Nov 17 2008
Learning About Other Cultures at Museums
Here in rural Minnesota, our communities are made up almost entirely of people whose heritage is from either Germany or Norway. Blonde hair and blue eyes are common; languages other than English are not.
So how do we teach our kids about other cultures? Museum visits are a great way to learn about other countries and their ways of life.
Currently in the Twin Cities, there are some great opportunities to teach kids about other cultures.
- The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is hosting an exhibit called INDIA: Public Spaces, Private Places. This exhibit was also the basis for a recent Family Day at MIA.
- The Hmong at Heart exhibit at the Minnesota Children’s Museum gives visitors a look into the Hmong culture in Laos and in America.
- Urban Expedition programs at St. Paul’s Landmark Center explore the culture and traditions of countries such as Germany, Uganda, and Latvia.
Museum visits are an excellent way to introduce children to new cultures, as well as history, science, and art. Giving children the opportunity to learn about other people in the enjoyable setting of a museum can spark them into wanting to learn more.
And how can they learn more, without traveling the world? Books and movies can be a good way. I was recently made aware of a DVD series for children called Global Wonders, which teaches children about India, Mexico, and more. I’ll be looking for them on our next trip to the library, where we can also find books, movies, and music reflecting any culture we’re interested in.
Do you live in a culturally diverse area? How do you teach your children about other cultures?
For more ideas, see what other twitter moms have done.
When my children were small, I took them to museums and visited the various cultures within the states that surrounded us. We found that other cultures enjoy demonstrating their crafts and cultures. So we had a hands on learning. It was so fun.
We live in New Haven, CT. A city full of many wonderful and approachable cultural things to do!
Yale University is the anchor that ties our diverse city together.
We have many museums and galleries that give us different points of view. We even have the Knights of Columbus Headquarters and Museum here in New Haven.
My 2 year old has been on a few visits to the local museums and we look forward to taking her to many more.
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Museums are a great place, but so are things like football games, racetracks, fairs, even restaurants…almost anywhere people gather can be a good teaching opportunity!
My wife, on her blog, has talked about some of the fields trips we’ve done: http://www.homeschooldistractions.com/search/label/Field%20Trips
While the trips weren’t specifically for cultural discussions, the kids seem to end up asking questions about the origins of the way things are done, how something started, etc. And those often ARE cultural discussions.
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We live in the San Francisco Bay Area. So, finding diversity is fairly easy. Although, I’m finding that most homeschoolers in our city are other Caucasian, middle-class families. That means more effort is needed to build diversity into our days. For example, my kids practice yoga with a Hindu teacher. We also take field trips to places outside our suburban community, and travel to new places when we can. We’re getting ready to take the kids to Kaua’i for the first time. When the budget is tighter, we travel via DVDs and the library.
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I do live in a fairly diverse area and my children are pretty diverse (1/4 Mexican, 1/4 African American, 1/2 White) and we try hard to expose them to all of the cultural aspects of these backgrounds.
We attend Kwaanza celebrations, for example, and see Dia de los Muertos exhibits and we are also trying to expose them to Spanish.
My mother was a big believer in museums and I remember as a kid that she’d drag us all over to see any museum she thought would be interesting. I fought it at times then but now realize that I learned so much about the world through those visits.
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Well – first we do live in a culturely diverse area – so I do not think that has been much of an issue for my kids when they were growing up – and considering that I am puerto rican and my grandfather is black – I think we pretty much live diverse…my boys are blonde hair and blue green eyes – my daughter has auburn hair and tannish eyes – but they are very big into celebrating what culture they have been brought up in…actually they can cook some great puerto rican food – they are much more comfortable in diverse areas with diverse people then just “white” anything!
Just my two cents
Ellie
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Great ideas!!!
We don’t have a lot of museums in the city in which I live (it’s very sporty, not cultured). But I like to take my kids to the modern art museum- I think it gives them a different way to look at the world.
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My oldest daughter goes to an immersion school so she is exposed not only to another language but a lot of the traditions of another culture.
We also try to make it out to California about once a year, typically to the Bay area where most of my dad’s family still lives. I love that area and hope to move back someday.
When in the Twin Cities, we often go to museums and have even found that going to places such as the Mall of America or finding that family owned neighborhood Thai restaurant are great ways to expose them to different cultures!
Parties! We try to participate in Dia de los Muertos, Diwali, and Chinese New Year celebrations.
Luckily for us (SF bay area), the kids get it in school too. My first grader’s class in particular is like the United Nations. He’s in there with kids from Israel, Greece, Sweden, and India this year. Last year it was England, Mexico, Japan, China, and Turkey.
So different from my own childhood!
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We don’t have children, but we love going to museums ourselves. The Detroit area has a lot of great museums and cultural organizations…I just finished blogging about the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s outreach programs and the Detroit Film Theater at the Detroit Institute of Arts this past week. We also recently visited the Motown Museum here, which I’m planning to write up come January and Motown’s 50th anniversary.
Plus we’re close to Toledo (Ohio) and the college town of Ann Arbor (Michigan). Toledo has a very good art museum and zoo. I haven’t been in the Ann Arbor Art Museum since they closed for a major renovation, but it promises to be quite nice when it reopens…and the college has many small and specialized museums.
I also have a favorite Nature Center (Madison Heights, MI–yup, in the blog) near my home. It has about 1 1/2 miles of nice walking trails. The center also has a lot of programs, many of them geared to home-schooled kids.
We’re lucky to live just an hour outside of London…
Our latest outing was to the National Gallery: http://tinyurl.com/6hlomh
We are even luckier that all the museums are FREE!
Thank you for sharing this post. Taking kids to museums and libraries are good ways to teach them about other cultures. I think it’s great that you’ve made this a priority with your children. The exhibits you listed look like great resources! I hope the Global Wonders series helps parents, like you, who don’t live in culturally diverse areas expose their children to a variety of foods, languages, customs and traditions from everywhere around the world.
-Rashmi Turner
Founder/CEO, Global Wonders