Educating America'S Children On Culture

Educating America's children on Culture

The diversity that America is known for derives from the fact that American foundation is based on many cultures. The mixture of so many cultures makes it hard to pinpoint what the "American Culture," really is. A major problem within the American society is the misunderstanding of the diverse cultures that are intertwined. Today many would blame discrimination and racial profiling on ignorance, but on whose part? The definition of ignorance is to be uneducated and uninformed. As a country that prides itself on education it is up to the American government and educational system to educate the youth of America on their culture. By mixing culture and education the American youth will understand what it truly means to be American, and why it is that the "Typical American," is not a certain ethnicity or color or comes from a particular background.

Every since America has been discovered people from all over the world have migrated here because it is the "Land of Opportunity." From Asian to Italian, people come here knowing that although they are moving to a different country they know that they are free to practice the rituals of their culture because of our government. The problem, however, lies not with the immigrants who move here and converge their old way of life with the new, rather it lies more in the children of America, whether their parents were born in America or not. Most of a child's social life is spent trying to "fit in." Unlike most countries the children of America spend their school days in classes with kids from all different backgrounds. It seems that no one kid is the same; there is a little Chinese girl with squinty eyes, a Mexican boy with brown skin, a black girl with coarse hair, and a white boy with blue eyes. Although to most American children this is regular settings most countries are not as diverse as ours. It's rare in china to see a class full of any other kids except Chinese children.

Children with developing brains and social skills find it difficult to grasp the concept of culture and diversity. Instead of realizing that the girl one seat over has squinted eyes and may eat raw fish because of the way she was raised, kids ask questions and stick to the familiar. Kids do not realize that just because someone is different does not make them weird so they isolate and taunt each other. If this issue is not addressed while the child is young it will be detrimental to them when their older. Another problem is that because stereotypes are so commonly used in our society children will grow up believing "stereotypes," instead of ever learning the children. This is how gangs are formed; gangs are usually a group of people from the same ethnicity that ban together and perform acts of violence. Although that is what they are known for they also usually have problems with gangs of different ethnicities as well. I wonder if these children were the children that were misunderstood and made fun of while they were growing up?

As a young African American woman and eventually a mother born and raised in America, I think that it is important for my children to be educated on the different cultures of the world. There is only one possible solution