Southern Poverty Law Center: Encyclopedia II - Southern Poverty Law Center - Educational programs

Southern Poverty Law Center - Educational programs

The SPLC's political initiatives include a project entitled "Teaching Tolerance" based at the website Tolerance.org. According to the SPLC the project is "an educational program to help K-12 teachers foster respect and understanding in the classroom."

"Teaching Tolerance" is a multi-pronged program aimed at two different age groups of students with separate materials for teachers and parents. One portion of the project targets elementary school children, providing informational material on the history of the civil rights movement.[3] The center's material for children include a publication entitled "A fresh look at multicultural 'American English'" that explores the cultural history of common words. A project website designed for elementary school children includes an interactive program that allows users to "explore" political topics such as school mascots with Native American names, the Confederate flag, and popular music and entertainment. It alleges that many of these highlighted events exhibit cases of racial, gender, and sexual orientation insensitivity.

A similar educational program aimed at teenagers in the middle and high school age groups includes a "Mix it Up" project urging readers to participate in various school activities that encourage interaction between different social groups.[4] Other features of the teenager educational project include political activism tips and reports highlighting examples of student activism. A monthly SPLC publication to teens promotes a highlighted political movement, normally focusing on minority, feminist, and homosexual youth organizations. The program also provides publications to students such as "Ways to fight hate on campus" suggesting ideas for community activism and diversity education.

"Teaching Tolerance" also provides advice and materials for parents aimed at encouraging multiculturalism in the upbringing of their children. [5] A guide published by the project urges parents to "examine the 'diversity profile' for your children's friends," move to "integrated and economically diverse neighborhoods," and discourage children from playing with toys or adopting heroes that "promote violence." The publication also advises parents on the use of culturally sensitive language such as promoting gender-neutral phrasings such as "Someone Special Day" instead of the traditional Mothers Day or Fathers Day and urges them to ensure "cultural diversity reflected in your home's artwork, music and literature."

Southern Poverty Law Center - Documentaries

The SPLC produces documentary films. Two have won Academy Awards for documentary short subject: "Mighty Times: The Children's March," in 2005, and "A Time for Justice, America's Civil Rights Movement" in 1995. Five others have been nominated.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Educational programs", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki