Homa Tavangar, first-time author and mother of three, offers a medley of fun and interactive activities and resources that help parents build cultural and religious knowledge among American children in her book Growing Up Global: Raising Children to Be At Home in the World. The book helps parents to raise children with a global perspective through exposure to diverse world customs, traditions, languages, and beliefs. Ultimately, the goal of the book is to help raise a generation of children to see people of other backgrounds not as “the other”, but as members of the same human family.
Don’t have the money to travel overseas with your family to expose your children to world cultures? No problem. Tavangar provides examples of activities parents can do with their children at home and within their own communities. Growing Up Global includes fun activities, games, and suggestions for movies, music, books, magazines and websites, service activities, simple explanations of world faiths, creative ways to learn about geography, and handy lists of diverse cultural and religious celebrations, holidays, and customs. From learning greetings in different languages, to listening to ethnic music, to eating with chopsticks, Growing Up Global makes it easy and fun to learn about cultural diversity.
One of the toughest and most intimidating subjects for parents to address with their children is religion. There are multiple reasons for this. For a lot of people, religion is not a polite subject for conversation. Others fear that exposing their children to different faiths will confuse them. I believe that the biggest problem is that a lot of adults know just as much about different religions as their children. Whatever the case may be, Tavangar suggests taking baby steps. Although Tavangar agrees that first hand interaction is the best way to expose children to different belief systems, it isn’t necessary to jump into the interfaith pool headfirst.
In the chapter “What Do They Believe?” Tavangar recommends that parents talk about common religious morals and values, such as each faith’s version of the Golden Rule. Reading stories from religious holy books, looking at religious art, and listening to religious music are also great ways to expand religious knowledge. Tavangar recommends the use of metaphors to describe the connection between the world’s faiths. One example that I personally love is, “Lamp shades come in a variety of colors and styles but all rely on a light bulb to illuminate them.” In addition to these personal interfaith tips and tricks, the book also provides different websites and books parents can use to learn the basics of different faiths.
Any parent looking to give their child a global education should definitely read this book. Growing Up Global may be a book to educate children, but the information is universal and everyone can learn something from it.
"You can be whatever your faith and heritage is, but to adopt this world-embracing vision ... it's such a gift for yourself and your kids," Tavangar said. "I've lived that and now I see my own daughters ... they're excited about the world."
About Homa Tavangar
Homa Tavangar was born in Tehran, Iran and moved with her family to Cleveland, Ohio when she was just over a year old. Throughout her life she was lived in East and West Africa, South America, and various cities throughout the United States. In addition to English, Tavangar speaks Persian (Farsi), Spanish, Portuguese, French, and Swahili. Her family’s religious heritage crosses four major world faiths, and she has family living on every continent of the world. Tavangar is a member of the Baha’i faith, which she credits for her ability to make global connections. Her personal mantra comes from Abdu’l-Baha, the son of the Baha’i prophet Bahá'u'lláh: "Be a friend to the whole human race."
Tavangar has almost 20 years experience working with governments, businesses, international organization and non-profit agencies in global competitiveness, organizational and business development, and cross-cultural issues. She holds undergraduate and graduate degrees in International Economics, and International Development and Public Affairs from UCLA ad Princeton University.
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