City Kids learns about Buddhism!

For one of our Religions of the World lessons in our World Cultures program, City Kids learned about Buddhism. We covered Siddhartha Gautama, the first Buddha; the spread of Buddhism; basic tenets of Buddhism; and the practice of meditation.

Following up on our World Cultures lesson, Phaedra Siebert, our Exploring Arts program director, took the kids to look at Buddhist and Hindu objects on display. Phaedra encouraged the kids to look at how these objects were used before they were placed on pedestals in a museum; she then introduced the concept of cultural context and facilitated a discussion about how understanding the context the objects come from affects our perception of them.

Our Exploring Arts and World Cultures programs are integrated so that our kids have the opportunity to revisit concepts, to have continuity in their lessons/activities, and to understand that what they are learning is multifaceted; after all, nothing we learn about exists in a vacuum. Another benefit is the kids have a chance to think about and explore concepts from various angles, some of which may be accessible in different ways, to different kids.