3. Cultural Diversity in the U.S. 

“I am poor and naked, but I am the chief of the nation. We do not want riches but we want to teach our children right. Riches would do us no good. We could not take them with us to the other world. We do not want riches. We want peace and love.” 

     - Red Cloud, Sioux chief 

A visit to Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis offered extensive information about the history of Native Americans and their transition to marginalized people in the U.S. Another visit to Amish area in Montgomery showed me how people even today can live in a way people used to live  a long time ago. How is life without modern devices and connections to outside world? Is it difficult? Or does it make life easier? When I was having dinner in an Amish restaurant with my friends, young Amish girl who served us was so delighted to meet people from foreign countries new to her: Finland and New Zealand. Now she had met people from six different countries. Probably she never travels outside of Montgomery. 

In the last three weeks I have visited three different schools here in Indiana, and there are few more visits to come. In every school I see the diversity of cultures and it is extremely difficult for me to define American culture. Is American culture what we see in movies and advertisement? What roles do Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Alaska Natives, Latinos, Puerto Ricans and Hawaiians play in this culture?  As one visitor in our Fulbright Teacher´s Friday seminar said: “All the different people are here, we make America”. 

Sioux chief Red Cloud said that they want to teach their children right. How to teach right in a country that is culturally so diverse? Who has the right to define what is right? There has been two main purposes for education in the U.S: education for citizenship and assimilation. That has not pleased all parents and homeschooling is growing. Also Charter schools and Magnet schools with their special missions are becoming more and more popular by side public and private schools. 

There is a big transmission going on worldwide. There is continually growing group of immigrants and refugees who move to new countries, carrying their own culture with them. My sincere wish is that education and teaching could be the powerful weapon to enhance peace and love in the world which is culturally more diverse than ever.