Teaching tolerance

Today was a school day, so I'm getting to this a bit late.  But we studied cultural assumptions in class today, and it was a terrific eye-opener.

My guess is that if we spent as much time teaching our children to communicate with people who are different from them as we spend making weapons and armor (in both the actual and metaphorical senses of the word) this world would be a very different place -- and much more pleasant to live in.

We might even be a much more advanced civilization: think how many cures for disease, hunger and homelessness we might have found if we weren't spending all our money building defenses against imagined dangers from misunderstood cultures.

Sigh.

I hope our children do a better job of teaching their children tolerance, openness, and consideration than we did teaching them.