| Contents |
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |  Chapter 4 part 2 |
| Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 6 part 2  | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |

What this book is about

In January 1985 the Human Rights Commission initiated a unique program of curriculum development and research. This program involved more than 150 schools and teachers Australia-wide. Each participant undertook to mount a human rights project of some kind in the classroom or school, and to report in detail to the Commission at the end of the year as to what had worked, what hadn't, and why. 

To provide a starting point for those unsure of how best to begin, the Commission had developed its own teaching materials, which it made available to those taking part. 

To teachers and schools involved with pre-school and lower primary grades, it offered a unit of work prepared by Joan Braham of Jervis Bay Primary School in the A.C.T. Some participants adapted Joan's unit to what they were doing. Others developed quite different units of their own. All gave, in due course, a full account of what they had learned.

At the end of the year as many ideas as possible were culled from the project reports and added to a recast version of Joan's original unit. Four reports were also selected for publication more or less as they stood. Some changes were necessary for editorial reasons, and also to protect the privacy of the schools and the students who took part. Changes were kept to a minimum, however, to allow these reports to speak for themselves. They show, in a way no secondary assessment could, how the participants fared at the chalk face, and how the same core tasks can be tackled in a wide variety of ways. 

Joan's augmented unit, plus the four reports mentioned, make up most of this book. It provides specific suggestions, proven in practice, of what to do and why, for pre-school and lower primary teachers who want to foster children's feelings of self-esteem and social tolerance. The suggestions are prefaced by a brief rationale that defines human rights and explains how they are predicated upon a basic set of humane values, that express in turn the complementary feelings identified above. 

Teaching for human rights at pre-school and lower primary levels is, in essence, teaching for a sense of self-worth, and a sense of empathy with others. Anything that fosters these feelings furthers the doctrine of human rights and responsibilities. They are the foundation upon which the doctrine is built. This book tries to make that point as clearly as possible, while providing practical ideas about how this might be done, as described for the Human Rights Commission by teachers themselves. 

Ralph Pettman 
July 1986

| Contents |
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 |  Chapter 4 part 2 |
| Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 6 part 2  | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 |