What happened to common decency, to treating others respectfully even if we don’t agree on an issue? We teach our children about respecting other people’s opinions and how we sometimes need to listen to what they're saying and why they believe as they do. We tell them we can argue about an issue, but we still treat the other person respectfully. When there is disagreement, we can compromise and move ahead for the good of all. We don’t condone name calling, and we ask children to put themselves in the other person’s shoes, to be empathetic to someone else because we don’t know the challenges they are facing on the path they are walking.
At our school, we focused on teaching students tolerance, inclusiveness, and aloha. We realized the great impact we can have on our students' lives by showing them that open discussions can lead to deeper acceptance of others' ideas. We worked to include and accept all students and to listen to their viewpoints when there was disagreement. We would quickly address any concerns before it became a problem, and we would never condone mob mentality where kids might get caught up in participating in actions they inherently knew were wrong. We used conflict resolution and delved deeper to find the root of the problem so the parties could move forward. We taught our students about the need to be careful that what we post on social media today is something we will not regret later.
As a nation, we can disagree on policies and politics, but we nevertheless should treat others with respect. We can argue our points vigorously, yet shake hands at the end of the day and seek to understand the other person’s viewpoint. A difference of opinion doesn't mean that one side is right and the other is wrong; it means there can be a better outcome as a result of listening to another viewpoint and working together to find a better solution. Social media is a great tool for sharing ideas and to virtually connect with a wider audience, but our posts need to be respectful. And name-calling by adults is totally unacceptable; in fact, it is childish.
We have so many problems that impact our nation and our world including climate change, wars and conflict, poverty, racial divide, and economic challenges. We should be working together to make our world a better place, not causing a deeper divide between our people. We owe it to our children to leave them a better world than the one we inherited. Let's work together to make it happen.
The kids pick up on all this trifling stuff and it will make for an even more divisive world. Agree that we need to revisit the lessons of old fashioned common decency despite the fact that we live in a fast-paced world which gets smaller and smaller with social media and the internet.
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