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Human Rights Topics for Preschool and Lower Primary School
Appreciating similarities and differences
Building trust
Trust begins with teacher/student relationships. Putting students at ease involves:
• Letting the students know that the teacher is just as human as they are;
• Explaining each and every activity thoroughly;
• Explaining unfamiliar words and ideas (concepts);
• Providing information (not just about specific activities but also about relevant issues touching students’ lives).
Where appropriate, the teacher should spend a few minutes of the day discussing local events and news items from the media. This will provide many opportunities to look at human rights issues in a less formal way. It can be an education in itself.
Blind trust
Divide the class into pairs. Have one child blindfold the other and have the sighted member of the pair lead the “blind” one about for a few minutes. Make sure the leading child is not abusing the power to lead, since the idea is to nurture trust, not to destroy it. The “leader” of the pair should try to provide as wide a variety of experiences as possible, such as having the “blind” partner feel things with his or her feet or fingers, leading with vocal directions or even playing a game.
After a few minutes have the children reverse the roles and repeat the process so that the “leader” is now the led, and the “blind” partner is now the sighted one.
Once the activity is over, allow the children to talk about what happened. Discuss how they felt – not just as “blind” partners but their feelings of responsibility as “leaders” too.
This can lead not only to a greater awareness of what life is like for people with sight (or hearing) disabilities, but to a discussion of the importance of trust in the whole community. This can lead in turn to a discussion of world society, how it works and how it can fail to work too. (UDHR article 28; CRC articles 3, 23)
Creating classroom rules
The importance of classroom climate and the need for participation and cooperation cannot be emphasized enough. The children’s suggestions and opinions are also very helpful in creating the best classroom atmosphere. Be open to their help and provide necessary changes.
The next activity is very significant because it has a direct effect on classroom climate. It clearly demonstrates a teacher’s willingness to involve the class in how the classroom is run and her or his own trust in its members. It also makes children think about what rules are desirable and possible in class, how they might be observed and the teacher’s own role in maintaining the classroom environment.
(a) Classroom needs
Classroom rules can be created in a number of ways: as a brainstorm (paring down the results in subsequent discussion); in small groups that then present their findings to a plenary session of the whole class; or as individual assignments that the teacher collates for class consideration later.
A good way to begin is by asking children what they “want” (the list may become quite long). Then ask them to choose from this list the items they think are really needed. They should end up with something shorter and much more essential. List these on a chart labeled “Our Classroom Needs”. Finally, ask them to choose from their “needs” what they think they have a “right” to expect as members of society. List these on a chart labeled “Our Classroom Rights”. Ask why they have chosen as they have. (UDHR articles 7, 21; CRC articles 12, 13, 28, 29)
(b) Classroom responsibilities
Emphasize the essential connection between rights and responsibilities. After students have created the list of classroom rights, ask them to rephrase each right in terms of responsibilities and list these in a separate chart labeled “Our Classroom Responsibilities” (e.g. “Everyone should feel safe in this room” might be revised as “Everyone has the responsibility not to insult anybody or hurt anyone’s feelings”). (UDHR article 29; CRC article 29)
(c) Living with rights and responsibilities
Once the class has agreed on its lists of basic rights and responsibilities, display them so that they can be referred to or amended as necessary. Sometimes children or the teacher may break the rules or situations may arise that the rules do not address. Sometimes conflicts may arise when classroom rules are not compatible with the rules of other teachers or the school administration. These situations call for discussion and careful consideration of why things are going wrong. Order achieved by general consensus rather than simple control is always harder to get, and the process of reaching this consensus calls for compromise and careful negotiation. Such a process is itself a valuable learning experience. (UDHR articles 7, 11, 21; CRC articles 12, 13, 28, 29)
Understanding human rights
Having arrived at some classroom rules, it is a natural next step to consider the same sort of thing on a universal scale.
(a) Planning for a new country
Explain that a new land has been discovered that has everything needed to sustain human life. No one has ever lived there before. There are no laws and no history. The whole class will be settling there. A small group has been appointed to draw up a list of rights for this all-new country. You do not know what position you will have in the new country.
Working in small groups, students in each group give this country a name and list ten rights the whole group can agree upon. Each group presents its list and the whole class makes a “class list” that includes all the rights mentioned. Discuss the class list (e.g. what would happen if some rights were excluded? Have any important rights been left out? How is this list different from your classroom rules?) (UDHR articles 13, 21, 26; CRC articles 12, 13)
(b) Introducing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Introduce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, explaining that it is a list of rights for all people in the world. Then read the simplified version aloud. If students hear an article that matches one of the rights on the class list, write the number of that article next to the right.
After completing the reading, discuss the results:
• Were any rights in the Universal Declaration left off the class list? Do students now want to add any new rights to the list?
• Were any rights on the class list left out of the Universal Declaration?
• Does the Universal Declaration include responsibilities as well as rights?
Students might try similar exercises using a simplified version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. (UDHR articles 21, 26; CRC article 29)
