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Teaching Human Rights Early from the Beginning

© Jennie S. Bev

There is no better time to teach human rights than the first day at school. The first time of everything retains longer in our minds: the first kiss, the first car, the first bungee jump, the first day at school. On the first day, children are excited to know something new. They might not realize that they are actually learning, but in fact, they are.

It is very important, though, to teach without telling. Showing will work better, as always. Prepare a short story about diversity: people’s differences, their own differences. When they introduce themselves for the first time, emphasize their uniqueness.

This is the first step to teach human rights in early childhood. Most children know how to compare and they find it quite amusing. Show their physical differences and compare them with the other children’s. Conclude with an interesting remark that this is natural. Everybody is different and we respect that.

In the second step, the teacher might want to bring interesting pictures of people from all backgrounds and all walks of life. Show them how people are different in other places. We are all different, but we do, however, have things in common as well. We all have needs and rights to be respected. No exceptions.

On the following day, the teacher might want to start with a short introduction on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A short and interesting tale in children’s language might trigger questions and reactions. The Q and A session can evolve into a game session where the pupils can pretend to write their own declaration.

Teaching what basic human rights are and how to respect them on first day at school will help a lot in the long run. Not only that the children will be aware of the universal diversity, but more importantly they know how to behave properly in school. They will be more aware of other people’s differences and appreciate what they find. This can translate into a less chaotic classroom (not a guarantee, though, because children are children after all).

I personally had interesting experiences when I resided in Indonesia, Southeast Asia, from 1969 to 1998. In this country of high level of human rights violations, no human rights education was taught at schools. We were taught the Five Basic Principles called Pancasila, which includes the “unity in diversity” principle, though.

However, the students have never been taught the hands-on know how to respect differences. We had to memorize the principles and say them out loud everyday, but the teachers have never awaken our spirit to respect the differences. The students, therefore, used their own instinctive actions to do so without any guidance by example by the teacher. Many of the students grew to be respectful of differences, but many grew in opposite direction, inevitably.