For my class yesterday, we had to search for and define “culture”, particularly in respect to our fields of study within education, and our background. I defined culture by saying the following:

a set of beliefs, norms, or standards; actions and traditions for a specific group…there are several different types of culture (popular culture, dominant culture) and these might be specific to a certain racial and/or ethnic group, social class, religion, etc; and this culture may be learned and/or socially constructed.

After talking about our definitions of culture, we were broken into small groups of 5 or 6 where we had to talk about our individual culture, in terms of our career. We weren’t given a specific set of questions/topics to cover, but we were told to explain our background and to define our culture.

As I talked about myself, I talked about my race, educational background, and cultural differences that I had experienced from living in Athens and living in North Carolina. This sparked some questions, as people really wanted to understand what the differences were and how they had presented themselves to me. I was comfortable with my answers and my explanation of my own culture until the person after me began to describe her culture, and she included that she was a Christian.

My discomfort was not in the fact that she mentioned that she was a Christian, but more in the fact that I had not mentioned that I was. I most definitely felt convicted in some ways, in that I know that being a Christian is important in my life; however, it wasn’t “important enough” for me to mention it. As I thought further, I realized that I had sold myself short in terms of what the question was asking- that I limited myself, and thus excluded a very important aspect of my life.

I suppose I find this all to be very interesting (and I’m still trying to piece it together, so if this entry seems to be a bit disjointed, that would be why), because I have never considered my faith to be a culture, or to be an aspect of my culture. Surely it is, but I’ve never expanded my thinking to embrace this.

I don’t know what all of this means, but I’d like to see your comments..

“Of what value is the grace that I profess to have received if it does not dramatically change the way I live? If it doesn’t change the way I live, it will never change my eternal destiny.”
~C.H. Spurgeon

I’ve been playing catch-up with the news, but I want to know your opinion on the following things:

1. Survivor Tribes to be Divided by Race

This season, the different tribes for the CBS reality show Survivor will be divided by racial/ethnic groups. There will be a White Tribe, an African-American Tribe, a Hispanic Tribe, and an Asian Tribe. This could be interesting. And people are in an uproar about it. I’ve never really watched Survivor, but my classmates are thinking of having a weekly viewing session…so that might put me in the mix.

2. Louisiana Bus Driver forces Blacks to sit in the back

So, there are claims that a Louisiana school bus driver assigned all of the black students to the two back seats of the bus. Apparently the white students on the bus had lots of space, some having seats to themself; while the 9 black students had to sit in the 2 seats with the older children holding the younger children in their laps. I wonder what will become of this. This also makes me think of when I used to ride the bus home from school and my bus drivers (all of whom were black) used to ask us why we would always sit in the back, reminding us that there was a time when we had to sit in the back.

3. George Mason University does away with SAT Scores for high achievers

I was really excited when I read that George Mason University has decided to drop the SAT and other standardized test from their admissions requirements for students who are high achievers. The above article states that students who earn a 3.5 gpa and are in the top 20% of their high school class won’t have to submit those test scores with their applications, because the school feels that these tests are a poor indicator of academic achievement. George Mason might be starting a trend- similar to how UNC did when they decided to make the early decision admission non binding. We’ll see what happens. However, I think it’s interesting that schools are realizing something that a lot of people knew all along- those tests don’t REALLY test what you know.