It's actually a pretty clear memory for me... sitting down at a school assembly and talking about the word "tolerance." I was kind of appalled. Why would authority figures get up and tell us that we just need to tolerate our peers, not like them, but simply tolerate them.
I was naïve. You can't like everyone. Plus, I was fortunate to grow up in a household that valued other people's opinions. There are students out there who do not know that believing or identifying differently themselves is okay. Teaching tolerance isn't easy. There are thin boundaries. But, allyship really does start with identities. Allyship starts in educational settings, if we let it. I think the author of "Teaching Tolerance" had an imperative point to bring to the table. Just by looking a certain way, students can choose whether to trust an individual or not. Being white might mean to them that you don't know what it's like to be them and that's just one example. Forming a relationship with students will help erase these boundaries. Then, the content of tolerance can go far deeper and wider. If I had to pick one of the main life lessons I've learning while at Colorado State University, I would have to say that everyone has multiple identities. Previously, I talked about the importance of including multiple intelligences and now I want to talk about the importance of multiple identities. I'm not just a student. I'm not just a blonde white person. My friend isn't just a Latina girl. My friend isn't just a sister. We are a marbled mold of lots of different experiences. Yes, even my future students aren't just one identity.
1 Comment
Julia
12/5/2018 12:22:01 pm
!! I always thought "tolerance" was an incredibly low bar, too. I understand that it is a place to start, but it can be hard listening to people preach about being "tolerant to other lifestyles". Ideally we should be seeing all the layers of our fellow human beings first, but I also understand that in a society that's so saturated with bigotry, we are inherently trained not to do that. Allyship can change that, I think, over many generations.
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Greetings!I'm Kelly! I like to find beauty in what might seem mundane to us over time and bring to life what we experience each day. Check out the About Me tab for an additional look at who I am. Archives
July 2019
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