Respectful and Ethnical Minds

According to Tim Tyson’s blog (2008), Julene Reed’s passion lies on collaborating with other ethnic groups and learning about their culture and creating meaningful projects such as her “Roots and Shoots” organization.  Tim Tyson pointed out, “Roots and Shoots is an international organization that focuses on care and concern for animals, the environment, and the human community. Through this organization, she encourages both adults and youth to make a difference in this world, one step at a time.” (pg.1)

Students are not born knowing how to separate themselves from other ethnic groups when it comes to the respect of others. Gardner states (2008), “Infants in a nursery see or hear the distress of another infant; they signal their awareness by whimpering or crying themselves; Furthermore, Toddlers, slightly older, become proactive when confronting the distress of another” (p. 107).  However, when young people grow older somehow the respect of others becomes separated and many educators see this in the classroom, at lunchtime and during recess. With this in mind, Julene wants students to think outside of the box and explore their world with an open mind through digital technology.

Thinking about her passion I began to reflect on the activities I’ve done with my afterschool students.  Every month we have a culture dinner.  The students get a chance to choose the meals they would like to eat.  Students have a choice of Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Italian, Southern, Spanish, Portuguese and all American.  Having this activity can lead me to do a culture study.  Students can use digital media to explore what these cultures eat in their native country and investigate their beliefs, family life, education and the arts.  Students will discover that the world they live in is not that different from the people they study in other countries. Other ethnic groups have the same values or goals but their process of getting them are different.

http://drtimtyson.com/blog/archives/2008/03/spotlight_on_julene_reed_makin.html