Respecting Our Differences
It’s okay to disagree, but we need to work towards disagreeing with respect. You may not like someone’s opinion, but you can treat them respectfully.
Grade Level: 6-12
Character Skills
- Respect
SEL Skills
- Self-Awareness
- Relationship Skills
Academic Skills
- Effective Problem-Solving
Definitions
Respect
- Follow the Golden Rule.
- Be accepting of differences.
- Be courteous to others.
- Deal peacefully with anger, insults, and disagreements.
- Be considerate of others’ feelings.
Self-Awareness
Identify and understand emotions, values, attitudes, motivations, mindsets, and personal attributes.
Relationship Skills
Interpersonal and social skills to guide appropriate behavior and create positive relationships and meaningful connections .
Effective Problem-Solving
Employ critical and creative thinking skills to solve problems and make rational, ethical, and effective decisions that produce the best possible result.
Share This Activity
Students will learn strategies for disagreeing with respect, discuss how these strategies can help them in a disagreement, and reflect on how they can be more respectful.
Instructions
- Share this quote with students:
- “Do not focus on being right; focus on getting it right.”
- Ask students:
- What does this quotation mean to you?
- How can this quote relate to how we can disagree with respect?
- Show students this video from Soul Pancake.
Discussion Prompts
- Some of Kid President’s suggestions included:
- listen,
- pause, and
- acceptance.
- What could we learn when we listen to people we disagree with? How can that help you in a disagreement?
- Why pause? How will that help you in a disagreement?
- Acceptance means that it is okay for everyone can have opinions, and we don’t have to agree with them. How could acceptance help you when you are in the middle of a disagreement?
Journal Prompts
- Think about the last disagreement you had. How did you show respect? How could you have been more respectful?
Video: SoulPancake. (2016) Kid President Is Over It! Youtube.com. https://youtu.be/ghk-nDJB3Tk
