Cultural Day for preschoolers of St. Mary’s School

As part of their activities for child stimulation month, the Preschool at Saint Mary’s Primary School held its annual cultural day. The preschoolers dressed up in different cultural attires for the occasion and were clearly having fun while learning about the rich cultural heritage of the jewel. Principal, Joy Ross, spoke to News Five about the importance of cultural diversity.

Joy Ross, Principal, St. Mary’s Preschool

“We discussed initially at our parent teachers meeting with the parents for them to chose an ethnic group for their child, discuss it with their children and for their children to depict one of our ethnic culture and also to bring along a dish of food from the culture that they are depicting.”

Duane Moody

Joy Ross

“Why is it important to have these children partake in a cultural activity like this?”

Joy Ross

“They are living in the country Belize and they need to know that it is not just one ethnic group…we have a diverse country and we need to be familiar because we do it in our teaching; where we talk about Belize and we talk about the ethnic groups in our country Belize. So it is like a form of reinforcement. Before you came, each child spoke about the costume that he or she is wearing and they also tell us about the food that they brought that go along with the culture. For instance, we had children talking about the Creole and they spoke about rice and beans and salad. And then we had children from the Garifuna culture and as you can see we have hudut.”

Duane Moody

“At this young age, do you feel that they will be able to appreciate the diversity that we have in Belize?”

Joy Ross

“I would think so. If we as teachers instill in them to respect each culture or each ethnic group because we are all living together and we need to live harmoniously; we are living in the country Belize.”