If I want to be completely honest, at
first, I felt the desire to search out the meaning of the word paradigm, luckily
Oxford Online Dictionary came for my help.
Paradigm:
A typical example or pattern of something; a pattern or model.
This little brainstorming helped me to put my
focus on the right direction. Today, we are talking about Cultural Paradigms.
After I watched all the videos, the most I was influenced by Delali Bright: Cultural clashes in defining
beauty and Adjusting to U.S. Culture Video. I felt the need to share all these new information with my
husband. He helped me to realize that we as members of the Church of Jesus
Christ of Latter-day Saints, we are truly universal citizens. We are all spirit
children of God, so we are brothers and sisters. We do speak different
languages and live in different culture, but our purpose of life is universal.
We were born to learn and progress and worthily return back to our Father in
Heaven. I am a religious person, my faith and profession cannot be fully
separated, even if I am not allowed to talk about my religion in my workplace,
I still want that my actions and works would testify to others of my belief in
God.
The worth of a soul, President Monson says, lies in “its capacity to
become as God.”[i]
Unfortunately, not all of our brothers and sisters are aware of these truths. We
have the responsibility to see this potential in all of our students. We have
the obligation to accept all of our students as they are. We need to love them
and help them to progress both academically and spiritually. Under the
spiritual progression, I mean to teach with our own example to be obedient,
diligent, honest and any Christlike attribute that we can think of.
In 1 Samuel 16: 7 we read “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his
countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for
man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” We also
should look to the heart and not to the outside appearance of our fellow
beings.
As teachers, we should also constantly strive to be lifelong-learners,
who educate themselves. If we reside in a different country, we should search
out the cultural differences for our own knowledge, to better understand our
students, our neighbors. If we have foreign students in our classes, we should
find the time to get to know them better. We could use their different culture
to introduce to the class (if it is also fine with our foreign students).
It is not bad to be different. The problem starts when we build upon the
differences in each other. If we focus more on the common things then we will
notice that we are all similar. We all have certain trials. We all want to achieve
something in life.
I have been an international students a couple of times, and I have lived in other countries, and even cities within my own country, to realize the things that make me different. My husband and I have even discussed that, while we want to make Honduras our permanent residence, we want to live and study abroad eventually. Exposing ourselves to different cultures opens our minds, and kind of makes us "international citizens" of this world. And I want my children to experience that, to know that, as you wrote, "it is not bad to be different," and that "we are all similar."
ReplyDeleteI like your future goal to visit other countries and study abroad. Ever since I joined the church I realized that there are no borders anymore. We have friends in almost every country of the world and that is just amazing. I would also like my children to study abroad when they are older.
ReplyDelete