- The integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behavior that depends upon the capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations
- The customary beliefs , social forms, and material traits of racial, religious, or social group; also: the characteristics features of everyday existence (as diversions or a way of life) shared by people in a place or time i.e. popular culture; southern culture
- The set of shared attitudes, values, goals, and practices that characterizes an institution or organization
- The set of values, conventions, or social practices associated with a particular field, activity or societal characteristic
I want to pref ice my blog with saying that this is yet another aspect of life that I never really examined and its relationship to how a teacher conducts him or herself in education students.
As we all know how we are raised helps to build the foundation of our beliefs as we grow up. Eventually, as we all grow older, we build our own beliefs and ideas from life experiences.
How was I raised? What values were instilled in me? Did my family value education and hard work? Did religion play a factor in my upbringing? School, family gatherings, holidays, friends, where I went to school, the television I watched and the books I read....it all played a part in the formation of who I was and have become in my life.
I grew up most of my life in northern New Jersey attending private schools in my elementary and junior high years. I remember my school was full of children from affluent families composed primarily of white children. there was only one African American boy in my grade and one Indian girl. I was never exposed to anything non-traditional or outside of the box. My teachers were are older females who remained at this same school for more than a decade and were probably educators longer than that. Their lesson plans and teaching styles were stale and tedious. Few interesting things happened when we were learning in school. The traditional read from your text book & answer the questions at the end of the chapter routine with much busy work during the day, nothing really interesting...maybe that is why my memories of elementary school are few and far between.
The truth is that I feel like I didn't have much culture at all growing up and that the culture I have now came through the experiences I have had as I have gotten older and made my own explorations and inquiries into anything that strikes my fancy. I know that I am deciding my own religion as I go along reading about many and keeping my mind open. I know that I am always doing my best to be open to the lives and cultures of others because it can add to our own experiences and thoughts. I do think my culture is still being formed as I grow and move into this next chapter of my life. I believe that I will learn a lot from my students over the next few years and take bits and pieces of their cultures along with me. Maybe the reason I have never defined myself as belonging or participating in a certain culture is due to the fact that all along I have been creating my own. Something to think about.
