Cultural Sensitivity

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Originally Posted by Hassun

Well since I'm not culturally sensitive to anything I don't know if my impression of this counts but I'll try anyway.
From little kids I wouldn't try to expect too much tact in these regards but it's necessary to educate them in such a way that they gradually learn about traumas like that.

E.g. You should have a conversation with that kid or the whole class about the effects those drawings can have on certain people. Make connections to atomic bombs, holocaust, forced prostitution, etc. as well. They might be a little young for all that of course. Oh well.

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That's one of the most sensible things I have ever heard. My parents used (and in some ways still do) ta teach 'bout bein' sensitive ta other ppl, reguardless of their nationality, culture, religion, etc. It wouldn' hurt one bit ta teach these children 'bout how ta b sensitive ta others and their past. Jus' b sure ta use a little tact when u do it.:cool3:

Trust me, I know what its like. I lost family members in the holocaust in WW2. Now Im not Jewish but I am half Slovic. And it hurts me deeply when I hear about people saying that the holocaust never happened and how it was all made up or when people say that it was a good thing. It really really hurts to hear some one say that. I lost my great great grand parents who I will never meat because they were murdered by those who thought the Slovic people as unclean gypsies. I went to the holocaust musiem in DC, and I cant help but tell you how sick to my stumick it made me feel. I wanted to know more about it and what sorta things my family has gone through. It was hard. Every exibit I walked by I couldnt help but think my great great grand parents mite have used or dressed them selves with. My girlfriend had to help walk me out of the musiem because I was so upset.

=_= people don't understand why something hurts until it hurts them... i think that type of ignorace goes beyond cultural bounds...

i think it goes across any living thing... but, that's not really answering the question.

as for what can remedy the situation? a mass reforming of everyone everywhere that can only come from (cheesy music) a personal relationship with Jesus! not to say Christians are perfect, or that even Christian people are perfect... it's just, maybe a belief in something bigger would help everyone to see how small they are... and how much we need to help each other

Something we can do, eh...

Get our kids to read about the world about a younger age. If they're introduced to other cultures and worldwide issues and topics while they're really young, they won't grow (and stay stuck) into the status of being aware of what's affecting them and them alone. Unfortunately, you can't reverse time, but you can still get some Egyptomania into some of the younger ones... I myself read about many things about the world at a young age, thanks to the influence of my parents and my environment (my mother is a former teacher, and books were cheaper than Gameboys). I'm still interested in worldwide epidemics after reading about the Spanish Flu when I was four, and a whole lot of other subjects... If these children just grew up with knowledge about things outside their country and the current generation, I guarantee cultural indifference would go down dramatically.

It's ironic how the kids of the cellphone and internet generation, a generation that has access to resources about anything and people to anywhere in the world, scratch their heads when they hear that the Nile River still exists, or that there's a country in Europe called "Ukraine", or even knowledge of the Holocaust. The local seventh graders and under don't know nil about it, nor have ever even heard of Anne Frank... :feels like crying:

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Originally Posted by abby724

Something we can do, eh...

Get our kids to read about the world about a younger age. If they're introduced to other cultures and worldwide issues and topics while they're really young, they won't grow (and stay stuck) into the status of being aware of what's affecting them and them alone. Unfortunately, you can't reverse time, but you can still get some Egyptomania into some of the younger ones... I myself read about many things about the world at a young age, thanks to the influence of my parents and my environment (my mother is a former teacher, and books were cheaper than Gameboys). I'm still interested in worldwide epidemics after reading about the Spanish Flu when I was four, and a whole lot of other subjects... If these children just grew up with knowledge about things outside their country and the current generation, I guarantee cultural indifference would go down dramatically.

It's ironic how the kids of the cellphone and internet generation, a generation that has access to resources about anything and people to anywhere in the world, scratch their heads when they hear that the Nile River still exists, or that there's a country in Europe called "Ukraine", or even knowledge of the Holocaust. The local seventh graders and under don't know nil about it, nor have ever even heard of Anne Frank... :feels like crying:

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I agree whole heartedly that it must start with kids all around the world at a younger age. Of cores there will be a lot that they will not understand but that is why we need to explain it in ways that they can and also relate to.

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Originally Posted by tsurara

I'm a teacher at a Japanese junior high school... and while I adore the kids and generally get along with them swimmingly, every so often one will do something incredibly insensitive in total innocence.

Example:

On Monday, I was teaching a class of 1st Graders (7th in the US) a lesson on Niagra Falls. There's a picture of an observation tower in the textbook on the pages talking about Canada. The kids tend to doodle in their textbooks when bored, and since they own the books: it's usually not a problem if they want to deface their own stuff.

But this particular day I noticed that a boy in the first row had painstakingly drawn two airplanes crashing into the tower and has written "9-11" in the margin.

He knows I'm from New York... but when I looked at his book, he didn't react at all. I kept my poker-face, smiled and didn't miss a beat. But, I have to admit, it bugged me.

I have to spend 2 weeks teaching a lesson on the US bombing of Hiroshima in English class, but none of them have the foggiest about the potential hurt making fun of something like 9-11, the Holocaust or Pearl Harbor might cause...

I'm not saying American students are necesarily any BETTER in this reguard... (for example. how many times on this board have people used the racial slur "Jap" as an abbreviation for "Japanese"?) or that I think the kid was TRYING to be obnoxious (I know he wasn't). I just wonder if there's anything we can do to make kids in our own cultures slightly less ignorant of the potential misunderstandings and hurt feelings that can come from lack of appropriate knowledge in the context of another culture.

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i'd say about the only thing you can do is somehow see if you can make them aware of this kind of stuff in class, see if your aloud to as part of teaching english, somehow teach a little bit of how this kind of stuff can be insulting, maby find a way to make it part of the intaductory part of the program in the english class, you know, such as first day rules or etiquitt, or something along that order, sorry thats the best i can think of, and sorry im such a poor speller ):

you should have beating that kid..
oh yeah sadly i am from the usa and the kids here are probably more rude and disrespectful then any because of freedom of speech ....
okay probably not beating is such a good idea... but okay how about talk to the kids parents....
Cultural Sensitivity
sadly have no effect because so kid have no respect at all

there is no interest in learning anymore it's taken as a chore and somthing just to get done. that's why when kids learn about something so horrible that happened in history and somthing that can very well happen again they don't care cuz all it is to them is just a test or a way to get by. Sad to say i mentioned Nanking and the japanese invasion to one of my friends and she was like "wait isn't nanking in china? why would the japanese be there?" i wanted to hit her across the face.... =.=