Multicultural Education
Each month, MHS students explore a different culture.
David Slone: An art student of Ms. Ellen McGuire displays his ”Mexican God’s Eye”
The Ojo de Dios or God's Eye is an ancient symbol made by the Huichol of Mexico. The central eye was made when the child was born. Each year, a bit of yarn was added until the child turned five at which point the Ojo is complete.
Piano Class, Choir (8th grade and high school) and the High School Band Class learned about the music of Mexico (and Latin America in general), discussing historical and cultural influences, function and use, instruments, styles, and the influence Mexican music has had on music of other parts of the world. The Piano Class is also learning to play a Mexican folk song on the piano. The Choir classes participated in singing Mexican folk songs. The High School band class participated in playing band arrangements of music by Mexican composers, discussing similarities and differences in characteristics. Various musical elements were considered as contributing to the common “Mexican” sound of the compositions and to the individuality of the different composers’ personal style.
All of Mrs. Varney’s classes participated in preparing reports on Mexico by using Microsoft Word and researching the Internet for information for their reports. The reports had to include clip art, photographs, maps, and the coat of arms.
The College Summit classes researched the Internet to prepare reports about the colleges and universities in Mexico and study abroad program in Mexico. The Keyboarding and Business Computer Applications classes prepared reports on a wide variety of topics about Mexico. Some of the reports included various topics of history and culture, Cancun, the pyramids in Chichen Itza, Teoihuacan (pyramid of the sun), myths and legends, arts and music traditions. The Classes really enjoyed researching and discovering many important facts of Mexico.
Students in Mrs. Call’s Speech 103 dual credit class recently read several “Magic Tales of Mexico,” a series of Spanish folk tales collected by Gabriel A. Cordova, Jr.
These stories record a great deal of colorful folk material: native remedies; old ballads; tales of witches, ghosts, lost treasures, and lost mines; anecdotes, riddles, and children’s games.
Some of the titles are as follows: “Sunday Seven,” “The Bear-Prince,” “ White Flower,” and “The Forbidden Chamber.”
In addition to reading the tales, students explored the original Spanish language in which the tales were originally written. While doing so, students found many words that have become integrated into the English language.
Heath Call, Meghan Daniels and Brittany Miller completed research on Mexico. Their project board displayed the following information: Mexico traditions, food, attire, landscape and flag.
