Mary Rudder is a teacher in the Boston Public Schools System who has taught children from k1 level to grade 8. Her current assignment is at the Harvard Kent School in their Kindergarten program. Mrs. Rudder is a lead/mentor teacher and has held the positions of Science and English Language Arts Facilitator for her school. She is an active member of the school's Math and Instructional Leadership Teams. She has been involved in the Boston Women's Heritage Trail, the Charlestown Women's Walk and is an advisory member to the curriculum project for the new Women's Memorial in Boston. Linking herself to the future, she was one of Boston's original LINC pioneers, a program, which used computer technology to enhance curriculum. Her project was a unit on Japan. As a pioneer she was responsible for successfully guiding several colleagues through similar projects. This led to her working with the other Kindergarten as a coach and creator of curriculum units, which used technology as major component. Mrs. Rudder has presented technology workshop citywide. A trip to Japan, which had been the end result of a yearlong study, sparked an interest in cultures that were vastly different from her own. Returning to her class she worked on a curriculum project about Japan and began its use in her class. This led her to use the StarFestival CD-ROM with her class. Mary Rudder feels that it is important for her students to be able to recognize similarities and differences between cultures and to respect those cultures. She feels that it is essential to encourage these attitudes in young children.