Last week in class (Friday, October, 15th, 2010) our focus was on The Impacts of Cultural Misconstruction on Education. Also, we discussed our experiences at the Quinte Mohawk School Harvest Festival that the class attended on October 8, 2010. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this trip to Quinte Mohawk School but I was able to hear about the opportunities my classmates got to experience while being there. From the stories I heard it seemed like everyone enjoyed that experiences and they all had positive things to say about the School. Many students shared that they had never felt so respected or accepted by anyone else compared to how the teachers and students treated them that day. My classmates shared that they found that the trip was beneficial to their learning and understanding of the First Nations culture.
In class, our teacher shared with us a video from the TED channel to show us different cultures around the world. We watched a video of National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis share his stories of diverse cultures he has experiences in his travels around the world living with people from Native cultures. The title of the video we watched was Endangered Cultures.
Personally, I had to watch this video again after class to get a full understanding of the information that Wade was sharing because I found that he spoke fast. After watching the video the second time I was really able to get a good sense of how different cultures in the world view themselves and their perspective of the world. This video increased my knowledge and understanding on many different cultures in the world as I was shocked by all the different cultures there are in the world. Seeing the photos that Wade had taken throughout his travel also helped me to get a good understanding of how unique and different the cultures really are. I was shocked to see the way people from different cultures present themselves and how individuals from the same culture look similar and can look so different from individuals of other cultures.
While watching the video I asked myself many different questions about the things that Wade was talking about but a thought that kept coming back to me was “I wonder if other cultures are interested and care about learning our culture such as our western culture. Wade talked about one of the pressures and delights about living among the people in different cultures were living with individuals who haven’t forgotten the old ways. This made me wonder about how those individuals perceive our culture and the way we live. I wonder if they believe and think that we live similar lifestyles as they do. Today, almost all individuals part of the western culture dependent on some kind of technology to get through or carry out daily events. Many of us have TV’s and computers in our homes, we have cell phones, home phones, radios, etc. We use technology to learn about our cultures around the world, but how do they learn about our culture? Do they care to know about our culture? In our culture today our tradition of living is different then what it was 20, 25 or 30 years ago where these individuals live by surviving with their natural resources and what they have.
I feel that this video has given me a better understanding and sense of the different cultures around the world. As a future Child and Youth Worker I may or may not encounter working with individuals from around the world or individuals that live by the “old ways” but to still have a small amount of knowledge and sense of how others live around the world will be helpful in my career. This video shows the uniqueness of how everyone lives a different life from what we believe, which relates to child/youth work because we have to remember that every child or youth is different and their story is going to be unique because no one experiences the same way of life as someone else does.
LINKS
TED Channel Website: http://www.ted.com/
Wade Davis on Endangered Cultures: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/wade_davis_on_endangered_cultures.html
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