Multicultural Manners In School

How does the concept of education differ among cultures?

If you look at the winners of spelling contests, the spelling bees they are generally Asian. If you look at the winning decathalon teams, they usually have Asians on them and usually maybe first generation American or maybe not even that. They may be refugees. And it's because the students' families really support the idea of education and not only that, if the children are not successful, the children are punished. The parents look down upon what they consider frivolous activities: cheerleading, football games, PE, not considered essential. There is a very hard drive for their children to succeed.

How does classroom participation differ among cultures?

As a classroom teacher, I can tell you that it's different in dealing with so-called American born students, as opposed to, let's say, Asian students. They are very uncomfortable about offering their opinions because they consider opinions just that and the other students are very free to give their opinions. They do not ask questions. So sometimes you don't know where you're at. Role-playing activities are rejected. I had a book I wrote for ESL students and in the first edition there was a whole section on role-playing activities, because I believe, and a lot of other educators as well, that when you role play, you're acting out and somehow you're applying what you learned to your own behaviour and then you can see certain things that are not evident learning by rote. And this one particular book I had to revise within the first year because classrooms in Asia would not accept role-playing activities, and I had to substitute them with more grammar lessons. So participation is different. They're reluctant to do so. They don't believe that their opinions have any value. They don't believe in challenging the teacher, so that runs very much counter to the more American way.

How does discipline in schools differ among cultures?

I believe it's only in the United States that students cannot have corporal punishment in school. Perhaps in parochial schools they still have the slapping on the palm of the hand with the ruler, but in public schools you can't do that. I had group students from Taiwan and they said "you mean you're not going to throw erasers at us?" I said, "no, they'd lock me up" and they said "really?" But they do enforce physical punishment outside of the United States, that's perfectly alright.

How does thes social aspect of school differ among cultures?

Parents from other cultures are not as enthusiastic about the social aspects. They think it's a waste of time; the child would be better off studying for the next exam, and putting in more hours. They tend to discount some of the value of it that I've just talked about.

How does the priority of education differ among cultures?

The role of education differs depending on the economic situation. For example, if you have a family that's involved with farm working, it's more important for a family that's involved with harvesting and agriculture to have their children come and help them out in the fields than it is for them to go to school. And often the teachers don't understand that the financial priorities come first. Survival comes first, education comes second. In addition, many Mexicans in particular, because it's so easy for them to go back and forth across the border, they place family obligations before education. And if somebody has died across the border, the whole family will go down there. Or a wedding, the whole family will go down. And even if the children are missing school, the importance of the family outweighs the value of the education. They know that they are missing it, but there's nothing that they can do about it.