Why does Culture matter in school?

The answer to this question is very obvious for me. Culture is for me the cornerstone of any civilization. I want to treasure my own culture and teach it to my children in the future. At the same time I want to learn more about other nationalities and their culture. It´s not only about their food, the way they dress or their favourite sport; it is much more about the way other people think, interact and show respect for themselves and for others.

It is critical in my opinion, that schools promote those same ideas. Students must be exposed to an environment where many different cultures are present in some form. If you have a school with a big cultural diversity, it is the task of the school to ensure that respect to all cultures is shown. Not only must they acknowledge different cultures, they should enable children to interact with foreign cultures in a respectful manner and learn from each other.
If students of one school don´t represent many different cultural backgrounds, the school still must make sure that they learn about other cultures. They could for example invite personalities from other countries to school and let them talk to the students and interact with them. Another possibility is to take the students out to an activity like a Pow-Wow, where they can see how Native Americans for example celebrate and have fun together.

If mutual respect for other cultures besides your own is not promoted in school many students can show negative effects very soon. Racism and Xenophobia are only two of them. I think that if you are able to raise your students interest in foreign cultures this will also enable them to learn more about their own culture. The point here is not to emphasize how much your own culture differs from others, but what they have in common.

It is not only the responsibility of school to teach their students in math, biology and so on, but to raise them to be sincere, respectful and open- minded.