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First, I
think we do need to learn more about different cultures and change our
perceptions of them - but we also need to become aware of our own culture, of
the assumptions about learning and teaching that we take for granted. Here I
would like to quote the parent of a child who used the primary school
portfolio developed in Piedmont. After the experience, this parent wrote:
"Credo che conoscere il diverso aiuti a sentirsi uguali” – “I believe
that getting to know who’s different helps us to feel the same”. I think that
this is a most important point, because we usually tend to highlight
differences, what divides us, but we seldom point out similarities, what
unites us as human beings. Just think of the use of the words “other
cultures” or “foreign cultures”. Other than what? Foreign with respect to
what? We don’t want to deny the importance of cultural differences, but at
the same time I think we need to realize that most of the time we take our
western values as the benchmark, as the standard, and it’s against this
standard that others and foreigners are often compared and judged.
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