Cultural differences can undermine student learning

When Grace Lee’s brother began kindergarten in America after immigrating from Korea, his teacher found him uncooperative. The little boy could not understand even simple instructions about conduct and coloring. He colored the sun in his pictures red instead of yellow.

The problem, says Lee, herself a math teacher now in Clayton County, was both language and cultural differences. Her brother’s teacher, Mrs. B, did not recognize all the differences at first.

Lee says, “Despite being teacher of the year, she could not get him to follow even the most basic instructions—‘Stop running,’ ‘Sit down,’ ‘Don’t crawl underneath the table.’ Moreover, when Mrs. B asked my brother to draw a snowman, he would produce two circles instead of three, and when he drew the sun, he would color it in with a red crayon.Though Mrs. B did not realize it at first, the issue was just as much a gap in cultural understanding as it was a language barrier. In Korea, snowmen have only two parts, and the sun is drawn red. My mother was eventually able to explain this to Mrs. B after spending the next three months in my brother’s kindergarten class, the condition for allowing him to stay in school.”