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Culture Vs American Culture

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Brazilian novelist Paulo Coelho once said, “culture makes people understand each other better. And if they understand each other better in their soul, it is easier to overcome the economic and political barriers.” Culture is a way of thinking, behaving, and representing a group of the same morals and art. Culture gives us a sense of belonging in society, and differences in cultures lead to diversity in people from different parts of the world. Our cultural values and beliefs manifest themselves through lifestyle, making the United States a multicultural society. In our daily lives, those who live around us, those we socialize with, and those we work with, come from different parts of the world and have different cultures, so we are forced to …show more content…
A canon is described as “’an authoritative list, as of the works of an author,’ and ‘a basis for judgement; standard; criterion’” (The Literary). In a publication by the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), it was found that the Western Canon is studied throughout public and independent schools across the nation. Romeo and Juliet and Macbeth are among the most-studied books of high-school students in the country, according to studies by the Department of Education. Not only are these books influential to American culture, they also strip other countries of the culture in their art and literature, because they have such a great influence on the world. Nigerian novelist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie recently spoke in a TED-Talk of the dangers of a “single story.” She notes that even though she lived in Nigeria, she had never read a Nigerian novel until her childhood had past. Instead, she was influenced by “the kinds of stories [she] was reading: All [her] characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples” (TEDglobal). Such Western influences have blurred original culture, especially in African states occupied by European countries, such as Nigeria. To think that a book written by European authors is in easier reach than traditional African folklore is absurd. This is not …show more content…
According to an article written by Kira Isak Pirofski, researcher at San Jose State University, researchers have continued to affirm that culturally authentic children’s literature engages the imagination and enhances the language skills of minority children. In fact, Project REACH (Respecting Ethnic and Cultural Heritage) uses multicultural learning material for teaching middle school students, as opposed to solely Western influences. The results of the program revealed that the students “scored higher than they had previously […] Participating students gained an additional 7.6 national curve points. Students not enrolled […] showed no improvement” (Multicultural). As a country, the United States is ranked 29 in effective education systems throughout the world, following behind Singapore, Hong Kong, and South Korea, in a 2015 ranking done by the Census Bureau. If countries continue to follow the Western canon, education standards will remain stagnant, and there will be little advancement in society, especially in terms of literacy, as observed by Project REACH. With the positive effects of multiculturalism, society is able to advance, as noted in the research done through Project REACH. Meanwhile, studying the Canon has had little impact on the advancement of thought or test scores, proving that disengagement from the Western

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