ABSTRACT
The educator-led quest for "more tolerance" manifests itself as a collection of slogans and heartfelt admonitions, but it ultimately rests on complicated, social science-based theories. Tolerance messages obviously can be conveyed—students by the thousands hear entreatments and participate in countless build-appreciation exercises. Analysis would begin by ascertaining students' initial tolerance-related attitudes. Schooling may shape tolerance but this hardly demonstrates that schools can battle hatefulness. At most, tolerance in its less demanding version can be slightly and only occasionally boosted, and even then, only with intensive intervention. Unfortunately for tolerance devotees, opportunities for tolerance/intolerance always arise in more specific, quite complicated settings. Tolerance champions sermonize to the faithful and those who might demand hard scientific proof are dismissed as unhelpful. Tolerance-related encounters are seldom as structured as supermarket shopping or selecting between clearly party-labeled candidates.
