This week in class we started presentations on different types of cultures. The three groups that presented this week did a great job of explaining the culture that they were assigned. I learned new things about the Polish Culture, Amish, and Aborginal that I did know before. One thing that all these cultures seemed to have in common was that they were all very family oriented.
Some things that I found intresting about the Polish culture was that Divorce is not as common as it is here in North America. Most times unhappy marriages stick toegther for the sake of their children I thought In the Polish Culture they look at Mental Health diffrently then we do. They rarely visit a psychiatrist. They rely more on their family and people that they are close with for support. I also learned that the Polish alphabet has 26 consonants along with 9 vowels.
The 2nd presentation was on the Amish Culture. Before hearing the presentation I did have some knowledge of the Amish Culture but there was also much more for me to learn. The Amish people do their funerals a bit diffrent then how we do in Canada.
They have a funeral for someone who has died and they pay there respects. Whenever there is a funeral in the Amish culture it is very common for there to be a large attendance. There is also a large amount of food that is prepared for these funerals. Our understanding of funerals in Canada is that the people that show up are either family members, friends or people that knew that person. It soundsl like the Amish people have a really tight knit community. You don't always find that in North Amercia. The Education in the Amish culture is much diffrent then ours the children are in school up until grade 8, and additional schooling is optional. Most of the learning is done through job traning.
You would not make it very far in North America if you were to finish school that soon it just wouldn't happen due to our laws and regulations. The Amish People live a life that is far more simpler than ours they don't use elcterctiy, phone, cars and many of the other things that we use on a daily basis.
I forgot to mention Rumspringa which happens at the age of 16 for Amish teenagers. This is when the young Amish youth are allowed to leave their familes and community's and experience the "English" way of life. This is where they have freedom to do whatever they want. The video we wacthed in class gave us a good visual of the challenges that youth may face if they choose to spread there wings and experience the mainstream American culture. All these youth that were interviewed in the video were enjoying their new lifestyle. They all wanted to go back home and see their familes that they grew up with. It was hard for them to decide wether or not they wanted to go back to there Amish community or live the lifestyle there were currently living. If they choose to go back they would have to get baptised again and they would not be able to go back to the mainstream culture.
As a Child and Youth Worker I will respect every client that I work with no matter what their vaules, beliefs, cultrual background, gender, sexual orientation may be. I would treat clients that fit these backgrounds the same way I would treat any other client. Working with youth that fit one of these backgrounds would have it's challengs but that's ok because I would use skills from my classes and from placement experiences to help these children. I would use empathy, listening skills, and many other counselling skills. I would also do interventions at the appropriate time to help children and youth. I learned alot from these presentations and I will learn much more in these coming weeks I am looking foward to it.
