What does the word PARADIGM mean? According to Brother Ivers it refers to a concept, idea of something that gets stored in your head and we will use those to compare it with other concepts and either relate them or evaluate them. They can be simple like what we interpret as a tree or more complex like friendship.
Our brains are super computers and are constantly coding and processing information. The brain begins to create a master folder of what it is culturally acceptable or expected. We use our core values and principles be the guide to those concepts. Per example, I grew up in Mexico and it is expected that you greet with a hand shake when you meet someone for the first time. Now, some other countries may do the same or something totally different like a bowing.
Brother Ivers shared a quote from Carlos Fuentes, "we shall know each other or we shall exterminate each other." What I got from this quote is that if we don't put the effort to get to know each other with the objective to understand each other, we will eventually destroy each other through missed interpretation and frustrations.
An ESL teacher once said that each person carries its own unique culture and even among the same people there are going to be difference in ideas and believes. We don't have to all think or believe the same paradigms but we should all believe in respect and make a greater effort to understand and know one another. In a classroom can be detrimental if we do not know those cultural paradigms. What we think is harmless can be hurtful and offensive to others.
Maribel your post was really interesting and I was glad to see you and I touched on a couple of the same things. I love how that ESL teacher you referenced shrunk a giant word 'culture' into a something so personal to each of us. I find our different cultures so curious and beautiful and hate that it can be such a bone of contention. UGH Satan is good at his job isn't he? Charity to our fellow men is key. I also love what Pres. Hinckley said, "So many of us make a great fuss of matters of small consequence. We are so easily offended. Happy is the man who can brush aside the offending remarks of another and go on his way." Let us be slow to anger and not easily offended. This will help in the crazy culture we live in and celebrate our uniqueness.
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