Photo by Bianca Berndt
Teaching kids tolerance can be a difficult task to accomplish, especially with their young minds not being able to grasp what tolerance even is.
Dr. Carolyn Nooks Teague, author of the book Three Dimensions of Learning, is here to help parents overcome that challenge. She’s here to provide valuable input on how parents can teach their children what tolerance is. Dr. Teague can also help provide other traits the youngsters need to grow into healthy and well-adjusted adults.
We encourage you to scroll down and read with us the steps you can take to successfully teach your children what tolerance is!
1. Welcome Diversity Into Your Household
Introduce your kid to positive representations of diverse ethnic groups at an early age. These can include toys, music, books, movies, public role models, and instances from newspaper articles or TV.
Regardless of how young they are, encourage your child to interact with different kinds of people. Expose them to individuals with other racial, religious, and cultural backgrounds as well as genders, abilities, and views. Your youngster is more likely to adhere to your standards if they observe you embracing difference.
2. Always Nurture the Beauty of Understanding
Sensitivity, empathy, and acceptance are learned traits, just as bigotry, hatred, prejudice, and intolerance are. The earlier we begin, the greater the likelihood that we will be able to stop the spread of narrow-minded beliefs and actions and encourage kids to live more peacefully in this interconnected world.
3. Be Sure to Confronted Outdated Beliefs
You could start by thinking back to your own early years. Consider carefully if you are passing on outdated beliefs to your child, and try to gently correct them. You’re doing this so that you do not unintentionally damage their opinions.
4. Become a Model for Tolerance
Don’t just talk the talk. Walk the walk as well. Kids learn better and faster if someone models the concept of tolerance for them. If they see you embodying and living tolerance, then children will naturally follow what they see in you.
Of course, teaching kids tolerance isn’t always that simple, but being a model does help greatly. Dr. Carolyn Nooks Teague can provide helpful insights on you and your child’s journey towards teaching your child tolerance as well. She has a lot of informative lessons in her book that you, as a parent, can apply.
5. Encourage Your Child to Have an Open and Accepting Mind
Parents who plan their parenting efforts and consider how they want their children to turn out typically have success. You must decide to raise your child with the belief that variety is something to be respected if you genuinely want them to. They are more likely to accept your values once they know them.
6. Counter Biased Beliefs When Needed
Investigate a child’s motivations when you overhear them expressing prejudice. Next, politely disagree with them and explain why they are wrong. The reason why we need to counter biased beliefs is because we don’t want children to develop bad mentalities.
There are toxic biases out there in the world. We’d want our kids to steer clear from them and that they learn healthy beliefs that benefit them and society. You wouldn’t want your young one to grow up like the fictional villain “The Joker,” right?
7. Teach Them the Value of Their Culture and Cultivate Pride in Them
Children who learn about their family history can better connect with their ancestry. They also grow to respect and value, not just their own ethnic and national origins, but also those of their peers and teachers.
8. Do Your Best to Provide Simple and Straightforward Answers
Writer of Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D., emphasizes the need to provide straightforward, honest answers to children’s inquiries, especially when certain topics seem awkward or taboo. Stereotypes can be formed or avoided depending on how you react.
Continue On Your Noble Journey of Teaching Kids Tolerance
Helping a child grow into a well-adjusted and healthy adult is no easy task. Fortunately, there are people like Dr. Carolyn Nooks Teague who are ready to help parents. The children are our world’s future, and teaching them tolerance is certainly good for them.
Buy Dr. Teague’s book today by visiting her website at https://www.learnerblueprints.com/. Check out our blogs, too, and discover the value and why there’s a need to focus on being a positive role model for children!
The Happy Hammock 