The Iranian film Children of Heaven (1997) is another story that will appeal strongly to students. A trailer for the film is also available on that page. The filmmaker has been careful to introduce other examples of modernity slowly entering the monks' world - the Coke can which has replaced the traditional vase on the fortune-teller's ritual altar, for example. The film demonstrates to students that even remote regions and traditional cultures are no longer completely isolated. Fourteen-year-old Orgyen, obsessed with Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo, is determined to bring television to his monastery in time for a World Cup soccer game. The Cup (1999) is based on a true story about Tibetan monks, refugees living in a Buddhist monastery in the foothills of the Himalayas.
Journeys in Film, a nonprofit educational publisher, has created interdisciplinary lesson plans aligned with the Common Core and available as free downloads to help you share these films with your students. Three outstanding films, suitable for secondary classrooms, will engage students, teach them about three great traditional cultures, and illustrate the impact of globalization and modernization. To help your students grasp these terms, consider showing them engaging feature films from other countries.
Today, proponents of political revolutions and even terrorists rely on the growing availability of social media technology to overthrow governments.
Japan's adoption of Western weapons during the Meiji Revolution or Peter the Great's modeling Russian palaces after French architecture are classic examples of rulers forcing modernization upon a sometimes unwilling populace. New technologies seep into, are welcomed by or forced upon traditional societies, with a consequent influence on traditional culture. What has happened elsewhere as a result of globalization, to a greater or lesser degree, is termed modernization.
And of course, we are all aware of the credit card security breach at Target late last year, resulting from malicious code allegedly written by a 17-year-old Russian and allegedly sold to Mexican scammers, among others.Īll these examples come from the United States. Winter Olympic Team's fundraising mitten sale revolved around the fact that the mittens were made in China rather than in the U.S. The scallops in the Chinese-style stir-fry I plan for tonight's dinner may be from Peru, Mexico, Canada, China or Japan.) Or have students scan a major newspaper. (As I write this, there are strawberries from Chile, cheese from Ireland and bananas from Nicaragua in my kitchen. Or send them to the supermarket to see how many imported products they can find. In such a globalized world, many of your students will eventually enter jobs that will require knowledge and understanding of other cultures.Ī simple exercise will show the extent of globalization: assign your students to go through their closets at home, looking at clothing labels and listing the countries where the clothing was made. Globalization is used here to signify the worldwide integration of previously distinct cultures and economies and the consequent exchange of products, ideas and methods of operation.