BUILDING BRIDGES OF UNDERSTANDING
Master’s Thesis - 1997
Rose Owens
A bridge connects two different
sides of a river or a gap, creating a unity between the opposite sides. Once a bridge is built, individuals may pass
freely from one side to the other.
Bridges of understanding imply that people understand and accept the
commonality of all people, which is that all people are important and have
value and that no one person is less or more than another--merely
different. Although every human being
has the same basic need to be accepted and valued by others, this doesn't
always happen for every individual.
Differences between individuals is one of the reasons that this needed
affirmation of individual worth is either not given or not received. Both diversity and lack of understanding
cause human beings to injure and hurt each other. As a result, chasms of misunderstanding and
hostility become deeper and wider.
People
are more alike than different. This is
the reason that we need to look at the whole individual and then recognize all
of the things that make that individual unique. Minority, handicapped,
underachiever, gifted, rich, poor, illiterate‑‑all of these are
labels which may be attached to an individual but none of these labels can truly describe the uniqueness of an
individual. Labels focus our attention
on only one piece of an individual. In
order to build bridges, we must examine the whole of humanity rather than subdivide it into
categories. Ultimately, we must realize
that the commonality of human beings is more important than their differences.
The programs currently available
that promote diversity awareness are fragmental. They are like the six blind men who went to
look at an elephant. Each man felt one portion of the elephant's anatomy
and arrived at a conclusion about the whole.
“The elephant is like a snake,” said the first blind man. “No, the elephant is like a wall,” argued the second. Each of the others in turn perceived the
elephant to be like a spear, a fan, a tree or a rope. Each blind man had discerned some valuable
piece of information but missed the whole.
When anyone begins by identifying categories of people, then there is an
implication that there are categories of
problems which can be solved a piece at a time.
Programs have been developed for disability awareness education to help
adults and children accept the differences of
people with disabilities. There
are programs to develop appreciation for
cultural diversity. Programs have
also been developed to deal with
self-esteem, anti-bias and prejudice.
There are support groups for the grieving and for at-risk kids. Each of these programs have been designed in
an attempt to solve a particular problem when
our priority ought to be developing humanity awareness. Humanity awareness involves the understanding that there is a
commonality of all people. All people
have value no matter what their individual differences may be. People are more alike than different. We need to look at each individual as a part
of humanity and to value the diversity of human beings. As
each individual's self-awareness and self-esteem increases--as each individual
comes to value himself as an individual--he becomes capable of granting that
same understanding to other individuals who
are like him in many ways and different in some ways. Helping each other
increase humanity awareness is not a
goal that can be achieved by accident.
This process involves understanding current attitudes, developing
programs, establishing communication and providing contact with diversity on an
ongoing basis.
We must first change attitudes. Each person’s attitude about himself or
herself and the attitudes of others toward that person are critical to his or
her success. When people do not learn
basic principles of kindness, they dig gaps of hostility which will continue to
get deeper and wider. Like the Once-ler
in the story of The Lorax, we are forced to conclude that "UNLESS
someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get
better. It's not" (Dr. Seuss, 1971).
It is easier to never allow gaps of
hostility to be dug than it is to build bridges over them. This is a very idealistic statement because
in reality most children leave home with
a preconceived set of positive or negative attitudes. Children are not born with attitudes of
hatred. Nor are they born with an
attitude of acceptance for diversity. They
acquire these attitudes from the people
they associate with. It is therefore
essential that children’s early experiences with diversity are positive.
There are many bridges of
understanding that need to be built.
Children need to understand and accept each other. We need bridges of understanding between
adults, between children, and between adults and children. In fact, whenever two or more individuals
interact, there exists the potential to construct a bridge of
understanding.
Literature
has the potential to become a powerful tool for constructing bridges of
understanding. A story has the ability
to draw people together and allows them to
share the same experience.
Exploring the actions and possible motives of the characters allows
people to examine many kinds of diversity and attitudes in a non-threatening
way. It is often more comfortable for people
to talk about a character from a story than to risk talking about a character
from a story than to risk talking about themselves.
Storytelling
and storylistening can build self-esteem and understanding of differences.
Once the gap of hostility
has been bridged, people can arrive at a unity of purpose, with the focus being
on the whole individual. This can only
come about when attitudes change. People
must want to build a bridge or it will
never get built. Changing attitudes may
be regarded as only the beginning but it is the only logical place to begin if
we want to bring about change.
All children share a commonality: they are more alike than
different. All children share the need
to have self-worth, to be loved, respected, given the chance to learn, grow and
develop to their fullest potential. All
children are normally interested in learning and obtaining knowledge and skill. All or most children will go through the
normal periods of childhood, adolescence, courtship, marriage, raising families,
obtaining and maintaining employment and old age, with all the problems that
normally accompany these phases of life.
All children have some problems with peer relationships and in
socializing with others. All need to
learn to communicate effectively with others.
(Thomas, 1989) In addition, all
children have in common the fact that they individually have particular
challenges, abilities and characteristics that are uniquely theirs. Each child deserves to be valued for himself
or herself, to have all facets of his or her individuality recognized. Therefore no child ought to have any one characteristic become an identifying
label. Most exceptional children are
very much like other children in many respects.
The same can be said of ESL
students and children who are shy. The
list of categories of children who happen to have some recognizable problems
could continue on and on. The very fact
that it is possible to create these lengthy lists emphasizes the fact children
are more alike than different.
When we look at the whole of
mankind, there is much diversity. We are
a nation of diverse populations and groups.
We need to be able to effectively talk with one another, to reach mutual
understandings, and to realize that in diversity there is strength. (Wittmer, 1992) This diversity is all encompassing and
includes gender, religious beliefs, physical capabilities/disabilities, race,
country of origin, and lifestyle
differences. Spencer Krenek, who was a
junior at
.
Current
curriculum approaches to dealing with diversity are fragmental. A review of some of the literature dealing
with diversity (multicultural, physical handicaps, anti-bias, etc.) reveals
that the need to change attitudes toward diversity is a common concern. However, mere recognition of the need to
change attitudes is not sufficient.
Teaching acceptance of diversity must be an integral part of our
schools.
Understanding the uniqueness of a
child allows us to also understand that differences are strengths, not problems
to be fixed. In Aesop's fable of the ant and the grasshopper, the ant works to store food for the winter
while the grasshopper (who has a different modality) sings and dances. In Aesop's version, the industrious ant tells
the grasshopper he can sing and dance all through the winter. The ant refuses to share his food with the
lazy grasshopper. (The labels accentuate
their differences.) (
In a gentler version of this fable,
the grasshopper arrives at the door of the ant.
He is hungry and cold. The ant
swings the door open wide and says, "Come in! We're so bored. Won't you sing us a song and tell us a
story?"
"What about work?" someone may ask. "Don't ants work harder than grasshoppers?
No.
Grasshoppers work differently from
ants. This is very important. Differences are just that--differences. If we think of them as differences to be
fixed, then they become weapons with which we wound each other. There's room enough in the world for both
ants and grasshoppers. Grasshoppers
aren't expected to behave like ants nor the ants like grasshoppers. So why is it sometimes hard for ants to
welcome grasshoppers or hard for grasshoppers to respect the contributions of
ants? Maybe there are ways that ants and
grasshoppers can't work together; maybe ants and grasshoppers don't achieve the
same results. But there are usually
parts of the same project where they can cooperate or times when the same
project needs the talents of both. When
people know what their differences and similarities are, then they can
capitalize on them happily. One individual may not like someone else's differences. He may not even like his own. There are dozens of circumstances that create
differences and the differences are real.
They are unavoidable, and they are okay. We need differences. We need both grasshoppers and ants. There is strength in diversity. (
The
statement that there is a need to first look at the whole problem and then
examine the individual pieces must not be interpreted as a belief that this
strategy alone is sufficient to solve the problem. Breaking a problem down into smaller pieces
is a useful approach as long as we remain aware of the whole problem. We must first carefully look at the whole
before beginning an examination of the individual pieces. If we attempt to examine the individual
pieces without looking at the whole, it is, in one sense, like taking a new jigsaw puzzle out of its
box and sorting the pieces without ever looking at the picture on the lid. An attempt to sort the pieces by color will
give each participant enough pieces to assemble a portion of the puzzle. But what about the pieces that can belong to
either of two categories? What about the
pieces that initially appear to belong to one category but actually belong to
another? And there may be a few pieces
that just don’t seem to belong anywhere.
If we continue to work at the problem of assembling the puzzle by only
using the pieces in our "designated" category, the whole picture will
never emerge. If we throw out the
pieces that don’t seem to belong, there will be empty spaces in the
picture. Each piece is essential and
necessary to the whole picture. People
are the individual puzzle pieces of humanity.
If we treat them like puzzle pieces—if we categorize and label them
before we begin the process of meeting their needs—then it will be difficult
for a whole picture to emerge.
Is
diversity the problem? Is ignorance the
problem? Or labels? Or current segregation policies? Some of these issues were examined by
Phillips (1988). She concludes that
difference in culture [or any other "diversity"] is not the problem.
Changing attitudes is a very
idealistic concept--important, but idealistic.
It is like the problem which confronted the mice in Aesop's fable
"Belling the Cat". It was
easy for the mice to agree that tying a bell on the cat would be of immense
future benefit to all, but no one could
figure out just exactly how to accomplish the task. Not one mouse was willing to risk the
commitment involved to devise a plan and implement it. Similarly, it is easier to state that
attitudes must change before programs can change than it is to devise a plan to
bring about that change.
Because there is a diversity of
individuals, and a diversity of the characteristics that make individuals
different, it also seems logical that there will be a diversity of solutions. There is no one strategy that will automatically bring about positive
changes in attitudes. A study of the
professional literature reveals a variety of strategies. Most of these have been designed to foster
awareness for a specific area of diversity, but also contain elements
applicable to the concept of humanity awareness.
Literature can be used to initiate a
process which presents an opportunity for each student to understand and change
his own attitude. Storytelling is part of the process of education.
Since
time’s beginning the oral tradition—the great process of the transmission of
knowledge from one person or one generation to another—has found its expression
in stories. . . .
Education
in our times cannot take place without the written word; but it cannot take
place either, in our times or any other, without the spoken one, without the
voice of the teacher. Perhaps in the
relation between the two is the very essence of transmission. . . . There is no substitute for the teacher
and his voice: for the story told aloud, … for the living gesture that
interprets human understanding.
Knowledge may be expressed in many forms, but someone must express it
and someone else receive it, test it, and interpret it anew. Whatever education is or is not, it must be
the transmission of a living energy, and human beings must exchange it. . . . Education, which means a leading out,
must mean a development from the inside, an opening of the inner eye; it must
mean a development of inner strength. The word “discipline” is out of style, but it
simply means teaching, and the learning of the teaching by a “disciple.” And if the truth makes us free, true
education surely also must bring a kind of inner liberation from our more
ignorant inner slaveries—especially …
freedom from fear. . . . Perhaps it is only people who are educated in this
sense who can respond to life, its situations and inhabitants, … with what he
calls wisdom and compassion.
(Dooling, 1979)
In their
introduction to Ready-To-Tell Tales, Holt and Mooney (1994) explain their philosophy. "We live in a multicultural
society. Stories tell of our
similarities and differences, our strengths and weaknesses, our hopes and
dreams. They have the power to teach us
understanding and tolerance. This is a
powerful tool." (Holt and
Mooney) Connections may be made with
students through storytelling because "storytelling offers a direct
approach to children" (Saltman , 1985).
The events of a well-chosen story catch and hold interest.
The
flattery of sharing an experience with an adult, the warmth of the voice, the
intimacy, and the sense of direct, sincere and eager communication between
teller and listeners are responsible for the unique relationship between
storyteller and audience. Good
storytelling breaks down such barriers as difference in age and the awe in
which children sometimes hold their elders.
Tell children a story they enjoy, and they look upon you as an equal
[and] trust you with revelations they would never have thought of sharing. (Saltman)
Storytelling not only forms a
connection between child and storyteller, it also gives
. . . the child a feeling of interconnection with the larger
frame of things. If I hear the story of
the ugly duckling I know that I am part of the human experience; it isn’t only
me, it is somebody else, in another world, another land, another time. The way in which stories begin: “Long ago and
far away,” “once upon a time,” gives the continuity between myself and the past
and another culture. (As the twig is
bent, 1979)
Watching television or a video
cannot replace the storytelling experience because watching is a passive
experience. During the presentation,
there is no interaction between the characters and the viewer. The image on the screen can’t be interrupted
unless you simply turn it off. (Charles,
et. al., 1979)
When a child hears a story … you have all of that physical
intimacy which is part of the story. The
fact that the child is interacting … is part of the process of why the story is
important; it isn’t just the story, it’s that he is hearing it from [someone
who is important to him]. If he hears it
in school, it’s a communal experience: other children reacting and interacting,
even their restlessness and the interruptions, the asking of questions, is
important. . . . The story is the pretext for getting together
in a personal way. With television there
is none of that intimacy that is characteristic of storytelling, between people
who are personally involved. (As the
twig is bent, 1979)
Once this personal connection is
formed, many children are ready to identify with a character who has some
aspect of diversity. They are able to
explore feelings and understand feelings.
He is able to “look out or down at it from another level to see what is
really happening. What am I
feeling? And what, indeed, do I think
about all this?” (As the twig is bent,
1979) Children need to have the
opportunity to find their own point of view.
Because a story is presented always as an “as if,” “make-believe”, “once
upon a time” reality, (Hillman, 1979) many children feel more free to express
thoughts, opinions and feelings than if they were discussing a true or factual
situation.
Bridges of understanding are needed to insure that the diverse
individuals in our world are treated with dignity and respect. People need to recognize that individuals are more alike than different,
that there is a commonality among all people.
The students in our schools are diverse, having different backgrounds,
different cultures, different abilities.
It therefore ought to be our responsibility to devise strategies to
foster humanity awareness education
A broader perspective is
needed. Curriculum should be planned to
change people's attitude towards all of humanity (who individually have diverse
attributes) instead of merely to change attitudes toward one small segment of
humanity. The curriculum developed
should not be a one day "multicultural fair" or a "disability
awareness day", but the existing curriculum should be modified to
integrate humanity awareness concepts on an ongoing basis. There is a need for unity, to first look at
the whole individual and then understand all the differences that make that
individual unique. This concept must be
expanded and humanity awareness strategies must be developed to help us
understand the diversity of all people.
When people learn compassion and learn to understand and accept the
differences of others, their attitudes will change.
Accepting diversity means that we
must value the differences in all peoples.
Once we accept that we are a diverse people, we can then understand that
no one curriculum can meet every individual’s needs. The particular strategy or strategies used in
a particular classroom will vary depending on the diversity of the classroom
and the individuality of the teacher. No
one curriculum can be identified as “THE” solution—but can be recognized as one
of many possible solutions. We need many
different approaches if we are to change attitudes toward diversity. The best solution is the one that meets the
needs of the students, teachers, administrators, parents, and others in the
community. We should focus on changing
attitudes rather than on changing
programs. This means that no
matter where the individual is--mainstreamed, in special classrooms, or in the
community--that individual deserves to be treated as a human being. We must acknowledge differences but also
recognize that diversity is not a problem to be solved, but a strength.
We ought not to be afraid to ask questions. How do we feel about diversity? Are differences bad? Is this particular difference really important? Is this fair? How would I feel? Maybe we should ask questions a little more
often. When we ask better questions we
can get better answers. Not all
questions even have answers. And even
when answers come, they can't always be implemented quickly. But unless we start asking questions, there
will never be any hope of changing and growing.
(
There is power in literature. Literature can be one starting point for
humanity awareness education. It can
help children to understand similarities and differences. Stories of all kinds can be used to help
teach tolerance and understanding of diversity.
Literature gives children a way to talk about their attitudes and
feelings and to explore the attitudes of others. Children can talk about the feelings and
actions of a character in a story without revealing that they are actually
talking about themselves because the story framework provides a
"safe" atmosphere in which to explore feelings and attitudes. The unique relationship between storyteller
and listener can facilitate more positive attitudes toward diversity. Literature is therefore one possible way to
build bridges of understanding.
How will we know when we have
achieved the goal of teaching humanity awareness? There is an old Jewish folk tale about a
rabbi who is asked how one can know the moment of dawn. The rabbi says simply, “Dawn is the moment
when there is enough light to see the face of another as that of a brother or
sister” (
As a storyteller, I have
experienced the connection that can be made between storyteller and child. It can be powerful. If I tell a story and the child likes it, a
bond between us
is formed. If given the opportunity, the
child will share his thoughts and feelings on many topics because I am now his
friend.
The discussion that follows a story
(or sometimes during a story) provides a
framework for discussion of issues with minimum of risk. Discussing a story allows a child to discuss
his own attitudes without having to feel self-conscious. In the guise of discussing a character, he
can reveal his own problems, thoughts and feelings without so much risk. I have seen students totally “clam up” when
I attempted to discuss issues of tolerance on the school campus. I was left with the feeling that I was giving
a lecture, not guiding a discussion. Yet
the same students after viewing the movie, “The Elephantman” and reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond were able to discuss and write about
discrimination and stereotype attitudes in some depth. Several students revealed thoughts and
concerns they had never been able to express previously. Although they were actually talking about
themselves, they didn’t perceive it as a risk.
Just as we recognize that we have
diversity among our students, we should also recognize that humanity awareness
must be taught in many different ways. I
believe that literature is one valid approach to sharing humanity awareness
concepts with students. The diversity of
folk tales and stories from around the world can provide more than
entertainment or understanding of different cultures. They can help us build bridges of
understanding.
Definitions
awareness
Awareness involves recognition, acceptance and tolerance.
commonality
Commonality is the concept that all people share the same
basic needs. Therefore all people are
important and have value no matter what their
individual differences may be.
diversity
Diversity is the
differences between individual members of the human race. These may be differences in language, race,
country of origin, physical and mental capabilities/disabilities, background,
value systems, religious beliefs, political beliefs, gender, or lifestyle.
humanity awareness
Humanity awareness is
the understanding that there is a commonality among all human beings. It
involves acceptance of the value and abilities of each individual with
an understanding that differences are only a part of the whole individual. It also implies a willingness to meet the
individual needs of each person.
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Copyright
1997 Rose Owens