Center for Cultural Understanding

Cultural Education Program

John McKechnie, Executive Director

What others have said about John McKechnie's Cultural Education Program

Introduction

The Cultural Education Program offers the opportunity for students to participate in a process that will bring them to greater awareness of other cultures and become more respectful and empathic of our young people who are different. The premise is that we can teach our students to be more empathetic and respectful of both foreign cultures and those within our own borders who have these differences. The overwhelming benefit of being thought of in the way of being more tolerant and respectful, especially to foreign nations, will have a positive impact on how United States citizens are viewed and treated throughout the world. By giving respect and empathy, United States citizens would be given respect and empathy in return.

If we can teach our students to be more empathetic and respectful of people who have differences within our own borders, we should be able to diminish incidences of discrimination based on intercultural ignorance and misunderstanding. Participation in this program will also foster an attitude more conducive to learning of other cultures, learning what contributions to our everyday lives these cultures have made and to appreciate their contributions, not only for what they have done for their own nations, but for what contributions they have made to our own as well.

Program Design

The program is designed to foster an increase in empathy and respect both nationally and internationally, to introduce our students to cultures completely foreign to them, but that might actually be within our own borders. There are thousands of cultures within our own borders that should be recognized and given the respect they deserve. The program will allow people to recognize that there are people who can look at the same thing and see two completely different things. They can have two completely different opinions. This doesn't mean that it's any better or worse, just different. Although it may be different, we still should respect that person's opinions, positions and way of life.

To reach these goals of fostering empathy and respect for alternative cultures, both internationally and within the United States, the Cultural Education Program sets forth a three-step process that gradually allows our students to experience cultural differences before they leave the confines and protection of home and become fully self-reliant.

Intrastate Exchanges

Students will visit another school somewhere in Maine to experience another culture such as the French, Aroostook County, N'orleans,  Downeast, etc. It doesn't matter which culture is selected. It is just important to experience a culture different from the one that students have experienced throughout their lives. Doing this allows students to see that ways of viewing issues and opinions other than the way their friends and family see it are also valid. Young people should learn from this and value other peoples' choices. Then as young people mature and grow into their own, they will have the opportunity to be melding this new set of realizations into their own personalities and thus will better prepare themselves for the coming world.

Interstate Exchanges

Students will experience another cultural within the United States borders. This will allow students to have a little more independence, experience a culture a little further away but still within the U.S. borders and still speaking English so that the additional burden of conversing in another language isn't as yet a problem. They have more differences to learn about but are still within the cooperation of their own home country. The objective is to make each of the interstate experiences add to and make the intrastate experiences grow into a continuous effort within the borders of the United States.

International Exchanges

Building on the theory of increased levels of responsibility, the third step is an international exchange. This exchange will allow students to experience what it is like outside of the United States. to be outside of the United States, within the borders of another country, their laws, customs and cultures, now taking precedence over the United States and students having to realize that they are now part of an international society that must recognize and value not just the society in which they grew up, but also the alternate cultures and societies that others grew up in. By advocating for the value of all cultures, empathy and respect can be given and received from each to the other and back, thus creating an atmosphere in which trust and cooperation is valued over strength and inherited wealth. This trust and cooperation will subsequently grow and foster more opportunities for personal, cultural and societal growth. By each country's participation, they will be educating their youth to be prepared for the coming world society and by education the coming generations to be accepting of diversity, they are preparing for a less contentious world, with less conflicts and more joint efforts in which the value of the open-minded, respectful, intelligent person will be the most revered. Even though what we experience might be different than what we are used to, we must realize that the culture another person chooses to live in, is their choice and we must accept what they believe to be the best for them.

If you are interested in learning more about the Cultural Education Program, please complete one of the following Interest Surveys.

We appreciate your time to consider our program and your interest in teaching empathy and respect of different cultures and individual differences.

With Warmest Regard,

John McKechnie

School Participation Survey

Student Interest Survey

Family Interest Survey