My Culture Project

As I think about culture I tend to think the most influential thing that shapes one’s culture are their religious beliefs. If we look at Christianity for example, only because I am most familiar with it, there are all these traditions and values built in already. For one, going to church weekly, at least that is what I was taught as a youngster, is a major life style dependence. The second most important is to live your life by the Ten Commandments which also tell you how to live your life and what you can’t do and what you are allowed to do. These two facts alone about Christianity provide someone a pretty good base as a culture. It provides one with an attitude about their life, a meaning in their life and also a way in which to congregate as peers and not strangers. The tradition of religion in my life was the basis for holidays where my entire family would gather together on Christmas and Easter, just to name the big ones.

I was brought up in and open and loving culture where I was taught that you should treat others how you would like to be treated. This type of belief system brought me up particularly open minded to every race, class, gender, sexuality, language, and religion. So this tends to make me believe if your culture is narrow minded as a whole then one with in that culture maybe narrow minded as well.

Because of the way I was brought up, in the culture that I am a part of, I feel that some of the things I learned in my life experiences that I will definitely be bringing it to the forefront in my professional teaching career. An example of this is that I had many family and friends to lean on when times were rough or when I needed to talk with someone whomever I asked to listen they would give their undivided attention to me. We always had an open door policy if anything was bothering me I would be able to speak my mind and not worry about getting punished or screamed at or even laughed at by the other person listening. The way that I may bring this idea into my classroom setting as a teacher would probably have be to by setting up the classroom more or less as an open forum where kids would be able to make comments and ask questions without having to worry about whether or not someone else may say something derogatory.

Another thing that I have experienced in my life that I intend to bring with me in the classroom is the notion of trust and being fair to everyone. To be known as trust worthy, you need to be a person who is fair and honest with people, this is done by not being a person who cuts corners and tells lies. This brings me back to my upbringing where my mother would tell me not to do something unless you did it correctly. This idea of doing something until it was done correctly really drove me to be the best at whatever I was doing, whether it be playing sports or doing my homework. This attitude would be a great thing to instill in my students to hopefully create the same work ethic for whatever they may undertake not only in school but in their everyday lives.

One main difference I can see between the ways I might bring my culture into the classroom from someone else is if they come from a conservative background they might not implement my open forum classroom policy where anyone can talk at anytime. This would be true I can assume from the students point of view as well. So if the culture of the school and community was not to express themselves outwardly in public they would not be comfortable in a classroom which I intend to put this forum idea into practice.

In conclusion I feel that culture is the most dynamic and influential part of education. I feel that the most we can ever learn is from each other. I feel that if we are able to establish an open line of communication between one’s cultures to another, then we will be able to learn much more about ourselves aside from the other person or persons. There is a great quote in the, The Promise of Urban Schools, “The rich mix of races and ethnicities, languages and cultures, makes cities also centers of intellectual and artistic energy and creativity as well as catalysts of social change.” This quote pretty much sums up how I feel about cultures and diversity in schools. It touches upon the need for diversity in schools and it also brings forward the notion with diversity there is more opportunity for change and growth.