Musicals tell a variety of stories that can serve as effective ways to teach students tolerance and diversity. This article’s title derives from “You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s South Pacific, celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2019. People are diverse because of religion, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, politics and physical condition. This creates an interesting, varied world, yet it can also be a source of conflict. Because of the wide variety of people in our world, we can help students learn tolerance. The concept of developing tolerance is clearly linked to diversity. If people are different from us, how can we develop ways to tolerate these differences?
Plays with music started in Ancient Greece. Today’s musicals began in the mid 1800s and have continued evolving into the 20th and 21st centuries with varying themes and types. Historically, musicals developed first as live stage performances. Musical films came in the late 1920s with the advent of talking pictures. Television musicals performed live have become popular on the NBC and Fox networks. Musicals are found on cable, streaming and home video, making them accessible to educators. Select stage, film or television musicals can teach about tolerance and diversity within an arts or popular culture context.
Musical themes, scenes and songs can be utilized in lessons to illustrate and promote tolerance and diversity. Consider the following in lessons:
Lessons can be developed using various curriculum frameworks such as Multiple Intelligences, habits of mind, and project-based learning. Differentiation invites students to explore various musicals. The Resources sidebar can help develop lessons.
Numerous musicals illustrate ways to teach students about tolerance and diversity. While hundreds of musicals have appeared through the decades, I will highlight 26 to illustrate how musicals can serve as effective ways to create lessons. Conflicts in musicals vary. Consider the following learning scenarios for teaching tolerance and make sure students understand how intolerance is resolved.
Because of their wide array of themes, conflicts and characters, musicals can effectively teach students about tolerance and diversity. Undoubtedly, in order to encourage students to embrace tolerance, they must be carefully taught.
Keith Mason, Ph.D. received eight Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards for educational impact for integrating musicals into the high school curriculum. He is currently writing a book Musicals Across the Curriculum.