Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The Tolerance Project

I notice a lot of bloggers in the blogosphere do a lot of typing and talking. But I oftentimes do not see any action to follow-up all the hot-air. I do not wish to be one of those bloggers who only talks and types. I really have a driving urge to get out into the community and make a change. (Since I live in the deep south, this is not nearly as easy as it might sound).

So, in order to help fascilitate a change like this, one of my friends and I are working on something we've dubbed The Tolerance Project. I've decided that I will share the project in it's many stages. First, let me give you an overview.

The first thing that we are working on is a lecture for the Middle School Grades. This lecture will be about forty-five minutes, with a Question & Answer session afterwards. there are five public middle schools in our school system, plus the school that my friend goes to (A K-12 private school). We have already recieved permission for this lecture to be given to his school's Middle Schoolers. We will be inviting the principals (or perhaps the assistant principles) to watch us give our first lecture. The point of this will be for us to "sell" our idea. We will wish to give these lectures at the public schools as well. But we're almost certain that the principals will want to wath us in action first.

That is the first step in this project. Perhaps if we keep working at it, we can speak at more public event for the entire community. Perhaps at a local library, or something similar.

Here is a rough draft of our outline for our research paper that we are compiling for this project. Please take some time to read it and critique it.

Imagine: Working for Peace
The Tolerance Project


Question: “How can we use the ideologies and methodologies of past peacemakers in order to become more accepting of diversity, more tolerance and to live more wholesome and happy lives in regards to ourselves, our families, our neighbors and our world?”

Purpose: “To educate others in the rich diversity that exists on Earth as well as to promote tolerance of these diversities in the hopes that such tolerances will eventually lead to global peace.”


I. Section One (Introduction)
A. Statement of Purpose
B. Statement of Driving Question
C. Brief Overview of History of Human Peace

II. Section Two (Past Peacemakers)
A. Spotlight On: Peace Pilgrim
B. Spotlight On: John W. O. Lennon)
C. Spotlight On: Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi)
D. Spotlight On: Mikhail S. Gorbachev)

III. Section Three (The Future)
A. Diversity: What is it? Why does it matter? How will it make the world a better place?
B. Tolerance: What is it? What does it mean? How will it make the world a better place?
C. Inner Peace (Spotlight On: Peace Pilgrim)
D. Familial Peace (Spotlight On: John Lennon)
E. Neighborly Peace (Spotlight On: Mahatma Mohandas Gandhi)
F. World Peace (Spotlight On: Mikhail Gorbachev)

IV. Section Four (Conclusion)
A. Diversity: Why it matters.
B. Tolerance: What it can do.
C. Peace: A Long Term Goal and a Charge for Youth


Oh and as always: Please leave comments of your own opinion. If you wish for me to talk about something in a future post, please be sure to email me at thedisquietedpen@comcast.net. Please include the words "Tolerance and Peace" in the subject line, so that it is not kicked back by my SPAM filter. Thank you.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This sounds awesome, Chris. But don't you think 45 minutes is too long for middle schoolers? Especially the sixth graders. A lot of kids our age can't even listen for 45 minutes.
Just a thought.
& good luck! :)

K Rap said...

Where did you copy this username from? I've been using thepensivepoet for a very long time. Pretty lame that you lifted it.

The Pensive Poet said...

Not to sound slightly rude, but have you ever thought that perhaps an idea can be reached independently by two separate people?

Becuase I did not "copy" this user name. I came up with it myself. I had thought it to be original, since I know that I've never seen it anywhere before.