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Spring 2003
Prepare for a Share Of
This August 9th will be the 4th annual World On The Square Family Festival. Each year the festival has grown in the many interesting activities to see, taste, hear and enjoy and 2003 will continue that growth. Last year we also grew in the number of youth who helped with all the work that it takes to put on this community festival. Youth from Gerdon Youth Center, local Renaissance Club members and a school group from Radcliff, Kentucky, all came and volunteered their time to help make the 2002 festival a big success. We greatly appreciate their help, energy and input and hope that 2003 will bring even more youth volunteers. Teachers, if you work with or sponsor a student organization or club, we would love to involve your group in helping with this year's festival. There are many jobs and ways that youth can be a part of the crew. It is a wonderful opportunity to work with youth from other schools, adults from the community and to be a part of the "behind the scenes" work of a rewarding community festival that is primarily aimed at the youth of our community. Our primary purpose for this event is to expose children of all ages to multiple cultures through art, music, games, activities and food and to give them an alternative to prejudice and violence and an interest and appreciation of cultural differences. We aim to meet that purpose by showcasing the music, dance, art, games, food and educational exhibits that reflect the wide diversity of the residents of Harrison County and the surrounding community.
If you would like to get your students involved, please contact Co-Moderators of the 2003 Festival: Ila Cornett at 364-4048 or www.Mimi4NE@aol.com, or Mary Garcia at 952-8838 or www.Wminds674@cs.com, or through our website: www.communityunity.org.
URI Kids
The purpose of the United Religions Initiative organization (or URI) is to promote enduring daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Samplings from their website which were included in the hard copy of the newsletter can be found at www.uri.org under URI Kids, then World Religions. There you can find excellent materials about many of the world's religions for classroom use. It is impossible to discuss current events without bringing the subject of religions into it. Students need to know about the different world religions in order to have a deeper understanding of the many crises that are threatening the peace of our world today. We hope you will find these materials and the URI resource site helpful in stimulating thoughtful classroom discussions.
www.SkippingStones.org
"Skipping Stones is a nonprofit children's magazine that encourages cooperation, creativity and celebration of cultural and environmental richness. Skipping Stones publishes bimonthly during the school year. We accept art and original writings in every language and from all ages. Each issue also contains international pen pals, book reviews, news, and a guide for parents and teachers." For more information: P.O. Box 3939, Eugene, OR 97403 USA. (541) 342-4956 or email: Info@SkippingStones.org.
The Nacirema Culture
Students come to my 8th grade social studies classes after four consecutive years of studying the United States and the Americas. We study religions, histories, inventions and ideas that bear little or no resemblance to what the students have studied before, and these often clash with what they think of as "acceptable" or "normal." My biggest struggle, therefore, is encouraging students to open their minds and vary their thinking.
After we go over my class expectations and other housekeeping issues on the first day of class, I read aloud an anthropologist's brief account of a "little-known" culture adapted from Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," by Horace Miner. Miner's account describes a range of cultural characteristics, including elaborate gender-specific rituals for cleansing and beautifying the body (such as baking women's heads in a small oven), and a special temple where attendants in ceremonial garments conduct purification rites that involve jabbing the skin with needles. After I finish, I ask for student reactions to the reading. The responses they offer, which I write on the chalkboard without comment, often include disparaging comments such as "stupid," "worthless" and "retarded."
A teacher using the Miner article could then write Nacirema on the board, ask students to read the word backwards. After I reveal that the observations describe our own culture, I post on the wall all of the words they generated. For the rest of the course, these adjectives stand as a caution against premature value judgments about other cultures.
After this introduction, class members look for other judgmental or biased words in everything we use and study. We continue to discuss questionable terms and add to our list throughout the year. Whenever a student or anyone else uses one of the posted words in class, a forest of hands shoot up to point out the problem. The speaker is then expected to rephrase the statement using less judgmental terminology. By helping my students critique their own, each other's--and my--vocabulary, and by exposing them to ideas and beliefs that are new to them, I hope to help them approach the world around them with more open minds. It's not an easy process, but by breaking the habit of "dissing" unfamiliar customs and practices, they're off to a good start.
-- Richard Storrs, East Hampton, CT, from Fall 2002 Teaching Tolerance.
These books are available in your school library through a donation from Community Unity:
African Americans, Voices Of Triumph-Leadership, by the editors of Time-Life books
From prophets, to queens, to astronauts, this book is rich with the color of black leadership in such areas as science, politics, religion, enterprise, humanitarianism, and the arts. Loaded with photographs and illustrations on every page, this book is a gem for students from about fifth grade through high school.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom's Champion, book, CD-ROM, and teacher's guide, by Deborah A. Parks and Melva L. Ware
This is a very accessible and comprehensive biography of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It chronicles her life as youth, wife, mother, activist and ambassador with timelines at the beginning of each short chapter that present the issues and events of each time period. The CD-ROM and guide provide activities and project cards that can be printed. This is a great set for fourth grade level into high school.
If you would like to get your students involved, please contact Co-Moderators of the 2003 Festival: Ila Cornett at 364-4048 or www.Mimi4NE@aol.com, or Mary Garcia at 952-8838 or www.Wminds674@cs.com, or through our website: www.communityunity.org.
URI Kids
The purpose of the United Religions Initiative organization (or URI) is to promote enduring daily interfaith cooperation, to end religiously motivated violence and to create cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. Samplings from their website which were included in the hard copy of the newsletter can be found at www.uri.org under URI Kids, then World Religions. There you can find excellent materials about many of the world's religions for classroom use. It is impossible to discuss current events without bringing the subject of religions into it. Students need to know about the different world religions in order to have a deeper understanding of the many crises that are threatening the peace of our world today. We hope you will find these materials and the URI resource site helpful in stimulating thoughtful classroom discussions.
www.SkippingStones.org
"Skipping Stones is a nonprofit children's magazine that encourages cooperation, creativity and celebration of cultural and environmental richness. Skipping Stones publishes bimonthly during the school year. We accept art and original writings in every language and from all ages. Each issue also contains international pen pals, book reviews, news, and a guide for parents and teachers." For more information: P.O. Box 3939, Eugene, OR 97403 USA. (541) 342-4956 or email: Info@SkippingStones.org.
The Nacirema Culture
Students come to my 8th grade social studies classes after four consecutive years of studying the United States and the Americas. We study religions, histories, inventions and ideas that bear little or no resemblance to what the students have studied before, and these often clash with what they think of as "acceptable" or "normal." My biggest struggle, therefore, is encouraging students to open their minds and vary their thinking.
After we go over my class expectations and other housekeeping issues on the first day of class, I read aloud an anthropologist's brief account of a "little-known" culture adapted from Body Ritual Among the Nacirema," by Horace Miner. Miner's account describes a range of cultural characteristics, including elaborate gender-specific rituals for cleansing and beautifying the body (such as baking women's heads in a small oven), and a special temple where attendants in ceremonial garments conduct purification rites that involve jabbing the skin with needles. After I finish, I ask for student reactions to the reading. The responses they offer, which I write on the chalkboard without comment, often include disparaging comments such as "stupid," "worthless" and "retarded."
A teacher using the Miner article could then write Nacirema on the board, ask students to read the word backwards. After I reveal that the observations describe our own culture, I post on the wall all of the words they generated. For the rest of the course, these adjectives stand as a caution against premature value judgments about other cultures.
After this introduction, class members look for other judgmental or biased words in everything we use and study. We continue to discuss questionable terms and add to our list throughout the year. Whenever a student or anyone else uses one of the posted words in class, a forest of hands shoot up to point out the problem. The speaker is then expected to rephrase the statement using less judgmental terminology. By helping my students critique their own, each other's--and my--vocabulary, and by exposing them to ideas and beliefs that are new to them, I hope to help them approach the world around them with more open minds. It's not an easy process, but by breaking the habit of "dissing" unfamiliar customs and practices, they're off to a good start.
-- Richard Storrs, East Hampton, CT, from Fall 2002 Teaching Tolerance.
These books are available in your school library through a donation from Community Unity:
African Americans, Voices Of Triumph-Leadership, by the editors of Time-Life books
From prophets, to queens, to astronauts, this book is rich with the color of black leadership in such areas as science, politics, religion, enterprise, humanitarianism, and the arts. Loaded with photographs and illustrations on every page, this book is a gem for students from about fifth grade through high school.
Eleanor Roosevelt, Freedom's Champion, book, CD-ROM, and teacher's guide, by Deborah A. Parks and Melva L. Ware
This is a very accessible and comprehensive biography of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It chronicles her life as youth, wife, mother, activist and ambassador with timelines at the beginning of each short chapter that present the issues and events of each time period. The CD-ROM and guide provide activities and project cards that can be printed. This is a great set for fourth grade level into high school.