All About life

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/features.jsp?p=0&is=43&ar=944&pa=4

When I was trying to find an article about how Americans think about African culture for our project, this article caught my eyes at the first sight. In the beginning of the article, children’s answers really surprised me. Water, food, tent, animals, dance, sing, safari, those images are the answers when the students were asked about the Africa on their minds. Not just in the U.S, I think children in Taiwan will give the similar answers about Africa.  To Americans here, Africa is a country that is still uncivilized. That reminds me a piece of news: According to Fox News Chief Political Correspondent Carl Cameron, Palin who was running for the vice president didn't understand that Africa was a continent not a country. Isn’t it ironic?

The popular media, TV programs, films, children’s books, and school textbooks often highlight poverty and hunger in Africa rather than showing the reality that some Africans are wealthy, healthy, and powerful. The misimpressions hinder children’s learning opportunities. Thus it is the challenging but essential task that educators should let children have the right knowledge about different kinds of people in the world, especially Africans who most of people have misimpressions on.  The author gives three reasons why we should change the stereotypical representations of Africa:

1.  It has racial relations and might contribute to racism. The wrong images will lead many black children in the U.S want to get away from connections with African heritage.

2. The recent immigrants from Africa will experience the racism from Americans’ ignorance about Africa. The treatment of first-generation African immigrants here will be worse.

3. At last, learning about Africa impacts the U.S’ policies and relations toward African countries. This is a must do to develop more respectful understanding of African culture in this global village.

Moreover, the author gives some suggestions that I can agree more about the ideas how to create learning experiences of African culture, which are also good for our projects. The followings are some excellent recommendations: use specific African countries’ names when talking about them; avoid activities that highlight poverty and hunger in Africa; use regular language instead of negative words; introduce contemporary arts, stories, and everyday activities of Africa, do not limit to the traditional and exotic ones; avoid wild animal motifs that most Africans see them only in the national parks too.

I like two of the ideas most so that I want to talk about them separately. The first idea is to share the ways that Africans learn about the world by reading award-winning author’s books (complete list of winners at www.AfricaAccessReview.org). And the second one is to take an imaginary city tour. Students will plan a trip so they have to find information’s about hotels, current exchange rate, appropriate clothes, places to visit and so forth. These ideas really made me excited because they are educationally sound and practical.  I believe all the above suggestions will rich and right the student’s learning experiences.