On Learning Culture

I cannot help but feel my education early on was somewhat misleading; this is true in what I learned about my own culture as well as other cultures, from grades one to five.

Oftentimes this misleading information was given to me from my history textbooks and what I now recognize as bad curriculums. Sure I learned many valuable skills such as writing, basic math, grammar, sure I gained a wealth of valuable "common sense skills."

But. My complaints about those early educational experiences have to do with the lack of factual knowledge teachers taught me about my own culture as well as others cultures. For example often our history teachers failed to inform me about the whole story; Every kid from first grade through third grade knows that Columbus discovered America in 1492 and that George Washington was our first president and that he could never tell a lie.

But it was not until I reached high school that I felt I was learning the real story. That is when I learned that America was already settled by the Indians and they were brutally murdered by our white founding fathers and that the Vikings had made trips to North America long before Columbus discovered America for Spain on a search to find new resources and riches.

High school is when I first learned actual facts about the Chinese people and Chinese history, besides the fact that origami originated there. That is when classes were first offered that taught the truth about other religions such as Judaism and Buddhism rather than stereotypes I had heard on the playground.

In America and most countries kids at a young age are programmed to believe America is the right and only way. That our country is the best because you have the freedom of speech and to practice any religion you want. That is ok to an extent, but it is that arrogance about ourselves that causes other countries to hate us. The world perceives America as a country that thinks we are the best and that our way is the only way. That has a truth to it and it's a truth that's pervasive in our education system. This harms America's youth by not teaching them that cultural views and practices of other people are OK and not wrong...just because they aren't in line with American thinking.

There is no specific topic about my culture or others that I feel was purposely kept from me. My complaint is that in the early child hood years my textbooks and teachers provided me with a distorted view of the world around me. American kids are given an incorrect view of the world while they are young. I feel by giving America’s youth a single minded ethnocentric view of the world around them leads to conflicts and misunderstandings later on in life. Kids in school often make fun of other kids for being different.

Japanese kids I knew when I was younger were called "four eyes" and most kids considered people from Arabic countries to be primitive people with strong and dangerous religious beliefs.

By not teaching kids at a young age about other cultures and the truth about our own we fail to teach them tolerance and understanding of people, places, and things from different backgrounds.

I am not calling for a complete overhaul of the educational system in our country, but I do believe teachers need to inform kids at a younger age about the differences between America and other cultures. In doing so we should tell our kids that these differences are not a bad thing and that is what makes everyone unique.

If this were to happen I feel students entering middle school and high school would have a better perspective of the world around them. This better perspective would make them more understanding about the differences of people from other cultures.