Teaching Your Child to Respect Other Cultures

Teaching Your Child to Respect Other Cultures – In a society becoming increasingly diverse it is important to equip our children with the knowledge and understanding which enables them to show respect and compassion to all people, regardless of race, religion or heritage. Children are not born with predisposed opinions about others, however, with their limited experiences and encounters they do tend to see the customs and conventions within their own little universe as ‘standard’.

Teaching Your Child to Respect Other Cultures

This can lead to them finding anything that differs from their own culture to seem unusual or even confusing. With the help of a top prep school in Surrey, I have combined some ideas to help your children embrace diversity and learn more about the cultures that exist within their community, enabling them to become a better friend and ally to those around them.

Expose & Educate

Information is the greatest tool in combating ignorance, so seize every chance to educate your child and introduce them to cultures that differ from your own. Infuse their daily lives with learning opportunities. Buy them books focused on people from different backgrounds, attend cultural events in your local area, introduce them to your friends and neighbours whose ethnicity or religion differs from your own.

The more your children experience diversity the more they will embrace it, and as their ability to show empathy grows, the more readily they will direct this towards those whose lives and appearance don’t just mirror their own. Be sure to answer any questions they have and encourage them to be curious and open minded.

Wat Kam Ko , Mae Hong Son, Thailand

Shutdown Stereotypes

Even if you actively respect other cultures within your own home, there’s still a chance your child will overhear derogatory and ignorant comments from other people. If you hear your child repeating anything like this make sure to be proactive and address it quickly to put a stop to it. Explain how stereotypes can be hurtful and damaging to other people. Talk to them about how it would feel if someone labelled or stereotyped them, especially if this label was unkind or untrue.

Even when framed as a ‘joke’, stereotypes are loaded with negative connotations and perpetuate harmful ideas about a specific group. Children tend to mimic the things they hear to get a positive reaction, often without really understanding the weight of the things they say. Be firm in your response and explain how using that sort of language is unacceptable.