Comments on: Minnesota Mamaleh: In Our House, Tolerance is a Bad Word

By: Galit Breen

Galit Breen — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:09:34 +0000

missy, hi! thanks so much for the visit and comment. your point is perfect: we want to be the ones dialoguing with and teaching our children. even if the convo is shudder-worthy-tricky. so happy to have connected with you!

By: Missy @ the marketing mama

Missy @ the marketing mama — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 03:26:55 +0000

I love this post. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and feelings on diversity. I especially like your words at the end about celebrating our differences. I find it interesting how some of my friends and family don’t point out differences because they don’t want to impress on the kids that different is bad. Eventually other children are going to point out differences – I’d much rather be the one to contextualize those differences for my children and frame them positively before other people can do it negatively.

I also agree that tolerate/tolerance is a bad word. Of course, I’d rather someone tolerate than discriminate… but celebrate differences is the goal in my household.

By: Galit

Galit — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 03:39:49 +0000

Hi Mike! Thanks for the note. I agree with you 100% and I absolutely love your explanation of celebrating tolerance holding us back as a society. You’re right! I think schools are *starting* to move beyond this concept, but there’s whole (celebrated!) programs with titles such as “Teaching Tolerance” that are still misleading/ misguiding (although their content is very good).

And, you’re right. I am Israeli! A “sabra.”

And, Amy thanks for pointing that out! I highly doubt that anyone in *your* classroom is confused, though!

By: homeshuling

homeshuling — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:50:06 +0000

There was a nice synchronicity between the Jewish and American calendars this year – we are reading about the Exodus from Egypt just as we honor the memory of Martin Luther King, Jr. In my day school classroom, I took advantage of this to remind my students of these parallels (though perhaps I just confused them too….)

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 20:09:20 +0000

Thank you for that post, Galit!

You’re only the second person I’ve ever heard or read to point out the real meaning of the celebrated word “tolerance.” (The other one was a Jew, too; coincidence?)
You’re absolutely right about that word’s meaning. It really is nothing more than “putting up with.” Sure, our modern usage has sanded off the rough edges — somehow its connotation sounds now in our politically correct talk less “grudging” and more “polite,” “noble,” “right.”
No, it is not right! Tolerance is the _minimum_ standard. (Akin to politeness — the baseline above which stand camaraderie, friendship, love.) Political theorists like John Locke were advocating religious “toleration” back in the seventeenth century! Sure, western society has advanced quite a lot since then. But shouldn’t we have advanced farther?!
I do think this word — so much a part of how we talk about inter-ethnic relations — is holding us back from moving much beyond its core concepts. (Of course, it’s not the main thing holding us back; but it doesn’t help.)
Sadly, I do think sometimes that in our society “tolerance” is all too accurate. Too many whites still merely tolerate blacks in some spheres. And, I think (I hope that I am wrong), sometimes the best that Jews get from gentiles — even in this most wonderfully free of countries — is “tolerance.”

P.S. I think that if I see this more clearly than others, it’s partly because I am an immigrant. Do I read too much into your Israeli name, Galit, in thinking that you are also foreign-born?