Formation of the tolerant person as the task of modern polycultural education

In the article, the authors analyze the phenomenon of tolerance. It is understood as a moral quality of a personality, as a principle of relations in a society, as a factor of harmonization of relations between people of different cultures. Humanism orientated thinkers of the past developed a tradition that referred tolerance to universal human values allowing a human being to be human and to manifest a human attitude and humanity. There are several ways of understanding this phenomenon. The authors consider that it is important to distinguish between outer tolerance (it is not rooted in the culture) and inner tolerance (a social and psychological idea, a readiness to regard people as they are and to create relations in terms of consent and solidarity). It is inner tolerance that plays the important role for the younger generation coming into a modern multicultural space. Modern environment of social life shows the growth of impatient and the grows of tolerance from the ideal turns out to be a practical imperative of the multicultural world, the main concept of which is being created in the frames of world and native pedagogical science. As regards the system of higher education in Russia, the important fact in the field of demands to the progress of education is a cultural competence that reveals a respectful attitude to a historical heritage, native traditions and traditions of other cultures, readiness to show tolerance towards race, ethnic things and religion. As a main educational principle of forming tolerance of individuals is the principle of a dialogue that allows uniting different cultural values and norms, forms of behavior in the minds and actions of people. Due to the fact that language is the main criteria of the differences between nations, the authors pay much attention to importance of forming of a linguistic and cultural competence.