The World Is Their Classroom: Raising Culturally Curious Kids
By Drew Hertz, MD, Zest President and Co-Founder
First, a sincere thank you. The response to last month's blog — on how the Olympians exemplify the Zest Core Values and what we can teach our children from their example — was wonderful. Your comments and kind words mean more than you know, and they reinforce why I believe so deeply in this community we are building together.
This month, I want to take you somewhere unexpected. Literally.
My wife Linda and I had planned a long-awaited trip to Egypt with an initial stop in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to visit old friends. The pyramids, the Nile, the Grand Egyptian Museum that opened to such fanfare last year — it had been on our list for a long time. And then, at the end of February, the conflict with Iran erupted, airspace across the Middle East closed, and thousands of flights were cancelled overnight. UAE and Egypt was off the table.
At Zest, one of our Core Values is Act with Nimble Innovative Grit. We talk about it in the context of healthcare, practice building, and most important patient care — the ability to adapt quickly when circumstances change, to find a new path forward without losing momentum. I did not expect to be practicing it on vacation. But there we were, pivoting on short notice to French Polynesia. And it turned out to be a wonderfully enjoyable and meaningful trip.
What I found there reminded me of something I already believed but had perhaps not articulated clearly enough:
We are all more alike than we are different. And our differences are worth celebrating.
I watched local children playing football — what we call soccer. The ball was slightly different. The informal rules had small variations. But the joy was identical. The running, the laughter, the arguments over a close call, the instinct to pass to a teammate — all of it would have looked exactly the same on any field in Cleveland. The game was different, and yet it was the same game.
One evening, we watched traditional Polynesian dancing. The deep percussion, the communal rhythm, the way the drumbeat seemed to move through the crowd as much as the performers — it stirred something. I have seen echoes of it in African dance, in Brazilian samba, in the folk traditions of countries I have visited over the years. The specific expression is always unique. But the impulse — to gather, to move together, to tell a story through the body and the drum — that is universal.
And then there was the humbling part. I was struck, as I always am when I travel, by how many people we met spoke two, three, even four languages fluently and naturally — shifting between them mid-sentence without a second thought. I, meanwhile, am still laboring through learning even a second language (I have tried many). It was a good reminder that the rest of the world does not share our American comfort with monolingualism, and that there is real cognitive and human richness in growing up with more than one language as a native companion.
All of this brought me back to something I think about often as a pediatrician and as a parent: the tremendous gift we give our children when we expose them, early and deliberately, to people and cultures different from their own.
Why It Matters
In last month's blog, I wrote about teaching our children to respect differences — to compete fiercely and still honor the dignity of others, as the Olympians do. Cultural exposure is one of the most powerful tools we have to build that capacity. Research consistently shows that children exposed to diverse cultures develop stronger empathy, more flexible thinking, and greater resilience. They are better equipped to navigate a world that will ask them, at every stage of their lives, to collaborate with people whose backgrounds differ from their own.
The good news is that you do not need a passport to do this. Cultural exposure does not require a flight to French Polynesia or a postponed trip to Egypt. It can happen close to home, even in your own neighborhood, with intention and creativity.
Six Ways to Raise Culturally Curious Kids — Without Leaving Home
1. Attend a local cultural festival. Most cities — and many smaller communities — host ethnic and cultural festivals throughout the year. Cleveland alone offers a remarkable range, from Greek Fest to the African American Cultural Festival to the International Children's Festival. These are not tourist experiences. They are immersions. Go with curiosity and without a schedule. Let your child lead. Let them ask questions, eat something unfamiliar, watch a performance they do not fully understand. That openness is the lesson.
2. Celebrate an unfamiliar holiday with friends. Diwali, Lunar New Year, Eid al-Fitr, Hanukkah, Juneteenth — the calendar is full of celebrations that may not be part of your family tradition but are central to the lives of people in your community. Reach out to a neighbor, colleague, or classmate's family and ask if you can learn alongside them. Most people are honored to share. The experience of participating — even briefly and imperfectly — teaches children that joy and meaning take many forms.
3. Dine in a cultural neighborhood, not just a restaurant. Most metropolitan areas have neighborhoods where a specific culture has put down deep roots — an Asian market district, a Little Italy, a Latin quarter. The goal is not just the food. It is the experience of being in a space where another culture is fully present: the language on the signs, the music from a shop doorway, the ingredients at the market you do not recognize. Talk about it with your children on the drive home. What did they notice? What surprised them? What did they want to know more about?
4. Cook a cultural meal together. Pick a country. Find a traditional recipe. Source ingredients from a specialty grocery store — that trip alone is an education. Cook the dish the way it is meant to be cooked, and eat it the way it is meant to be eaten: with chopsticks, family-style, with flatbread instead of a fork. Talk about where the dish comes from and why those ingredients grow in that region. A kitchen is a small world.
5. Read culturally diverse books as a family. Books are among the most powerful tools for cultural empathy because they ask us to inhabit another perspective from the inside. Seek out authors from outside your own background. For younger children, picture books with characters from different cultures work beautifully. For older readers, stories set in other countries that explore universal themes — friendship, loss, courage, belonging — build the imaginative muscles that real-world encounters require. Your library is a free and extraordinary resource.
6. Invite someone to share their story. This one is the most personal — and perhaps the most powerful. A neighbor who grew up in another country. A classmate's parent who practices a different religion. A colleague whose family immigrated two generations ago. Ask them, genuinely, to share something of their experience with your family. Personal connection makes cultural understanding real in a way that no book, restaurant, or festival can fully replicate. And it models for your children the single most important habit of curious, open-hearted people: the willingness to ask and to listen.
A Final Thought
Those children I watched playing football in a Polynesian neighborhood park never heard of Cleveland. They were not thinking about tolerance or resilience or global citizenship. They were just playing. But in that moment, they were reminding me of the joy of celebrating differences.
When we raise children who are comfortable with difference, who are curious rather than fearful, who have learned to find the familiar in the unfamiliar, we are not just doing good parenting. We are giving them tools they will use for the rest of their lives.
I would love to hear how your family approaches this. What cultural experiences have resonated most with your children? What has surprised you? Reach out to me directly at Drew.Hertz@ZestPeds.com — I read every message, and your stories make these conversations richer for all of us.
