Learning Processing Entry 1

While reading Takaki’s A Different Mirror, as well as my assigned chapter from the Zarrillo text, which happened to be on diversity, I couldn’t help but think of the apparent diversity in my practicum classroom. There are students of a wide variety of complexions that have parents from quite the array of cultural backgrounds. What I find most interesting is not only is the class population very heterogeneous, but many of the kids themselves are a blend of several races and cultures. As of right now, from what I have observed at least, culture and race does not seem to affect their interactions with one another. I’m curious if over time this will change or not. However, I think that because so many of them are being raised by parents of different backgrounds that in the future making and maintaining friendships with people different from themselves will be easier and much more naturally than for children raised in homogenous home and school environments.
I also kept thinking while reading about how individuals from diverse backgrounds, like many of my students, view themselves. Which culture do these kids more closely identify with now and will this change in the future? My parents come from different cultural backgrounds, and I have in the past felt conflicted about my own identity. My mom is Jewish (I realize some might object to Jewish being used to describe culture, but from my perspective it is) and my dad’s side of the family is more of a mixture, but predominately Irish and most are practicing Catholics. I’ve always identified myself as Jewish, as my overbearing mother and her equally overbearing parents made sure my sister and I connected with these roots and aligned our thinking to their way of thinking. While I am proud of this identity, my dad and I often don’t see eye to eye on a lot of things and it hurts me to know that he is disappointed I am a reflection of my mom and her family and not of him. We have a lot of difference in opinion on familial roles that are influenced by norms of our respective cultures, which has caused a lot of fights and alienated ourselves from each other.
Also, I noticed that many of the portions of the book that caught my interest or prompted me to take note were passages or really the few quick sentences that were about Jewish people. I’m curious if individuals who identify with other cultures and races were more interested with details about their ‘own kind’ too.