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Kadie Surgenor Honors American Studies Mr. Wimmer 2/9/12 “Rickard Elementary celebrates Hindu culture.”  In America, we’re big on fast food and chain restaurants, and it seems as though everything we eat is a mixture of all the cultures around the world. So if we really want to know about what we’re eating, we’ve got to learn about the culture it came from in the first place. There are so many foods around the world that we’ve never even heard of, let alone tasted!  To wrap this up, the importance of celebrating other cultures is huge and Rickard Elementary School has done a great thing by introducing the Hindu culture to its sixth graders because it is beneficial education.  The children at Rickard Elementary school had a great experience, mainly because they had a day full of fun. I don’t find it surprising that the thing that the sixth graders enjoyed the most was face-painting… and then being able to throw the paint at each other. While that was a fun activity for them to do, they also learned that that is a part of the Festival of Color that is a normal thing in the Hindu culture. It’s activities like these that get children thinking, and can really break the barriers of discrimination because everyone has respect and interest in one another’s culture. "Culture." //Dictionary.com Unabridged//. Random House, Inc. 09 Feb. 2012. . "Culture of India - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." //Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia//. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. . "Rickard Elementary Celebrates Hindu Culture on KFYR-TV North Dakota's NBC News Leader." //KFYR-TV North Dakota's NBC News Leader//. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. . "Hindu Way of Life." //Welcome to Mailerindia.com, The Best informative WebPortal !//. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2012. .
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Summary: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> At Rickard Elementary school, a class of sixth graders celebrated the Hindu culture through participating in some aspects of the Festival of Color. The Festival of Color is a festival that is typically practiced by Hindus, but was brought to this elementary school in January. But this class didn’t only celebrate by the Festival of Color, they had been learning about the Indian culture for about a month. It was an activity that was not only fun and entertaining for the children, but it encouraged the coming of spring and also symbolized getting rid of discrimination.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Relevance: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">This article tied together with culture in a very obvious way. Culture, by definition, is “the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.” Now we can define that in more simple terms by saying that culture is what makes a certain group what it is today. For example, the cuisine, music, fashion, and religious practices are all a part of the Indian culture. By celebrating another country’s culture these sixth graders really got to realize how different things are around the world, and how great it is to be different. The importance of studying other cultures is so important because often people can get into the habit of doing things, and begin to think that that’s the “normal” thing to do, or that that’s what everyone else is doing, simply because that’s the only thing they’ve ever known. When in reality, there are so many different ways to do things, for example ways of preparing food.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Evaluation: **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">In my opinion, culture is huge and it’s unfortunate that today it seems as though some people are losing sight of the importance of culture. But it’s not only important to know about your own culture, it’s important to learn about others’ too. The Hindu culture has proven to be extremely unique because some of the things that we would just shrug off or consider unimportant has great importance in their culture. For example, it is customary for a woman to be accompanied when she leaves home, and it is very unusual for a woman to live alone. Here in America with our culture there are tons of women who live alone, and even more who leave the house unaccompanied. Even though we do not practice the same aspects as the Hindu culture, I believe it is important to learn about so we can obtain the information and maybe even begin practicing some of the aspects of the culture.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Questions: **
 * 1) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Do teachers in other elementary schools find way to incorporate other cultures into their lessons?
 * 2) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">If we lived in a world where we all shared the same culture, would that help or hinder us?
 * 3) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Do they Indians that practice the Hindu culture think some of the things they do are strict, or do they think some of the things other cultures are merely unorthodox?
 * 4) <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">The children in the article definitely thought the activities they did were fun, and one even said he enjoyed getting out of class, but were they really understanding the concept of the Festival of Color and how Hindu’s celebrate it?
 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Works Cited: **