Teaching tolerance:
Eight women speak out

'My daughter just came home from school and I asked her how things went. "Fine," she said - they discussed everything that happened in all the classes but one. In PE class she said that some boy who doesn't know her from Adam yelled, "I hope they kill all the Iranians!" The teacher was not in the room. I sure wish he had been. My daughter moved away from this kid. This was exactly what I expected would happen - generalization of people, no open-mindedness being taught and kids picking up on things others say. It is the untruths and negatives that seep into those impressionable young minds.
If you can take a moment please teach your children about the wrongness of generalizations like this. Educate, educate, educate, and most of all teach compassion.'
iVillager twoki, Multicultural Families message board.

Teaching Our Children

'Although I am a Christian, I have done a great deal of long-term, in-depth study on Islam. When this tragedy happened I knew what the instant reaction would be and knew how wrong those who are ignorant of Muslim beliefs would be. I was prepared to answer my children's questions when they came home from school, expecting them to have heard negative things. Instead it was a wonderful surprise to learn that my son's fifth grade social studies teacher had already explained to the children that true Islam is a religion of peace and discussed with the children what was happening with this in mind so that they came to the conclusion themselves that widespread anger towards Muslims was not fair.'
iVillager zyphoid, Sunni Muslim Parenting message board.