Tolerance today is synonymous with multiculturalism. It means to accept and embrace other races, religions, and ideas without prejudice or judgment. Tolerance also means respecting others for their differences whether they are race differences, religious differences or even socioeconomic differences.
Children are brought into the world without biases or prejudices. Yet along the path to adulthood many children adopt values and beliefs from their peers and the adults in their life. Teaching tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism helps children broaden their awareness and acceptance. It helps create a more harmonious world for everyone.
Teaching Tolerance to Your Classroom
Teaching tolerance can take many directions. Tolerance can be part of lesson plans on various cultures or holidays. It can also be part of a unit on friendship, diversity, local history, and racism. For example, a discussion of the civil rights movement might easily lead into a conversation about multiculturalism.
Teacher Planet offers lesson plans on the topics of friendship, racism, diversity, and other main theme topics related to tolerance. You can find coloring pages, word searches, activities and other teaching resources dedicated to the subject of tolerance and diversity.
