April 21, 2004
Westwoods imparts wordly view
Diversity Day offers sights, sounds and smells of other cultures
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
From trying on a chador to tasting kugel to learning Spanish, students from Westwoods Elementary School sampled the food, art, music and clothing of cultures around the world.
Every two years, the school holds the all-day Diversity Day that brings the tastes, sights, sounds and smells of other cultures to their classrooms. Monday's event featured numerous speakers as well as an all-school musical presentation at the end of the day by Judy Piazza, a professional performer.
"I loved the food and I loved the music and I loved everything I learned," enthused Hannah Cozart, a second grade student at the school.
Cozart also tried on the traditional Saudi Arabian female dress, donning the full-length black robes that included a veil to completely cover her face and head. Lillian Kroupa, who has lived and worked in that country, introduced students to this Middle Eastern culture. In addition to clothing samples for both males and females, she brought Saudi money, traditional tea and coffee services and ornate incense burners.
"There are no movie theaters in Saudi Arabia," said Kroupa, who taught English in a girls' school there. "I could only teach girls and there is a big wall around each school."
At the end of her presentation to a class of first and second graders, she invited students to try on the traditional garb.
"It was cool to wear, I think it would be cool to wear it every day," said Cozart of the long black robes and veils.
The school has held a Diversity Day every other year for the past six years. The goal is to bring a slice of different lifestyles and cultures to the students.
"We have representatives from all over the world and we also have a hearing impaired person today, because that's another kind of diversity," said Gail Ericson, a third-grade teacher at the school. "If you walk into some of the classrooms today, you'll see traditional dress and hear other languages."
"Traverse City is not a very diverse community so this is an eye opening experience for them," she added. "The kids look forward to it."
The cafeteria Monday wafted with taste bud-opening experiences as volunteers presented traditional foods from six different countries. Represented this year were Greece, Germany, Israel, Italy, Venezuela and Japan. Students tasted stuffed grape leaves, traditional Venezuelan cookies and fried bread, matzoh with butter, pasta and egg drop soup.
"I liked my mom's food," said Raizel Coiman loyally, a fourth grade student whose mother presented the tastes of Venezuela. "But I also liked the pasta, it's my favorite food. I like every kind of food, we even eat sushi at home."
As students moved from table to table, they received a miniature sticker flag of each country on their 'passport.' This document, which was specially prepared for the day, contained their picture on the outside and allowed them to mimic world travel through customs checkpoints.
Suzanne VanderKlipp, a parent of two boys at the school, staffed the Israel table, dispensing a quick lesson on the basics of traditions and food of this Jewish State. Two years ago, she served up food from her family's Hungarian heritage.
"I love exposing the kids to different cultures," said VanderKlipp, who borrowed items for display from friends and also had library books on Israel on display. "I don't know if they have that opportunity to learn about them otherwise. I think the little ones are more adventurous, they are more willing to try things."
David Kaggwa, a native of Uganda who teaches ninth-grade math at West Junior High School, brought the sights and sounds of Uganda to the school library. Wearing traditional Ugandan dress, he demonstrated traditional East African instruments and also brought Ugandan money, dolls and jewelry for students to examine.
"My emphasis is to look at the similarities of the different cultures because the Western culture has so much influence worldwide," he said. "Diversity means some things are the same and some things are different."