Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Your Dad Looks Like Osama. Cultural awareness is important because we live in such a diverse country. As a teacher, I feel it is my responsibility to promote as much cultural awareness as possible in my 5th graders. As part my efforts, I invite people from diverse backgrounds to my classroom as guest speakers. I start with parents of my current students from various cultural backgrounds. Two weeks ago, I sent an invitation to the parents of my Arab-American student Mahmoud. Mahmoud's parents moved from Saudi Arabia to the US before he was born. His father works as an engineer in a large company and his mother is a nurse. I received an answer to my invitation the next day. Mahmoud's father agreed to come and talk to my class about his cultural and religious background. His guest talk was very informative and interesting. My students seemed to enjoy the session also. However, the next day I started hearing some of my students tease Mahmoud about his father's beard. They called Mahmoud's father "Osama." They asked him if his father was a "terrorist." I was shocked that despite my efforts to raise cultural awareness, my students gave into stereotypes so easily. Where did I go wrong? How should I respond to this situation? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) You didn't do anything wrong! In fact, I think you did something amazing by exposing the students to a new culture. The kids reacted in a way that was driven by media and ignorance. The students only know what they're taught or see in the media. I think that further classroom visits with Mahmoud's family/father will help the students develop more of an understanding about their culture and grow from there.