more about the different cultures around us and this will help children to understand and accept others more easily. Please refer “Whoever You Are” by Mem Fox, which is a great book about cultural differences.

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