Teachers of culture must know and teach the rationale, the origins of the values and activities, or the problem-solving techniques of the culture being studied. Culture is the totality of the ways in which a group of people solve their basic problems at a given moment in time. As groups of people develop and come in contact with other groups, they share their knowledge and put at each other's disposal their unique ways of solving basic problems. Some of these ways are refused, others adopted or adapted. By studying the way that the problem-solving strategies of a people have evolved, students learn reasons for a culture. For example, to learn about Chicano culture, it is necessary to know and understand three civilizations that contributed to what the Chicano is today: Spanish, Native American, and Mestizo. The obligation to help students understand civilizations that have contributed to a culture is not limited to cross-cultural teaching; it has equal weight in the study of the American culture. (RM)