Since 2016 Learn2Think has been providing ToDay, a free programme of specially designed and curated, curriculum – linked lessons and fun activities to help children understand and practice tolerance as a foundation for their individual world view. The hope is to promote valuable discourse and improved understanding of others’ narratives in order to build a better, kinder future.​
 
Age-appropriate materials are available free, covering all Keystages in core curriculum subjects. They include lessons in Maths that use statistics to explore diversity within a school, in English using creative writing to imagine other people’s lives, and in PSHE and drama to understand anger and resist retaliation.  

 


​Why are you doing it?
​

We were shocked by the ramifications of the Brexit campaign.  Through our work in schools, running religious tolerance workshops, we saw first-hand how anti-immigration sentiments affected young children. Eg. a mixed race 5-year-old asking if she and her Daddy were going to be deported; a 10 year old third generation Indian child being shouted at on the street to go home; leafleting against the Polish families near a school we visited.
We also saw wonderful schools that lived and thrived as multicultural communities, and wanted to see this expanded and formalised within day to day teaching. 

 
What’s the history behind the UN International Day for Tolerance?
​

Tolerance Day was first marked by the UN International Year for Tolerance in 1995, in the wake of the racial and cultural conflicts in Africa, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, which led to the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides –As they said then, in “the interests of conflict prevention, promotion of human rights,”  we need to “ encourage the values of tolerance and peace among all the people of the world.”
 
What do you mean by Tolerance?
We have been challenged by the use of the word ‘tolerance’.  As Mahatma Gandhi said, “I do not like the word tolerance, but could not think of a better one.”
 
Our working definition is, that “tolerance is giving to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself.” (Robert Green Ingersoll).  It’s not an easy concept, but it is important so we want children to think and talk about it. 
 
We are not advocating tolerance as passive acceptance of things that are clearly indefensible, which are usually already covered within our legal framework. 
 
Who is behind this initiative?
The Learn2Think Foundation, which was originally set up in March 2015 to extend and expand the work started by Rapscallion Press. It is bringing together as many people and organisations as possible, including experts in psychology, philosophy, education and the creative arts.