Who am I? What the cultural lens through which is see the world?

I am currently taking an online course about multicultural education. In this course I have been asked to reflect on what my culture is. So here goes...

Who am I?
I am white male who speaks English, to be more specific I like to call myself a northern European Mut. Sweedish, Swiss, a bit o' German, and possibly some English in there too. There have been times when I have been ashamed of my white heritage due to the calamities (crusades, genocide, slavery, etc) produced by my 'race' in the past. Because of this and my apparent love for other cultures I have always had a hard time defining what culture I am apart of. Over the years I have reached out to other cultures and been influenced by and incorporated many aspects of different cultures into my own. I think the largest piece of my personal culture comes from living in a small town in New Hampshire for a large portion of my life. I have a small town way of connecting with and valuing the people around me. I feel it is important to make a personal connection with those around you. I place a very strong and vital emphasis on family and the role it plays in my life. My family is my support structure and my mainstay that allows me to venture out and make the risks I do in my life while still feeling grounded and centered.

I feel that due to my initial aversion to associating with being white (high school age) I made it a point to go out and experience and learn about other cultures. Each and every time that I came in contact with another culture I had a desire to learn and try to understand that culture. In college I had a large group of friends who were Jamacian. This wats quite a learning experience. These people were so accepting of me and it was amazing to be the odd man out in the midst of another culture. I feel that this experience was the beginning of learning how beneficial it is to break down any boundaries keeping different groups apart. I have learned more about myself through my friendships with people who are different from me than I have from those that are similar to me. I have found that the attitude I present when coming in contact with other cultures directly influences the response I get. If I go in with an acceptance of differences and a desire to learn more I generally get a positive and open response from people of different cultures. However, those times when I have categorized groups of people or been preoccupied with perceived negative aspects of culture I have had negative interactions that further my concept of that culture.

My value system stems from two major religious systems: Christianity and Buddhism. The former is the belief system I was raised on and the latter is what I draw on more recently. I feel that the combination of the two has allowed me to have a much more open perspective to the world around me. By having compassion (Buddhism) for myself and others I have been able to connect and interact with many different 'types' of people due to the fact that we are all the same; Human. By seeing all people as having a need for love and compassion including myself it is much easier to accept and work through differences that might exist in the finer print of belief systems.

I come from a family of what could be called 'new money'. This means that my family is not accustomed to having money but rather gained money through socioeconomic advances made by my parents. I feel blessed that in spite of having more than what was necessary to survive monetarily my parents made a point of teaching my brothers and I responsibility around money. I was never allowed to think of money and the privileges that come with it as something that I have a right to. On the contrary, I was taught money is something that one needs to be responsible and strategic with. It does provide luxury and security that can make life easier. However, money is transient and can just as easily disappear (as we have all seen with the recent stock market crash). As a result I have learned to place focus on things other than money as what keeps me satiated and feeling satisfied.

As I have grown up I can see so many ways that having money has eliminated possible problems or strife when it comes to the options I have before me at certain junctions in my life. In the other hand I can see how not having money can be a self perpetuating situation. Those with lower Socioeconomic status (SES) statistically have more health problems, and lower achievements in education. The combination of these three things are strong predictors for 'success' in the capitalistic society that is the USA. I feel that education is one avenue to try to equalize the playing field. By attempting to educate and provide skills to those children/students who may not have the money to back them these children will hopefully be able to rise above and find another way to exist in the world than that they came from. I would like to say that I feel too much emphasis is placed on money in our culture. I see education as a way to help children achieve what it is their hearts desire rather than being forced into one specific realm of work or SES.

Sliding on to another area of culture; Language. I love language. I love to encourage the use of many different types of language and feel it is important to value and learn new languages. I envy those people who know and are able to use multiple languages. I personally am only fluent in English and can partially understand conversational Spanish. I have found it improves interactions with parents and students when I attempt to communicate with them through their native language, even if it is broken and horrible. They almost always smile and open up to more and more interaction. It is amazing to see the difference. It is a wonderful role reversal most of the time. Instead of conversing and operating on my playing field I allow myself to show that I understand what it is like and I desire to work with them.

As a man I have an experience a very similar situation to that I have previously describe for race in the 1st paragraph. Due to all of the oppression men have done toward women I have a tendency to over compensate by trying to make up for all of the insensitive mistakes of my fellow males of the past. I fell ashamed when I hear men 'cat calling' a female across the street, or eying a beautiful woman as she enters the room. I feel this sort of objectification boxes women in and limits how they can be perceived. As I have stated before I have begun to come to terms and learn that by keeping and open mind to women and learning from them I am able to become a better man and start to set a positive example for those around me.

So there it is... My Cultural, Personal, belief system lens that I see the world through. As with anything associated with a human mind it is constantly shifting, growing and changing. I can only imagine how this blog will look tomorrow, this weekend, or next year. In fact I am really happy to have this to come back to. I want to see how I will change and be able to see where I am at currently. I feel that many of my beliefs and experiences have set me up to be a very understanding and compassionate teacher. I hope that I am able to take my understanding of cultures, class, language, gender, religion etc. and make a positive impact on the world I come in contact with.