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Teaching Tolerance In America By Dudley Erskine Devlin

1116 Words5 Pages

Teaching Tolerance in America: Bridging the Gap Between Us Teaching Tolerance in America by Dudley Erskine Devlin is an essay about contemporary issues in the U.S. school system that are perpated at the school level and then magnified when brought into everyday life like sexual harassment, racism, and social cliques. The United States is a country that is diverse when it comes to religion, race, ethnicity, culture, and social status but that also causes a lot of division. Devlin goes in depth about these issues and how he believes they can be solved, like bullying and cliques could be solved by strict dress codes and uniforms to make everyone similar. I agree with some points that he makes but I also disagree with a few that I will go …show more content…

Every high school in America has racial problems that have led to continuing conflicts,” (160.) This statement couldn’t be any more true. My brother, who is white, faces harassment about his race just because he has a tanned complexion. Slurs and microaggressions are thrown his way because he doesn’t fit the standard; he was categorized in the outside group long before high school because he isn’t pasty white. Because he was placed outside the main clique since middle school, it makes him even more of a target for racists in the school to choose. I fully agree with Devlin’s assertion that racism exists and is extremely perpetrated in high school, both in a hateful way and a way that elevates the …show more content…

Devlin explains that oftentimes boys aren’t reported and when they are administration dismisses it; especially when the boy is someone who is high standing, whether he is on a sports team or is just popular. Again, this is another issue that I believe is real because I have seen it first hand. Devlin suggests to solve this issue schools should create one sex classrooms with zero tolerance policies and this simply doesn’t work. My own school has a zero tolerance policy and most of the time the administration and staff act like the policy doesn't even exist. Zero tolerance policies often exist to protect minority students, disabled people, LGBTQ students, etc. and most of the time nothing is followed through. These minority students are oftentimes harassed and the zero tolerance policy is not upheld. For example, I know a guy at my school who harrasses people with slightly darker skintones and he has never been in any permanent trouble and his behavior has not changed in almost seven years despite being reported. Segregating students won’t stop any form of harassment, whether it’s sexual harassment or not and it will just foster hate because they are only surrounded by people that are just like them; they wouldn’t be experiencing anything new and wouldn’t develop any tolerance. Plus, same sex sexual violence happens more often than one would think and these barriers won’t be in place in any other social

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