Исследовательский проект "How tolerant we are: Building tolerance among the youth"

Министерство общего и профессионального образования

Свердловской области

МАОУ средняя общеобразовательная школа № 67

c углубленным изучением отдельных предметов

Направление: иностранные языки

Секция: английский язык

How tolerant we are:

Building tolerance among the youth

Исполнители: Чечеткина Анна Юрьевна,

Абакумова Влада Александровна

10 класс,  МАОУ СОШ № 67  

Руководитель: Ваторопина Елена Васильевна,                                                                

учитель английского языка МАОУ СОШ № 67

Екатеринбург

2013

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Diversity is such a common thing in our world. People differ in race, religious orientation, sex, age, culture. We have different characters, abilities, hobbies. Tolerance is very important for us, people who live in multicultural word. If we want the world to become a more understanding place, we need to be more tolerant to each other. People should be more optimistic, confident and relaxed. They should learn more about the people around them and respect other cultures.

The aim of our project is to study how tolerant our schoolmates are.

To achieve this aim we have learnt a great amount of information from the Internet, books and magazines and held the investigation – we asked our schoolmates (students of 9-11 forms) and teachers some questions connected with the topic.

The objectives of the work are:

1. to study the concept of tolerance - to study the literature on the topic that is available on the internet and in the libraries and summarize the valuable information;
2. to describe a tolerant person;
3. to give some advice about how to be tolerant;
4. to conduct a survey on the problem and to discuss the results of our research paper at the English lessons and school conference.

The object of the investigation is students and teachers of school № 67 of Ordzonikidzevskii district.

The subject of the investigation is fostering tolerance and promoting ideas of tolerance at school.

1. TOLERANCE IN MODERN WORLD.

We all have our own beliefs and perspectives about many issues that surround our lives. Whether it is about social upbringings, religious views, political beliefs, cultural differences, etc, the way we each view, interpret and react to anything is based on the belief system we have acquired over our lifetimes. Sadly, some are not as tolerant to others who they feel are different from themselves. Over and over again, we witness a lack of tolerance amongst us and see those with similar views group together and act against others. They may verbally or even physically attack others who live differently from them, creating an environment of hate, judgment and war. 

The International Day for Tolerance is a time for people to learn about respecting and recognizing the rights and beliefs of others. It is also a time of reflection and debate on the negative effects of intolerance. Live discussions and debates take place across the world on this day, focusing on how various forms of injustice, oppression, racism and unfair discrimination have a negative impact on society. The UN’s International Day for Tolerance is a global observance and not a public holiday [2].

In 1996 the UN General Assembly invited member states to observe the International Day for Tolerance on November 16, with activities directed towards both educational establishments and the wider public (resolution 51/95 of 12 December). This action came in the wake of the United Nations Year for Tolerance, 1995, proclaimed by the assembly in 1993 (resolution 48/126). The year was declared on the General Conference of UNESCO’s initiative. On November 16, 1995, the UNESCO member states adopted the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance and Follow-up Plan of Action for the year. The 2005 World Summit Outcome document outlines the commitment of Heads of State and Government to advance human welfare, freedom and progress everywhere, as well as to encourage tolerance, respect, dialogue and cooperation among different cultures, civilizations and peoples.

Many educators use the theme of this day to help students in classrooms or in lecture theatres understand issues centered on tolerance, human rights and non-violence. These issues are also found in text books, lesson material and other educational resources used for this event. The UN Chronicle Online Education also features articles about tolerance.  Information on the day is disseminated through flyers, posters, news articles and broadcasts, and other promotional material to raise people’s awareness about the importance of tolerance. Other activities include essays, dialogues and story-telling of people’s personal accounts of intolerance and how it affects their lives [2].

Human rights activists also use this day as an opportunity to speak out on human rights laws, especially with regard to banning and punishing hate crimes and discrimination against minorities. In the workplace, special training programs, talks, or messages from workplace leaders about the importance of tolerance are utilized on this day.

Educational institutions have launched many projects to promote tolerance among different cultures and religions. They have launched various traditional and nontraditional teaching methods such as puppet shows, exhibitions, music programs and films to educate tolerance among the growing generations. They have dealt with tolerance, multiculturalism, global diversity, and proper religious understanding [3].

Being tolerant is about letting go of the judging and the criticizing of how others choose to live their lives. When you live your life without criticizing how others live theirs, you will find that such social tolerance will bring more peace and happiness in to your own life.

2. SCHOOL MAGAZINE "TEENLIFE" : THE WORLD IS

SO BRIGHT AND MULTICOLOURD!

We have already made 9 issues of our school magazine "TeenLife". The main topic of the 9th issue (September, 2013) is Tolerance [4]. The names of some articles you can read in it are: "Be tolerant and you avoid conflicts", "The world is so bright and multicoloured!", "Multicultural America", "Old friends and old wine are best", "How to be tolerant", "Travelling is the best way to learn the world", "Blood is thicker than water", "Back to School!", etc. [4]

The articles of that issue were written not only by our schoolmates and teachers. Pupils from other schools and students and teachers of different institutes and universities brought their works to our magazine, too.

The general idea of all the articles is how tolerant people are, how to be tolerant in our multicultural world and how to make life more interesting and bright. In the article "Be tolerant and you’ll avoid conflicts" Elena Vatoropina says that we are all different and have different opinions about the same things, and it can lead to conflict. To avoid it, you should be respectful towards people, it means to understand other people’s opinion, to honour, to love them and to be polite. Observing these rules, you can avoid conflicts. The author describes the basic ways of solving conflicts. I think, one of the most important of them is compromise. "To compromise is to make a deal between different parties or people where everyone gives up part of their demand". Another article is "How to be tolerant", written by Maria Pogosyan. She writes, to be tolerant we should always think about our deeds. "Parents should teach their teens to think like chess players: before they make a move, they should try to anticipate the consequences."

We can see a survey about tolerance, hold by Alyona Vinogradova, a student from the Urals Humanitarian Institute. According to the results of her investigation, most people understand "tolerance" as understanding other people. A big number of people think that tolerance is patience. Many students of our school have the same opinion. So, we can say that most people understand tolerance as understanding and patience.

There are some articles about travelling in the issue. The authors of the articles are sure that travelling is one of the best ways to learn and to understand the world. In every article there are mentions of the people, who live in these countries. All the authors say that people in the country they’ve been to are friendly and polite. It's amazing that people in the world are tolerant and try to live their lives in peace. It's very interesting to read about beautiful cities and towns of different countries. In these articles we can read about history, monuments and people of Russia, the UK, the USA, Germany, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Spain. Grisha Aidartsyan writes, "This year I have visited Armenia for the fourth time. Every visit I learn more and more about culture, history and traditions of this country because every time I try to visit as many places and cities as possible. I saw a large number of ancient churches and temples and one of them is an ancient pagan temple of Garni. Before that I had read a lot about this temple and heard many stories from my parents. I know that this temple was built in the first century AD and rebuilt from the ruins in the Soviet time. Now it is one of the oldest churches in the world. When I saw it I realized the beauty, power and majesty of this monument. It was an inexpressible delight! I also visited the monastery Choir Virap. I learned that Saint Gregory the Illuminator was imprisoned there in a deep pit for 15 years by King Tiridates III of Armenia. The stories about these monuments gave me much interesting information about the history and culture of Armenia. Visiting them was really exciting for me! To my mind every person has to attend the country which he wants to learn. I am sure traveling is unlimited source of knowledge. I would like to end this note with the words of Mark Twain: "Only two things we'll regret on deathbed – that we are a little loved and little traveled".

Some of our teachers and pupils wrote about friendship and family. They are all about good relationships between friends and relatives, there are a lot of photos of happy families. Friendship is also very important. "Old friends and old wine are best." In this article Alyona Volkova writes how important friendship is to people. Everybody needs a real friend, who can help and defend you in a difficult situation. Alyona tells about her friend. They are friends for twelve years already.

Many students wrote about how bright and multicoloured the world is. To make life much more interesting people choose different hobbies. They like singing, dancing, playing musical instruments, painting, drawing, reading books, etc. Maria Kurochkina from Gymnazium №1 of Novgorod adores painting and  drawing. She is going to connect her life with art. In the issue you can see her drawings - portraits  and landscapes. They are so bright and unusual!

As for me I’m crazy about rock music since I was 13. Once, I heard a song on radio, it was “Show must go on”, Queen’s song and I liked it. It really amazed me with perfect and spellbinding guitar solo and breathtaking, clear and very, very beautiful Freddie Mercury’s vocal. Roger Taylor, the drummer, inspired me to play drums, and now I’m studying it. I admire him. He plays drums very well. Playing drums seems easy to me, so I learned a lot and now I play drums as much as I can, when I have free time. I play even during the school breaks! I just knock on the school deck with my hands. Also I have my own rock band, named “The Ocean”. My groupmates are really good people! We became close friends with them. They’re fond of music as me. Music became a very important part of my life, and I’m going to work in music industry. Hope, I will be successful in my future!

Liza Peregudova and Elana Safarova love animals and often go to the zoo. They wrote about their favourite pets - cats. "I love my cat, he is an integral part of my life. I even think that I often understand him. Sometimes he is friendly and nice, sometimes - selfish and angry. It depends on his mood. He is rather smart. He knows the time I feed him, and he goes to the kitchen before me. Cat is a friend for me, he's always near me when I'm sad, or just starts to purr and because of this my mood rises. Sometimes there are moments when he pisses me off and I scold him, because he is naughty. My cat is not perfect, but I love him!"

Alyona Volkova is sure that "reading is the perfect way to spend free time. Books can tell us a lot about interesting things, they educate people. When you read, you communicate with the author and his characters. Erich Maria Remarque, Jane Austen, Alexandre Dumas, Paulo Coelho - all of these writers are known all over the world, and their books are very popular all over the world. Recently, I read a book by Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice". The book describes such vices as pride and indifference. The book made me think about many things. At the moment I'm reading a book of Alexander Dumas "The Count of Monte Cristo". The book is full of  brilliant adventures. I read it with great interest! I am sure, reading is knowledge. And everybody knows that knowledge is power!"

In the magazine you can see many photos about how we spent time at our school. [4] Our school life is very interesting! We have contests, concerts, sport competitions, exhibitions, etc. Pupils, teachers, our parents are real friends! And we are always glad to meet guests! Welcome to our school!

3. HOW TO BE TOLERANT.

Tolerating each other is not that hard to do once you understand one another. If people can learn to communicate effectively by letting each other know how they feel and sometimes even why they feel the way they do, then it would be much easier to relate to one another. [5] If you can relate to someone, or at least see where they are coming from, tolerating them isn't a task.

Tolerance is impossible without understanding. I don't like the word "tolerance" to begin with because it has that connotation of "put up with" something or someone instead of "learn to get along with" something or someone. In order to build a stronger community where everyone is respected, we need to start learning about each other and understand those aspects of our lives that make us who we are. We are not able to identify with everyone, but if we can look at that person in the eye and say : "I can see where you are coming from and why you feel the way you do", then we would be able to move on to more important issues [6].

One of the best ways to tolerate people is to put yourself in the other person's shoes. We think it makes it a lot easier to understand where someone is coming from. Sometimes it's more difficult when someone has a different view than you and you don't understand why. However, and it's easier said than done, we have to really think about why they feel how they do and be more sensitive. People have much respect for those who make sacrifices and compromises and in the long run it shows, a lot.

Learning to respect others' differences, comes in time. As Helen Keller said "the highest result of education is tolerance" [6]. By learning more about others we begin to realize that being tolerant is not about compromising our own beliefs, but rather, as John Kennedy said, it's about "condemning the oppression or persecution of other's beliefs." Continued education is the only root to a truly tolerant society.

Become tolerant by becoming more interested in others and their perspectives. Even if you don't agree with them, you can express tolerance and respect by openly listening to them. If you do disagree on something that you feel you must share on the issue, do so in a non-attacking way; maybe ask more questions about their views, differences or cultural beliefs and respectfully share back what you know. 

Telling others that they are wrong shows a lack of individualistic and social tolerance. It is ineffective, demeaning, and will result in either a shut-down or defensive response in return. No one likes to be treated without tolerance in this manner, so share your own knowledge in a respectful manner that participates to the conversation rather than creates conflict. 
Learn to be more tolerant by being open to learning more facts about the beliefs or cultural differences of others. Seek information on the topic that goes beyond your own beliefs about it. There are many various portions of facts and information on any given topic. What many of us believe about others tends to be based on bias opinions rather than factual information. Practice social tolerance by being open to seek as many different views as possible. You may find there's more to it than you originally thought and you may also find a common belief that is shared with your own. But even if you don't, you're more the wiser for the information! 

Tolerance is about a choice to let others talk their talk and to remove yourself from, or not participate in their discussion as if it's a personal attack. Sometimes it can be better to be the one who is strong enough to just let it go and be tolerant enough to let them be who they are and let them believe what they believe. Hopefully they will show the same social tolerance to you in return. 

4. INVESTIGATION INTO THE PROBLEM.

We held a survey (Appendix 1) of senior pupils (9-11classes) of our school. 40 pupils took part in the survey.

According to the results of the questionnaire (Appendix 1), most of the participants of the survey understand the word "tolerance" as a being cultured person and to be respectful towards other people. Lots of girls think that to be tolerant means to be polite (41%). 32% of boys understand "tolerance" as patience towards other people. Some teenagers (9% of girls and 18% of boys) told that it is difficult for them to answer what the tolerance is. Almost all of the respondents have people of other nationalities among their friends. Girls have more friends of other nationalities (81%) then boys (71%). Some girls (6%) don’t know if they have people of other nationalities among their friends. So we can say that it is not so important for them to know what nationality a person is. Much more important is what character a person has.

All the respondents don't have conflicts with their friends. Nobody quarrels with them if they have different opinions. 65% of girls and 73% of boys take it easy if their friends have different points of view. Other 20% of girls and 9% of boys try to convince with their partners.

All people should have equal opportunities for getting education. That was the answer of 45% of boys and 48% of girls. Some other girls (43%) and boys (41%) answered "more yes then no" to this question. So we can say that almost all of our schoolmates are really patient to other people. Only 3% of girls and 4% of boys answered no to that question.

The world is so bright and multicolourd! There are a lot of countries with different cultures and manners in our world. 54% of boys and 24% of girls like all the countries in the world. 43% of girls and 32% of boys say that there are some countries they don’t like. Among them - Russia, the USA, some Asian and European countries.  For some teenagers it was difficult to answer that question. Explaining their points of view, the respondents said some reasons for that. They are the following:

• pollution in some highly developed countries;
• overpopulation in some countries of Asia;
• very hot and wet (very cold) climate;
• some habbits, manners, customs and traditions;
• insufficient awareness of the culture of some countries.

So, we see that the main reason for some negative attitude towards some foreign countries is so-called culture shock of teenagers. We think to decrease the effects of culture shock people should:

• Not judge the people of a country by the one person with whom you have had trouble, for this is unfair to the people as a whole.
• Not expect to find things as they have them at home for they have left their home to find different things.
• Not worry, for one who worries has no pleasure.
• Always remember that you are a guest in every land and that one who treats a host with respect will be treated as an honoured guest.
• Be aware of the feelings of the local people to prevent what might be offensive behaviour.
• Learn the language of the host country. People appreciate those who speak their mother tongue.
• Learn English - the language of international communication!

Using the results of the investigation, we have made a list of basic personality traits (Appendix 2). According to it a tolerant person has such qualities as  respect to other people's opinions, kindness, the desire to do something together with friends, understanding and acceptance other people, sensitivity and forbearance, trust, humanism, inquisitiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

1. The concept of tolerance was studied. The literature on the topic that is available on the internet and in the libraries was studied and the valuable information was summarized.
2. Basic traits of a tolerant person were described.
3. Some pieces of advice about how to be tolerant were given.
4. A survey on the problem was conducted. The results of the investigation were discussed at the English lessons and school conference.

LITERATURE

1. Батаршев А.В. Тестирование: Основной инструментарий практического психолога: Учебное пособие. - М.: Дело, 2001. - 240 с.

2. International Day for Tolerance. [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: http://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/un/international-day-tolerance (дата обращения 7.11.2013)

3. Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0015/001518/151830eo.pdf (дата обращения 7.11.2013)

4. Журнал "TeenLife" № 9. [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа:  http://pedsovet.org/component/option,com_mtree/task,viewlink/link_id,120683/ (дата обращения: 7.11.2013)

5. Ваторопина Е.В. Формирование толерантности у молодежи:  Проблемы и перспективы // Роль образования и педагогической науки в социокультурной модернизации российского общества: сборник научных трудов Международной научно-теоретической конференции 24 октября 2011.: в 2-х тт. / Под ред. С.В.Ивановой. – М., УРАО, Ин-т теории и истории педагогики, 2011. – Т.2 – 234 с.

6. Carlos Zapata. How can we learn to tolerate and respect other people? [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: http://www.wpi.edu/News/TechNews/951212/Respect.html (дата обращения 7.11.2013)

Appendix 1

QUESTIONNAIRE RESULTS

Girls

Boys

Appendix 2

BASIC PERSONALITY TRAITS

Appendix 3

Friendship, family and love

 The busy life is full of hardships.

The work and study take the time.

And boring days’ unending flow

Sometimes may bring me to the cry.

But when my grief becomes so steady,

And heavy clouds hide the sun,

I feel the warmth of people close –

My faithful friends, my lovely mum.

The foolish people can’t distinguish

Eternal bliss from minor luck.

Appreciating money, leisure,

And even alcohol and drug,

They cannot feel when in a moment

By meeting piercing fiery glance

You fall in love. And no doubts

The heartbeat quickens… Pleasure comes…

The busy life is full of hardships.

But soul hovers like a dove,

When I remember purest treasures –

The friendship, family and love.

                  Elena V. Vatoropina

Appendix 4

SCHOOL MAGAZINE "TEENLIFE", № 9