Day 52

Student Contribution by Melissa

Overview of the Period

I started the class with a quick retrieval practice of the religions and where their cultural hearths are located. I have these laminated world maps the students circle and label on. Afterward, the students brought out their research from yesterday on a culture that they viewed as perverse. I had the students share those cultures with each other. As a group of four, the students had to decide to eradicate the culture or preserve it.

This exercise taught me to think out side the box and how other cultures may view us based on how we view them. An instance of this is when we spoke about children having bound feet in China and we argued that it was for beauty and that the children didn’t have consent. However if you think of piercing a young child’s ears or the practice of circumcision at birth of males the same arguments start to apply.

I want to learn why different cultures do the things they do because it would provide more background for students and they would be able to make a more informed opinion.

My Response

The power of a good question. Should we preserve or kill certain cultures?

I cannot believe the response of the students.  Their discussion was unbelievable.  Students were debating each other, coming up with great examples, and genuinely into the debate. I recorded a video clip of the discussion and posted it in the post. By the time I got around to filming it, it had died down a bit, but it’s still going strong in the video.

I need to remember what a question can do for people. If it allows for people to tap into their own world and help them make sense of their world, then the question will incite further learning. Tomorrow, I will give the students time to post their thoughts and read more on the topic.