¡Qué Rico!

New 4-H curriculum draws on the arts to illustrate Latin cultures

by Marlene Fritz

The arts are the heart and soul of the world’s cultures.
That’s why a curriculum team of 10 extension educators from six states, coordinated by UI Extension 4-H/youth associate Janet Edwards, chose the arts to help kindergarten through 8th grade youth explore their cultural differences and similarities.

The team’s dual-language Spanish-English curriculum, entitled ¡Qué Rico! La Cultura, was released through the National 4-H Cooperative Curriculum System this fall. “¡Qué rico!” literally means “How rich!” and translates loosely as “Cool!” or “All right!”

“Whether it’s through story telling, dance, or music, the arts are how cultures share their stories with their own members,” says Edwards. “They are also a way to help people understand other cultures.” Indeed, within and between cultures, the arts are almost a universal language, making them an especially effective vehicle for teaching about culture.

The performing, visual, textile, and celebration arts are “familiar media that are not governed by schooling or education,” says Brian Luckey, Canyon County UI Extension educator and the project’s writer/editor. “Everybody in all cultures learns their art in one form or another.”

Discovering cultures through art
Each of the 148-page curriculum’s activities is described in facing pages of Spanish and English, exposing readers to both languages. As participants emboss metals, carve wooden figurines, design mosaic tiles, draw murals, and make pole puppets, they examine cultural issues.

For example, as they assemble Guatemalan worry dolls, they discuss the various approaches cultures take in managing stressful life events. As they make Peruvian pots, they compare how their own families’ cultures celebrate life. As they learn a coming-of-age ritual for a 15-year-old Latina, they describe how personal responsibilities change with maturity in the culture in which they are growing up.

Luckey says the curriculum writers will have succeeded if participants gain a better understanding of their own and other cultures, improve their ability to express themselves through art, recognize and accept similarities and differences among people, and accept that those differences are okay.

For use in or after school, in camps and clubs
According to Edwards, the curriculum is likely to be used—at least initially—by even more Caucasian than Hispanic youngsters. Luckey expects it to be popular in after-school, day camp, and community club settings. He hopes it will help more Hispanic families “feel invited” to 4-H. Too many Hispanic families believe that 4-H is targeted to Caucasians, thus missing out on its youth-development benefits, he says.

This fall, Luckey received a CALS Urban Extension Grant to fund a bilingual instructor to teach 4-H curricula in Nampa’s after-school programs. “This curriculum is at the top of the list,” he says.

4-H program manager Toni Kuylman, who piloted it at the Ada County Public Library, says some of the projects were “eye openers” for the children. “It was interesting for them to see where the arts came from and how they related to their own culture.” Several young Latino participants added value by being able to “explain things firsthand” to the other youngsters and teach them a few Spanish words.

¡Qué rico!

Contact Brian Luckey at bluckey@uidaho.edu.

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