Introduction
Culture is the customs of a place such as the way of dressing, the behavior, language and talking styles, the music, food and hence the overall aspects of the Way that a specific group of people lives. Ideally Culture is very vital to the society because it is the whole set of beliefs and ideas that the latter were brought up to be what they currently are. According to Green (2005 Para. 7), culture can be divided into two categories namely the traditional culture and the social culture. While the traditional culture includes traditional dance, wrestling, horse race and among others, social culture of a society refers to civilization and all that the society creates.
Main body
Robert (1995, p.77) Defined culture as an acceptable life style of a particular group of people within their locality and which is represented in art, thought and customs which consider clothing, food, behavior and/or beliefs. Robert points out that Culture is an extricable part of the life of an individual. In fact, it is so entrenched in the life of individuals who belongs to the community in which it subsists. As a result, it develops and roots itself through the lifespan of an individual. It changes both with age, exposure, and learning. In the same way therefore, the development of talents and giftedness will be influenced by the changing culture different stages in the live span of an individual. In fact, the elements of culture such as ethnicity, race, and gender among others have a great potency of influencing.
Racial and ethnic identity influences to great extent the multiculturalism or rather giftedness and discovery of talents by members of a given society. Individual seeking to identify with a certain race or rather ethnic roots often seeks to develop points of pride and reference for their community and which is greatly represented in the culture. Such move therefore may lead to the latter developing activities that depict the diversity in talents and giftedness in that society. The Asians, for instance tends to identify with expertise in the medical field. As a result, members of this race or rather an ethnic group may seek to use their natural expertise and giftedness in the latter to create an unmatched identity. For example, research reveals increased interest in gifted African American students. According to Rodgers (2008, p.15), the representation of the black race in the gifted and talented programs across the United States of America has been very low compared to the white race.
Of late, and in what seems to be a turn of events however, the number of the black race participating in these events is increasing significantly as they seek to create a source of identity, pride, and culture based on the underlying principle that ethnic and racial identity is a useful construct with which to understand the psychosocial experiences of gifted African American (Rodgers, 2008, p.16). The interaction between giftedness, racial, and ethnic identity is also based on the concept of racial centrality.
The culture of poverty has very severe impact especially on the young children. In fact, the young social group is very vulnerable to such effects. First, children have a characteristically low levels of resilience compared to the older members of the society. In addition, effects of the environment in which they live have far reaching and direct effects on their life. The culture of poverty therefore impacts negatively on the psychological, physiological and sociological aspects of the children. According to Robert (1995, p. 82), individuals who all through their lives have lived in an environment characterized by abject poverty that appears to be entrenched in their culture or at least a majority of such people have tended to exhibit variations in behavior relative to individual in the middle class and the rich.
Similarly bringing up children in such a culture is bound to greatly influence their behavior. Children who hails from poor family tends to have psychological problems as a result of the tormenters of life and hardships that they go through. The psychological effects are even more intense especially if the poor children are in close interactions with children from well up family thus creating a point of contrast. In such a case, the poor children are usually faced with a risk of being affected by the inferiority complex and social problems causing them to withdraw. If not properly and professionally handled by those in charge of the children, particularly the parents and teachers, the effects of the culture of poverty are likely to generate into an all life psychological problem on the part of children. In addition the effects are likely to entrench themselves as parts of the culture. In addition, their relationship with children thus culminating to what is referred to as the vicious cycle of poverty.
Conclusion
Breaking such a cycle becomes very difficult. Interventions strategies that have succeed in solving the mystery of the underrepresented population is ideally the fostering of culture and identity. As such, cultural centrality, identification of talents and giftedness with an objective of seeking a source of cultural and ethnic identity has been particularly fruitful in reversing the trends of the underrepresented groups. Robert (1995) points out that the strategies have worked especially among the African American population who were typically underrepresented in the talented and gifted activities prior to their establishment and implementation.
Reference
Green, T. (2005) Promising Prevention And Early Intervention Strategies To Reduce Overrepresentation Of African American Students. Web.
Robert C. (1995). The Culture-Of-Poverty Thesis and African Americans: The Work Of Gunnar Myrdal And Other Institutionalists; Journal Of Economic Issues, Vol. 29 Pp77-85
Rodgers, K. (2008). Racial Identity, Centrality and Giftedness: An Expectancy-Value Application of Motivation in Gifted African American Students. (African American Experiences): The Journal of Social Psychology Vol. 12 Pp13-23