Starting Small - Teaching Tolerance

1 Starting SmallTeaching Tolerance in Preschool and the Early Gradesa project of the southern poverty law center Teaching Tolerance Teaching Tolerance was founded in 1991 to provide teach-ers with resources and ideas to help promote harmony in the classroom. The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit legal and education foundation based in Mont-gomery, Alabama. The Center s co-founders are Morris S. Dees Jr., and Joseph J. Levin Jr. Its directors are Julian Bond, Patricia Clark, Frances Green, Vic Hackley, Howard Mandell and James McElroy. COPYRIGHT 1997 SOUTHERN POVERTY LAW CENTER LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOG CARD NUMBER.

2 EDITION 2008 Teaching Tolerance | iiichapter 1 Everybody s StorySEATTLE, WASHINGTON 1reflectIon 1 Racial and Ethnic Awareness 7applIcatIon 1 Affirming Identity 9reflectIon 2 Family Diversity 10applIcatIon 2 Respecting All Families 12chapter 2 A Wider CircleAPTOS, CALIFORNIA 13reflectIon 3 Fairness 19applIcatIon 3 Nurturing Justice 20reflectIon 4 Gender Awareness 21applIcatIon 4 Fostering Gender Equity 23chapter 3 From the Ground Up SHAWNEE, OHIO 25reflectIon 5 Friendship Connections 32applIcatIon 5 Building Friendship Skills 33reflectIon 6 Sameness 34applIcatIon 6 Discovering Diversity 36chapter 4 A Sense of Wonder DENVER, COLORADO 37reflectIon 7 Prejudice Formation 43applIcatIon 7 Facing Prejudice 45reflectIon 8 Heroes 46applIcatIon 8 Supporting Children s Power 47chapter 5 These Little HandsNEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT 49reflectIon 9 The Inclusive Classroom 56applIcatIon 9 Responding to Special Needs 58reflectIon 10 Play and Work 59applIcatIon 10 Integrating Play and Work 61chapter 6 Peace Takes Practice NORTH MIAMI.

3 FLORIDA 63reflectIon 11 Classroom Rules and Discipline 70applIcatIon 11 Encouraging Self-Discipline 72reflectIon 12 Little Utopias 73applIcatIon 12 Creating a Child Haven 75chapter 7 Layers of MeaningCHICAGO, ILLINOIS 77reflectIon 13 Childhood Losses 84applIcatIon 13 Coping With Loss 85reflectIon 14 New Visions 86contentsforeword vIntroduction viBookshelf 99contributors 123iv |acknowledgmentsGrateful acknowledgment is made to the stu-dents, parents, teachers and administrators at the following schools: Happy Medium, Seattle, Wash.; Cabrillo College Children s Center, Ap-tos, Calif.; Maria Mitchell Elementary, Denver, Colo.

4 ; Elmwood Elementary, Shawnee, Ohio; Edgewood Elementary, New Haven, Conn.; North Miami Elementary, North Miami, Fla.; State Pre-K Demonstration Center, Chicago, Ill. Special thanks to Vivian Gussin Paley, who contributed the foreword, to Rosa Hern ndez Sheets for research and commentary, and to Gabrielle Lyon and Maria Fleming for resource reviews. Gratitude also to Eddie Ashworth, Rich-ard Cohen and Erin Kellen for their guidance, and to Margie McGovern, Alex Earl and David Summerlin of Margie McGovern Films, San Francisco, for their invaluable research, patience and vision. | vforewordBy Vivian Gussin PaleyThe teachers of young children who speak to us so ear-nestly in the following stories work in different com-munities but share a common vision: that children can learn to care about every other person s feelings, beliefs and notion may seem commonplace, something surely found in most classrooms.

5 Yet, given the number of sad faces, hurt feelings and lonely outsiders in our schools, the empathy factor may be more talked about than systematically pursued. In the hearts and minds of the teachers described here, it is a full-time commit-ment that begins anew with each child and dictionary defines empathy as understanding so intimate that the feelings, thoughts and motives of one are readily comprehended by another. It is a word often seen on lists of goals but rarely employed as the core empathy would be a major undertak-ing for any classroom, but the teachers in this book go further. They believe that perceiving the feelings, thoughts and motives of another person is the first step in building a bridge.

6 What must follow is the discov-ery, day by day, of how to move in both directions across that for those who despair of society s ever being made into a kinder place, young children are far more empathetic by nature than we are prone to believe. They are enormously interested in being in the company of other children and are persistently curious about those who seem different. By the time children enter pre-school, they are experienced people-watchers, and they know what makes someone laugh or cry. Come quick, teacher! Cynthia calls. A big boy is crying! We follow her to a bench in the hallway where a dis-traught and dishevelled child is wiping his eyes, embar-rassed by our sudden appearance.

7 I recognize him as a 2nd grader who often gets into trouble. Martin? What s wrong? I ask, but the children rush to supply the answers. He s lost, says one. He wants his mother, says another. Someone was mean to him. They didn t pay attention. They losed him. A flicker of a smile crosses Martin s face. He sees that these kindergartners who do not even know him recognize his sense of loss and are ready to befriend and comfort children are ready. They come to school wonder-ing how those so different from themselves can have the same feelings and desires. And we, in turn, must learn how to help them put their intuitive knowledge of com-monality into words and actions.

8 This is what children enjoy doing and can do well; it is guaranteed to make our Teaching come alive with purpose and teachers we are about to meet also understand that even within a seemingly safe classroom, someone can feel lost and frightened at any moment. They are prepared to stop everything and get everyone to pay attention, to listen to what the other person says and become keenly aware of what to say in so doing, they give credence to our ultimate goal as teachers in a democratic society: helping children become kind and caring participants in a world that includes everyone. These wise and compassionate teachers who are Starting Small will uncover and model for us the amazingly large moral dimensions of the classroom.

9 V vi | Community begins in the classroom. For most young children, being a classmate at day care, at a place of worship or at school constitutes their first active participation in an ongoing social structure outside the family. The vision of community that the classroom pro-vides can color a child s ideas and expectations about equity, cooperation and citizenship for a ask a great deal of children when they enter the classroom: to leave the familiar environment of home; to encounter peers and adults who may look, act, speak and think differently from themselves and their family; and to fit in successfully with these strangers as learn-ers and friends.

10 Although such tasks involve unique developmental dimensions in young children, pub-lic life presents all of us with a similar challenge. The capacity to thrive in diversity is a lifelong practice of discovery and adaptation, as new differences unfailing-ly arise. More and more early childhood teachers have come to recognize that Teaching Tolerance outright in the curriculum is as fundamental and as far-reaching as Teaching children how to an endeavor raises serious questions: How can teachers acquire the necessary skills and tools? What kind of peer, administrative, parental and community support do they need?