People's attitudes towards ethnicity and culture are formed in their youth. Elementary school students have a great proclivity to develop a positive outlook towards diversity when appropriately guided by teachers and school administrators. As educators aim to create an integrated and harmonious society, they need to recognize that these early years are a critical period for teaching tolerance and interrupting the cycle of racism and discrimination. In this article, the author discusses how social studies teachers can provide young students with opportunities to take classroom learning and apply it to the real world. She suggests teachers to get the students involved in service learning, which puts valuable content knowledge and skills from the social studies curriculum to work in the larger social world. She stresses that a better way to teach civics to students is to engage them in hosting a naturalization ceremony. Hosting a community-wide naturalization ceremony requires a great deal of planning and preparation. With the help of many community leaders, the author describes how she and her grandmother created Citizenship Counts, a non-profit organization that provides support and training to schools as they implement the organization's program. (Contains 5 notes.)