Book and Lesson Ideas for 5th Graders
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- Lesson Plans
- Book Reviews
One Day Lesson Plans
(© 1994 NIE Curriculum Guide in The Montana Standard)
This one day lesson explores the America as “melting pot” analogy of diversity. Students discuss his/her own cultural heritage as a springboard into a discussion about the modern immigrant experience. Teachers are asked to clip newspaper articles about recent immigrants so students can imagine what life is life for these new Americans. As a follow-up activity, teachers can arrange for a recent immigrant to speak to the class about what it is like to leave one country for another.
(©1996 Indiana University - Center for Adolescent Studies)
This short exercise helps students understand that fear of immigrants has existed throughout United States history and that our culture has survived and is enriched by each new wave of immigrants. Further extension activities include examining the cultural diversity within the U.S. and the contributions of each group and writing a relrect response paper on the activity.
(© 2004 Independent Television Service (ITVS))
In this lesson on alienation, students listen to a poem read in a different language and then asked to write about how they felt during the reading. The poem is then read in English and students reflect on the personal emotions associated with being an outsider. Students will learn to empathize with new immigrants who encounter the isolation of living in a new land.
One Week Lesson Plans
(© 2008 American Immigration Council )
Students write special invitations to local immigrants and set a decorated place for said immigrant at a special banquet table. Students interviewed immigrants and then decorate cups, plates, bowls and placemats to reflect his/her culture. Students also write an expository essay honoring the immigrant's life. The project enables students to identify the reasons immigrants come to the U.S., hear about their journeys, research and write a narrative essays and most importantly, to appreciate and understand the immigrant experience.
(© 2004 Independent Television Service (ITVS))
Through research and a list of notable immigrants, students will identify a myriad of contributions immigrants have made to the nation, reflect on the value of these contributions and assess how knowledge of immigrant contributions influences personal perspectives. America was founded by foreign-born immigrants, and it continues to benefit economically, politically, and socially from immigration. Recognizing what immigrants give to this country will help students more fully understand the virtues of diversity and multiculturalism.
(© 1998-2008 National Geographic Society)
This lesson will help students understand key concepts of human migration through the examination of maps and migration patterns. Students will research and document the impact of migration on a region's cultural landscape. They will examine migration patterns on a global and national scale as a class and then apply that understanding to telling a migration story about their own community.
One Month Lesson Plans
(© 2008 American Immigration Council )
The goal of Digital Natives=Digital Storytelling is to have students identify their own ancestry and understand the important role immigrants have in developing our nation. By using the latest technologies and literacy-based activities, students will become cognizant of what issues caused people to leave their former lives behind, the problems involved in adapting to a new world, the cultural richness they brought to this country and how these characteristics have endured time to enrich our lives.
(© Amy Price, Teacherlink)
Through Who Belongs Here? An American Story, students will discuss how immigrants may feel when leaving their homeland and arriving in another country. The book discusses how American citizens react to immigrants and how this land has benefitted from immigration through technological advances and diversity. Students might also explore what it means to be an American by reading about another’s immigration experience.
(© 2004 Independent Television Service (ITVS))
First-person narratives about immigration experiences are enlightening—providing, personal and poignant insight into individual immigrant stories. In this lesson, students read oral histories, conduct interviews to gather first-hand stories about immigrant experiences and determine new immigrants' common experiences.
How Tia Lola Came to Stay
By Julia Alvarez. Dell Yearling Books, 2001. 160 pages.
When Miguel's crazy Tia Lola comes to visit from the Dominican Republic, he instantly knows that his life is never going to be the same. As Miguel struggles with his parents' divorce and his recent move to rural Vermont from New York City, he is not sure that he needs the wacky presence of his unusual Spanish-speaking aunt added to the chaos in his life. However, he soon realizes that his flamboyant and colorful aunt is just what he needs to spice up his life and bring his family together.
How Tia Lola Came to Stay is an uplifting and funny story that upper elementary students will enjoy. Through Julia Alvarez's beautiful descriptions of Tia Lola's exotic cooking, lively music, and vibrant storytelling the reader will be captivated and entertained while learning about Caribbean culture. Possible discussion themes include: family, divorce, tolerance, culture and immigration. This funny and smart book will make a great addition to any classroom library.
Ashes of Roses
Mary Jane Auch. Laurel-Leaf Books (Random House), 2002. 246 pages with author's note.
Ashes of Roses begins with the Nolan family's arrival at Ellis Island. Rose Nolan, her parents, and two of her three siblings are permitted to enter the country, but her baby brother is refused entry for medical reasons. Rose's father and brother return to Ireland while Rose and the rest of her family stay in New York. The family tries to adjust to life in the United States, but eventually Mrs.Nolan returns to Ireland, leaving just Rose and her younger sister Maureen in New York. The rest of the novel tells the story of the girls' experiences living and working in New York. The novel brings in many historical elements, including the infamous fire at the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory, to tell a realistic story of working-class immigrant life in early twentieth-century New York. The reading level makes this book appropriate for middle-school students, while the interest-level makes it appropriate for high-school students as well. TESOL students may recognize parts of the story that are familiar even to modern-day immigrants and therefore this novel may also work well for high-level TESOL students.
By Patricia Beatty. Harper Trophy, 1981. 192 pages.
Following family tragedy in Mexico, Lupita and her brother, Salvador, illegally smuggle themselves into the United States, in order to find work supporting their mother and siblings. Lupita soon discovers that America is not necessarily the land of hope and opportunity that she had expected. Together, brother and sister face difficult labor, the challenge of a new language, and the looming presence of la migra- the immigration police. Although each day is trying, this spunky girl maintains the belief that manana- or tomorrow will be a better day.
While Lupita Manana explores familiar immigration issues such as learning a new language and feeling like an outsider, it also does something different by addressing illegal immigration from the perspective of a young Mexican girl. This book could serve as a great prompt for classroom discussions and would make a good addition to any classroom library.
The Journey That Saved Curious George
By Louise Borden, illustrated by Allan Drummond. Houghton Mif?in Company, 2005. 80 pages.
Louise Borden's fascinating account of the journey, the authors of Curious George made when the Nazis invaded France. H.A. Rey and his wife Margret, who were both Jewish, made their escape with the only means of transportation available to them, bicycles. Forced to travel light, the Reys packed a few belongings as well as the manuscripts of their books, including "The Adventures of Fi?", later to be renamed "Curious George". This manuscript was with them as their journey led them to the United States, which became their refuge and permanent home. This exciting author study is complemented by a combination of photographs of the Reys, illustrations from H.A. Rey's children's books, and original illustrations in the style of H. A. Rey by Allan Drummond.
Dreaming Of America: An Ellis Island Story
By Eve Bunting, illustrated by Ben F. Stalh. Troll Bridge Water Paperback, 2000. 32 pages.
Teenage Annie Moore and her two younger brothers sail from Cobh, Ireland to be reunited with their parents who had immigrated to America three years earlier. Arriving in New York Harbor, Annie would be the first immigrant to be processed at Ellis Island on January 1, 1892, her fifteenth birthday. To commemorate this event, matching statues of Annie and her brothers stand at the quay in Cobh Harbor and on Ellis Island. Dreaming of America is a fictionalized account of Annie's journey to America. Through Annie's story, Eve Bunting, an Irish immigrant herself, explores the hopes and fears of millions of others, who like Annie, made their homes here and helped shape our nation. Vivid illustrations and archival photographs will add to the young readers understanding of this time and events in our history.
By Andrea Cheng, illustrated by Ed Young. Lee and Low, 2005. 40 pgs.
Shanghai Messenger is a beautiful book of poetry written by Andrea Cheng and paired with the lovely illustrations of Ed Young. The poems and drawings work together harmoniously, as they tell the story of young Xiao Mei, who is half American and half Chinese and her experiences upon visiting family in Shanghai. Xiao Mei is excited and intrigued about visiting her Chinese family; however she is nervous about the meeting her strange relatives as well as dealing with cultural differences. Ultimately, she learns to appreciate her Chinese heritage through her many experiences in Shanghai, from traditional hair braids, to making wontons and even learning about Tai Chi. Upon returning to the United States, Xiao Mei isfilled with pride and appreciation for both her Chinese and American cultures. This is a fantastic book for children ages 9-12 years old, clearly readers will enjoy the book's lovely cadence as well as its thoughtful and heartfelt story and delicate drawings.
Mai Ya's Long Journey
By Sheila Cohen. Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2004. 80 pages.
This true story of a young Hmong girl and her family's journey from a refugee camp in Thailand to life in Madison, Wisconsin was written by the child's ESL teacher. Mai Ya Xiong, now 25 years old and her family's first college graduate, spent her first seven years trapped in Thailand after her parents narrowly escaped from Laos. Her father had fought against Communists in a secret army developed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Life in Wisconsin challenged the young immigrant girl to keep a balance between her Hmong culture and American ways. The biography includes a concise look at Hmong animist beliefs, traditions and customs that date back 5,000 years. Photographs of Mai Ya growing up illustrate her story and corroborate an already authentic account. Mai Ya Xiong exemplifies the "can-do" attitude Americans have come to revere in our immigrant stories. The book, complete with timelines, glossary, index, appendix and reading group guidelines, enables students to experience Mai Ya's contemporary journey in its historical context.
Behind The Mountains (First Person Fiction Series)
By Edwidge Danticat. Scholastic Inc., 2004. 192 pages.
Living in rural Haiti, Celiane Esperance, her mother, and brother Moy anxiously await the cassettes Papa sends them from New York each month. Forced by economic circumstances to seek work in America, Papa has been gone for three years and the family anticipates joining him when the proper visas can be arranged. While visiting an aunt in Port-Au-Prince, Celiane and her mother are nearly killed by a bomb, leaving them more determined to join Papa. Just as there are always more mountains behind the mountains, however, the family finds that there are more challenges to face when they are reunited with Papa in New York. Celiane shares her feelings about her family and experiences through the diary she was awarded by her teacher in Haiti.
Beautifully written by Edwidge Danticat, recognized by The New York Times as one of our best young writers, Behind The Mountains explores the themes of coming of age, family relationships, separation and reunification, as well as immigration and cultural identity.
Behind The Mountains is one of the books in the Scholastic First Person Fiction series exploring the experiences of teenagers of various backgrounds who immigrate to America.
The Journal of Otto Peltonen: A Finnish Immigrant By William Durbin. A Dear America Book, Scholastic, 2000. 170 pages.
In 1905, fifteen year old Otto, his mother and two younger sisters, leave the grandparents behind in Finland to join with his father who's laboring in an iron ore mine in Hibbing, Minnesota. The poor family suffers through an excruciating voyage only to land in a squalid mining camp where Father faces mortal danger six days a week below ground. Otto eventually joins his dad in the mines as the family scrimps and saves to buy a farm. The harsh life, fueled by corruption and corporate callousness, gave rise to the organized labor movement that eventually unionized our mining industry.
Author William Durbin, a high school English teacher in Hibbing, recreates the dismal world that many of the 250,000 Finnish immigrants faced a hundred years ago after escaping the Russian Army and trying to get a foothold in the American dream.
By Marilyn Freeman. New York: iUniverse, Inc, 2003. 42 pages.
The journey described in the book Pasquale's Journey is a familiar immigration story. The opening of the novel finds Pasquale and his family waiting at home in Italy for word from Pasquale's father who has traveled to the United States ahead of them. When Papa finally sends for the family, Mama must sell the family farm and prepare the family for the voyage. The long, difficult sea passage does not diminish the family's happiness upon arriving in the United States. Papa's gift to Pasquale at the very end of the story is an apt metaphor for the promise that awaits Pasquale, and other immigrants, in the United States. The reading level and content matter make this book an appropriate choice for intermediate-level (grades 3-4) elementary school students. The book is also well-suited for TESOL students at any level.
The Stone Goddess
By Minfong Ho. Scholastic Inc., 2005. 208 pages.
Twelve-year-old Nakri and her family live comfortably and happily in Phnom Penh until their lives are forever altered by the civil war in Cambodia. Forced out of their homes by Khmer Rouge soldiers, the family flees to safety in the country home of their grandparents. Their security is shattered again when the father and three older siblings, including Nakri, are sent away to forced labor camps. After years of deprivation and loss, Nakri is reunited with members of her family, only to be forced to move again, first to refugee camps in Thailand and finally to a new life in America. Compassionately written, The Stone Goddess explores themes of family and culture, war and death, hope and renewal.
The Stone Goddess is one of the books in the Scholastic First Person Fiction series exploring the experiences of teenagers of various backgrounds who immigrate to America.
We Are Americans: Voices of the Immigrant Experience
By Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler. Scholastic Nonfiction, 2003. 192 pages.
Grades 4 and up
We Are Americans is a coffee table book for the classroom, presenting the history of American immigration chronologically, from the new theories of prehistoric immigration to the groups arriving in the present day. Using archival images, artifacts, data charts, and personal narratives, the book explores the factors responsible for immigration, the hopes of immigrants, the hardships of the journey, and adjustments to a new culture, as well as the contributions these new Americans made to our nation. While they learn about the groups and individuals from every culture and continent that formed our country, students will find connections to their own immigration history. This well researched and well produced book offers a detailed index and a further reading list, and is an excellent resource for a study of immigration.
Living as a Refugee in America: Mohammed's Story
By Helen Howard. World Almanac Library, 2006. 48 pages.
Now in an American high school, Mohammed, 15, tells the story of how he fled the Taliban in Afghanistan and wandered through Iran and Turkey before coming to the U.S. with his mother, brother and sister. Living as a Refugee in America weaves Mohammed's story with facts about Afghanistan's recent history and discusses the plight of refugees driven by war and famine across the world. The moving first person narrative, printed in italics, features full-color, captioned photos of Mohammed, his family and friends. It also discusses issues such as discrimination, cultural barriers and maintaining dual identity. This non-fiction book contains a glossary of helpful vocabulary as well suggestions for how students can take action to help the displaced by providing an annotated list of international human rights organizations to contact.
By Ann Jaramillo. Roaring Book Press, 2006. 144 pgs.
The desperate story of Miguel and his younger sister Elena struggling to escape poverty in southern Mexico to join their parents in California is E.S.L. teacher Ann Jaramillo's first novel. Fear of starvation and a longing for family drives these two teenagers into the dark gauntlet of illegal immigration. Violence, corruption and narrow escapes keep the ordeal fast-paced and scary. The siblings survive the journey and face further disappointment through deportation. Compelling and suspenseful, the story exempli?es the plight of countless poor people looking for a better life across the border. While the media argues the big picture of illegal immigrants including jobs, employers, security, fences, mass round-ups and amnesty, Jaramillo looks at the issue from ground level through the eyes of two children with few options. It's a perilous adventure best saved for at least junior high school age students.
Memories of Sun: Stories of Africa and America
Edited by Jane Kurtz. Greenwillow Books, 2004. 243 pages.
Grades 5 and up
In Memories of Sun, we hear the stories of children who currently live in various parts of Africa, Americans living in or visiting Africa and Africans living in America. Divided into these three distinct sections, the stories express a variety of cultural experiences as well as the imprint these cultures have on the children who inhabit them both. Some stories are touching, some humorous and some heartbreaking. All are unforgettable.
Jane Kurtz, a self described "third culture kid," was born in the U.S. but raised for most of her childhood in Ethiopia. In Memories of Sun, she has created an anthology of twelve stories and three poems that speak in the voices of children who share that duality of culture. The back of the book contains an informative section about the authors. Students will find much to learn and relate to once they read these powerful stories.
Drita, My Homegirl
By Jenny Lombard. Putnam Juvenile, 2006. 176 pages.
Drita My Homegirl is the story of Drita, a Muslim Albanian refugee who has immigrated to New York City from war-torn Kosovo. Drita longs to make friends in school, but faces difficulty due to her limited English. Drita My Homegirl is narrated through alternating chapters told from the perspective of two fourth graders, Drita and Maxie. As their stories unfold, their unlikely friendship grows against the backdrop of both girls feeling a bit like outsiders. Drita is trying to deal with immigrating as well as her mother's depression, and at the same time she is also struggling to fit in at school. Maxie, on the other hand, appears to be a fun-loving comedian at school, but she too is struggling outside of school as she attempts to deal with the death of her mother. As these unlikely friends come together, the themes of family, friendship, and love resonate. Drita My Homegirl is appropriate for grades 3-5 and would be an excellent title read aloud that could be used to engage students in group discussions.
Twist of Gold
By Michael Morpurgo. Egmont Books, 2004. 304 pages.
Two Irish children, hounded by starvation and plague, escape the potato famine, and leave behind three dead siblings as well as a dying mother to venture by sailing ship to America in search of their father. The kids find themselves working the streets of Boston before heading west across the continent via riverboat and wagon train to find their father and no-longer dying mother. (Wait. How'd she get well and go from Cork County to California?) Sean and Annie endure crooks, shipwreck, and getting stranded the desert; but they prevail.
Besides the inexplicable use of apostrophes for quotation marks, the problem with this book is its loose connection to historical accuracy. It's a fast-paced fantasy adventure story that fails to capture a realistic portrayal of the American immigrant experience.
The Irish Dresser
By Cynthia Neale. White Mane Publishing Company, 2003. 100 pages.
The Irish Dresser is fantastic historical fiction which tells the story of Ireland's Potato Famine that occurred between 1845 and 1850. Told from the perspective of thirteen year old Nora McCabe, the reader experiences her family's struggle to survive. Nora decides to escape by hiding in her family's dresser aboard the ship, fantasizing about food and a better life. The reader experiences the difficult journey experienced by over two million Irish through Nora's touching story. Surely, students will be engaged by the McCabe family's tragic and difficult voyage to America in search of food, as well as Nora's vivid and descriptive voice. The Irish Dresser is an exciting story about the reality of taking risks and facing the unknown. This title will make a fantastic read aloud and could be enjoyed by students in grades 2-6.
Zayda Was A Cowboy
By June Levitt Nislic. Jewish Publication Society, 2005. 74 pages.
Nislick's book tells of her grandfather when he immigrated to America as part of the "Galveston Plan", an effort to bring Jewish immigrants to the western United States in the early 20th century. Framed as a story within a story, Zayda's unusual immigration story is told to his grandchildren when he comes to live with them. Zayda describes his life with his family before he is forced to run away to avoid conscription into the Czar's army which, as a Jew, would have led to cruel treatment, even death. After leaving his small Russian town, Zayda made his way to Bremen, Germany where he worked to earn the fare for a ticket to America. Landing in Galveston, Texas, Zayda, whose name was changed to Mike Benson, is greeted by a representative of the Jewish Immigrants Information Bureau, who helps him find a job as a ranch hand. As the story unfolds it describes Zayda's life on the ranch, learning to speak English (and Spanish, as many of the other ranch hands are Mexican), and working on a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas City where he settled and became part of the Jewish community.
Dear Miss Breed
By Joanne Oppenheim. Scholastic Non?ction, 2006. 288 pages.
Grades 6 to adult
In telling the story of Clara Breed, the children's librarian of the San Diego Public Library and her devotion to the Japanese American children, once her patrons, who were incarcerated in prison camps during World War II, Joanne Oppenheim reminds us not only of a shameful and pain-?lled chapter in American history, but also how as individuals we can often make a difference. The story of this remarkable woman and her relationship with her children is told through the letters the children wrote, testimony given to the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians in 1980-81, recent interviews and correspondence with the now adult children, as well as news accounts from the war period. Dear Miss Breed is an accessible account of World War II for children ages ten and up, and would be a wonderful guide to spark discussions with children about democracy, freedom, war and Nikkei history in America. Thoughtful parallels can be drawn between the events in Dear Miss Breed and events in our own times.
By Pam Munoz Ryan. Scholastic, 2000. 288 pages.
Set during the Great Depression, Esperanza Rising is a lovely story of self-acceptance in a foreign environment. As told through the perspective of young Esperanza, the book begins with the characters comfortably living luxurious rancho life in Mexico- that is until Esperanza's father is tragically killed. Following his death, Esperanza and her mother have no other choice but to immigrate to California in order to find work. Thus begins their journey of assimilation within a new country and social class. Having lived a privileged life, it is not easy for Esperanza to remake herself while adjusting to life as a migrant farm worker.
Teachers will appreciate the book's connections between the cultural, economical and political issues of California during the 1930's. This fantastic coming of age story corresponds with a historical backdrop of strikes and the labor movement, government sweeps, and injustice. Pam Munoz Ryan's fascinating book is based upon her maternal grandmother's experience of immigrating to California from Mexico. Esperanza's struggles and her ability to rise above her difficulties will surely spark conversation within the classroom. This book is great for whole class reading and as a link to exploring historical connections.
By Kashmira Sheth. Hyperion Books for Children, 2004. 192 pages.
Inspired by the author's own experiences, Blue Jasmine tells the story of a teenager who immigrates from a small town in India to a large American city. Leaving behind the comfort of her loving extended family and friends, twelve year old Seema Trivedi moves to Iowa City when her father accepts a new job offer. There she learns not only a new culture and language, but also that in America, like India, one must look past the façade to discover the true value of people. While Blue Jasmine examines many familiar immigration issues such as fear of being the outsider, cultural duality, and difficulty of learning a new language, Kasmira Sheth's novel fills a void in children's literature by presenting this story from an Indian teenager's perspective. Since very little children's literature exists on the topic, this award winning book is a welcome addition to classroom libraries.
Finding My Hat
By John Son. Scholastic, 2003. 192 pages.
An outstanding addition to Scholastic's excellent First Person Fiction series, Finding My Hat, tells the story of the Parks, a first generation Korean-American family, in the 1970s and 80s. Told in vignettes from the point of view the eldest child and only son, the story, traces Jin-Han's life from his first memories at the age of two to his mother's death when he is a teenager. Jin-Han and his family move from Chicago to Memphis to Houston as the family struggles to find a place for themselves in America and Jin-Han struggles to find his own identity, "his hat," from among his Korean traditions, his American attitudes, and his own special gifts. The vignettes are often hilarious, as when pre-school Jin-Han wets his pants, or pre-teen Jin-Han discovers girls, while the incident recalling Jin-Han's mother's tragic illness and death is poignant and moving. This engrossing novel captures the universal aspects of Jin-Han's coming of age, as well as, the experiences of an immigrant family adjusting to life in the United States. A valuable feature of the series is an afterword in which the writer describes his or her own experiences of immigrating to the United States. The reading level and subject matter make this book appropriate for seventh through ninth grade and TESOL students. It would work well as reading for social studies and English in studies of culture, immigration, point of view, character development, and style.
By Shaun Tan. Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007. 128 pgs.
In this wordless graphic novel, through magnificent illustrations, Tan captures the disorientation immigrants may feel toward their new surroundings. It depicts the journey of one man who seems both accepted and rejected by his new country. The only writing is in an invented alphabet, which motivates the viewer to feel confused just like the immigrants must feel when they encounter a strange new language and way of life. A feeling of tolerance and acceptance is presented throughout the story and transcends race and ethnicity. The youngest readers and the most sophisticated will find this book interesting. This book is an excellent conversation starter in any mainstream or ESL classroom.
Flight to Freedom
Ana Veciana-Suarez. Scholastic, 2002. 240 pages.
Another wonderful addition to Scholastic's superb First Person Fiction series, Flight to Freedom, tells the story of the Garcia family who in 1967 flee from Cuba to Miami, Florida. The story is told through the diary entries of thirteen-year-old Yara Garcia. In Cuba Yara hates the compulsory youth work camps and the strict food rations. However, once Yara is in Miami, she misses the family left behind in Cuba, and she struggles with family tensions, a new language, and a new school. While Yara's father joins an anti-Castro group and insists that the family will soon be back in Cuba, Yara, her mother, and her sisters slowly adjust to their new life and opportunities in America. The story is absorbing, with believable characters and informative detail. An effective feature of the series is an afterword in which the writer describes his or her own experiences of immigrating to the United States. The reading level and subject matter make this book appropriate for seventh through ninth grade and TESOL students. It would work well as reading for social studies and English in studies of culture, immigration, point of view, character development, and style.
Escape from Saigon: How a Vietnam War Orphan Became an American Boy
By Andrea Warren. Farrar, Straus & Girouox, 2004. 110 pages.
At the end of the Vietnam War, an eight-year-old "Amerasian" boy named Long flees his country and finds a loving home with his adoptive family in Ohio. The author recounts the story of Long's life-from his birth and early childhood, shadowed by his father's abandonment and his mother's suicide, to boyhood in Saigon with his loving yet struggling grandmother who eventually makes the agonizing decision to put him up for adoption. Long, now age nine, becomes part of Operation Babylift, the US- coordinated effort that evacuated more than 2,000 children from Saigon in just three days in 1975. This photo-essay from Long's emotional point of view is interspersed with just the right amount of history. Escape is ideal for middle and upper grade classrooms studying various immigration themes including lost heritage, poverty, separation and family relations.
Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan
By Mary Williams, illustrated by Gregory Christie. Lee and Low Books, 2005. 40 pages.
As the result of renewed fighting in Sudan in the mid 1980's, thirty thousand orphaned, homeless boys were forced to walk almost one thousand miles through eastern Africa in search of refuge. Based on true accounts as told to her by some of these Lost Boys, Mary Williams' story describes the experiences of eight-year-old Garang, as he seeks safety after his village is destroyed by war.
Unable to find his family, Garang wanders down the road where he joins thousands of other boys, who like him, were spared because they were tending their family animals when the war came upon their villages. Organizing themselves into groups, the boys travel east to Ethiopia, hunting for food, caring for younger ones, and avoiding the soldiers along the way. After finding safety in an Ethiopian refugee camp, the boys are forced to flee again, this time to Kenya, when war erupts in Ethiopia. Eventually, some find safety in the United States. This inspirational story of courage and survival provides students a starting point for a deeper study of the effects of war on civilian populations, especially children.
In her Author's Note and Afterword, Mary Williams describe her experiences with these children that inspired her to write their story and create a foundation to support their adjustment to life in America.
The Orphan of Ellis Island
By Elvira Woodruff. Scholastic, 1997. 174 pgs.
A class field trip turns into the adventure of a lifetime when young Dominic Cantori, an orphan, visits Ellis Island. Uncomfortable with all of the discussion about ancestry during the field trip, Dominic wanders off from the group, falls asleep in a utility closet, and soon finds himself swept away to another time and place. This time travel trip takes Dominic to Italy in 1908 where he befriends three orphaned brothers. He discovers the harsh conditions that compelled people to leave their homes and seek refuge in the United States. Dominic joins the brothers as they leave Italy and he experiences first hand what it felt like to travel as a steerage passenger aboard a ship to America. Upon entering New York harbor he is elated to see the Statue of Liberty and soon discovers the challenges immigrants faced at Ellis Island. When Dominic returns to the present he has developed a deeper appreciation of the struggles of those long ago immigrants and welcomes the opportunity to be placed with a foster family that is eager to adopt a child like him.
American Born Chinese
By Gene Luen Yan. First Second, 2006. 233 pages.
Grades 6 to 12
American Born Chinese is a graphic novel that cleverly takes readers through a journey that combines three storylines and three characters into one idea. The stories merge into a single narrative that looks at stereotype, immigration, and assimilation. The graphic novel interweaves Chinese mythology with the American Dream. Students are sure to enjoy the images and text through the quick moving stories. Teachers will find the book surprisingly useful as a springboard for discussions about discrimination, tolerance, stereotyping and immigration.
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There is a need for adolescents to explore their values with their family and peers. Peer group pressure is an important influence. Therefore, teachers must set the stage for good communication. Exchanging ideas with each other, adolescents become aware of interpretations different from their own. They become sensitive to the feelings and thoughts of other people.
Teenagers come from varied backgrounds both in knowledge and experience and in value and attitudes. Thus, it is wise to use several teaching techniques. Useful techniques include role playing, group interaction to a specific situation, values clarification, storytelling, interviewing, and debating.
When factual information is to be presented or reviewed, sensory aids are most helpful and useful in learning as outlined in the work of Piaget.1 These skills that we all first used in sensing our environment include seeing, touching, listening, and speaking. Plastic or rubber models of male and female anatomies as well as a model to explain contraceptive devices would be a most useful teaching tool.
The media can be utilized and very helpful. Television, movies, magazines, and music all relate to sexuality. The use of audio-visual appeals to most students and is an effective way to involve most of them. It can also be a way of introducing a topic that might be somewhat controversial.
For the older adolescent, especially, an effective program of sexuality should be based on how and what teenagers want to learn. Students need to get directly involved in learning the truth about sex and sexuality. Students need to understand the physical and sexual drives, effect of peer pressure, parents roles, their feelings towards themselves and others and how to cope with adverse feelings. Above all in these times of great social freedom, they alone must be as best equipped as possible to make decisions that will be right for each one.
To be effective, I think, sexual education should be based on an overall view of how each age group learns and reacts to the environment. Levels of cognitive abilities and decision making skills cannot be used at all grade levels. The important issue is to start the process at the earliest age possible. Young children can begin to acquire skills in gathering information by asking questions, observing and listening. By the time a student has reached high school years, most have reached a stage where they can master concepts and generalizations and consider a range of possibilities in a specific situation.
In the appendix is a summary of the comparative developmental stages of cognitive stages of learning, moral development and how it evolves and allows for abstract thinking and reasoning, and the way one develops socially. This chart is not only useful for the teacher in planning more effective curricula but can be used as a guide for young parents as to what can realistically be expected from their child. The works of Piaget, Kohlberg, Erikson and Freud can shed a lot of light on sexuality as a developmental process from birth to old age.
According to Freud, the greatest period in our lives for receiving and reproducing impressions, occurs from birth to age seven or eight. He calls this the period of “infantile amnesia” and states that the very impressions we have forgotten have left the deepest traces on our mind and have a determining effect upon the whole of our later development.2 Is it too late, by adolescence, to overcome early life impressions which may be preventing or hindering young people from making decisions that will be right for them?
We know that love is essential to human development. In order for infants to achieve healthy growth, they need being talked to and held. In order for the infants to attain intellectual growth, they need to be stimulated by their environment.
It is the families that are responsible for early life impressions where some young people learn detachment from people and learn instead, attachment to things. Some adolescents claim they even feel like things—possessions of their parents,” to quote one seventeen year old. Some parents use negative aspects of love, helping to create a selfish youngster. Guidance is needed to help a youngster make a distinction between selfishness and self-esteem. That is the kind of self-love that is necessary before one can love someone else. That kind of love requires identifying and finding positive feedback so that one can like and accept oneself.
According to Montague and Matson, “The family should be the principal locus in which to apply one’s love, for the only way in which children learn to love is by being loved.” “They also state that the school should be reperceived and reconstructed as an agency second only in importance to home—and sometimes superior to it—for the teaching of the science and art of love.” Or in the words of another great teacher of children, Henrich Pestalozzi, “without love, neither the physical nor the intellectual powers of the child will develop naturally.”3
Sexual guidance is a great challenge for any teacher. Belief in the value of honesty in sex education is the basic ingredient for establishing good communication. It is very important for the teacher to have a sincere interest and enthusiasm for the subject and an openness to continued learning.
The teacher should try and make the classroom a community in which all the participants will learn and live together in security and harmony having respect for one another. Establishing a democratic classroom where the students participate making rules to benefit all. Have a suggestion box that gets looked at and answered periodically helps a great deal to let the student know you are concerned. Frequently discuss contemporary issues that involve moral decisions, trying to get each student to articulate his thoughts and his reasons. Have students represent their problems through drawing or role playing a life experience. In this way, the student can get feedback from the group and perhaps see the problem from a different perspective.
Students today, especially our adolescents, no longer want an authority figure doing the thinking and deciding for them. There are times when they need facts so that they can make the distinction between myth and fact. The classroom experience cannot provide students with answers to the moral questions which will arise in their future. However, students may find in the classroom an appreciation of their self worth and of their sexuality. This appreciation is a foundation for healthy moral development. We should support and guide our students as they acquire the self-confidence and the self-discipline necessary for making wise decisions.
- Overhead projector—useful to keep students focused on subject under examination
- Slide projector
- Tape recorder
- 16 mm projector
- Butcher paper, felt pens, tape and 3x5 cards
- Models, charts, or felt board
- 1. To help establish a sense of togetherness.
- 2. To introduce students to one another.
- 1. Teacher hands out 3x5 cards and instructs students to make a square in the center with four lines radiating from each corner. No names on cards.
- 2. Teacher instructs students to write three one-word ideas that tell about themselves. On the fourth line, write something about themselves that they do not mind telling others about.
- 3. Teacher collects cards, mixes them up, and hands each person a card.
- 4. Have students try to find the owner of the card they have been given. When they find the person who matches the card, have them return it.
- 5. When everyone has his/her own card, ask to have each one read their statement.
- 1. What clue helped you find the person?
- 2. Were there other ideas you could have put down?
- 3. Did anyone’s statement surprise you?
- 1. Student identifies what is meaningful to each one.
- 2. Student will demonstrate that there are similarities and differences with other students.
- 1. Copy Table 1 from overhead. (Below)
- 2. List at least three things for each category.
Desires are— Problems are— Happiness is— 1 1 3
- ____a. In Column 1, what are some of the goals you hope to accomplish?
- ____b. In Column 2, what are some of your worries or fears?
- ____c. In Column 3, what makes you feel great?
- 1. Compile some of the data.
- 2. Notice any similarities.
- 3. If any of the problems or worries are concerned with the health of the body, the students could be shown ways of coping.
- 4. See if students can think of any other concerns they might share.
- 5. Have students take a similar survey of their parents’ attitudes and feelings.
- 1. To make talking about sex easier.
- 2. To help build group rapport.
- 3. To find a universal term to understand doctors.
- 1. Get into groups of five or six.
- 2. Give each team a big block of butcher paper.
- 3. Explanation to students: Sexual terms come in many forms:
- ____a. Hospital language; very exact, and understood universally.
- ____b. Kiddie language; sweet little words used to disguise and save being embarrassed.
- ____c. Street talk; rough words that won’t be found in a medical book.
- ____d. Vague words or phrases; like, having sex, etc.
- 4. Get ready for brainstorming; think up as many words as possible when the teacher says a sexual word. Brainstorm with your group and write down all the synonyms your group can think of using any of the languages of sex. Have one person record. When the teacher says to stop, count up the words. The most words win for the group. (Give students two to three minutes to record.) The recorder of the winning group should read off the list.
- 5. The list of words could include: Breast, Penis, Anus, Nocturnal emissions, Intercourse, Ovaries, Pregnancy, Testicles, Uterus, Menstruation, Vagina, and Clitoris.
- 1. What is your feeling about reading the words aloud?
- 2. Which words had more synonyms—those pertaining to the male or the female?
- 3. What kind of language do adults use the most?
- 4. Why do you think the sexual parts of our anatomy have more words?
- 1. To find out what advantages or disadvantages there are to being a man or woman.
- 2. To have students identify and recognize advantages of their own sex.
- 1. Divide the group by sexes.
- 2. Have the boys (each) write at least four advantages of being a female. Then write the disadvantages of being female.
- 3. The girls should write the advantages and disadvantages of being a male.
- 4. Have each group write about what bothers you most about the opposite sex.
- 5. When completed, have the sexes exchange papers and make comments about each statement.
Homework Assignment Write an essay on “What I Like and Dislike About Being ME.” Discuss later what can’t be changed.
- 1. To examine recent changes in dating.
- 2. To determine qualifications to be a good date.
- 3. To initiate discussion of specific dating problems.
- 1. Topic is best handled as a take home assignment.
- 2. Filmstrip from Sunburst Communications, “Values for Dating,” helped to identify the peer group and personal values that encourage and discourage sex.
- 1. Define the new morality.
- 2. Does a double standard exist in your life? Explain.
- 1. To examine the many meanings of the word love.
- 2. To determine what love means to each student.
- 1. Express love in poetry.
- 1. Poetry turned out to be an excellent way to express the students’ feelings.
- 2. With the author’s permission, the poems were put into pamphlet form.
- 3. Show Part III: in filmstrip, “Values for Dating,” on love and friendship (15 minutes).
Masturbation usually means self-stimulation of the sex organs, often referred to as “auto-eroticism.” Masturbation occurs in all age groups. In all probability, most everyone has masturbated at some time in their life. It has been noted in one survey, that genital play has occurred in more than half the infants under one year. It seems a very pleasurable act, for certainly no researcher has ever mentioned infants crying while masturbating.
A more conscious auto-eroticism is sometimes started at around five years of age on. Usually, though, masturbation can be the release that helps young men during puberty preceding ejaculation.
Unfortunately, masturbation is a topic that is one of the taboo subjects (like homosexuality and incest). Early Victorian attitudes still persist for many teenagers as well as for some adults. However, the work done by Kinsey, Masters and Johnson has shown that masturbation is a natural sexual experience and appears not to cause mental or physical problems, except perhaps from guilt feelings he/she has been made to feel from some myths and misconceptions that other generations have perpetuated.
- 1. To give a few facts.
- 2. To relieve anxiety caused by masturbation.
- 3. To examine how attitudes have been affected by society, the media or peers.
Adapted from: Burt Saxon and P. Kelman, Modern Human Sexuality, (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1976).
- 1. Pass out the following quiz:
- ____T F 1. Masturbation can eventually cause feeble-mindedness.
- ____T F 2. People are more understanding of masturbation than they used to be.
- ____T F 3. Many who do masturbate feel guilty.
- ____T F 4. Masturbation can cause acne and pimples.
- ____T F 5. The problem with masturbating too much is that you won’t have a good adult sex life.
- ____T F 6. When a person masturbates, it is always done alone.
- ____T F 7. Masturbation is acceptable behavior if it doesn’t interfere with your normal personal relationships and become compulsive.
- ____T F 8. People stop masturbating after they get married.
- ____T F 9. Masturbation can weaken your body and mind.
- ____T F 10. Masturbation can relieve tensions.
- ____T F 11. Masturbation can cause homosexuality.
- ____T F 12. Masturbation is part of our normal sex experience.
1. F; 2. T; 3. T; 4. F; 5. F; 6. F; 7. T; 8. F; 9. F; 10. T; 11. F; 12. T.
No other sexuality question seems to be as controversial and emotionally packed as is abortion. The gamut of feelings runs between the right of the unborn to live to the woman’s right to choose whether she wants to end an unwanted pregnancy. There are several ways of having an abortion and they are relatively simple if done before the twelfth week of pregnancy. Later abortions are a more difficult procedure and carry greater risk. Frequent abortions could lead to serious consequences.
To make valid decisions about abortion, it is necessary to get all the facts. There is a great deal of literature on the subject and various organizations ready to help.
There are many questions to ask. What is meant by a live fetus? When is a fetus considered a person? What harm could come to the woman? How does the father feel about the situation? What happens if the mother gives birth to an unwanted child?
- 1. Comparing options.
- 2. Getting students to look at a problem.
- 1. Have student write only Male or Female on paper.
- 2. Put the following statements on the overhead or board: If a sixteen year old girl is pregnant, . . .
- ____a. It is best for her to have an abortion if . . .
- ____b. It is best for her to get married and have the baby when . . .
- ____c. It is best for her to give the baby up for adoption when . . .
- ____d. It is best for her to keep the baby and stay unwed when . . .
- 1. Have students read off some of the answers.
- 2. Are there any patterns of similarities or differences?
- 1. “Teenage Father.” 30 minutes. Planned Parenthood, League of Connecticut Film focuses on the innermost thoughts and feelings of a seventeen year old boy who is involved in an unplanned pregnancy.
- 2. “Young, Single and Pregnant.” Story of four teenagers and how they resolved their pregnancies—objective and non-judgemental. Guidance Associates, 757 3rd Ave., New York, NY 10017.
- 1. This exercise helps students give reasons for their opinions.
- 1. On the overhead are some of the statements that some people feel compelled to write.
- 2. Think about what kind of a message you would like to write.
- 3. Hand out the worksheet as printed in Michael Silver, Facing Issues of Life and Death (St. Louis, Mo.: Milliken Pub. Co., 1976).
- 4. Student is to decide on his feelings and give his reasons based on medical, social, ethical and/or religious, or legal considerations.
- 5. Student would write the best reason for supporting or opposing abortion.
- 1. The above mentioned book in the Contemporary Values Series has other interesting situations for students to consider.
Guilt and Shame
Guilt is one of our most destructive emotions, and especially for adolescents who are only learning to cope with all the other stresses of life today. Guilt is experienced when you do something that goes contrary to the moral codes of the family or society or your own conscience.
Some feeling of guilt can keep a check on our responsibilities to home, school, work, and the people we contact. The other side of the guilt coin can result in very serious outcomes if the guilt is undeserved. The adolescent might not only keep hidden his hostility but even consider destructive means of getting rid of his innermost feelings—forever.
Where do feelings of guilt and shame have their source? According to Helen Block Lewis in her book, Psychic War in Men and Women, the human culture is passed on with the first social relationship between mother or caretaker and infant. It is in this close relationship where sex roles are established. Affectionate bonds are nourished or broken with this little bundle of a sexual, affectionate human being. When those bonds are broken, then trouble can begin. This is when little girls and boys first sense differences in mother’s attitude.4
It was most interesting, to me, to find that girls and boys are programmed to the differences that exist between them by the way in which the mothers handle their babies. It seems easier for mothers to cuddle their same sex babies. Little boys have to identify with a different sex caretaker and this appears to matter a great deal in sexual identification.
When affectionate bonds are broken for little girls, they respond inwardly and feel a loss of love and therefore try to get back in good favor by trying to please. By two years of age, they have learned that being good, quiet and obedient gets the desired results most of the time. They also have learned their female subservient role somehow.
Little boys learn, when bonds are broken, they can get their mother’s attention by loud, aggressive behavior. The older child carries aggression to hostility and gets back the dignity of his ego by downgrading someone.
It is all too obvious how very dependent a child is on his/her parents to shape their future mental and physiological and sexual health. The father’s role is especially important in forming good opposite identification as well as being a good same sex model for the boy. However, the mother does seem to be the most vital link just by her earliest and most constant association with the infant.
- 1. Do males feel superior?
- 2. Do females consider the males are superior?
- 1. Put the following questions on the overhead:
- ____a. Which do you prefer, a male or female doctor?
- ____b. Which sex are you?
- ____c. Which do you prefer, a male or female nurse?
- ____d. Which sex is better? Why?
- 2. Get a class count.
- 3. Categorize the answers.
- 4. Any surprises in the answers?
- 5. What conclusions could you make?
- 1. Trying to find shame vs guilt reactions.
- 1. If someone verbally hurts me I feel . . .
- 2. When I have a bad report card I . . .
- 3. Prostitution is caused by . . .
- 4. The reason I hate to tell my parents I’ve done something wrong is . . .
- 5. If I am caught in a lie I . . .
- 6. I say “yes” when I want to say “no” when . . .
- 7. If someone embarrasses me I . . .
- 1. By sharing the answers, are there any similarities in the sentence fragments?
- 2. Are there any surprises?
- 1. When you are about to do something wrong, how do you know whether to do it or not?
- 2. Can you think of any way to get rid of feelings of shame or guilt?
The bibliography offers several sources to help guide the teacher who wants to help adolescents develop reasonable and healthy attitudes about their sexuality that will help them make the right decisions— for ultimately, they make their own choice.
- 1. David Elkind, ed., Children and Adolescents: Interpretive Essays on Jean Piaget (New York: Oxford University Press, 1974).
- 2. Sigmund Freud. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality. Standard Edition, Vol. 7.
- 3. A. Montagu and F. Matson, The Human Connection. McGraw-Hill Book Co.
- 4. H. B. Lewis, Psychic War in Men and Women (New York: NYU Press, 1976).
Brown, Thos. E. A Guide for Christian Sex Education of Youth. New York: Association Press, 1968.
Brown, Thos. E. “Sex Education and the Life of the Black Ghetto.” Pastoral Psychology, 1968, 19 (xeroxed and available).
Duska, Ronald, and Whelan, M. Moral Development—A Guide to Piaget and Kohlberg. New York: Paulist Press, 1975.
Katchadourian, Herant., and Lunde, D. T. Fundamentals of Human Sexuality. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1975. Good general textbook.
Kesterbaum, Clarice J. “Current Sexual Attitudes, Societal Pressure and the Middle-Class Adolescent Girl.” Adolescent Psychiatry, Vol. VII, pp. 147-156. Ed. Sherman Feinstein and Peter Giovacchini, Chicago: University Chicago Press, 1979.
Morrison, Eleanor S., and Price, Mila. Values in Sexuality. A New Approach to Sex Education. New York: Hart Publishers, 1974.
Excellent book of practical application of values clarification exercises.
Saxon, Burt., and Kelman, Peter. Modern Human Sexuality. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
Simon, Sidney., Howe, L., and Kirschenbaum, H. Values Clarification: A Handbook of Practical Strategies for Teachers and Students. Revised Ed., New York: A & W Publishers, Inc. 1978.
Boston Woman’s Health Collective. Our Bodies Ourselves, 2nd edition. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.
The Diagram Group. Woman’s Body—An Owner’s Manual. New York: Bantam Books, 1977.
The Diagram Group. Man’s Body—An Owner’s Manual. New York: Bantam Books, 1977.
Silver, Michael. Facing Issues of Life and Death. Contemporary Values Series. St. Louis, Missouri: Milliken Publishing Co. Useful ideas.
Tidow, Ned. Learning Facts and Attitudes About Human Sexuality. Portland, Maine: J. Weston Walch Publishers.
Newsweek. Teen Age Sex—The New Morality Hits Home. (Sept. 1) 1980.
Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc., 810 Seventh Avenue, New York, New York 10019 and also 129 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, Connecticut 06510. Offers some very good pamphlets:
a. Sex With Love
b. The Family Book About Sexuality
c. What Teens Want to Know but Don’t Know How to Ask
d. Are You Kidding Yourself?
e. Teen Sex? It’s O.K. to Say, No Way.
Time. Abortion—Battle A “Life” vs. “Choice”. (April 8) 1981.
What’s Happening ($1.00). Grady Memorial Hospital Family Planning Publications, 80 Butler Street, Atlanta, Georgia 30303. Good at answering some teenage questions.
Sunburst Communications, 39 Washington Avenue, Pleasantville, New York 10570, offers some very thought provoking film strips and cassettes:
- a. It Couldn’t Happen to Me. Color, 16 mm, 28 minutes. Focuses on reasons for not using birth control during sexual relations and the consequences.
- b. A Family Talks About Sex. Good role model.
- c. Adolescent Sexual Conflict—Are We Still Going to the Movies? 16 mm, 14 minutes. Good to study communication.
- d. Are You Ready for Sex? 16 mm, 24 minutes. Helps to clarify personal values and make responsible decisions.
- e. Teenage Father. 16 mm, 30 minutes. Excellent film, finally recognizes the male’s feelings and thoughts.
- f. What About McBride? 16 mm, 10 minutes. Useful film to introduce homosexuality and to examine peer thinking.
- a. Values for Dating. Very good to examine peer pressure forces. Good on examining “love”.
- b. Becoming Responsible. Investigates problems and stresses consequences.
- c. The Gentle Art of Saying No: Principles of Assertiveness. Helps students to find a way of rejecting destructive behavior and attitudes.
- STAGES IN COGNITIVE AND PERSONALITY DEVELOPMENT:
- SIXTH THROUGH OLD AGE*
- (as developed by some of the leading contributors to the study of human development)
Contents of 1981 Volume III | Directory of Volumes | Index | Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute


Identification. The name "Cambodia" derives from the French Cambodge, which comes from the Khmer word Kâmpuchea, meaning "born of Kambu." During the socialist regimes of Democratic Kampuchea (DK) (1975–1979) and the People's Republic of Kampuchea (PRK) (1979–1989), the country was known internationally as Kampuchea, but more recent governments have returned to using Cambodia, and the official name in English is now the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Khmer as a noun or adjective can refer to the Cambodian language, people, or culture and thus suggests an ethnic and linguistic identity more than a political entity. From 1970 to 1975, the country was known as the Khmer Republic (KR).
Location and Geography. Cambodia lies between Thailand and Vietnam in mainland southeast Asia, with a smaller stretch of the northern border adjoining Laos. The most central region culturally and economically is the lowland flood plain of the Mekong River and Tonle Sap Lake. The Sap River meets the Mekong at Phnom Penh, where the river soon divides again into the Bassac and the Mekong, which flow through southern Vietnam to the South China Sea. Although Cambodia also has a coastline on the Gulf of Thailand, the coast is separated from the central flood plain by mountains; only since the 1950s have railroads and roads provided ready access to the coastal port towns.
The economy is dominated by wet rice agriculture. The iconic image of the countryside is one of rice paddies among which are scattered sugar palms. Until recently, much of the area outside the flood plains was forested.
The ancient capital of the Khmer Empire was at Angkor, close to present-day Siem Reap. In the fifteenth century, the capital was moved to the area of the intersection of the Sap and Mekong rivers, near present-day Phnom Penh, perhaps to enhance trade. The most densely populated areas now are along the rivers in the provinces near Phnom Penh.
Demography. According to a 1998 census, the population is 11.42 million. There are no reliable statistics for ethnic populations, although the Khmer population is certainly the largest. A 1993 demographic study estimated that Khmer represented 88.7 percent of the population; Vietnamese, 5.2 percent; Cham, 2.5 percent; Chinese, 1 percent; and others (Thai, Lao, and smaller minority groups in the north and northeast), 2.6 percent.
Linguistic Affiliation. The dominant Khmer language belongs to the Austroasiatic language family and is related to Vietnamese, Mon, and a number of other Asian languages. Khmer writing, derived from Indian systems, may have begun as early as the third century C.E. ; the first dated inscriptions in Khmer are from the seventh century C.E. While Khmer is closer to Vietnamese than to Thai, a shared literate tradition related to a common religion and centuries of cultural contact has resulted in much vocabulary being shared with Thai. As in Thailand, Laos, and Burma, the language of Theravada Buddhist scriptures, Pali, often is studied by young men during temporary periods as monks and is an important influence on literary Khmer.
A scarcity of written materials resulting from the colonial dominance of French and later periods of political turmoil had left the educated population highly dependent on second languages, and in urban areas there is a great desire to learn English and French. Despite the efforts of France to promote the continued use of French as a second language, it is
Symbolism. The most important cultural symbol is the ancient Khmer temple Angkor Wat, along with the ancient Khmer Empire and its monumental antiquities. Pictures and bas-relief carvings of the four-faced tower of the Bayon at Angkor Thom and of âpsâras (celestial dancing girls) are ubiquitous in homes and public buildings. Since independence, every flag except the one used by the United Nations when it administered the country in 1993 has featured the image of Angkor Wat. Classical dance, also an important national symbol, consciously tries in costume and gesture to recreate Angkorean bas-reliefs.
The institution of kingship, which was reestablished in 1993, is an important national symbol, especially in rural areas, where devotion to the king never died out during the socialist period. It is not clear to what extent the symbolism of kingship can be separated from its current embodiment in Norodom Sihanouk.
In the 1980s, the government promoted the memory of the atrocities of 1975–1979 DK period, also known as the Pol Pot regime, including holidays to commemorate bitterness (20 May) and national liberation (7 January). However, the DK atrocities symbolize Cambodian identity much less for its people than they do for foreigners. Nevertheless, many Cambodians express a sense that their culture has been lost or is in danger, and this cultural vulnerability stands as a kind of national symbol.
National identity sometimes is mobilized around the idea of hostility to Vietnam. This derives in part from the ways in which national identity was defined by resistance groups during the PRK period, when there was a strong Vietnamese military and cultural presence.
Emergence of the Nation. The roots of the nation lie in the systematization of wet rice agriculture and the gradual development of a more extensive political organization that climaxed in the Khmer Empire in the period 802–1431. The Khmer Empire was not a nation in the modern sense and varied in size from king to king. However, at different times the empire ruled large parts of what is now Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam. The population of the empire included Siamese and probably other Austroasiatic peoples who gradually assimilated to the Khmer. Khmer culture and language were clearly dominant during that period, and the Khmer population extended well beyond the current boundaries.
The rise of Siam (now Thailand) as an empire and nation and the gradual expansion of Vietnam drastically decreased Khmer territory and led to a period when Cambodia was dominated by those kingdoms. It is generally accepted that if Cambodia had not been colonized by France, it would have been swallowed by its neighbors.
National Identity. True national identity was created during the French colonial presence. The French fixed boundaries, systematized government and ecclesiastical bureaucracies, promoted the empire as a national symbol, encouraged an increasingly elaborate ceremonial role for the king, and introduced secular education.
Ethnic Relations. There are significant populations of ethnic Khmer in Thailand and Vietnam. The Khmer in Thailand are well integrated into the Thai state, with few significant links to Cambodia. The Khmer in southern Vietnam, called Khmer Kraom, have historically had much stronger ties to Cambodia proper, and several important Cambodian political leaders have been Khmer Kraom. There continues to be migration of Khmer Kraom to Cambodia, including young men who come as Buddhist monks; many Khmer Kraom have a strong sense of identity with the nation. Their role in Cambodia is complex in that while they are glorified as a symbol of lost territory, they are sometimes distrusted as being Vietnamese.
Large numbers of the Cambodian refugees who fled to camps in Thailand during the DK period and the early PRK period resettled in the United States, France, Australia, and New Zealand. The largest ethnic minority population is Vietnamese, whose numbers range between 500,000 and a million. However, those numbers are hotly contested for political reasons. Tension between ethnic Khmer and Vietnamese is strong. Scholars disagree about whether this hostility has a long history or is a recent political construction. State-sponsored killing and forced expulsion of Vietnamese occurred during the KR and the DK periods. Since the 1991 Paris Agreements, there have been two well-publicized massacres of Vietnamese villagers and numerous smaller incidents of violence against Vietnamese, mostly attributable to Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Other new political parties employ strong anti-Vietnamese rhetoric. Vietnamese influence in Cambodia dates at least to the seventeenth century. A significant Vietnamese population in Phnom Penh predated French colonialism; however, the pattern of migration increased when the French brought Vietnamese to Cambodia as administrators, plantation workers, and urban laborers. As rice farmers, Vietnamese have often been in direct economic competition with Khmer. There are also large fishing communities of Vietnamese, and in urban areas, Vietnamese engage in a number of small trades, including construction work, another area where they compete with ethnic Khmer.
The Cham, a predominantly Muslim people, began migrating to Cambodia in the fifteenth century from the South China Sea coast as that area came under Vietnamese political domination. Their population is between 240,000 and 300,000. Many Cham live in riverfront communities and engage in fishing, small business, and raising and slaughtering of livestock (an occupation avoided by Khmer Buddhists for religious reasons). Cham suffering during the DK period was especially severe, when resistance to Khmer Rouge communal discipline led to brutal pogroms. In recent years the Cham have cultivated links to Muslims in Malaysia, Indonesia, and Arabic countries.
A recent estimate of the Chinese population is 100,000, although because of the numbers of Chinese who have historically lived in Cambodia, the numbers of persons with some Chinese blood, and Chinese cultural influence, the impact is much greater. There has traditionally been much more
Phnom Penh, the capital and the only major city, is relatively small, but rapidly increasing in population. At the time of the 1998 census, it was 997,986. A lack of political and economic integration with rural Cambodia and peasant resentment of the urban population probably influenced the decision of the DK government in 1975 to evacuate the entire urban population to the countryside. Since 1979, Phnom Penh has experienced only a gradual rebuilding. Architecturally, the city is a mixture of pre-1975 French colonial, Chinese, and modernist styles alongside the simple socialist styles of the 1980s, garish new buildings, and shanty towns.
The Royal Palace compound and the nearby National Museum lie on Phnom Penh's park-lined central riverfront and form a prominent cultural focal point of the country and city. Norodom Boulevard, lined with embassies, government buildings, and villas, runs between Independence Monument and the Wat Phnom temple. Several key markets, Buddhist temples, and luxury hotels serve as major landmarks. City streets are full of people, evoking a sense of social flux with no clear boundaries. Communication is easy and natural.
Provincial capitals have compounds of government buildings, large central markets in pre-1975 modern buildings, and several Buddhist temples. At the district and subdistrict levels, there are more modest temples, makeshift markets, and simple school buildings. Distinctions between public and private buildings tend to be free-flowing.
Food in Daily Life. The staples are rice and fish. Traditionally, a home meal is served on a mat on the floor or with the diners seated together on a raised bamboo platform. Meals are eaten in shifts according to status, with adult males and guests eating first and food preparers last. Breakfast typically consists of rice porridge or rice noodles. Lunch and dinner may be a combination of a spiced broth with fish or meat and vegetables, fish, fresh vegetables eaten with a fish-based paste, and stir-fried vegetables with chopped meat. A strong-smelling fermented fish paste called prâhok is the quintessential flavoring of Khmer food. Fruit is savored, and its display is considered a mark of abundance. It often is given as a gift. Teuk tnaot, a liquid tapped from sugar palms and drunk in various degrees of fermentation, generally is not taken with meals.
The tradition of Khmer cuisine in restaurants is undeveloped, and restaurants typically serve what is regarded as Chinese food. There are no food taboos, although devout Buddhists refrain from alcohol. Monks also cannot eat after noon and are enjoined to eat whatever they are given without making special requests.
Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. During festivals, elaborate and painstakingly seasoned dishes are prepared, such as curries, spiced fish sauces, complex stir fries, and a variety of sweets. At a temple festival, each family brings dishes that are ritually presented to the monks. After the monks have eaten, the remaining food is eaten by the lay community.
Basic Economy. The basis of the economy continues to be rice agriculture, and much of the population farms at a subsistence level, linked by a relatively undeveloped market system for rice, fruits, and vegetables, and using the riel for currency. Rice farmers are vulnerable to market fluctuations and to drought and insect infestation. State-owned rubber plantations dating back to the colonial period have remained a peripheral part of the economy.
Land Tenure and Property. Radical attempts to communalize property during the DK period and more modest attempts to encourage collective agriculture under PRK met with strong cultural resistance. Cambodians have a strong sense of personal property shared within the domestic unit. Constitutionally, the PRK recognized only three kinds of economic organization: state, cooperative, and family. Only after 1989, with the conscious shift to a market economy, did corporate enterprises and foreign investment become legal.
Commercial Activities. Cambodian artisans are known for silk and cotton weaving, silver work, silver and gold jewelry, and basketry. Handmade pottery is sold from oxcarts that travel from city to city. Straw mats made by hand at local workshops are available in markets; they also are made for personal use. In rural areas, plows, machetes,
Tourism is an important part of the economy, but it was hindered by fear of political unrest during most of the 1990s. It increased dramatically in 1999 and 2000.
Major Industries. Industry is undeveloped. State-owned sawmills, soap and cigarette factories, and small workshops for the construction of aluminum products, together with larger state-owned textile and rubber tire factories, have been privatized, and new breweries and cement factories have opened. After 1994, foreign-owned garment factories began to appear, employing mostly female laborers at extremely low wages. The economic role of those factories has expanded rapidly.
Trade. The government lacks effective controls over cross-border trade. In the 1980s, resistance groups near the Thai border financed their activities by trading in gems and timber. Illegal timber exports to Thailand and Vietnam are uncontrolled, and the country is rapidly becoming deforested. Illegal sales of rice to Thailand and Vietnam are also considerable and in 1998 resulted in domestic shortfalls. Besides rice and wood products, Cambodia exports fish products, cement, brewery products, and handicrafts to nearby Asian countries. The garment industry is linked to markets in the United States and the European Union.
Classes and Castes. Ideas about status and the display of wealth have changed dramatically since 1991. Under socialism, the state promoted an ideology of egalitarianism, and personal wealth was not easily detected. Since 1991, extremely wealthy individuals have emerged among high-ranking government officials and well-placed businesspersons in a country where the population remains very poor. Cambodians have traditionally cultivated the practice of exaggerated respect for a small class of civil servants and other "big men," perhaps defined in terms more by influence than by wealth. There is great sensitivity to degrees of relative wealth, especially in decisions about marriage partners. A relative status hierarchy figures conspicuously in personal relations.
Symbols of Social Stratification. There is a general assumption that degrees of wealth can and should be publicly known. In the absence of banks, wealth was traditionally worn on the person as jewelry, which still is an important marker of status. Folk categorization distinguishes between the poor family's house of bamboo and thatch, the more economically secure family's traditional wood house on stilts, and the richer family's house of stone or cement. In Phnom Penh, the wealthiest families live in villas as opposed to apartments or wood houses. More contemporary markers involve cars and consumer goods.
Government. The 1993 constitution established a constitutional monarchy devoted to the principles of liberal democracy. The national government consists of a 120-member National Assembly, a Council of Ministers, and a Constitutional Council. In 1999, the Assembly voted to create a Senate. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the government was still in transition from the one-party system of the 1980s to a liberal democracy. Although 1993 United Nations-sponsored elections instituted a multiparty system at the national level, and multiparty elections determined the membership of the National Assembly and the choice of prime ministers in 1993 and 1998, there have not been local multiparty elections. While provincial governorships and ministerial positions were decided by negotiations between the major parties after the national elections, officials at the district level and below were usually persons who had been in office since the socialist 1980s. Local elections were tentatively scheduled for early 2002.
Leadership and Political Officials. The Cambodian People's Party (CPP) is an outgrowth of the People's Revolutionary Party of Kampuchea (PRPK), which through the 1980s served as the single party, providing discipline and leadership for the socialist state. It is not clear to what extent the transition to a multiparty democracy has taken place.
Social Problems and Control. There is much dis-trust of the police and judicial systems, which are believed to be corrupt. Traffic disputes and claims to property often are negotiated outside the legal system. Common criminals are dealt with brutally, and there is a widespread assumption that persons with wealth and political power are effectively outside the law. There have been many cases of violence against opposition politicians and journalists.
Military Activity. The military continues to dominate the national budget despite the collapse of the Khmer Rouge insurgency. In 1997, defense and security represented 53.9 percent of government expenditures. Fighting on the streets of Phnom Penh at the time of a 1996 coup is remembered with resentment. Individual soldiers often break the law with impunity. The military is not a particularly cohesive social force and has not threatened to seize power.
While a basic government framework to address the needs of widows, orphans, veterans, and those handicapped by war has been in place since the PRK period, those programs have been plagued by a lack of funds. International organizations (IOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) played an important role in the emergency reconstruction of the country in 1979–1982, providing food and helping to rebuild the agricultural infrastructure. The issue of aid was complicated in the 1980s by an international embargo. Some aid organizations chose to provide relief to Cambodians on the Thai border; other organizations were restricted from working in the provinces. A small number of international NGOs continued to offer assistance in health care, rehabilitation for mine victims, food relief, and agricultural training and assistance. After the beginnings of a negotiated political settlement
Local NGOs usually are funded by IOs, donor countries, or international NGOs. In 1999, there were over two hundred local NGOs, all but two formed since 1992. Given a traditional absence of associations outside the state and religious institutions, NGOs represent a significant development. Some have focused on rural development, welfare, education, and women's issues. Perhaps the NGOs with the greatest immediate impact have been local human rights organizations, which have established extensive grassroots networks to document human rights abuses.
Division of Labor by Gender. In most spheres, there is some flexibility in gender roles. Most tasks performed by men occasionally are performed by women, and vice versa. Traditionally among villagers, men fished, plowed, threshed rice, made and repaired tools, and cared for cattle. Women transplanted seedlings; did washing, mending, and housecleaning; performed most of the child care; and did the everyday shopping. Women are traditionally responsible for a family's money and engage in small-scale marketing.
In the DK period, communal work further broke down gender barriers, and in the post-DK period, when conscription created a shortage of men in civilian life, women were forced to do more hard physical labor. This gender imbalance meant that a small number of women played important roles in civil service and politics. The numbers of women in civil service and politics decreased somewhat in the 1990s, but new foreign-owned textile factories employ almost exclusively women laborers. Only men can enter the monkhood. While women assume ascetic lifestyles and take up residence in temples, they are considered part of the lay population.
The Relative Status of Women and Men. Bilateral kinship and a strong tendency toward matrilocality leave women in a position of relative strength. The fact that women control family finances may not be regarded as a sign of superiority but represents real power in practical terms. However, women have much less access than men to the highest positions of political and economic power.
Traditional codes of behavior for women are more elaborate and strict than those for men. Their role is often marked symbolically as inferior. While traditional art and contemporary media images of women show them as active agents, they often are depicted as physically vulnerable to men. Domestic violence against women at the village level is widespread, and those women have little legal recourse.
Marriage. Marriage traditionally is arranged by the parents of the bride and groom or by someone acting as their representative. Ideally, the groom originates the courtship process by asking his parents to approach the parents of a woman to whom he is attracted. Neither the groom nor the bride is forced to take a marriage partner, although parents may have considerable influence in choosing a partner. Considerations of the benefits to the two families often figure more prominently in the choice of a marriage partner than does romantic love. It is not unusual for decisions about marriage to be made before a couple has had much contact. Specialists in reading horoscopes typically are consulted about the appropriateness of a wedding, although their advice is not always followed. The groom pays bride-wealth to the family of the bride; this money sometimes is used to buy jewelry or clothing for the bride or defray the cost of the wedding.
Although polygyny was legal before 1989, true polygyny, sanctioned by ceremony and both wives living in the same house, was rarely practiced outside of royalty in modern times. However, a mistress is referred to as a second wife, and even though bigamy was prohibited by the 1993 constitution, the practice of keeping a second or third wife does not carry a social stigma. There is strong social pressure to marry and for those who marry to have children. Divorce is a socially recognized option, although there is social pressure against it and some reluctance to grant it.
Domestic Unit. The domestic unit is classically a nuclear family consisting of parents and children; however, there is much flexibility in allowing other arrangements. Residence after marriage is ideally neolocal but often, for practical reasons, with the parents of one of the spouses. The preference is for matrilocality, although this is not a rigid rule. Aged parents often live with their adult children. Major family decisions are shared by the husband and wife.
Inheritance. An inheritance is ideally divided equally among children without regard to gender or age order, although the child who supported the parents in their old age may be favored and a child no longer living in the village may receive less property.
Kin Groups. Kin groups larger than the family have no socially prescribed role, although they can be a source of emotional bonds and personal alliance.
Infant Care. Infant care is characterized by almost constant attention to the child, who is rarely left alone. The child is carefully observed to determine the character it is believed to already possess; it is considered from birth an active agent and its wishes, such as who should hold it, are observed and respected.
Child Rearing and Education. Children are socialized early to respect the authority of parents and older siblings. There is a strong cultural value of "study," but little sense of study as oriented toward a specific goal or profession. Schools in Cambodia emphasize the copying of texts and memorization. Since the DK period, education has been plagued by the poor condition of buildings, lack of books and trained teachers, and the inability of the government to pay teachers. Boys sometimes enter the monkhood as an alternative to state education.
Higher Education. Tertiary education has only gradually been re-instituted since 1979 and is still on unsteady foundations. Over the course of the 1980s, different universities were reopened: The Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy, and Dentistry in 1979, teacher training schools in 1980, a technical school in 1981, an Institute of Economics in 1984, and the Agricultural Institute in 1985. The University of Phnom Penh was not reopened until 1988. Tertiary education has been very dependent on foreign aid, foreign faculty, and overseas training of students.
Khmer has a complex system of pronouns and terms of address that distinguishes between people of formal rank, people with whom the speaker is in everyday interaction (further distinguished by relative age), and those with whom one assumes a marked informality, including people of clear inferior status and those with whom the speaker shares a long-standing familiar equality. Those addressing monks or royalty are expected to use even more complex linguistic systems, which, in addition to special pronouns and terms of address, include special
There is a much stronger taboo against public touching between men and women than in Western countries, but same-sex touching is more accepted than, for example, in the United States. Conventional wisdom holds that the head is the highest part of the body and the feet the lowest, and it is rude to touch another adult's head, just as it is rude to point one's foot at another person. However, a certain kind of intimacy among equals is characterized by the breaking of the norm, with friendly cuffs to the other person's head.
Religious Beliefs. Theravada Buddhism spread in the later years of the Khmer Empire and is traditionally considered the religion of ethnic Khmer. Animist practices and what are called Brahmanistic practices are also part of the culture and are deeply intermingled with the everyday practice of Buddhism. They are not considered separate religions but part of the spectrum of choices for dealing with moral, physical, and spiritual needs. Buddhism is a national tradition, with a bureaucracy and a written tradition. Brahmanist and spirit practices are more localized and are passed on from person to person rather than as a formal institution.
All religious traditions were weakened by the banning of religious observances by the DK and by the religious policies of PRK, which restricted religion and emphasized a Buddhism consistent with socialist modernity. Since restrictions were lifted in 1989, religion has enjoyed a revival. Christian converts returned from refugee camps and foreign countries, and Christianity has established a strong foothold among ethnic Khmers. A number of other religious movements draw on the appeal of powerful traditional cultural icons and funding by overseas Khmer.
Religious Practitioners. Theravada Buddhist monks can be seen in saffron robes walking in procession in the early mornings, when they go from door to door asking for food. A lay specialist, the
Outside the formal sphere of Buddhism there are other practitioners. The krou (or krou khmaer ) specializes in traditional medicine and magic, including the making of amulets, and negotiating with certain kinds of spirits; the thmuap is a kind of krou specializing in black magic. The roup or roup arâkk is a spirit medium through whom special knowledge can be obtained.
Rituals and Holy Places. The Buddhist temple complex, or vott, is central to community life, as is the calendar of Buddhist holidays, which is linked to the seasons and the agricultural cycle. Monks must reside in a single temple for the length of the rainy season, and ceremonies mark the beginning and end of the retreat. The period around the end of the rainy season, after rice has been transplanted but before the harvest takes place, includes two major holidays: Pchum Ben (a two-week period of rituals in honor of the spirits of the dead) and Kâthin (a day for processions and the ceremonial presentation of monks' robes). The day of the Buddha's birth and enlightenment (May) and the day of the Buddha's last sermon (February) are also important holidays. The beginning of the Buddhist lunar calendar occurs in April and has both religious and secular aspects.
Death and the Afterlife. Cambodian Buddhists believe in reincarnation, although this may include temporary periods in realms resembling heaven or hell. The dead usually are cremated after an elaborate procession. Ceremonies in memory of the dead are held on the seventh and hundredth days after death.
Western and Chinese medicine and health care coexist with traditional Cambodian practices that partly derive from Ayurvedic tradition, under the guidance of krou khmaer. Western medicine enjoys great prestige, but there is a lack of professionals. Widespread use of imported western drugs, including intravenous serums and other injections, involves the role of semi-skilled professionals. Even when the medicine is "western," its practice is deeply shaped by Khmer folk categorizations of the nature of illness and the properties of medicine.
In Phnom Penh the most popular secular holiday is the Water Festival, 21–23 November, with its colorful longboat races and the nighttime display of illuminated boats. Spirit practices also associated with the boat races mean that the holiday is not completely secular.
Independence Day (9 November) and the King's Birthday (31 October) have in recent years involved large government-sponsored celebrations. However these holidays, and other smaller ones, like Constitution Day, the Day of the Royal Plowing Ceremony, and the Victory Day over Genocidal Crime, do not have the widespread cultural resonance of more religious celebrations such as New Year's, Pchum Ben, and Kathin.
Support for the Arts. Since 1979, there has been a governmental effort to restore aspects of traditional culture destroyed during the DK period. Most state and international funding has gone toward the restoration of Angkorean antiquities, but there also has been support for classical dance and for recording traditional music and setting up workshops for making traditional instruments. In recent years, there has been NGO support for preserving and developing marketing strategies for traditional weavers. Some musicians, singers, and theater groups earn money by performing at village festivals and weddings. The most successful perform on radio and television and market their work on cassette tapes. Overseas Cambodian musical groups and video producers also sell their work in Cambodia.
Literature. There is a long tradition of the use of writing, with important religious texts, royal chronicles, and epic poetry, but modern literature is undeveloped. Oral traditions are strong: domestic storytelling and a genre of narrative singing to a banjolike instrument play important cultural roles.
Virtually no literature was produced during the DK period, and many writers were killed or fled. Literature in the 1980s had a socialist orientation. Since 1991, there has been greater freedom to publish pre-1975 literature but little money to publish new books. Small newspapers have flourished, and some satirical writing has appeared. Pre-1975 authors living overseas and younger writers have published Khmer books in their countries of resettlement.
Graphic Arts. While much work in graphic arts is produced, it often is seen as mere artisanship and has received little attention. Some art is produced for tourists and the decoration of homes and offices. Since the early 1990s, the most important project for painters has been the restoration of murals in Buddhist temples. Graphic art is rarely seen as the individual expression of the artist.
Performance Arts. Classical dance and music, originally associated with the court, enjoy great prestige, although live performances by the national companies are not frequent. Less professional musicians, singers, and theater artists keep alive local traditions. Virtually every village has musicians who play at weddings. A pop tradition has revived since the end of socialism.
While filmmaking was revived in the 1980s, the output remains small and the budgets are low. Television is dominated by films and soap operas from Thailand and Hong Kong, dubbed into Khmer.
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—J OHN M ARSTON