Cultural Groups

Even though the predominant ethnic group in the area I live in is Caucasian American, there are a multitude of other groups that come in small amounts. In Harrison County up to 5.7% of the population are black and African American. Up to 0.6% are American Indian and Alaskan natives. 1.6% of the residents are Asian. Last, but not least, a handful of the population is made up of Hispanics and Latinos. The percentage is unknown, but they are prevalent in the county. This data was provided by the Census Bureau website.
In order to teach the kids I work with the values, traditions, and beliefs of those cultural groups, I would first start familiarizing them with stereotypes that we make towards certain people that are different from them. When teaching children about different cultures, you are basically teaching them how people in other countries live their lives. The first thing they would have to understand is that most countries speak a different language than we do or they speak English, but in a different dialect or accent. Next, we all have different likes and dislikes. For instance, Americans like to put a lot of sugar in their desserts whereas Hispanics tend to not utilize as much.
Another matter to discuss is that there are differences in how we value our education. Every country tends to educate its children at a different pace. In many countries, having an education is a privilege due to high levels of poverty throughout the world. Fortunately, in our country it is a law that every child attends school. One issue that I have come across constantly throughout my career as a student and continuously at my job is that we do not respect one another due to our differences. Stereotyping and name-calling is a constant problem that is prevalent all throughout our nation. I try to teach my kids that we all have feelings and many differences. If they do not respect one another they can trigger negative behavior from their peers and cause them to escalate. Therefore, we need to be careful about what we say to one another and not say things that come across as offensive.