The Museum of Tolerance program is based around the museum’s interactive Finding Our Families Finding Ourselves exhibit, which was originally created in 2003. Finding Our Families Finding Ourselves celebrates the shared experiences common to being part of an American family, and encourages visitors to seek out their own histories, mentors and heroes.
The program enables 4th and 5th grade students to apply critical thinking skills, and introduces children to a broader way of thinking about immigration in the past and present. The two-hour program includes anonymous voting mechanisms, facilitated dialogue, personal stories, and arts-based learning to engage students in examining their assumptions and foster empathy for diverse experiences. Students learn the meaning of immigration and related terms, the varied immigration history of California, and examine common myths and stereotypes about immigrants. Ultimately, the program promotes wider thinking on what it means to be an American.
Perhaps they should learn the thought of Samuel Francis, who said: “The civilization that we as whites created in Europe and America could not have developed apart from the genetic endowments of the creating people, nor is there any reason to believe that the civilization can be successfully transmitted to a different people.”
