Teaching Your Children Tolerance

What You Need to Know 

Children are not born prejudiced – they notice differences among people, but typically without attaching stereotypes to their observations. 

Parents' influence over their kids' reactions to other cultures and ethnicity is profound. Often, perceived intolerance is motivated by a vulnerable area that's been frightened, scared, or misinformed – so really listening to your child can help uproot seeds of intolerance. 

How You Can Help

Teaching tolerance is an ongoing process, and these guidelines should help you and your child establish an open dialogue:

• Reflect on your own childhood – recalling situations when you witnessed or experienced racism or prejudice – for understanding of where intolerance may come from.
• Encourage curiosity – “Why does that man have a robe on his head?” How you handle the question makes all the difference. Teach your child to ask questions rather than pass judgments when something looks different – and respond with facts rather than with your own judgments.
• Be honest with your child – she can easily take a quick glance around to confirm that everyone is not, in fact, “the same” as you've tried to get her to believe. Be honest about physical differences as well as about differences in cultures and traditions.
• Expose your child to food, languages and cultural festivals from cultures around the world – he'll never be comfortable with differences if he never experiences them. When possible, enroll your child in a school or other activities that include a mix of children from diverse races, religions and socioeconomic backgrounds.
• Address any prejudicial language you hear from your child immediately – ask your child what he thinks his words mean, and explain their true meaning. Ask questions to determine whether your child has chosen the language he has out of a deeper fear.
• Choose and share diverse reading materials, like children's literature that addresses multicultural and tolerance themes.

For more on this topic, please see the full article:

http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Ed_Teaching_Tolerance/