Children who are in families that move frequently, have parents from different cultural backgrounds, or grow up in cosmopolitan countries like Singapore will experience a childhood very differently from those of their peers who stay within homogenous families and societies. These children will often find themselves constantly readjusting from one cultural framework to another, sometimes even within their own homes.
Teaching your child how to be a global citizen may help them navigate the challenges of a multicultural lifestyle and of a world that is ever more becoming smaller with globalisation. Acquiring such a worldview can help your child develop empathy, tolerance, confidence, curiosity, and even humility as they learn about people and communities from other cultures.
Here are just some things you can do to help your child gain this sense of global citizenship:
1.) Send Them to the Right Schools
Your child’s early education can have a major impact on their values and outlook. If you want them to gain a global mindset, sending them to a school with an internationally oriented curriculum will help set them on the right path. Start your child out on the right foot by sending them to an educational institution that offers an international program for early childhood education Singapore-based parents can rely on.
2.) Travel with Them
If you can afford to travel with your children, doing so can have a major impact on their cultural perspectives that will persist the rest of their lives. Most importantly, children who are frequently exposed to other cultures are more likely to become open-minded and empathetic—key ingredients for global citizenship.
Being well-travelled at an early age will also help your child become used to dynamic situations, helping nudge them to be more proactive and giving them the capacity to be self-driven. Perhaps as a result of this, kids who travel are also likely to do better in school, which leads to many other benefits later in life.
3.) Expose Them to All the Languages You Know
If you know more than one language, it can be beneficial to teach your child all the languages you know. This will not only help bring you closer to your child, but it will also allow them to partake in different cultures through their written and oral traditions. Additionally, exposure to more languages increases your child’s opportunity to learn knowledge from a wider variety of sources.
4.) Raise Them to Be Curious
One of the most serious barriers to global citizenship is a lack of curiosity. Thankfully, children are naturally curious and parents can do much to cultivate their child’s inquisitive spirit.
The most important thing is to ensure that you bring your children up in an environment where they are not punished for asking questions. Also, rather than providing all the answers, teach your child how to find out things for themselves. This will set them on a path to both global citizenship and lifelong learning.
5.) Let Them Experience Different Cuisines
Kids can sometimes be picky eaters, but it’s important to take some effort to expose them to a variety of cuisines from different cultures. Not only will most kids enjoy the gustatory variety, but having them sample different cuisines can be a gateway to stoking their interest in other cultures. If your child has expressed interest in a particular culture, taking them to a place that serves that culture’s food is going to give them an even deeper understanding of it.
6.) Give Them Books about Other Cultures
Books are probably the next best thing to travelling. Giving your children age-appropriate books on other cultures or about other places will not only help them learn about other people but also give them a firmer sense of concepts like geography and history. Books containing stories from different cultures around the world can help give your child an idea of the values and perspectives held by people all over the world.
7.) Teach Your Children Empathy
Global citizenship cannot come without empathy. Today, it’s understood that children have to be taught empathy, tolerance, and other positive social skills to help them succeed as adults. Empathy is particularly critical for kids exposed to different cultures as they have to readjust their understanding depending on the cultural framework they find themselves in. By teaching your child to be empathetic, you lay the groundwork for them to succeed wherever they are in the world.
8.) Play a Variety of Music in Your Home
Playing music from different cultures in a variety of genres in your home and in your car will help children to develop broader horizons when it comes to understanding other viewpoints. If the languages in the songs are something you are familiar with, they can also serve as jumping-off points for children to become more proficient in those languages.
9.) Set a Good Example
Children will quickly pick up the attitudes and values of the people they spend the most time with. Given this, parents have an especially serious responsibility to be mindful of how they act and treat other people. Displaying a parochial or intolerant attitude will, in most cases, breed closed-minded children. By consistently displaying a cosmopolitan outlook, you can easily ensure that your child will have good foundations for global citizenship.
Raising your child to be a global citizen can help them live a fuller, more grounded life. It could also help cultivate the disposition they need to succeed wherever they end up. Through rigorous early education and a home life steeped in worldly values, your child could become not just a global citizen but also someone confident enough to choose their own path in a highly globalised world.
