Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/do-you-have-cultural-tunnel-vision/5008029/
We have America in our hands. As child care providers, we are raising greater numbers of America's children and our influence is more significant than anyone likes to admit. Five days a week, seven or eight hours a day - we have them during prime time.So we have a responsibility to these children in our care to insure that they become culturally competent and empowered. Each child should have the opportunity to grow up to be a full member of his or her own culture. In addition, all children - whether or not they are members of the white European-based American culture - should become empowered in the mainstream culture. Those for whom this so called dominant culture is a second culture should be able to gain their power without having to give up their own culture. All children should be brought up to continue to fit in with their own people.
The goal in a culturally diverse child care setting should be to produce bicultural people. When we fail at our task, some children go right into the mainstream and reject their family's culture. Other children splash around at the edges unable to ...