Great Ways to Teach Your Students Tolerance
The modern classroom is a diverse environment: so many different personalities, work ethics, cultures, preferences, wants, needs, and interests are contained within it. Catering for all of these individualities is a near impossible task, but by teaching tolerance, your students will begin to understand and accept one another for who they are. This in itself is bound to reduce fighting and disagreements amongst students in your classroom, so let's take a closer look at the ways in which you can successfully apply this educational techniques.
We must bear in mind that tolerance isn't something we wish to have, but rather something we need to be present. In the classroom, if everyone is to make sufficient progress in line with their academic and social targets, it's vitally important that everyone gets along and accepts one another -regardless of their differences
. As students age, they become more aware of others around them. It's inevitable that they're going to come across the odd person that they clash with on a personality level, but it's how we deal with any arguments that arise from this that matters and can change things for the better.
Rather than giving out punishments immediately, and letting pupils go off sulking or crying, talk out the matter. Get everyone who is involved to say what they feel, so they can get it off their chest and express what it is that's creating a problem for them. Demand kindly that they must listen to other people's opinions. You'll be surprised at how much this helps them in terms of personal growth, even if they don't show it at the time.
Through learning what other people are experiencing and feeling, children become aware of who that person is and can thus learn to accept them. Future disagreements may well arise, but they will become much easier to deal with and should reduce in terms of their frequency.
As a teacher, it is your role to oversee this process in its entirety and nurture the children involved. Demonstrate kindness, fairness and patience whenever you find yourself dealing with young people to show what is expected of them. Especially in earlier grades (1st-5th), pupils look up to their teacher as their role model during school time, and are likely to copy their behavior. If the example set is a positive one, this can only be a good thing.
Another tolerance-enhancing activity is encouraging supervised group activities during lesson time, as well when playing during breaks and lunch. This gives pupils the chance to meet new members of the class, make solid friendships, and develop the social skills that are necessary to understand and tolerate other people.
There are so many techniques you can foster in the classroom environment to aid the process of teaching tolerance, of which these are just a mere few demonstrations of. Helping students in this way enables all members of the class to work together in a peaceful, warm learning atmosphere. It's certainly something that comes with age and must be developed over time, but the benefits it brings will prove useful throughout the rest of a child's life.