Saudi Children Entrenched in Western Culture

April 11, 2007 — -- With excited faces, children in a Saudi Arabia elementary school told ABC News that they loved what Americans loved.

For their favorite movies, "Lord of the Rings" and the "Harry Potter" series topped the list.

"Is America a good country?" asked "Good Morning America" anchor Diane Sawyer.

The class all responded yes.

"America is a big, big -- really big place," one boy said. "The people are always kind. The stores, I can name -- Tyson and Wal-Mart and Target."

Another little boy told Sawyer that he also loved tae kwon do.

The students even said they were fans of talk show host Dr. Phil.

The girls said they wanted to be doctors, teachers and architects.

At very young ages, Saudi children are educated together, but when they get older they are segregated by gender.

"Some are boys and some are girls, but we're both humans and we learn the same ways. There's no difference," one boy said.

But just as in America, even the tiniest children had already learned the divisive lessons of their culture -- especially when it came to religion.

"Christians are bad and Muslims are good," one boy said.

"They don't pray. … And the other ones pray," another boy said.

Before Sawyer left, one boy ventured a kind of hope and philosophy.

"We're both people. Some people do wrong things and some people do good things," he said. "We all have different ways of doing our parts in our lives."