Christina,
Camarillo, CA
I taught PE in the Los Angeles Unified School District for 12 yrs. During Homeroom, we taught our students the “Character Counts Program.” One of the 6 pillars is “Respect.” This pillar asks you to be accepting of all differences, like religions, race, age, sexual orientation, etc. After that I would say to my students……”so if you decide to get married, for example, they’ll be one person that is your spouse, but everybody else is potentially a friend” Another example, “so if you respect everyones differences, you never know who your next best friend is going to be.” I would tell them how exciting that would be, to be respectful to everyone, because you never know who your next best friend will be, maybe even a friend for life.