Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/african-american-children/5009035/
Education in the United States has been characterized by the values of conformity, extreme competition, and high academic achievement - at the cost of social, emotional, and character development. (Get good grades no matter the cost or method is the general rule of thumb.) These values, particularly conformity and extreme competition, hinder some children from learning rather than helping them to learn. It has become clearer over the past 25 to 30 years that school systems in the United States are inadequately equipped with the personnel, knowledge, materials, resources, and know how to educate children from culturally diverse backgrounds. Yet we know that when children and their teachers share the same cultural background or when the teacher who is in an alien cultural environment is not afraid to express her own culture, the teaching act becomes easier and this environment becomes much more supportive for children."Differences in the ways groups think and act are more than a matter of using different words or performing different actions for the same purpose. The behavior of people varies, and the beliefs, values, and assumptions that underlie behavior differ as well. Culture influences both behavior and the psychological processes ...