What is Regional Identity? TEF Fellow ruth visits Meißen
On April 8, our Transatlantic Educators Fellow, Ruth, visited Pestalozzi-Oberschule in Meißen. Read her short report below.
On April 8, I had the pleasure of facilitating a lesson about American Regional Identity with an 8th grade group at the Pestalozzi-Oberschule in Meißen. While the »official« workshop was today, I also had the opportunity earlier this week to complete an abbreviated version of the lesson with two other 8th grade classes at my school, both Haupt- and RealschülerInnen.
I opened the workshop by discussing the difference between stereotypes and generalizations to provide students with the framework to think about both domestic and international cultural differences. My goal with this workshop was to have students engage critically with the question »How does the place we come from define who we are?«
I first asked students to tell me stereotypes about Germans and Germany, as a comparison point before transitioning to talking about the USA. I then asked students to name things they knew about American culture and Americans. This generated quite an amusing list of places (Hollywood, NYC), people (e.g. Dwayne the Rock Johnson), and stereotypes about people from the USA. I then attempted to debunk these stereotypes by emphasizing the sheer size of the US (with the help of some excellent maps) and discussing regional diversity across the US. I used my home state, New Mexico, and my university state, Ohio, as »case studies« to show the range of experiences, communities, and landscapes in different states. After the formal presentation part of the workshop, I gave students worksheets that had them learn about a specific state, which I assigned: they found information on topics like region, most common languages, minority communities, natural landscape features, industry, and so on. It was my goal to expand their understanding of the USA beyond California and New York, which they focus on heavily in their normal class 8 English curriculum.
Throughout the lesson I tried to pose similar questions about Germany/Saxony/Meißen to have students think critically about German stereotypes and regional diversity. This prompted some interesting comments about industry in Meißen (procelain and wine), German traditions (Christmas, Easter, Weinfest, traditional foods, etc.), and differences between eastern and western Germany. Because these students were 8th graders, I think their concept of regional identity is not yet highly relevant to their personal identities; nonetheless, I enjoyed the opportunity to generate and discuss German and American stereotypes with them, and I believe that by comparing German and American stereotypes, they were able to understand that, like the German stereotypes feel silly or untrue to them, so too are the American stereotypes. As the first American that many of my students have ever interacted with, it was a true privilege to be able to unpack these ideas with them by providing my own insight and perspective.
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The program facilitates a network to connect and encourage transatlantic dialogue at schools in Central Germany.
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