Handling different cultures in the classroom

[coffeetime]

How do I handle different cultures in my classroom.

I use the mind set that all the people are created equally. As it is with the way I was raised I see no differences in the children except they are boys and girls.

Source Pixabay

We do what is called Christmas around the world and have items of each December holiday represented in the classroom.

I also have multi-cultural posters , dolls and puppets in the classroom for the children to interact with. We also have posters and dolls with different disablities in the classroom.

Source Pixabay

So what do I notice about the children starts with how the speak and react to their parents. The different foods they eat for snacks and lunch. Some our parents send leftovers for lunch. While I see that as a good idea the other children can be not so kind and tease the children about their leftovers while the other children are eating lunchables.

In the classroom besides the language being spoken by the parents their food is our are next best clue to cultural differences. My 4 and 5 year olds don't really see the other children as being a different culture than they are. They see them as being like themselves just other children who may talk a little different,dress a little different or look a little different. But as children they don't really care about what is different they care about what they have in common with each other. Most of the children in my class have been in the same school with each other for a couple of years.

I if adults were more like the young children I think we would have a lot less differences on how we thought about each other and how we acted with each other.##

Children have a different reaction to things than we do as adults. Yet some of the things children do is what we do as adults.

It is sad to say but we as adults have more problems with the different cultures and the things that are done related to their culture. We judge people as how they look or how they dress. For example a person who dresses differently adults are going to judge them by how they are dressed. A child is going to go up and talk to them and not judge them at all.

Comments

[mirjaya]

may the child be the successor of a good nation, and will advance the next generation. and useful for the nation

[obamike]

Children usually have innocent approach to things unlike adults. When you see a child saying negative things or segregating against others, he/ she must have learnt it from an adult. Our background and life experiences has a significant impact on our character.

[sultnpapper]

You are absolutely correct in your appraisal of children, the only thing that happens to change the child''s perspective is interacting with the adults , who have interacted with the adults before them and so on.

[coffeetime]

It is so sad that the influence of the adults that children are the closest to can change the way they treat the people they would of been friends with as a child.

[sultnpapper]

Very true.

[prch]

Well done teacher!

As far as I am aware of, My boys classroom has Chinese, Koreans, Indians, Australians, New Zelanders, Britons, Canadians, US and French. But they blend very well as a group and they speak English to each other but may switch back to a family language with parents or family.

As for food, even me of a Chinese ethnic is quite westernised these days, daily snacks for my boy taken from home to school are English crackers, Scottish shortbreads or Italian bread sticks. But the canteen at school produces three lunch meal choices of three cultures each day, they can choose Asian, western or vegan.