We live in our culture the same way fish live in water, surrounded by it, breathing it, and mostly unaware of it—unless we are suddenly dropped into a whole new body of water that tastes funny, smells funny, looks funny, and sounds funny. Only then do we realize that many of the ways we expect people to look, speak, and act, the foods, sleeping arrangements, and standard of living we take for granted, are products of culture not shared by most of humanity. So, what is this thing called culture?

This document is intended to raise your awareness and help you raise students’ awareness of the nature and importance of human cultures, and to give you some basic guidelines for teaching it. The Heartwood books and online Culture Keys represent a unique opportunity to give your class a sense of many different aspects of the world’s cultures and an appreciation of the richness they hold for further study, travel, and relationships across cultural lines. What a great gift to give children!

What is Culture?
Culture is often compared to an iceberg because most of it is invisible, below the water line. Perhaps a better metaphor is that of a many-layered onion, because what you can see and hear is only the beginning of what is actually shared by a group of people with a common culture. Children who are only exposed to the visible layer of other cultures come away with a “tourist” understanding that may include historic costumes, crafts, special dishes and holiday traditions, and a smattering of language.

Some of the less visible layers include:

• Shared past experiences, such as the Civil War or the Great Depression, which influence current relationships between regions or attitudes toward money for many generations.
• Childrearing beliefs and practices, such as swaddling or appropriate discipline, that shape each new generation.
• Religious convictions about the larger world, including how the world and its people originated and what happens after we die.
• A set of values that determine what is truly important in people’s lives, whether family, work, adventure, religion, or magic.

Cultural Stereotyping
A common error when speaking of culture is to make wide-ranging generalizations that lump together many different cultures as if they were the same. Africa is a continent with dozens of nations and hundreds of ethnic or tribal groups with their own histories, languages, and ways of living. Many white and brown people identify themselves as “African, “making the generalization that Africans are Black false. Similarly, Asian countries or American Indian tribes may share some cultural features, but they have distinct cultures—sometimes with long-standing enmity between them—and should not be lumped together.

Another aspect of the complexity of culture is the amazing variety encountered within a single cultural group. Two members of a Native American tribe may live very differently, one as a farmer on a reservation, speaking the native language and following traditional customs, while the other goes to college, gets a job in a large city, and doesn’t visit the reservation or speak the native language. Depictions of this tribe’s “culture” that imply all of its members look, think, and dress alike or live one particular way are misleading and offensive. We must always keep in mind that each member of a cultural group is unique, differing from others in personality, personal experiences, attitudes, and choices, knowledge of and respect for traditions, and even appearance.

These internal differences make it difficult to make accurate generalizations about cultures and their members. When we show children images of other cultural groups, it is important to state that only a small sub-group is shown, and other members of the group could look, think, and live differently. It may even be difficult to know how to address or refer to people respectfully—as with Black, African-American, or person of color. Mrs., Miss, Ms., or Miz? The best solution is to ask individual members of the group how they prefer to be addressed.

Judging Cultures
Perhaps the most sensitive issue in the teaching of culture is our attitude toward the differences we encounter. Human beings have a strong tendency to believe that their own beliefs and ways of doing things are superior to others—just “common sense”—leading to negative judgments of anything different, such as labeling other cultures primitive or backward, or viewing them as idyllic. Unchecked, this tendency produces intolerance, prejudice, hatred, violence, and even genocide. The most important lesson we can teach children is that different does not mean deficient. Noticing differences should not lead to deciding if they are better or worse—they’re just different, and therefore interesting and valuable, enriching our lives and giving us much to celebrate. This helps children respect others in their classrooms, schools, communities, and beyond. It also increases acceptance and self-esteem of the students in your class who identify with cultural groups you discuss.

Judgments about whether a particular cultural way of doing things is right or wrong are best made from within, by members of that culture. While adults may debate the morality of criticizing cultural practices such as corporal punishment, caste systems, or forbidding education and employment of women, such judgments are not the province of the elementary classroom. The impact is often visible as children sit up straighter and volunteer additional information.

Culture Keys
Heartwood Culture Keys give teachers brief cultural, geographic, and historic information about Heartwood stories for the intermediate grades. The information can be directly presented as a Culture Key. Be sure to check for understanding so that children do not misinterpret or misquote you later. Whenever possible, have someone from the culture visit your class to present additional information. This helps to emphasize the point about real members of the culture differing from one another and from depictions in the story.

The Culture Keys help teachers integrate Heartwood with social studies and geography by suggesting connections to historical, cultural, and geographic themes and topics and providing recommendations for further reading and research. As part of our ongoing commitment to multicultural education, Heartwood welcomes feedback from teachers, including questions and information about particular cultures, relevant stories, tips for using the Culture Keys, and suggestions for improvements. Together we can build a bountiful store of knowledge for our children and ourselves.

References
*See, for example, research by the Institute for Global Ethics.

Bibliography
Stephan Dahl, “An Overview of Intercultural Research,” Middlesex University Business School, http://stephan.dahl.at/intercultural/about_culture.html

“The Importance of Teaching Children to Celebrate and Value Diversity,” by Barbara Kolucki, Disability World, Issue No. 6, Jan-Feb 2001, http://www.disabilityworld.org/01-02_01/children/diversity.htm

V. Harris (Ed.), Teaching Multicultural Literature in Grades K-8 (Norwood, MA: Christopher Gordon Publishers, 1993).

“Teaching Young Children about Native Americans” by Debbie Reese, 1996, ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, ED 394 744.

See also Recommended Reading.