The irony is that you can learn more about tolerance just by teaching the material than actively campaigning for change. Good literature will expand the mind and develop empathy, and good history will encourage focusing on the truth of events that have occurred, as opposed to the romantic ideals behind them.
What being an agent for social change does is actually stifle that empathy by only providing one accepted explanation for events. The student isn’t allowed to actually look at the ideas and sources for themselves, but has to evaluate them in the lines of some teacher’s pre-existing framework.
tl;dr: teach the material, it’s the best way to open minds. There’s no need to burden it with ideology, just be objective and balanced, and that will transfer over to your students.
