Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         Case: Christmas around the world. My son goes to second grade. The first week of December my son's teacher started a short unit on Christmas around the world. As part of this unit, she asked each child to bring some type of food from a country for a Christmas celebration at school. She assigned the countries to the children and sent notes to children's homes in their communication folders. As a parent I do not have a problem with any of this. Here is what is puzzling to me. I immigrated to the US about 15 years ago from France. My wife is from Romania. My son was born in the US but he has strong French and Romanian cultural roots. I believe his teacher knows about my son's cultural background. However, my son was assigned to bring German food for the Christmas celebration. As a parent, I cannot understand why he was not assigned to bring French or Romanian food. What could be the teacher's reasoning? Should I be upset about this? Wouldn't it be better for my son to represent a part of his heritage in the classroom? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) If I were in your shoes, I would first ask myself "Does my child know about the German culture?" If the answer is "no", then I would assume that the other children within the class, who were more than likely born in the U.S., too, do not know about other countries cultures. The teacher, therefore, is trying to "expand the horizons" of her students by having them study and bring in food from other cultures. If your child's teacher chose French or Romanian food for your child to bring in, what would he be learning from this experience? However, if another child has been chosen to bring in French or Romanian food, the teacher could call on your son and he could help the students better understand the French and Romanian cultures. Therefore, I do not think there is any reason to get upset.