Defenses against jealousy

overseas
Sun, 17 Sep 2006 01:15:23 +0000

Schools should aspire to be safe havens, as Soozievt wrote above. That is the key to it all. It is fine if a school wants to honor all the beliefs on this planet throughout the year. That is easy to do when the school has a very diverse student population such as found in the international schools where I have been working for almost 20 years. Everyone gets their major religious holidays off if they want them. The school celebrates all the religious & national holidays in the classrooms, as projects etc. It is just part of the package. I never have to worry about a book being banned in the library since everyone knows they must be respectful of everyone else’s points of views. And since most aren’t sure exactly what that may be they are generally more tolerant. Safe Havens.

I would imagine if you just scratch the surface in every school community in the US you will find many divergent points of view. The problem is that the majority opinion must hold sway and no one really cares about the so called minority points of view. That does not create safe havens.

It is really a shame. We do now live in a global society. The products we use every day come from China, the telephone solicitors from India as examples. Across the globe, the rich are scrambling to put up higher fences to protect their markets, to keep the hordes out. People are afraid. And I think it is that same fear of change & difference that makes people uncomfortable when they can’t sing their songs at schools just like their parents and grandparents did.

Safe havens can only occur when you open up the windows and embrace your neighbors as your own and respect them.