I recently moved to a small town in southeastern Oklahoma. It reminds me of the small town I grew up in in Utah. I was so excited to see that the town was having a Heritage days celebration. Lucky for me a parade was planned. I love parades! Even though I don't have little kids to catch the candy, it's fun to watch their excitement of getting free candy! As the parade went by, I started clapping for the grand marshal and the royalty. I soon realized I was the only one clapping! Now back in my small town, people clapped for everything and everyone. My new small town did things different than my old small town.
The United States has a main culture, then it is divided into sub-cultures. When we are in our classrooms we need to remember that each child is coming from a different background and culture. How a student will respond to you may be because of their culture. A student my feel more comfortable looking at you in the eyes, where another may find it disrespectful to have eye to eye contact. The more we know about the culture that the student came from the better we can create an affective filter in our classroom. Learn, then teach it to the other students so they can be more accepting of the behavior of that student. I stopped clapping at the parade, but I wish someone would have started clapping with me.
Great reminder that cultural differences are not just about different countries, but even within our own.
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