Teaching Kids about Diversity and Tolerance

We live and interact in a more diverse world today than when most of us were growing up. Then, it was normal to have the same type of people around you, looking like you and speaking the same language. However, these days, and especially with migration and mobility, the world is turning into a global village. It is, therefore, normal to find a mixture of all in one setting. For instance, in a preschool of about 15 people, you could get a Nigerian, an American, a Japanese, a Chinese, an Indian, a Saudi and British all in the same class. In such a setting too, there will be differences in religion and culture. What this, therefore, means is that our children are enmeshed in diversity more than we were. If we do not set the pace for them, they might not interact well. The key to this interacting, therefore, is to teach them to understand the diversity while being tolerant of it. Tolerance also extends to understanding gender differences, social differences, differences in economic status, and disabilities in persons. We as parents can teach our children tolerance and it is important to start at a very early stage in life. The following could act as a guide in teaching them.

• Show tolerance in your daily interaction with people around you
•  Do not make jokes about other people, especially in your children’s presence
• Don’t encourage stereotyping
• Educate children about diversity; you could use a set of Alphabets or Numbers to illustrate this. Example of such illustration is that while each alphabet or number is different from the other, together they make up the alphabets and numbers, and they have to tolerate one another to produce words etc.
•  Teach about different culture; show illustrations 
• However, they should hold their culture in high esteem and not let it others intimidate them with theirs
• Teach children about respect for self and others
• Helping your children build a good self esteem and confidence will make the value others; see our article on self esteem and confidence in kids
• Encourage kids to understand diversity and tolerance of other cultures and behaviour; however, tolerance does not extend to acceptance of bad behavior
• Teach them about differences in religion and language
• Let them understand that not all people are privileged, that some could have poor economic status but that does not make them less of people
• Understanding of gender and different roles is very important; this will bring about respect and tolerance
• Teach them morals as it is the rock on which tolerance is built