I’m very fortunate. I was raised in a very diverse family.
My father, a Lutheran minister in Kitchener, Ontario is married to a woman from Iran. She was raised practicing Islam, was western educated and was a professor of engineering at the University of Baghdad.
My brother is married to a woman from Mexico, who practices many of the traditions.
My mother is married to a man, whose family came to the United States from Italy four generations ago.
So for me, being around different cultures has always been in my background. My family instilled a sense of understanding and curiosity regarding different cultures and religions. I’m lucky that way.
But, many children growing up may not have this kind of exposure. That isn’t a commentary on poor parenting skills, but sometimes (especially I find in Midwest states) being around different cultures and religions can prove to be difficult because we’re not exposed enough at an early age, we tend to go to school, church, grocery stores and everywhere really with people just like us.
That is why I think it’s imperative that culture and diversity classes should be taught in grade schools.
The University of Maine’s website published a Cooperative Extension Publication entitled “Children and Brain Development: What We Know About How Children Learn.”
In the article it states, “Brain development does not stop after early childhood, but it is the foundation upon which the brain continues developing. Early childhood is the time to build either a strong and supportive, or fragile and unreliable foundation. These early years are very important in the development that continues in childhood, adolescence and adulthood.”
I believe it is imperative then to teach children not only core values like being honest, nice and trustworthy at a young age but to also expose them to new cultures as those values and ideas will be projected into their adult life. Since their brains are developing rapidly at a young age it’s vital, I believe, to expose them to a open way of thinking.
Learning about new cultures not only broadens the child’s view of the world, but also helps them to be more understanding when it comes to people not like themselves (a trait a think is lost among youth today).
I think it’s vital to understand cultures unlike our own because once we understand it, we know how to interact with it.
For example, if a child knows a bit about Islam and what followers believe and a bit about the religion they are not going to make statements like “Let’s just bomb Mecca, that’ll help the war on terror,” a comment I overhead in full sincerity at a restaurant. Understanding more will help reduce these hurtful, offensive and vulgar type of comments and open their mind up.
I really do believe that one of the key steps in getting closer to world peace is an understanding of people unlike ourselves and that is why I think we need to be teaching the generations that secede us about different cultures and different religions.