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PROLOGUE

By Rana Lehr-Lehnardt

“The focus of tolerance education is to deal with the concept of equality and fairness. We need to establish confidence with children that there is more goodness than horror in this world.”
(Morris Seligman Dees, Jr., founder and chief trial counsel of Southern Poverty Law Center, Alabama, USA, which is known for its civil rights work and its Teaching Tolerance program)

Tolerance is the capacity for or the practice of recognizing and respecting the beliefs or practices of others that are in conflict with our own beliefs or practices. It is the lack of tolerance that fuels so much isolation, unrest, and violence in our societies. Through simple stories we hope to enable educators to include discussion of tolerance in the classroom, thus guiding students toward respect for difference.

Why stories?

The creators of the Tolerance Stories Booklet chose to collect and prepare narratives to teach tolerance because stories are the first and most enduring literary form and they have the power to shape people’s understanding of the world and to change their lives. Ancient religious texts, including the Sutras, the Bible, the Torah, the Vedas, the Koran, the Tripikata use stories to teach principles of love, forgiveness, hospitality, tolerance, and many other concepts that can be vague and difficult to understand and internalize.

Thus, stories from millennia ago or centuries ago, or only days ago, can all be easily included, side by side, in one resource book with commentaries and questions to help guide the reader and educator with discussions regarding tolerance. The value of these stories, even those stories from long ago and about people so different from ourselves, is that we learn about ourselves from learning about others.

Furthermore, additional authoritative power seems to emanate from the written word, as opposed to mere speaking. Children believe what they read in books; if the books they read are full of accounts of intolerance or intolerant speech, then children will be swayed toward thinking that type of behavior or speech is acceptable. But if children are given stories illustrating principles of tolerance, stories that show the humanity of all people regardless of skin tones, religion, and customs, they will learn that tolerance toward the Other and respect toward difference is acceptable, even beneficial. And as children read more and more stories of tolerance, they will emulate the heroes of these stories, and in so doing, they will influence those around them.

The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief created the Tolerance Stories Project as part of its larger Teaching for Tolerance and Freedom of Religion or Belief Program. As part of the Program, members desired to include school children in creating stories of tolerance. After a worldwide competition, dozens of stories were chosen to be published and can be read in Stories on Tolerance, Oslo Coalition Occasional Papers (2), edited by Ingvill Thorson Plesner. This Tolerance Stories Booklet takes the Program one step further by creating a resource of tolerance stories and discussion topics for elementary and secondary school educators.

It is our hope that this resource booklet will facilitate educators in elementary and secondary schools to introduce discussions of tolerance by supplying a wide array of narratives that illustrate principles of tolerance. And by so doing, enable their students to be leaders of tolerance in their homes, neighborhoods, and communities.

The necessity of a book with a collection of tolerance stories became apparent as researchers scoured hundreds of books, conducted innumerable searches on the internet and library catalogs and experienced difficulty finding thought-provoking stories of tolerance. Too often, only stories of intolerance are told.

Intolerance is reported and written about so often, it might seem to youngsters that intolerance is a normal and acceptable part of our world. We need to offer youth and adults easy access to inspiring stories of tolerance. The Oslo Coalition’s Tolerance Stories Booklet recounts thought-provoking stories of selfless acts of humanity, the inspiring courage of those who fight against prejudice, and the benefits of a diverse society. Stories of tolerance are of infinite importance; they help individuals better understand the Other, they help individuals gain empathy, and ultimately act according to that empathy. They show that intolerance is not an acceptable response.

We searched for compelling stories of tolerance from around the globe. A global perspective on tolerance shows that the struggle for tolerance is not limited to a single country or overcoming a single problem, but that intolerance is present in every society. More stories of tolerance exist and they need to be shared with others. Encourage your students to share their stories of tolerance, thereby recognizing their experiences and emphasizing tolerance.

“We need to promote greater tolerance and understanding among the peoples of the world. Nothing can be more dangerous to our efforts to build peace and development than a world divided along religious, ethnic or cultural lines. In each nation, and among all nations, we must work to promote unity based on our shared humanity.”
Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations