Most of the students in this Seminar 2 class are children of immigrants or have ancestors that were immigrants. Growing up, my relatives would tell me stories that they heard from their parents in their home countries. They were fairytales, myths and lessons that were completely different from the books that I would read in school. I think that it would be interesting to compile different stories from different cultures and compare and contrast them. For example, how many cultures have a version of the boy who cried wolf, or a fable based on the consequences of lying. We can concentrate on major ethnic populations in New York City and then study their values and traditions through their stories. Using stories, we can connect them to holidays and the way people of different cultures act.
I think that this will be a fun project for everyone in the class because research can be done on the internet or from our families. It’ll be a chance for us to talk to our parents and our classmates and instigate discussions about stories and their origins. Even people who don’t have stories to contribute can look into the stories of cultures that they are interested in. By researching stories, we can connect our family histories and the cultures we studied in our neighborhood visits.
