Running head: VALUE OF CULTURAL AWARENESS 1

The Value of Cultural Awareness in Children in the United-States

Nia Diaby

Edina High School

Author Note

This passion project paper was prepared for the class of Pre-AP English, hour 6, taught

by Ms. Discher.
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The Value of Cultural Awareness in Children in the United-States

Culture encompasses religion, food, what we wear, how we wear it, our language,

marriage, music, what we believe is right or wrong, how we sit at the table, how we greet

visitors, how we behave with loved ones, and a million other things, said Cristina De Rossi

(2015), an anthropologist at Barnet and Southgate College in London. Although the

United-States has much diversity, most people are not mindful of cultures other than their own.

This is to say that part of the country is culturally unaware. Cultural awareness can be defined as

the ability to stand back from ourselves and recognize our own beliefs, values, and customs as

well as those of another person. Children at a young age are culturally ignorant due to lack of

education, which leads to a more intolerant America; teaching kids about multiple cultures while

they are impressional can solve this problem.

The fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural diffusion

People often confuse the definitions of cultural appropriation and cultural diffusion.

Cultural appropriation is borrowing traditional customs, rituals, or dress from another culture

without regard for their significance. For example, at my own school, Edina High School, there

was an incident of blackface. Three high school students from the drama department were cast as

valley-girls and although the brown foundation used on their faces was intended to help convey

the stereotypical tan skin of a valley-girl, it was perceived offensively. One of the students later

posted a picture for anothers birthday with the comment Oh myyy goooooddddd HBD! From

wearing black face to trying to give up swearing. As stated by Annemarie Bean, James V.

Hatch, and Brooks McNamara in Inside the Minstrel Mask: Readings in Nineteenth-Century

Blackface Minstrelsy, The history of blackface is that it has always been both cultural
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appropriation of African-American culture and a way of portraying racial stereotypes (1996).

Some have said that the students did not mean to do blackface and that the makeup was purely to

depict valley-girl appearance, but the birthday post reveals the students knew exactly what the

foundation symbolised. On the other hand, cultural diffusion is the spreading of culture from one

group to another. According to Ian Cheney from 60 Years magazine, As Chinese restaurants

began popping up all over the country, people began to associate Chinese culture and Chinese

food with these positive family memories. And I think that shifted, a little bit, the exchange and

cultural attitudes in America (2016). Chinese food has become so popular because many

Americans believe it is healthier and love the taste. This is an example of cultural diffusion

because people are adopting a part of Chinese culture and integrating it into their own. People

confuse cultural diffusion and appropriation because they both involve someone practicing

aspects of a culture other than your own. The biggest difference between the two is the amount

of respect given to the culture.

The role parents should play in teaching cultural awareness

Parents are not doing enough at home to introduce their children to different cultures.

They do not teach their children to respect others for looking differently than themselves. Aya

Khalil, a muslim teacher, states that she once experienced a student giggling at her while asking

about her hijab: Why do you wear that on your head, do you have cancer or do you think its

just cool (2014). It is natural for children to be curious about foreign features but even when

unfamiliar with something, they should be expected to treat others with respect and act mannerly.

It is common that a kid is curious and asks an adult a simple lighthearted question, but this

usually results in the adults turning them down to avoid embarrassment. In one article published
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by PBS Parents in 2015, author Christy Tirrell-Corbin states that as a parent, she understands

children can ask the most challenging questions at the most inconvenient times but she also

asks parents to take these opportunities to help your child understand and respect differences

and similarities among those in your community rather than trying to quiet your child. If parents

discourage their kids from asking these type of questions, it will imply that they should not be

asking them because there is something wrong with the other person and they will not become

aware of other cultures.

The culture gap in schools

Schools that do not talk about cultural diversity are not giving children the opportunity to

understand different perspectives from around the world. The multiculturalism training that is

given to incoming teachers might serve as a starting point for more in-depth cultural competency

training, but the multiculturalism training itself does not fully prepare educators to teach a

diverse classroom. According to a 2008 survey by the Public Agenda Foundation, 76 percent of

new teachers reported that the training they received covered teaching diverse students and out of

that, only 39 percent said this training was helpful. If the teachers do not feel comfortable in

engaging their students on issues concerning diversity, then the children will not learn new

cultures. They will later grow up not understanding that the people they see around them

everyday come from different ethnic groups, religions, and family structures. Lauren Mead, a

first-grade teacher, states that because she incorporates discussions about culture in her

classroom that her students are able to begin to think of each other and respect one another on a

deeper level than their gender and their race (2011). Small discussions in class can go a long

way in helping to expose children to the diversity of the world.

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Importance of cultural representation in schools

Schools around the country are implementing more diversity into their classrooms. One

third-grade teacher named Noelle Walters wrote in an article that her colleagues and her choose

diverse, multicultural picture books as the basis for one of their units. She states,

Within any picture book lies the potential to either reinforce or counter negative

stereotypes. They are valuable teaching tools that, on one hand, surround our students

with mirrors and windows and combat implicit bias on the other. Picture books connect

to our work in building an inclusive community and teaching our students that one part of

any story or identity cannot tell the whole story. (2014)

While diverse books with themes of respecting differences and caring for one another are now

more familiar to most teachers and students than before, they are considerably less abundant than

the common book starring a white, male, middle-class protagonist. The We Need More Diverse

Books campaign is helping to put more books featuring diverse characters into the hands of all

children. The campaign launched in 2014 when the hashtag #WeNeedMoreDiverseBooks

trended on twitter. According to a 2014 survey by the Cooperative Childrens Book Center, the

number of books by/about people of color jumped up from 10% in 2013 to 14% in 2014. This

shows that since the campaign went viral, more diverse books are being published. While 4%

might not seem like much, it is just a start to a more culturally aware literary society.

Children are easily influenced by the people around them. The ideas, beliefs, and actions

they are exposed to while maturing can distinguish what they will value when they are adults. If

they are taught to understand their own cultures and those of others, they will grow to be less

ignorant, which will lead American society to become more accepting of diversity. One of the
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struggles that needs to be overcome before this is parents not introducing their children to

different cultures and overall not teaching them to respect the different characteristics of others.

A second problem is the issue of schools not implementing cultural diversity into their teacher

training and curriculum. Another obstacle is that most people can not differentiate between

cultural appropriation and cultural diffusion, and some do not think there is a difference at all.

The first step to achieving a more culturally aware America is for schools to infuse diversity and

cultural competence into teacher education and curriculum. I chose to do my passion project on

lack of cultural awareness in children because I, as a biracial woman in the United-States,

experience racism and segregation everyday of my life. I believe that if more people were

educated about other cultures when they were younger that there would be less ignorant

comments made and more acceptance in this world. Being from a multi-cultural family, I have

realized that I have gained more world exposure than some of my peers. I plan to create a video

that will depict a group's change in perceptions about Africa by videotaping their impressions

and opinions before, during, and after they visit the continent. I hope this will show the travel

group and whoever watches the video that a third-world country does not always mean dirt,

trash, and poverty.

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References

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Eckhardt, R. (2016, November 4). The Fine Line Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural

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ml

Ehrlich, H. (2015, March 05). The Diversity Gap in Childrens Publishing, 2015. Retrieved

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Khalil, A. (2014, July 07). Manners should be taught at home, not in the classroom. Retrieved

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Walker, T. (2011). Closing the Culture Gap. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from
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