"Our lives extend beyond our skins, in radical interdependence with the rest of the world," Joanna Macy has written. In this accessible and much-needed resource, Homa Sabet Tavangar (a mother of three with 20 years of experience working abroad with governments, businesses, and nonprofit agencies) has created a "parenting toolbox" to help prepare children for a global world of diversity and change.
There are eight chapters on intercultural friendships, foreign languages, play and sports with children from diverse cultures, enhancing global learning in classrooms, multicultural eating experiences, opening to the world's religions, rituals and celebrations around the globe, watching foreign films, and avenues of service and giving.
In a poem, Denise Levertov mused:
"We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.
So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,
so much is in bud."
Tavangar has done us all a service here with an extensive list of organizations, nonprofits, religious institutions, and websites that can be contacted for books, films, games, music, and activities to enhance your child or grandchild's appreciation for the adventures of going global. So much more has unfolded since the author wrote this book and so much is in bud right now!
Parents, grandparents, educators, and religious leaders can all work together to advance the worthwhile cause of assisting children to grow up global. Or as Astronaut Yuri Gagarin put it: "Looking at the Earth from afar you realize it is too small for conflict and just big enough for cooperation."
