Perspectives on Diversity and Culture

I emailed two of my professional acquaintances and I spoke with one of my colleagues at the center.
I asked them each for their definition of culture and diversity. Here is what I learned:

• Culture is what a person believes in and values. As educators, it is important that we respect the beliefs of others and share in their values.
• Culture is a person's traditions, customs, and lifestyle.
• Culture is part of a person's race and how they were raised. It includes their food, clothing, and language.We work with families of different cultures and learn how to respect what they believe and how they live.
• Diversity is the differences in a group of people. Being in a diverse group of people means being with many people from all races and colors.
• Diversity means mixed races and abilities. Classrooms and workplaces are beginning to represent people from all over the world and some people may be handicapped, in wheelchairs, blind, autistic, etc. A diverse population is inclusive.
• Diversity is how we see ourselves and others and all of our differences.

I think that defining diversity proved to be more difficult than defining culture. All three defined diversity as a term used to describe disability or races.
The aspects of culture and diversity that I have studied, which are included in these answers are race, beliefs, values, lifestyle, food, language, clothing, how we see ourselves in the world, and abilities.
 Some of the aspects omitted were gender, sexual orientation, religion, and socioeconomic status.
I think in discussing the definitions with others I really realized how much we only think of surface culture.
I am influenced by these responses to really consider a person's differences and culture on a deeper level, rather than what I can see.I think my work with children and families must involve getting to know people for who they are and how they feel about their place in the world.
Before our readings this week, I had never thought about culture as how we see ourselves in the world.
I am not sure how I see myself in the entire world, but in each part of my world I see myself through my various identities. I want others to see me as a person who cares about others and is willing to help, without being asked.

My Family Culture

OMG! Hardest post EVER! For me this is probably the most challenging assignment I have had yet. I envy my colleagues who are tussling with all of these wonderful objects they have that they just can't decide over which to take and which to leave behind. And I'm looking around and can't pinpoint anything that I cherish that much!

I actually don't like this assignment. I think it is interesting, but I would have preferred it to be about survival instead of culture because I know exactly what I would take for an emergency evacuation. But, that's evacuating here with the infrastructure intact.

The assignment says I will have my immediate family with me. Once I read this, I didn't need anything else. If I had to evacuate, all I would want is my immediate family. Yes, I would hope my extended family is evacuated, but that's another assignment.
So, this became very challenging for me. In reality, all I would need is my family and I would move on. Would I need money? Is the U.S. currency going to be worthless or will I be able to exchange it? Wouldn't I need money to start over? My wants are all the things we have to leave behind.

So I reread the directions, things that I hold dear. Think harder.
I decided the three things I hold dear are:

1. My MacBook. Well, my IPad is smaller. I'll take that.
2. Photos of my husband, children, and dogs in a small album.
3. The small file I keep that contains birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards, and financial documents.

In explaining what these items mean to me: My IPad is the electronic version of life. I can virtually connect and communicate with people from all over the world; my photos would hold my memories of my family that I cherish; the file contains documentation of who we are.

Now, they tell me to give up something and choose. I'll keep my photo album. Although we are all together, I have no way of knowing if we will all survive. I don't know if they use electronics in this new culture. What if I can't take new pictures once we arrive? What if someone becomes ill? I would lose my loved one, but still have pictures to remind me of his/her smile; I could look at him/her everyday and think about all of the things we did when that photo was taken. I can't rely on my memory. I don't even remember what I just ate for breakfast an hour ago! I need the visuals.

What I learned about myself is that I cherish my family more than any of the things I own. What I learned about my family culture is that our truest values are how we care for and about each other. We need each other.

The insight I gained about cultural differences is that there may be differences so significant that you lose some of your social identities and will have to adapt to a new way of living and even thinking. In this assignment, leaving my culture may have meant losing my socioeconomic status, my vocation, my hobbies and interests, maybe my preferred food choices, and possibly some of my beliefs.

I thought about this a little more. I had been thinking of this assignment in the extreme; being forced to evacuate without any knowledge of where I was going. I had this "Gilligan Island"type of vision.
In reality, isn't this what immigrants face when they leave their countries? The American or Western culture is everywhere, but it can be quite different when you adopt a culture while living in your home country from having to adapt to and assimilate into a culture in another country.