Should schools teach diversity or should they teach tolerance? Tony Dahlin Venice

All of that should come from the parents, not the teachers.

Complicated topic, but firstly - how is teaching diversity different to teaching tolerance? Are these not the same thing? I think schools should not presume to get involved in ideological matters, or matters concerning faith. They should not themselves presume to judge, because doing so would be a misuse of their authority as teachers. Schools should concern themselves with reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography and science. They should provide education, not indoctrination.

They shouldn't teach it. If it comes up, they should point out the sillyness of it and/or punish overly bad bahavior regarding it, but if they make a point to teach it, it will only increase the mindset that those things are different and/or wrong. That's what I think . . .

Here's a novel idea... teach the basics needed to get a job and let PARENTS teach values.

Exposure and teaching are two different approaches parents and schools should take. By doing both, children learn at a very young age to accept differences as a normal occurrence. I don't care for the word "tolerance" because it makes me feel like it's involuntary and we need to accept differences in cultures, religions, etc. because they exist and we have the freedom to decide what is right for us. There are many ways to expose and/or teach others about what is different in the world. One is through food, another is music, another is art. The world is an amazing place, every person in it is a character and all that is required is baby steps outside the box you live in.

how about reading, writing, arithmetic instead? and history as it actually happened..not the revisionist crapola they teach now.

I think teaching diversity and teaching tolerance are two different things. Examples of teaching diversity: "OK boys and girls, today we are going to talk about--...a kid named Jimmy and why he has two moms instead of a mom and dad-- ...about why a girl named Becky doesn't eat pork ...about why this kid celebrates Kwanza/Passover/Christmas/whatever..." I don't think young children should be taught diversity in school, they should be taught that by their parents. Maybe by high school they have aquired enough knowledge of life to start to grasp the subtle implications of diveristy. Tolerance though, is a no brainer. Be nice to others regardless of how they are different from you. That should be taught from day one, by both schools and parents.

They already do :)

Both. More importantly though, they should teach math and science. I've never met a racist scientist or mathematician.