Enjoy!)
You can't act the same at every situation.
You obviously aren't going to act the same at a library and a party! 2 different things!
This also remind me about Shaquille O'Neal's 2nd book "Shaq Talks Back"
photo from Amazon.com
Shaq mentioned that he spent his early years in a Newark ghetto, then his stepfather joined the military. So he was growing up in environments in which there is a mixture of racial groups. He mentioned that he's able to adjust to "white culture" and "black culture".
Shaq said "some people would call that selling out! I call it surviving in your environment!"
Amen to that!
In a ever-increasingly integrated world, you need to be culturally flexible.
You need to be able to adjust being around people different from you!
I was fortunate in that I went to schools with students from very different situations. My classmates were a mix of a low-income, middle class and a few rich students. My classmates came from various cultures. And each school I went to (ranging from preschool to college) had a different cultural combination.
And in my current job as a substitute teacher, I work at various school, ranging from private schools with an economically privileged population to public schools with large population of low-income immigrants. I have worked with preschoolers to high schoolers.
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Being that I was a public school student, subbing at a private school was an adjustment. For one thing, most public schools I've been to have large campuses. So it was a culture shock to enter a few private school campuses, took a tour and thinking "this is the whole campus? that's it?"
Also, public schools don't have religious services occurring during school hours. Many private schools are run by religious organizations and therefore, greatly emphasize their religion as part of their curriculum. Joining that environment was a new experience for me.
To be fair, a student from a religious private school will definitely feel the culture shock if he/she transferred to a public school. He/she will be thinking "what kind of school is this? We don't do morning prayers at the new school? We had morning prayers and chapel services at my old school."
Another adjustment in subbing at private schools is adjusting to 1st world facilities. I have been accustomed to 2nd world (and occasionally 3rd world) facilities at public schools. So in a way, the private school students are more prepared for the modern and future workplace than many public school students. Plus, at many private schools, the students are provided with their own laptops or i-pads. Makes me wish I was them :) !
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Yep, I got to be flexible to go to these different environments.
Being a substitute teacher also helped me with being flexible about daily plans.
Before that, I used to very rigid with my daily plans. My attitude is "I already planned to do this, screw anyone who wants me to adjust my schedule"
That attitude changed when I started to work as a substitute teacher. There IS NO SET PLAN in that job! You learn to be flexible fast!
Of course, I still have a schedule, and I still have to say "no" to others when I already had an important thing to do.
Knowing when to be flexible and when to be rigid is an important life skill!
