How to Instil the Tolerance at School Surroundings

Students are the foundation and assets of a nation where their development must be protected and monitored. This development can be seen from the social environment in shaping a child's character. Students must be supported by getting used to their perspective in respecting and loving each other without seeing the differences in them.

Tolerance is the main keyword for children that must be instilled and is the highest value in the human aspect. Quoted from the KEMENDIKBUD page, tolerance is an attitude of appreciating and respecting differences between human beings.

Children's perspective on the school environment is mostly different. They are grown up in different family with different culture, religion and values. It’s very important to teach them that Indonesia is a multicultural country that is rich in language, ethnicity, culture, race and religion. This diversity must be taught to students so that they know and appreciate the meaning of this diversity.

We also have witnessed and watched the news about Indonesian education which is full of humanitarian problems that occur among students, such as bullying, sexual harassment, beating teachers, etc. It doesn’t occur in all school. But, can we imagine how many students in a school with those kinds of problems and they grow up in the intolerance education atmosphere? Can we imagine what will our country like in future with intolerance cultures? This is a very important matter for parents, teachers and also the school’s stakeholders.

There are several ways to teach the students so that an attitude of tolerance can be implemented in real terms in children's lives at school. Here are some examples:
a. Help each other
We should do it to help our friends at school. We must also apply an attitude of tolerance by helping friends of other religions. We must not look at the religion, ethnicity or race of the friends we help.
b. Don't bully friends
Bullying at school is rampant. We should not bully friends just because they are different from us. We must remain friends and invite friends to play, regardless of our differences.
c. Respect each other
We must always respect and understand other people's customs and culture. Even though they are different from our culture, as social creatures who have tolerance, we must respect these cultural differences.