Respecting Diversity and Looking for the Best in Everyone
Updated: Nov 19, 2019
Hi everybody. I hope you have a wonderful week. This week’s tip is about to teaching children to always look for the best in everybody. Isn’t it funny that in most cartoons and movies we watched as kids, there was a clear villain/bad guy who always came up against the hero/good guy. But in real life, it rarely works that way. Real people are way more complex. As adults we probably have had plenty of experience dealing with people who had annoying characteristics, or ideas and opinions different than our own. Yet still, we had to learn how to handle ourselves with grace and dignity, to disagree without insult, and try to find middle ground whenever possible. If circumstances led us to spend more time with this person than we’d like, eventually, we might even find some qualities about them that we liked or admired. One of the greatest lessons I learned by attending a very diverse university was even if I didn’t agree with someone’s way of thinking on a particular topic, or occasionally found it offensive, I could listen respectfully and try to better understand them and their thought process. And while that individual and I could have the most opposite views on one topic, I might discover that on another topic we completely agreed. It’s important that we teach children that people are multidimensional, and there is more to each person than what they see on the surface. Teach them to look deeper, and to look for the good in everyone, because whatever you look for, you will find.
Books:
The Light Giver and Other Stories to Raise Emotionally Healthy Children
The Light Giver Stories Workbook