News sources are filled with accounts of intolerance and with disturbing images to accompany intolerant acts. Readers and viewers are bombarded with stories filled with hate, misunderstandings, greed, and intolerancehate crimes, targeted ethnic killings, acts of terrorism, wars, racism, and sexism. Yet among all these acts of intolerance, there are often stories of tolerance, both large and small. But these stories of tolerance do not claim the front page of newspapers, the covers of magazines, or the top news broadcast story. Sometimes they are never reported and are forgotten as time passes. Yet these 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.
To combat the persistence of intolerance and its negative consequences, an international not-for-profit human rights organization is collecting stories of tolerance that will be published as a resource book for educators, students, and the general public. This effort is part of the Teaching for Tolerance Project with The Oslo Coalition on Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Oslo Coalition is an international network of representatives from academia, faith communities, NGOs and international organizations that seek to promote freedom of religion and belief worldwide.
The resource book will feature stories that discuss various aspects and areas of tolerance and intolerance, but the book will place special emphasis on religious tolerance, which is the focus of the Oslo Coalition's work. The Tolerance Stories Project coordinator, Dr. T. Jeremy Gunn, decided to collect stories of 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." 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," Gunn explained.
The stated main aim of the project is "[t]o encourage school education that increases understanding and respect between people of different religions or world views and that foster knowledge about and respect for freedom of religion or belief as a human right, and by this contribute to combat discrimination and intolerance based on religion or belief and prevent violations of the human right to freedom of religion or belief." Creating a resource book of tolerance stories for educators will encourage and enable teachers to include classroom teaching opportunities and discussions that focus on the benefits of understanding and respecting the Other. The goal of the project is not for students to simply put up with or endure the presence of one who is different. Rather, the creation of this resource book is for students, through exposure to stories of tolerance and directed classroom discussion, to cultivate a fair, objective, and sympathetic attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, sex, nationality, or other characteristic differs from his her or her own. In effect, the goal of the project is for students to become more understanding of differences and this Tolerance Stories Project can be an invaluable aid in leading students down a path of tolerance.
In a world full of violence and acts of intolerance, it is vitally important to foster tolerance in the world's youththe future leaders of countries. "From a human perspective, to have tolerance and respect is to have empathy for others -- to see the world through their eyes," Gunn said. "One of the best ways of learning this empathy is to learn about the world from another's perspective, to
hear inspiring tales of how people have overcome prejudice, and to visualize the terrible consequences of irrational hatred both on the victim and on the person who bears the prejudice."
The necessity of a book with a collection of tolerance stories has become apparent as researchers have scoured hundreds of books, conducted innumerable searches on the internet and library catalogs and found only a sparse number of thought-provoking stories of tolerance. Too often, only the stories of intolerance are told. But inspiring stories of selfless acts of tolerance exist. They need to be located and added to the tolerance stories already found. And there exist many other stories of tolerance that lie silent within many of us. These stories need to be written and published. This reader of tolerance stories could be a wonderful opportunity to get an unpublished story of tolerance published.
You can help educate the youth of today and create a more tolerant upcoming generation by contributing your stories of tolerance. The stories we are seeking may be suitable for any age level, and they may be drawn from works of great world literature, or a local newspaper, or even written specially for this project. The stories may be true accounts of real events or entirely imaginary. They may be copyrighted or in the public domain. The story can be in English or any other language as long as a translation is available.
We are looking for stories that might, for example:
- reveal the harmful consequences of intolerance
- show how an important experience helps someone overcome a prejudice
- describe the benefits of cooperating with people who at first seem different
- explain how intolerance hurts the person who is prejudiced
- illustrate how intolerance may be based on false assumptions.
We welcome your suggestions and contributions. Please send your recommendations (either the story itself or the citation to a place where we can find it) in any language to:
tolerancestories@gmail.com.
For additional information on this project, please see the formal call for papers at:
www.oslocoalition.org/html/project_school_education/CallStories.htm.
For additional information on the Coalition's larger project Teaching for Tolerance and Freedom of Religion or Belief, of which this call for tolerance stories is a part, see:
www.oslocoalition.org/html/project_school_education/index.html.
If you know of specific individuals, organizations, or programs that might be interested in helping, please send their name and contact information to: tolerancestories (at) gmail.com.
