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EDUCATING: THE NEXT GENERATION
"Transcultural"
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"Ribbon Dance" performed by Mandy Yu and other members of
the Academy of Chinese Performing Arts. Video still from dress rehearsal
in 1996. ¯
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Cultural Transcendence
"Transcultural" connotes "beyond culture" in the
sense that the barriers between traditional cultures, e.g.,
nationality based cultures, are transcended. Such a transcendence both is
required for and a result of consensual decision making. However, the
transcendence does not yield something that is not culture, but rather
another culture of which consensual decision making is a part.
Furthermore, the root cultures need not disappear, although some
adaptation, even development, may be required to take part in the
consensual decision making. Thus, "transculture" denotes a
higher order culture superimposed over the root cultures of a
multicultural society.
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Correlation of Transcultural Society and Consensual Society
In the concise statement of the theme, a "transcultural
society" is presented as a multicultural society that employs
consensual decision making. This should be read as a correlation, rather
than a definition. Consideration should be given to the possibility of a
transcultural society that does not employ consensual decision making. It
is harder to imagine how a multicultural society that employed consensual
decision making (to a significant extent) could not be transcultural;
however, it should not be ruled out.
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Retaining Diversity
A more practical problem is the preservation of the distinctiveness of
the root cultures given the overlaying transcendent culture. The danger is
that the society would become more uniform and lose culture diversity. The
loss of cultural diversity is undesirable for many reasons, including the
loss of diversity in validation perspectives for consensual decision
making.
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Education for Diversity
One possible antidote to loss of diversity is to provide immersion
schools during childhood education. Every child can have a strong
education within a root culture as a base from which to transcend cultural
barriers. There is no reason that every child must be educated with the
context of the same root culture. Thus, the transcultural society should
foster the development of educational institutions representing different
cultures.
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Transculture in Childhood
Of course, the children should be not isolated from other cultures.
Every child should have at least one secondary culture and be exposed to a
variety of cultures. The secondary culture serves as a counterpoint to the
primary culture. The other cultures are presented perhaps of a buffet to
sampled over time as interest dictates.
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