Inquiry Post #3

hmmm... I'm not sure where to begin with this one. I was going through my stack of resident mentor paperwork that I have collected over the past three years of participating in this job and I came across a few of my booklets on tolerance.

First, before I continue, I want to reiiterate the fact that I severely dislike the word "tolerance."

Think of it this way -- When you live a roommate who you just "tolerate." Or how would you feel if you overheard a friend of your say "Oh yea, I just tolerate her/him."

Tolerance is not what I want in my classroom, although it's the first step to the goal, my goal in my classroom is to create an atmosphere of... ACCEPTANCE.

Now, moving on...
One of the booklets I have is called "Responding to hate at school." It's published by "Teaching Tolerance," www.tolerance.org.

The booklet has guidelines that a teacher, counselor or adminstrator can follow to help combat hatred within the school...
The following guidelines are ones that an individual, such as a teacher, can work for:
1.1 - Create an unwelcome environment for hate speech and symbols.
1.2 - Put the lid on hate graffiti and other vandalism
1.3 - Take a stand against hate literature, music, web sites and e-mail.
1.4 - Be alert to signs of student alienation.
1.5 - Speak up when bigotry comes from colleagues.
1.6 - Respond to community and national hate incidents.

"I find most defendants are not bigoted in their hearts but are acting out, using hate words but often not knowing why they are hateful. You want to create an environment in which the student can grow from this," - Rabbi Steven Moss, Creator and director of stopbias, a rehabilitation program for hate-crime offenders in Suffolk County, N.Y.

I researched more about this STOPBIAS web site and apparently it was kicked off by the attorney general's office (hmm ... maybe Michigan should look into it)... anyways, I found a decent essay from a high school student who wrote about the STOPBIAS program... CLICK HERE TO READ IT.


Returning back to the booklet, I wanted to make note of the fact that there are several small blurbs on the sides of each page that describe incidences of harrassment within a school or classroom... it's surprising to me, because I guess I just didn't notice a lot of harrassment based on race or sexual identity in my high school, but I'm sure it was there.

Anyways, I will bring this booklet in if anyone's interested in looking at it.

I also have a booklet called "10 ways to fight hate on campus," "ten ways to fight hate" - which is a community response guide (less school related), "101 Tools for tolerance," and "101 ways to combad prejudice."

I also have a collection of posters that are good to put up in the classroom that have great quotes/sayings that deal with prejudice, hatred and tolerance.