Friday's Internet Edition, July 03, 2009.
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A large percentage of the school’s students are Hispanic with a wide variety of ethnic and cultural influences from many different countries. On Friday, TPS conducted its fifth annual Multicultural Festival, bringing students, families and teachers of all color and race together in a celebration that spanned the globe.
“We want to celebrate the diversity of our school,” TPS Principal Paula Gaylord said. “That’s a very important thing for us to do. We’re not all the same and we want our children to respect diversity. We want to learn about other cultures and we find we have many more cultures than the children realize. Almost a third of our families are Hispanic now.
“The world is a lot more global. Our children think more globally and they learn about other places. The Internet gives them so much access. We can access information so quickly, and it is a different world for our children.”
Five of the world’s seven continents were represented throughout the school’s lobby and concourse. Families made their way through a labyrinth of color, culture and heritage from countries as close as Mexico to lands as far away as India and Pakistan. Volunteers, some dressed up in traditional clothes from their respective countries, set up tables that offered visitors a small sampling of what life is like outside the United States.
“We as a school needed to celebrate the different cultures,” said Deborah Terry, TPS kindergarten teacher who organized the event after hearing about it from her daughter six years ago. “It’s important because the families come together. They can see how the different cultures celebrate and what their customs are. It’s just a festive night.”
Thomasville Parks and Recreation Director Billy Freeman and his daughter, Katie, were part of a group from Rich Fork Baptist Church that went to Kenya last summer, and their table highlighted that trip with pictures and artifacts from Africa.
“When you go there and see a country that’s not as well off as we are it makes you realize how blessed you really are,” Katie Freeman said. “It makes you appreciate things here so much more. So many times these places seem so far away. When you come to a place like this, it gives the kids such an appreciation for different places in the world.”
Billy Freeman said he had never left the continental United States until just a few years ago and found the experience so amazing the trip to Africa has become a yearly adventure. Billy Freeman said the world is so different than when he was in school and recognizes the importance of children seeing other cultures and having those experiences.
“There’s so many different cultures that live right here in Thomasville,” said Billy Freeman. “To get to experience where some of their classmates might actually be from gives students a better understanding of their classmates. I was 48 before I ever left the U.S. and I think it opened my eyes to how vast the world is.”
Visitors signed in at the front door and were given a passport to be punched after every stop of their journey. The tour featured Afghanistan, India, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Pakistan, Germany, Colombia, Ecuador, Jamaica, U.S.A — including early and native America — and Honduras. TPS librarian April Willard conducted a storytelling session in the media center and Mandy Elder, TPS Physical Education teacher, demonstrated different forms of dancing in the gymnasium. Local musician John Hoffman of Fairgrove Music and Faye Burchette of Kid City Cloggers performed as well.
This year, the featured food came from the United States in the form of hot dogs, apple cobbler and apple pie.
Staff Writer Eliot Duke can be reached at 888-3578, or at eliotduke@hotmail.com.