Event Gives Passport to Foreign Cultures

Rosalind Crawford, dressed in a flowing lime-and-tangerine silk robe, looked like a Nigerian princess as she made African bookmarks Friday at a multicultural festival at Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies.

The 13-year-old was among 500 sixth- and seventh-graders taking part in the school’s annual Medieval Faire and Feast, which transformed the schoolyard into a global village.

“I feel good about my culture,” said Rosalind, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an African American mother. “The festival helps kids learn more about different cultures and their own cultures.”

The festival wasn’t all fun and games, said Susan Hostler, a social studies teacher and event organizer.

The seventh-graders were being graded on their signs, displays, products, booths and attitude, along with the design of the stamps they used to mark sixth-graders’ “passports” as they visited each “country,” she said.

Several students appeared to have immersed themselves in cultures different from their own as they played games, wore traditional clothing and ate foods from other lands.

Neda Saymountry, 12, said she learned to make sushi as part of her study of Japanese culture.

“Japan is surrounded by the ocean, and so a lot of food is made out of fish,” Neda said. “I am Thai American, and Thai people also make sushi.”

Tania Guerrero, 13, said she learned about women’s roles in countries where Islam is the dominant religion.

“Women are not allowed to wear revealing clothing,” said Tania, who is Mexican American. “I think if women are pretty they should be allowed to express themselves in clothing.”

The event was the culmination of a yearlong study of Medieval civilizations by seventh-graders in a humanities program that combined English, social studies and art classes.

“One of the goals is to make the children sensitive and appreciative of other cultures,” Hostler said.