Hate comes from fear and ignorance, according to authors Caryl Stern-Larosa and Ellen Hofheimer Bettmann. In their book Hate Hurts: How Children Learn and Unlearn Prejudice, the authors say that people are not born hating others. Instead, people learn to hate from many places: parents, peers, and daily events. Whatever the reason for hate, people can change their behavior and their biases.

This book explores where hate comes from and how each of us can take steps to unlearn hate. Without even knowing it, you could be hurting others with your behavior.

How many times have you told a joke that might be considered inappropriate? When we tell jokes, do we think of the hurt that joke might cause someone else? What if you were the object of one of those jokes? Realizing that something as simple as a joke can hurt someone is one of the first steps in learning to undo hatred.

Jokes are not the only way we can hurt others. Name calling is a common cause of distress for most kids. How does it make you feel when you call someone else a name? Think how you would feel if you were called by that name. Many words in our language indicate bias against a group or person. Do the words you use truly reflect how you feel?

In their book, Stern-Larosa and Bettmann offer ways to unlearn prejudicial behavior. One suggestion is to take the following pledge:

• I pledge from this day onward to do my best to interrupt prejudice and to stop those who, because of hate, would hurt, harass, or violate the civil rights of anyone.
• I will try at all times to be aware of my own biases against people who are different from myself.
• I will ask questions about cultures, religions, and races that I don't understand.
• I will speak out against anyone who mocks, seeks to intimidate, or actually hurts someone of a different race, religion, ethnic group, or sexual orientation.
• I will reach out to support those who are targets of harassment.
• I will think about specific ways my school, other students, and my community can promote respect for people and create a prejudice-free zone.
• I firmly believe that one person can make a difference and that no person can be an "innocent bystander" when it comes to opposing hate.

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  Decisions, Decisions: Prejudice From ethnic jokes to hate crimes, prejudice exists everywhere. Isn't it time we do something about it? Now you can. Decisions, Decisions: Prejudice creates a non-threatening environment in which students learn and talk about prejudice, discrimination, and the processes that underlie and perpetuate them. Students acquire valuable skills and learn to make a positive difference in their own communities. With help from expert advisors -- an historian, a campaign manager, a lawyer, and an activist $149.00 CD-ROM | Grades 5-10

  
  Decisions, Decisions: Prejudice
  Grades 5-10 $149.00
  
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  Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers Scholastic Summer Challenge Book Pick. Operation Iraqi Freedom, that's the code name. But the young men and women in the military's Civil Affairs Battalion have a simpler name for it: WAR. In this new novel, Walter Dean Myers looks at a contemporary war with the same power and searing insight he brought to the Vietnam war of his classic, "Fallen Angels". He creates memorable characters like the book's narrator, Birdy, a young recruit from Harlem who's questioning why he even enlisted; Marla, a blond, tough-talking, wisecracking gunner; Jonesy, a guitar-playing bluesman who just wants to make it back to Georgia and open a club; and a whole unit of other young men and women and drops them incountry in Iraq, where they are supposed to help secure and stabilize Iraq and successfully interact with the Iraqi people. The young civil affairs soldiers soon find their definition of "winning" ever more elusive and their good intentions being replaced by terms like "survival" and "despair. " Caught in the crossfire, Myers' richly rendered characters are just beginning to understand the meaning of war in this powerful, realistic novel of our times. Learn more about Walter Dean Myers. $17.99 books;hardcover books;hardcovers | Ages 12 and Up

  
  Sunrise Over Fallujah
  Ages 12 and Up $17.99