 |
Category by category, a global panorama
by Peggy High ’55
 Where were Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings and C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe filmed? Which two countries have more sheep than people? Did you know that scientists have discovered a cure for cataracts in the blood of the ultraviolet light scorpion?
Members of Chapin’s Junior Cultural Awareness Program answered these questions and more for their Middle School classmates at a presentation on Tuesday.
Participation in Junior CAP, an extracurricular club that involves girls from Classes 4 through 6, has tripled over the last two years, reflecting Chapin students’ growing awareness of diversity in everything from the world’s varied cultures to its fragile ecosystem. Tuesday’s program, thoughtfully shaped by the girls’ enthusiastic choices of subject matter, used vivid projected imagery to convey details about life in different civilizations according to specific categories, such as foodways or dress.
The categories began with costumes — the outward, colorful signs of a particular culture — and concluded with language, the most profound means of understanding a country and its way of life. In between, the audience learned about the currency of Armenia, the many islands of Japan, the silk or royal dolls of Thailand and its musical instruments, the special beauty of sunsets in Jamaica and the colors of that island’s flag — black for the people, green for the land and yellow for its abundant light.
Of the ten categories presented, it is not surprising that two, “international sweets” and “European foods and desserts,” drew delighted oohs and aahs from the audience. One scrumptious image succeeded another, from the chocolate “pebbles” of France to the chocolate-orange Guinness cake of Ireland (“for those at least 21 years old!”) to the white rabbit candy of China. We also learned that the Spanish delight in their albondigas (cumin-flavored meatballs); that the average French person consumes, in one year, 45 pounds of cheese, of which France has 350 varieties; and that the poor of Ecuador eat Pella, a dish composed of green beans, rice and rabbit ears.
Though culinary imagery played a large part in the presentation, the students’ serious concerns shone throughout. This was especially true for the category that dealt with the “many small creatures not recognized in our ecosystem,” such as the coconut crab, the ultraviolet light scorpion and the planarian or flatworm, which can digest its own body. The student who chose to present this unusual but vital aspect of civilization is passionate about her subject. “Wherever you are,” she said, “you should always remember to appreciate nature.”
Lisa Moy, a Middle School history teacher and the adviser to Junior CAP, is proud of her students’ expanding cultural knowledge and the imaginative ways in which they apply it to everything from food to the natural world. “We all exist in the same ecosystem,” Ms. Moy said, “and we share, on a broader level, a true global culture which requires us to understand and respect one another.”
|
 |
