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Week of Tolerance in Samara

What is tolerance and respecting different opinions? How can we live in peace and accord in modern society? Senior students of Samara schools who had gathered at a round table answered these questions. Tatiana Kozlova, an authority on children�s rights presided at the meeting:

�The idea of tolerance itself is to live in peace with one�s family, collective and in our multicultural, multi-faith oblast. This is tolerance towards other religions, towards a different opinion. But tolerance is not concessions and indulgence to evil and criminal intentions. It is the ability to listen and understand each other. It is valuable in the modern world. The goal of today�s round table is to formulate tolerance in young people. It is very important to realize that peace and safety of modern society comes from the ability to tolerate.�

The Day of Tolerance is recognized on November 16th. Exactly on this day in 1995, 185 state members of UNESCO, including Russia, signed a Declaration where the principles of tolerance were designated. "Respect, adoption and proper understanding of the wealth of the cultural diversity of our world, our forms of self-expression and methods of expression of humanity�s individuality �.This scale of determination implies a tolerable relation to other nationalities, races, skin colours, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, language, religious, political or other belief, national or social origin, personal property and so on.�

�I often hear the word �chock�. For me this is not acceptable. I am also half Mordovian, but no one makes fun of me for this. People relate to me in a normal manner. I don�t know why people who don�t look European cause negative reactions. I lived in Germany, there the situation with tolerance is better�, said Olga Pushkina, a round table participant and a grade ten student of Waldorf school.

The round table is not the only event in the province dedicated to tolerance. An open house was held in the House of People�s Friendship for the Week of Tolerance. The institution visited students who are currently studying in middle specialized schools, institutes and universities.

Symbolically, guests of the House of People�s Friendship on the first day of the Week were students from the Novokarmalinsky middle of the Koshkinsky region, which has an ostensible ethno-component in the educational process. For the most part, students are Morda-Erzya and Chuvash. In free time, in school-organized groups, children study Mordovian literature and folklore, with a basis of Orthodox culture. In the House of People�s Friendship, students visited the offices of national-cultural centers of Samara oblast and learned a lot of interesting facts about national holidays, dress and cuisine. The excursion gave children plenty of memorable impressions. The Kyrgyz komuz (traditional lute), Bashkir kurai (traditional pipe) and Mordovian lapti (traditional shoes); there was much to learn about! Children viewed the photo exhibit �Oh My Kazaks!� and, of course, these images of this unusual �house� were imprinted on their memories.

Older children who carried on the work of tolerance in the House of People�s Friendship were students of the Samara Aviation Technological Institute, Samara Technological Institute of Industrial Technology, Samara Metallurgical College, Samara branch of the Modern Humanitarian Academy and the Samara Professional-Technological Institute � 34. They were also deeply impressed by the excursion. For them, moreover, it was the prospect itself to become active participants in the events- to lead improvisational mini-presentations on different nationalities, to fill in intriguing questionnaires and even create their own project to a living Monument of tolerance.

As a gift from the House of People�s Friendship, the libraries of these educational institution received �Different, but not strange� booklets, an ethnic map of the Samara oblast, the magazine �Samara oblast. Ethnos and Culture�, brochures on round tables on the themes of �Repression of People in the USSR: Consequence of a Tragedy�, �Bashkirs of Samara oblast: History and Modernity� and national newspapers and other publications of the same theme.

During the course of the Week of Tolerance in the House of People�s Friendship, by preliminary calculation, more than one hundred young citizens of Samara oblast took part. Work with children, adolescents and youth for developing tolerant thinking is one the priorities in the institution�s direction of activity.



Source: RIA Samara



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