I am not a box... I am me

"You were born an original. Don't die a copy." ~John Mason


I believe that a book can’t be judged by the cover nor can a person be defined into one category. In Western culture, we try to portray ourselves as a nation that is a melting pot and welcoming of every race. Our Western culture even has a monument representing freedom and accepting of others.

The Statue of Liberty stands tall in New York, given to us by another country, France. This monument, which represents our “melting pot” has been standing for over a century. Inscribed on the statue is a message that reads, "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" (Emma Lazarus, 1883). If this is what we believe as a country, then why over a century later is our society dealing with issues of prejudice and race? And more importantly, why is it that the new generation of our society being faced with these issues? In order to answer my own questions, I have to think about how these fragile minds are experiencing their each own individual cultures and society.

There seems to be many cultures that intertwine with one another in our society, that makes and individual not one or the other, but a mix of “this and that.” As a child growing up and going through many different school systems around the world, I often had to fill out forms declaring what race I most “associated with”. These questions often had me thinking about what “I” am and how I am a product of not only different races but different cultures that I “associated with”.

My mother is originally from Panama, Central America, while my father is European-American branching from Germany. Although these countries were where my ancestors had come from, I was raised to “associate” with many other different races. When I was very young, my father remarried and my step-family was from El Salvador. Even though Panama and El Salvador are considered in a group as Hispanic countries, they each have their own individual histories and experiences of how they came to be. In my younger years, I would often hear my older step-brother and step-sister complain about being called Mexicans. “What’s the big deal?” I thought. “We all speak Spanish, right? So aren’t we all the same?”

As a young girl not knowing much about life, I was being molded by my surroundings and experiences. Moving around with my military father, I attended many schools. Often these schools were predominantly African-Americans, and so were the schools attended by my older step-sister and step-brother. When I was still a child, they were both coming into their teenage years. How they acted and viewed themselves was highly influenced by their peers in school. I watched their clothing and linguistics change throughout the years, which also affected me as well. I, as a young child was being shaped not only by my older siblings' views, but also by my community, which for me were public school and the media.

When I think back to how I became who I am today, I am flooded with so many different cultures and communities that I have experienced throughout my life. I have come to realize that children may come up with their own ideas and thoughts, but how they confirm whether these ideas are true or false depends on their surroundings and how they experience these demonstrations.

Since our society is made up of many different race and cultures, as the new generation of teachers, we should expect to see this diversity in our classrooms. We know that children learn best when they feel safe and comfortable. I believe that in order for children to feel this way, they have to feel secure in their own skin and feel accepted for who they are in every aspect of their being.