Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/play-in-a-classroom-of-iu-mien-children/5012549/
Most of the children in my kindergarten classroom are members of the Iu-Mien tribe, a people who came from the highland provinces of Sichuan in China and Laos. During the Indo-Chinese wars, the Iu-Mien soldiers fought first with the French and later for the United States armies. And so, after the wars, they had to leave their country. The United States government relocated them to American inner-city neighborhoods and provided them with welfare and low-income housing assistance. And the lives of the people have been transformed and disrupted in very profound ways.In observing the children at play, the cultural differences are obvious. It is not unusual to see two or three boys collaborating with very little conflict to build one car out of Legos. It is rare to see a child playing alone. In fact, a Mien child's performance on the standard kindergarten assessment tool - draw a person - could alarm an American teacher interpreting it without understanding the cultural context. Until a Mien child has been at school for a while, any self-portrait will be a drawing of the child surrounded by others.
Unfortunately, many teachers appear to be unable to grasp a cultural context where sharing, taking turns, and ...