A Festival That Can Help Our Country

A palpable sense of fear, distrust, and ignorance is baked into our polarized political culture. I firmly believe, therefore, that any steps educators can take to improve younger Americans’ sense of trust, cooperation, openness, and understanding of difference should be considered.

I had the chance to participate in an event at my son’s elementary school that has the potential to make a tangible difference in our levels of social capital and shared values and culture if other schools tried to replicate its key features.

The annual event as his school—the “Multicultural Festival”—is billed as a “showcase [of] festive traditions from across our cultures,” which fills the school “with a spirit of togetherness and celebration.” The festival was incredible; there was unambiguous joy and endless smiles on the faces of so many students and family who were sharing listening, and learning.

The school gym was the setting for many performances from students and community groups, and 18 cultures were represented throughout the numerous rooms in the school. My son and I saw a marching band along with Bulgarian and Israeli dancing, we listened to music, and learned a bit of history from the Philippines to Ukraine to Australia. There were dances to try, foods to sample, and cultural traditions to experience.

Altogether, each room featured activities that were designed to absorb the children and be fun for young students: In the Canadian room, young students could make “snow” and snow-people; in the Korean room, the students played traditional Korean games, such as those featured on the Squid Game, and did archery; and in the Bulgarian room my son helped paint eggs—a famous Bulgarian Orthodox Easter tradition.

The day at my son’s school felt a like we were visiting Epcot where guests “travel” to many countries in the park. Over the years, however, many of the multicultural events I have been to have not been well done; they are inauthentic and fail to connect with participants. I was thrilled to see that the event at my son’s elementary school was the exception and other schools would be well served to try to replicate some of these features.

Specifically, the Festival took over the entire school’s facilities and succeeded, in my view, because it was truly diverse and authentically engaged with young students and their families. This was achieved because each room was created and organized by groups of families that were presenting their stories, their traditions, and showcasing their heritage and cultures.

I was amazed to learn that some of these families have been working on their rooms for years—adding new layers to their presentations each year—and parents of graduates take such pride in this work that they often return to the school to take part. It was also the case that older high school students were on hand to help and many rooms featured extended family members eager to share. I had a lovely chat with a grandparent from Ethiopia where we talked about injera bread and one of my college friends who baked it for our dorm hallway during study days. This event was a labor of love for so many; it was an authentic and long-planned festival by community members who openly wanted to teach, share, and connect with these students at a very young age. The students were euphoric throughout the day.

I certainly do not want to sound naïve in suggesting that replicating such a festival is an easy task. Events like this take time, money, and huge support from entire school communities. However, a community organized and executed multicultural festival can be an incredibly powerful teaching tool, introducing our elementary school students to diversity and difference in a truly fun, apolitical, and sincere way. The families of their friends sharing their lives, values, and customs can pay real dividends.

So many of these young students have very little bias and few falsehoods in their lives; they are genuinely open, curious, and hungry to connect and learn. Why not help them embrace as much diversity and difference now and showcase how many common bonds and shared values we as American people have in our lives? While there will certainly be moments of contention among these students as they grow and develop, helping forge tight bonds now and humanizing real disagreement can truly help moderate conflict and misunderstanding and limit extremism within friendship groups and wider communities.

I watched my son teach his classmates about Jewish holidays and traditions and I loved seeing him embrace and learn from his friends when they shared their customs and cultures with him. Truly communal multicultural festivals for our youngest students can serve as influential activity to promote civility and community. We should try to introduce as many such festivals in schools as possible.