Summary
The paragraph I choose from “African-Born Immigrants in U.S. Schools: An Intercultural Perspective on Schooling and Diversity” is the following:
“International Night is a common school event that entails an evening where mostly immigrant students and children born of foreign-born parents are prompted to share their cultures with the school community. The highlight of International Night includes food, fashion and entertainment. Whereas this event seems to have gained popularity in schools across the United States, its multicultural value remains questionable. The timing, the focus, and the attendance suggest that it is more of a showcase than it is an opportunity for raising cultural awareness. Anything that is relegated to a night, day, a week, or even a month, despite the level of preparation, is likely to be abbreviated and, thus, may not present a comprehensive picture of the individuals and cultures being acknowledged.”
In the United States school system, they have an activity which they call “International night” this event is supposed to engage understanding and knowledge of the cultures from different groups among the school. They do this focusing on food, fashion and entertainment. Even though this activity's main objective should be to share awareness of other cultures and countries around the world from which students are part of these schools. It has been seen more as a showcase activity over the years. The fact that this event is being held on just one night inspired doubts about the level of comprehension that it can bring to its attendees. In order to have a more comprehensive understanding of culture it should be included in more than just one attempt in the year in the school system.
From my experience and the different types of cultural events that have been to. It is true that the food, the clothing and dances of the different cultures most of the time, if not always highlight the event. As someone that was not born and did not grow up in the United States therefore did not attend their schools and does not know how their school system works, I don't really have much to say specifically about this activity. But I do have a question: In the article paragraph that I picked they mentioned that the activity is prepared by the children of foreign-born parents, so why don’t they try to share more of the things that bring up that awareness about their culture? And less of the things that feel more like a show? Maybe because of limitations where they do not have any control over or just because they are following standards on what is expected. I do not know. But I did have opportunities in my life to show my culture and it is such a beautiful feeling to share from where I come from, especially our food and our clothing. I’m from the Dominican Republic. Honestly, I would not do it another way, but that is me. Everyone out there is different, so are our cultures. I believe we must come together and try to understand each other to the best of our abilities in order to change this cycle that has been following us for years.
My source is a news report from 2020 informing of a movement looking for the integration of black history to schools which is being held by a group of student teens. I choose this source because it is interesting and it matters because with news like this, we can see that despite the challenges there is still hope.
Here is a link to it:
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/black-history-in-schools-trnd/index.html
