It's sad, but it's a story that needs to be told. I was one of those kids who didn't quite "fit in". But, I wouldn't change a bit of it to this day. It made me who I am today. And I think I'm okay...not everybody does, but that's something they have to deal with. I've learned that to teach compassion doesn't make me a wuss, it makes me a better person. And for those who feel the need to demean others to make themselves look better...those are the ones to feel sorry for. They have truly missed out on a beautiful world.
I believe cheering on the underdog and excluding people that are different is an evolutionary feature of humans, it is a primitive impulse deep embedded in us. I don't think it is something taught or something you can teach a kid not to feel and not to do. To understand and accept people that are different it takes maturity and obviously kids don't have that. The problem is that the educational system fails to work towards minimizing this problem. In theory it should be simple: keep the kids busy and interested. And treating everyone the same according to a set of rules created before hand and with which everyone agrees
I completely disagree... saying that things like tolerance and understanding cannot be taught to our children is the same as saying you can't teach a child predjudice or racism. No school system will ever be a replacement for the examples of good and bad, love and hate, that are considered undeniable truth to a child watching a parent.
I agree with you in part. The part I agree with is that indeed, racism, predjudice, intolerance are acquired and we do not born with them.
But they are the result of multiple factors and humans can be more receptive to some influences and less to others. And most of these I believe parents cannot fully control because like I said they are a sum of things.
I will give you my personal experience, my 3 and 1/2yo son is highly intolerable with his 1 1/2 yo sister. He doesn't let her play with his toys, let her in his room, etc And it is not something we have taught him. We have tried everything to correct the situation, with no positive result
Think about teaching love. To the extreme it is the same thing.
For sure there are things that will come naturally to children that we don't approve of, that were neither taught, or percieved. My son, when 4(now 6) didn't like black people. All he saw was a difference. I tried explaining that we were all the same, that all people are different but we are all people, but he just didn't like em. However, when he began school he ended up being best friends with the one black child in his class, and when he got home from his first day, he said you're right dad!! We're the same!! For sure their are conclusions children will draw on their own, but I believe it's our job as parents to trust that, given the right information, will develop into better people than we are. Now my son is the furthest thing from racist, yet I'm still a racist driver......LOL!
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