Publication Date: Friday, March 25, 2005
At home in the world
At home in the world
(March 25, 2005) Roya Ansari's brings schools 'Cultures in a box'
by Robyn Israel
California isn't the only place where you can ski and swim in the same day.
A destination that offers the same rare perk is Iran, with its sandy beaches and snow-capped mountains.
That tidbit was one of several that presenter Roya Ansari told to a group of children assembled at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Palo Alto. The occasion was the first day of spring, better known to Persians as Norouz , a 13-day secular festival of fun, feasts and music.
The 25 children gathered on the floor to hear Ansari talk about the significance of this 4,000-year old tradition, how it is celebrated with festive music, new clothes and sweet treats. She had been invited by the church, which in alternate years (their "Rainbow Year") teaches kids about different religions and cultures.
"We celebrate the birth of nature," said Ansari, explaining her Persian tradition to the children. "Our New Year's is like that of the American Indians."
Ansari was there to present her "Cultures in a Box" program, an interactive, educational program that introduces elementary-school students to 20 global cultures. Inside the "box" were folk tales, CDs and musical instruments.
As the classroom resonated with the sounds of Persian music, Ansari launched into a Power Point presentation on Iran, beginning with the country's geography, topography, history and population. To make it easier for the children to relate to this far-flung foreign country, Ansari showed them a map of America, highlighting the Western states.
"Iran is double the size of California, Oregon and Washington combined. It is shaped like a cat," Ansari told them. "When I was your age that's how I could draw the map of my country."
But Ansari's presentation is not just about memorizing facts and figures. It's not just about telling children that Farsi is the primary language of Iran's 70 million inhabitants, or that the primary religious population are Shiite Muslim.
Wherever she can, Ansari will encourage her class to think critically about the differences between American lifestyles and those of foreign lands.
"You have to challenge children. It can't be one-way teaching," she said. "You can't just say read and memorize. Things have to be tangible," she said.
Case in point: explaining to kids how there is one car for every 50 people in Iran, compared with one for every two individuals in the United States. The life expectancy of Iranians is 68 years, compared with 76 years for Americans.
"What can we do to have better public transportation? How can we contribute to not polluting the air?" she asked the class. "What can we do as individuals to better the lives of everyone in the world?"
At the end of her presentation, Ansari asked each of the children what their name was, and then proceeded to write it in Farsi.
"Zane? That's a Persian name. Layla? That's a Persian name, too. It means Persian beauty. My name is Roya. It means dream," she said.
Maribea Berry, the mother of Elizabeth, 11, and Katherine, 9, said her children enjoyed the presentation.
"I think they appreciated seeing their names written in Farsi," Berry said.
Ansari's mission is to introduce children to cultures they otherwise wouldn't know about, given that school curricula don't cover global cultures in great depth. On April 27 she will give a presentation on Brazil at the Palo Alto Children's Library.
"I feel we need a crash course in international relations," Ansari said. "Europeans, because of their status as conquerors and colonists, have an understanding of other people and nationalities. But North America as a continent is so aloof from the rest of the world. English is spoken almost everywhere; we don't have a desire to learn another language. We're lazy. By not learning another language we don't become curious to know how someone in Guatemala or Spain may live."
The need to connect children with other cultures and ethnicities became even more urgent after Sept. 11, Ansari said.
"I was so devastated with the events that day I didn't go to work. I was sick to my stomach," she recalled. "To have Iran labeled as (part of) the axis of evil really got under my skin. So I thought, what can I do? I have a son growing up here. We're living here and contributing to society. My husband is a software engineer. I work in the industry. What can we do to make it easier for children of different nationalities to connect with one another?"
In today's world, Ansari said, children are too often exposed to other cultures through war and destruction.
"That should not be the only way to learn about a different culture," she said. "How many people knew about Kabul and Kandahar before the war on terrorism? How many people knew that Iraq was the birthplace of civilization?"
Enraged by the situation, Ansari and her partner, Souroor Milani, set out to develop a program for her son's class at Belmont Oaks. But instead of starting with a presentation on Iran, she opted to talk about Cuba, another country blacklisted by the United States. Music, she said, was the driving force behind the presentation.
"I have always loved Cuban music," Ansari said. "I thought I could introduce kids to different parts of the world through music. I didn't want to give a speech on prejudice, why Iran shouldn't be called an axis of evil. I wanted to introduce the beauty of each culture to the children. And music is the only thing that doesn't get lost in translation."
Music also figured prominently in Ansari's March 20 presentation at the Unitarian Universalist Church. She brought with her a variety of Iranian instruments, including the tunbak (a percussion instrument), the santur , a zither-like instrument and the daf , a big drum with chains. The children beat the drums while dancing to the upbeat music Ansari played for them.
"It was wonderful. The kids were engaged and Roya was so energetic," said Nancy Neff, a member of the church and a Sunday School teacher.
Though born in the United States, Ansari spent nearly a decade growing up in Iran before attending high school in Switzerland. College in the U.S. (Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.) followed, coinciding with the American hostage crisis in Iran. Ansari's family felt the anti-Iranian hostilities here in the U.S.
"I remember speaking Farsi with a friend off-campus, and someone came along and said, 'You camel jockeys, why don't you go home?' You always feared Iranians would be deported, because of the intensity of the time. My father was an allergist in Virginia, and people had a fear of coming to his clinic."
The need for the "Cultures in a Box" program was reinforced several years ago, when Ansari was waiting for a flight at the Colombus, Ohio airport. She began conversing with a gentleman, who asked where she was from.
"I'm Persian," I told him. "He then got so nervous. When I told him I was a Shiite Muslim, he got up and left. I thought, what a shame. Instead of getting him to be interested or to ask a question about my country, my culture, my heritage, he just walked away."
There are currently 20 cultures that comprise "Cultures in a Box," and Ansari plans to increase the number to 36. New countries yet to be added include Israel, Japan and Canada. Parkmont Elementary School in Fremont is the first school to integrated the program into its curriculum.
"We're living in a cultural mosaic. You can't fear diversity. You have to embrace it," Ansari said. "We use e-mail, teleconferencing and Web casts to communicate. But no one tries to connect through souls."
What: "Cultures in a Box," a series of interactive classes on world cultures. The next local presentation will be devoted to Brazil.
Where: Palo Alto Children's Library, 1276 Harriet St.
When: April 27 at 3:30 p.m.
Cost: Admission is free.
Info: Call (408) 813-3048 or visit www.culturesinabox.com or e-mail roya@culturesinabox.com.
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