The tolerance it is a positive value that allows people to accept and understand people who have attributes other than themselves: physical appearance, culture, traditions or way of thinking. It is a principle of conduct with which people are open to experience and to people who are different.
Tolerance is respect and consideration for what is different, a willingness to understand and admit that others feel, think and act differently from us. Through coexistence and difference, the tolerant person accepts and values the wealth that difference can bring to the world in which we live.
The word "tolerance" comes from the Latin verb I will tolerate, which means "suffer", "bear with patience" or "endure". Over time tolerance has been understood as a rather passive value, although in reality it is an active attitude; people have a real intention to accept and understand others.
At present, being tolerant of the other implies respecting them in the ideological field but also in the political, moral, gender, ethnic, sexual orientation and in any personal field.
In addition, tolerance implies understanding the other in a dialogue in which even oneself must question or question their own beliefs or convictions.
The basic pillars of tolerance could be freedom and equality. We are tolerant to the extent that we do not impede or nullify the freedom of the other person and because we consider that they are equal to ourselves.
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The benefits of tolerance lie in respect for the other and acceptance of difference.
The differences are the characteristics of each one that make it special, unique and different from all the others. However, this does not imply that we are different as people, we are the same.
The difference has been used to emphasize and promote inequality and prejudice. Diversity could be defined as the natural circumstance by which we are all different but at the same time the same.
It is necessary and beneficial for human beings and for society in general to recognize that we are all different without causing harm and social discrimination..
Tolerance implies accepting that we are all unique and different. And it is beneficial because it implies accepting that there are physical differences between us, there are distinctions in cultures ...
This does not mean that something is better or worse, but rather that it gives a glimpse of the wealth that human beings have and that allows individuals to be different but equal and to live with that duality..
When a person is intolerant, he focuses on differences and forgets in the egalitarian part, is prejudiced and discriminates, basing his opinion on topics that reveal the fear of what is different.
When we act denying the other we are being intolerant, we forget the equality that characterizes us and we look at the things that separate us.
Being tolerant is important because it brings us closer to the roots of oneself, whoever does not accept the other is also difficult to end up really accepting himself.
In a pluralistic society with as many cultures as the one we find ourselves in today, ensuring that citizens are tolerant and coexist in a calm, democratic and peaceful way is a challenge and a necessity.
It is important to take into account the fact that, on many occasions, getting people to be tolerant of other people does not mean preventing or repressing intolerant behaviors.
The most important thing is to educate in respect and tolerance and promote and facilitate behaviors that allow citizens to see everything different from the prism of respect and acceptance..
Traditionally it has been considered that a person could change his attitude exclusively through information. However this belief is very basic.
The promotion of tolerance and therefore the change of attitude or ideology of a person is something more profound and requires significant experiences.
As we said at the beginning of this article, in a society in which conflicts are the order of the day and in which mistreatment, harassment and violence are daily events, education in values must be taken urgently, and particularly, education based on tolerance.
We live in complex and plural societies in the moral, ethnic, religious, cultural spheres ... the educational systems must attend to educate in respect and tolerance.
The school must succeed in forming free, democratic and tolerant citizens with respect for the human being and the particularities of each one of them..
From school and also from the family, you can work to help children and adolescents to be tolerant, respect and others and thus achieve, more and more, generations of tolerant citizens and democrats.
Some of the tips that you can take into account are the following:
Whether you are a parent or a teacher, awareness and sensitization activities are important because it is what best helps prevent discriminatory behavior and therefore the violence that can take place.
Awareness-raising activities undoubtedly encompass information. You can make use of each of the concepts (for example tolerance, equality, discrimination, prejudice, stereotype ...) and talk about each one of them with the child.
No matter how old he is, you can always adapt it to his level and talk to him about what each of the things means. Information is the first step (although not the only one) to become aware and be able to act.
It is also important to design activities where they can put into practice how to act in situations that they detect as not very tolerant..
Some examples can be from reflection texts, movie viewing or even role-playing, where they play different characters and can put themselves in their shoes.
These activities can also help us to teach them how to act when they detect situations of intolerance and abuse and how they can intervene to stop it..
All of the above would be meaningless if we did not encourage them to be tolerant in essence, that is, outside the classroom and in everyday situations.
That they are attentive to daily situations (obviously according to the educational level we are talking about) and that they act accordingly, will be the best lesson for tolerance.
There will be many day-to-day situations where the student faces discrimination, ridicule or rejection.
Starting from these situations to work with the bullies and with the victim will give everyone a great lesson.
Some things you can keep in mind are:
- Listen and talk with the victim about their feelings, what happens, the consequences ...
- Provide information based on the situation that occurred. You can take the opportunity to explain what has happened, how you can act in a tolerant way, what is the underlying prejudice, what alternatives are there to resolve this conflict ...
- Offer help or protection to the victim. You must understand and understand that no one can be rejected or discriminated against.
It will be useless to promote activities and talk about tolerance with children if in real life one gets carried away by intolerance, prejudice, stereotypes or discrimination.
On many occasions it is difficult to identify our prejudices and stereotypes. We believe that we are not prejudiced, racist or homophobic, for giving examples of discrimination, but we act in a not very tolerant way on some occasions.
Being attentive to our signals and managing to modify them so as not to transmit them to the next generations is a difficult task that all of us who educate have ahead of us..
Act with your example, this is perhaps the most difficult advice but without a doubt the most important.
Sometimes we downplay certain jokes, jokes or comments that are made between children or adolescents as they are considered nonsense or children's games.
Don't fall for it and don't be permissive. You should not tolerate any type of abusive or intolerant comment towards anyone. It is the clearest way for children to internalize what can (and should) be done and what is not allowed under any circumstances.
Encouraging both initiative and cooperation is good for tolerance. That children learn to help, understand, ask for help and collaborate will put them in a position to act in a tolerant way.
If we encourage initiative and cooperation in them, we will prevent them from acting in a selfish, interested and competitive way and they are more likely to act in the face of injustices that come their way..
As a parent or educator, help the child to understand that what is different is not scary, that it can be beautiful and bring us great wealth.
We must help the child to value himself as a member of groups, but we must also help him to value people who belong to different groups and to see it as equally valid.
We must also help them to recognize the prejudices, the social injustices that sometimes occur in people who belong to certain groups. And give them tools to act when they find themselves in those situations..
To value the diversity of cultures and learn to love what is different, it is important to value, accept and love what is your own.
Culture is something important in all of us, in our way of thinking and feeling. It is something that changes and adapts over time.
Part of one's own culture to later work on the others. It is also important that you help your child to love himself and to be accepted, because that will later result in the acceptance of others.
To do this, offer them positive role models, monitor the prejudices and stereotypes that appear around them to work on them, help them understand who they are, talk about their own culture ...
Living with people from other cultures or with people who think differently from yourself is a good way to put tolerance into practice.
Offer your child situations where he can learn to be tolerant. Sometimes we tend to hang out with people who only think the same as us, but that is living in an unreal world.
He favors encounters with different people, talks with him about the differences and similarities we have with other people, travels to other countries, works on his own ideas and prejudices ...
By way of conclusion, it should be noted that tolerance must be applied to all human beings, with the exception of those who, by skipping tolerance itself, violate their own human rights and violate the dignity of other people..
And you, do you think we live in a tolerant world?
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