Revised by the Curriculum Committee and Approved by the NCSS Board of Directors, 1998. Culture helps us to understand ourselves as both individuals and members of various groups.
Human cultures exhibit both similarities and differences.
We all, for example, have systems of beliefs, knowledge, values, and traditions. Each system is also unique. In a democratic and multicultural society, students need to understand multiple perspectives that derive from different cultural vantage points. 1 Institutions such as schools, churches, families, government agencies, and the courts all play an integral part in our lives. These and other institutions exert enormous influence over us, yet institutions are no more that organizational embodiments to further the core values of those who comprise them.