Man in the Mirror*

We look at the world through a perspective shaped by our experiences. Our culture determines our norms and these norms shape our cultural identity. 

In an increasingly interdependent global world, how do we prepare our students to acquire an understanding of diverse world cultures? Our initial reaction can be defensive, elevating our own culture as “right” and judging the differences as “odd” or “wrong.”  The dissonance created between what we already know and this new information is ripe with opportunity for inquiry and growth.

Montessori schools encourage this inquiry through a series of questions based on the common needs of all human beings.  The Needs of People Curriculum encourages systematic inquiry with a goal towards fostering understanding, commonality and empathy.  The BBC has recently completed filming a series that shows the wide variety of distinct cultural identities that exist in our world.  It is a great resource for cultural studies.While the entire series is not yet available, the website is rich with clips, videos, information and links.  Bookmark this page-it will quickly become a favorite!

Don’t miss its companion website for children.  It chronicles children all over the globe with videos, games and activities.  And it has a speciallink for grown-ups.

 *Man in the Mirror by Michael Jackson