Beyond Barbie Dolls Are Just One Path To Teaching Kids About Diversity And Tolerance

The Coeur d’Alene High School human rights club had mostly faded away a few years ago. Most of the members had lost interest and the advisor had dropped out.

So last May, six students and the school librarian attended a three-day human rights camp. They gathered information from other schools on how to revitalize their club and build momentum.

Now the club’s core group of 10 members is planning a cultural fair, developing connections to Amnesty International and putting together fund-raisers.

That’s thanks largely to the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations, which paid the $500 camp admission price.

The task force started in 1980, but it has placed greater emphasis on education since the Aryan Nations began marching through downtown Coeur d’Alene two summers ago. When the Aryans announced their 1998 march, the task force began a pledge drive called “Lemons to Lemonade.” For every minute the Aryans marched, money was donated to human rights groups. Donations reached $35,000 the first summer.

Since then, the task force has formed a separate group to raise money for education and is planning a free seminar to help educators learn to incorporate diversity lessons into the curriculum.

“If we’re going to be successful in lessening or eradicating prejudice or hate, it has to come through the educational process,” said Tony Stewart, a task force spokesman.

“Children must be taught at a very young age the wrongs or prejudice or bigotry.”

Since the first Aryan March, schools and teachers have applied for task force grants totalling as much as $1,500 to bring programs to their schools that will help students appreciate diversity. The task force has already awarded more than $20,000 to schools to promote human rights.

Schools have used the money to beef up their collections of books on other cultures. They’ve purchased videos on diversity. They’ve brought speakers to their schools who emphasize the contributions made by people of varying ethnic backgrounds.

Post Falls Middle School teachers, for example, brought in a presentation that illustrated the suffering of Japanese Americans placed in internment camps during World War II. Japanese people who had been interned also visited the school.

“They were like, `Wow, we didn’t know that happened,”’ teacher Dona Pettoello said of her students. “There were tears. It was very emotional.”

Rebecca Martin, who runs a preschool and day care in Post Falls, used her $600 task force grant to buy dolls that show peoples’ differences. There’s a white girl, a Mexican girl, and an African-American boy. There’s also accessories for the dolls - a wheelchair, arm braces and a guide dog - designed to help children learn about disabilities. Martin reads her children books about other cultures and they listen to tapes of folk festivals from other countries.

“I don’t get too many questions about why this doll’s a different color,” she said. “They just play with them.

“I try to keep it simple and mainly just teach them about differences. I think it will help them as they grow up and encounter other cultures,” Martin said.

Lisa Eberle, president of CHS’ human rights club, said rejuvenating the group will help the school address prejudice. She said the school doesn’t have a huge racism problem, but students say hurtful things to each other and need to be aware of them.

“You can count on two hands how many people are not Caucasian,” she said. “There’s no diversity.”

At Hayden Lake Elementary School, fifth-grade teacher Lisa Timmons used her $500 task force grant to buy books about African-American, Hispanic and Native American cultures.

“Basically, what we want to do is expose kids to the cultures,” Timmons said. “In our area, that’s hard to do.”

Timmons said teachers have incorporated the books into a variety of lessons, ranging from social studies to cooking.

“Awareness is the greatest impact it’s had,” she said. “The more aware they are of different cultures, the more tolerant they are.”

Last March, the task force took its educational efforts a step further. It created the nonprofit Human Rights Education Foundation to raise money for education. Former State Sen. Mary Lou Reed was selected to be the foundation’s president. The task force’s annual human rights banquet, which raises thousands of dollars for education, has become the foundation’s primary fund-raiser.

In September, the task force and foundation will sponsor a free, two-day diversity training seminar for teachers. Experienced trainers from all over the country will come to North Idaho College to speak and hold workshops. The goal is to give educators tools to incorporate lessons on diversity into the regular curriculum.

The seminar will include speakers such as Loretta Ross, founder and executive director of the Atlanta-based Center for Human Rights Education, and Raymond Reyes, Gonzaga University’s associate vice president for diversity. When the list of panelists and speakers is complete, Stewart said, the foundation will begin marketing the program to teachers throughout the Inland Northwest. The seminar will be open to preschool through college-level educators.

Reyes said he believes democracy’s success depends on the acceptance and promotion of multi-cultural perspectives. As technology creates a global village, Americans are going to have to learn to embrace other cultures and learn other languages, he said.

“We’re developing people that are going to be working in a world that’s going to be much different than at any time in history,” he said. “We have to have multiple perspectives. That’s got to begin in the classroom when they’re young.”