| Contents |
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Appendix 1 |
| Appendix 2 part 1 | Appendix 2 part 2... | Appendix 2 part 3 |

Appendix II

An edited selection of teachers' reports
from the 1985 schools program
 
 
 

YEAR 6

This is a report on work done in Year 6 at a rural public school, based on Teaching for human rights.

Class Organisation: There are four Year 6 classes at our school and I was in a Position to operate the program in each of the four classes. This provided an enriched environment in which the program could operate and a variety of ideas, approaches and resulting thoughts. It also proved to be fairly exhausting and frustrating in the way that directions taken, progress achieved, and stages reached, jostled with each other and proved hard to keep track of!

The senior classes are divided into four groups:

The letters stand for the four learning areas:

The children go as a class to each of these areas once per day, i.e. there are four periods in each day.

My responsibility was for the social area so that I was able to run the program over the whole grade. I tried as much as possible to use material created in other classes to stimulate ideas in a new class. I found it hard to achieve a balance that did not over-influence or pre-empt other new ideas in class with my ideas and suggestions.

Material used: Briefly I covered the following topics from the book.

Having said that, you need to take in both the following points:

• Not all classes did all activities due to interest or time.
• I dipped into the book following leads from the classes or groups; in no way did  I follow through all the sections.

Preliminary activities
Trust
Rights and responsibilities in class
Three young people speaking

Human rights
Who are you?
--the Universal declaration of human rights
 

Human rights and the law  Do some people get better legal treatment than others?  Non-discrimination-review  What is prejudice? What is stereotyping?  The first nine weeks of Term 3 were given over to this program. The school production took up the later part of the term.  Preliminary activities  1. The Trust Walk  I found this to be a fascinating exercise- watching the children's different reactions both during the walk and after it. This exercise stimulated a lot of discussion and generally the children were most anxious to know who was leading them around. Their reasons generally led back to the reply, 'If I know who it is, I'll know if I'll be alright or not'.  This activity led on to group and class discussions on categories of people we know and generally trust. A further activity was to list all the categories of people we do not know but need to trust. General conclusions were surprise at the number of people we need to trust but do not know e.g. transport drivers, food growers and packers, bank personnel etc. This list in all cases exceeded known 'trusted' people.  2. Rights and responsibilities in class  I started out with a general discussion of 'what a right is' then had the children draft out individually what they thought were their individual rights. As these were finished the children read through each other's work and reached the conclusion that everybody couldn't just have their individual rights. In all groups it emerged that responsibilities go hand in hand with rights.

We moved on to group work to sort out what each of the groups thought that the class (the whole group's) rights were. These were then compiled into one document and discussion began again over responsibilities that went along with each right. This work was difficult and long for the children. 
After much work each class had a final draft of 'Class rights and responsibilities'. 

I tried to see that these rights were upheld in each classroom for the particular class. I had to make the point that they needed discussion with other teachers before they could be 'demanded' in other rooms. Further we discussed breakdown of rights when there was a breakdown in responsibilities. 

This section took up to three weeks in some classes but the very process of coming to group/class democratic decisions was a valuable lesson in itself. 

Human rights

1. Who are you?
The activity 'Being a human being' was thoroughly enjoyed by most children. A4ost children were jumping over each other to add something that could identify 'human beings'.

2. Being me
Another enjoyable activity that stimulated a lot of discussion and controversy.

I was actually quite surprised by the depth of answers e.g. 'I am going to die', 'I am imperfect', 'I am unique'.

From here I used similar activities to answer the question 'How am I different from everyone else?' The lists we compiled were much more extensive than the (sameness' lists and led the children to the conclusion that we are unique, and our differences far outweigh our similarities.
 

3. Sending us to the stars  I diverged a little here also. Groups of children compiled lists of what they considered to be the greatest achievements made by humankind. I emphasised that it was not national groups, but humankind's achievements as a whole that we were interested in.  The group answers were then duplicated so that each child had one. This whole class list was sifted out, removing similar responses and grouping similar responses on the same sort of things.  The list was democratically voted on to create a whole class response ranking from 1 to 10.

One class was devoted to people who have made a great contribution to humankind. I followed this up with a short activity which didn't give them a chance for research. They quickly had to write down the name of a person who they thought had made an outstanding contribution to humankind and why they thought that this was outstanding.

I have noted the names of the people mentioned: Churchill, Wright Brothers, Neil Armstrong (four people), Alexander G. Bell (three people), Julius Caesar, Hellen Keller, Albert Einstein, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Theresa (two people), Ronald Reagan, Benjamin Franklin (two people), Thomas Edison. Bob Geldof, Blaxland, Lawson', Wentworth, Christopher Columbus, Marconi, John Lennon, Farrer and MacArthur, Greenpeace Movement, and Sir Henry Parkes.

The 'American' flavour of this list is in itself interesting. The children shared their responses with one another and all seemed to have very definite ideas.

Human rights and the law

Do some people get better legal treatment than others?
I had displayed the Universal declaration of human rights in the room. All classes had been through it and each class completed the activity where we indicated on an individual map countries that had ratified the Covenant on civil and political rights. The children were generally surprised by the number of countries that had not.

General discussion on laws led one class to compile a list of laws that affected them as children. They reached the following conclusions:
1. there is a really extensive list of different rules, laws, regulations and by-laws that cover them;
2. the list is as great for children as it would be for adults.

Non-discrimination: racism
What is prejudice? What is stereotyping?

I began this topic with the activity 'Fat people are thin'. Only small numbers of children matched the pairs with confidence--others challenged their peers, matching very heatedly. Further discussion led back to our lists of how people are different. I felt that this discussion brought to light some of the things that the children had experienced, thought through,, and learned from the program.

General evaluation
I fell down badly in the evaluation area by having the children do one 'lump' evaluation at the end and not evaluating as we went along. I feel that these 'lump' ones were a difficult task for the children and unfair for them to do.

I enjoyed participating with the children in the program. I was surprised at how 'little' we seemed to have covered in terms of what was available and suggested in the book. However, we really were working at it and I was satisfied that what we did was thoughtful and beneficial.

The general response and its quality assures me that such a unit as 'Teaching for Human Rights' is very suitable for senior primary pupils.

I had such a difficult time in the early weeks biting back any 'leading' questions or prompting the children that I feet that I have learnt to value more what the children are saying. Further, I have learnt that my estimation of where a discussion 'should' be leading is a dominating tactic that smothers interest by the children, and this situation should be avoided.

The children enjoyed the equality of discussion input and I certainly learned the benefits of listening to what they were actually saying.

YEAR 6

I shall preface my evaluation of what we did with a brief description of my school and its background.

The school in which I teach is classed as 'Disadvantaged' and participates in 'Priority Project Funding' from the Australian Schools Commission. The children are mainly from low socioeconomic backgrounds; unemployment amongst families is high, and the family unit is continually under stress and threat; the area has a stigma which has tended to promote feelings among many of the students of low self-esteem and an unwillingness to succeed, so that children do not work at their full potential. Being a success at school is seen as being 'different'.

Looking back over the Human Rights Program I initiated in Grade 6 in 1985, 1 find myself quite pleased with what we as a group achieved together. At the same time I am somewhat impatient with what we might have achieved, and I am looking forward expectantly to what lies ahead of us in this school in 1986.

The class of thirty-one Grade 6 children I taught in 1985, is a group I had been fortunate to teach in Grade 3 and Grade 4. I feel that the success we achieved as a class resulted from the several years I had had to develop relationships with the children and explore many of the human rights issues, even though we didn't label them as such at the time.

Having the use of Ralph Pettman's superb book, the associated booklets and the video Fair Enough as resource materials for the trialling, enabled me to provide not only the children but myself with numerous starting points for class discussions and individual and group research.

Our joint involvement in this program has seen many improvements in my teaching practice; it has enabled me to really look at deficiencies and strengths in my own teaching practices, and also to involve other staff members in similar exercises.

The staff at this school prides itself on practising principles which are vital for the children in the area, and we are justifiably proud of the success the school has achieved in many areas of education. And yet as my class and I embarked on the trialling of the Human Rights Program, I discovered many areas where improvement could, be made and other areas which we had not tackled fully, or at all.

Initially in my classroom we undertook several negotiation sessions in which we discussed the rights and responsibilities of children in our classroom in particular, and in the school as a whole; the rights of their own teacher, me, in our classroom and in the school as a whole; the rights and responsibilities of other staff members, and of their parents. I attempted to show the need for fairness, evenness and balance to be present in their relationships with all these people.

We listed in booklets the children's rights just as we had discussed them, and drew up a blueprint, as it were, for them to live by while they were in Grade 6 with me. Hopefully these would also be a basis for their behaviour in future years. Our class work was made known to other staff members in school assemblies, in staff meetings, and by maintaining displays of children's work on the various topics we covered during the year.

Parents, at first, seemed somewhat apprehensive; they wondered what I was going to unleash on their children. But through parent-teacher discussions, children reporting to parents, questionnaires for parents to complete on various topics as part of the accumulation of facts and opinions, displays of children's work throughout the school, and involvement in community activities, they have most decidedly seen the impact not only on their children but in other areas of the school life as well. Children in my room became quite adept at discussing real issues with teachers and with parents as equals. They have also succeeded, in some cases, in altering quite markedly, some of their parents' behaviour towards them, and have been able to do this without breaking down children's love and respect for their security.

My classroom situation is one area of improvement in my teaching practice. Now children really are free to express their opinions on all conceivable topics without fear of being ridiculed, mocked or embarrassed, and as equals with me. Building up a relevant and meaningful curriculum for Grade 6 children on racism, sexism, the roles of males and females, and discrimination, in co-operation with the children; involving them in the decision-making process; and having them evaluate areas covered; all this has enabled us to enlarge their range of options. A whole variety of activities has been studied in the classroom and these have then been practised at school, at home, and in the wider community. For example, children were able to freely and openly call me by my first name; were able to see me as a human being with strengths, weaknesses, a sense of humour; and to see a genuine desire to practise each aspect of human rights. There were times when I had to step in and become the ogre, but it happened with far more thought about when and why and the choice of issues and punishment.

Two other teachers became indirectly involved and they are planning to become involved in teaching for human rights in their classes this year. Discussions in staff meetings on a formal basis each week, or about incidents during recess, lunch, and after school, have seen most teachers acknowledge the value of my class' involvement in this program. Friction between 'enlightened' children in my room and some teachers not yet convinced of the possibilities of a human rights program, has been overcome without denying and backing away from rights already gained by the children who have worked on human rights in my classroom.

During the year the class has worked through many of the activities in the book and booklets, using them to build up a folder of notes, drawings, newspaper cuttings, newspaper photographs and cartoons, and records of interviews which they saw relevant to the topics covered. Our-school computer network is linked directly to the A.A.P. news and the children were able to call up various topics in full and then compare newspaper coverage with the total item. In that way they could check on bias, non-coverage etc. World leaders were written to seeking their philosophy regarding human rights and asking what value was placed on it in their country. So far Rajiv Gandhi, Francois Mitterand, Robert Hawke and Margaret Thatcher have replied to the children with their views on the importance or otherwise of human rights.

We invited a state politician into our class to speak on the many areas of government responsibilities and their relationship to people's rights. The children were vitally interested in what he had to say and a lively discussion followed. We later made a trip to Parliament House where fuller explanations were given to the children.

I, with several others who were trialling the 'Human rights curriculum' joined Colin Henry in presenting a paper to the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education on 7 November 1985. We called the paper 'Co-operative curriculum dissemination and development: the Human Rights Commission Schools Program', and we spoke of our experiences in putting the program into operation.

This year (1986) I will continue to work on the program in several Grade 6 classes. Hopefully I will refine and develop further my skills and those of the children in tackling the many and varied aspects of human rights. I hope to produce a small booklet which will cover suggested ideas, topics, news gathering areas, and general hints which teachers might use in our school. I am still learning and hopefully by the year's end, I will be able to say that I have made progress in formalising a curriculum which is suitable for me and other teachers in this school and perhaps for other schools.
 
 

YEARS 6/7 (UPPER PRIMARY) [1]  The participating teachers and schools  We trialled the Teaching for Human Rights course together in 1985. This was made possible by the fact that we have been friends for many years and were both teaching Year 6/7 children which meant that planning and programming could be done on a co-operative basis and for the same level. In order to cover as much of the course as possible in two terms, we deliberately chose to do some topics simultaneously in order to compare and contrast our results. Others we treated more experimentally so that we could advise each other on the suitability of certain activities. The close proximity within which we live facilitated the numerous meetings and discussions which were needed during the year and the support and encouragement we were able to give each other was invaluable, especially when at times we felt frustrated or despondent with our progress.  The teachers  We completed our Diplomas of Teaching as mature age students in 1978. One of us was appointed to an outer suburban primary school. During this time she taught Years 3-7, for the last five years specialising as a Year 6/7 teacher. The other was appointed to an inner suburban primary school where she taught Years 5-7, specialising one year as the Year 7 Language Arts teacher. After teaching for two years, we returned to the local CAE to take up part-time studies and completed our Bachelor of Education in Humanistic Education. This course, with its emphasis on awareness of self and others, values, and basic educational principles, was conducted in a uniquely caring atmosphere. It forced us to re- evaluate ourselves as people, and our whole philosophy of teaching. The course coordinator was actually the first person we had encountered anywhere in our training who truly believed in the issues and principles of human rights. It is due to this course that we became interested in trialling this program.  Sarah  I am a sole parent and have three children, a boy and two girls. I was appointed to the primary school where I teach in the year it began and have been involved in the development of what was originally a small school of forty-three students to one which now has an enrolment of 380. This year I was given five children with 'specific behaviour problems' but who were not diagnosed as having learning difficulties. Our school has a higher than usual number of children with social problems because its reputation for dealing successfully with them has grown over the years and it has been recommended to parents by the regional education office. I was asked to take these children as I have had some success in previous years with similar problems and I find them a challenge. I was aware that these 'problem children' were going to be extremely difficult this year, and I felt rather apprehensive about the effects that a course like this one could have on them. Nevertheless I decided to proceed because no other method used in previous years had been successful.

Having teenage children of my own has given me personal knowledge and understanding of many of the problems encountered in school. I believe that many of these problems stem from the fact that normally students do not recognise the fact that they and their teacher have rights as well as responsibilities. Therefore, the human rights materials gave me a focal point to experiment with the many ideas I felt I would like to try with my students. 

Wendy 
I am divorced and have two children, a son twenty and a daughter sixteen. Like Sarah, I often felt frustrated watching my own children deal with issues about which they had little information in the values/opinions area at school. This, together with the influence of the Humanistic Education course, gave me the incentive to trial this program. 

[1] This is a composite report by two teachers who worked very closely together and at the same level but in different schools.

The schools and the classes

Sarah
I was fortunate that the original principal appointed to my school believed in staff participation in all policy development. This has resulted in a supportive, co- operative environment which gives teachers the autonomy they need to be innovative, and made it possible for me to trial this course. The majority of the staff have shown interest in the course, to the extent that some are intending to use it next year.

Our primary school is in a predominantly working class area with few professional people. Single parents would constitute about 25% of the population. Parental involvement has always been encouraged by the staff and is consequently high, which has been helpful in many aspects of my teaching. This has meant that throughout the year the parents have supplied me with feedback on this course, some positive, some negative. My class is comprised of twenty-eight children- there is an equal number of Year 6 and 7 students with an equal balance of the sexes.

Wendy
My primary school is in an insular, upper socioeconomic area with a population which is falling. There is no opportunity for expansion as the area is bounded by an airport and the sea. When I was appointed there first, the school had a student population of 650 which is now down to 230 and still falling. The high price of the housing will prevent young families moving in and because of falling numbers we have participated in displacement procedures for the last four years. I have volunteered for displacement for 1986 as I believe I should have experience of a different school for my own professional development. The majority of the staff have been at the school for ten years or more and the school is run on traditional lines with little innovation being attempted. Parental expectations are high and a great deal of support is given to students at home in all aspects of their schooling. Although the emphasis is on the academic in the expectations of our parents, I felt reasonably confident that they would accept the introduction of this course. I am well known to most of the parents by now, having taught other children in most families. I did however attempt to ensure the acceptance of parents by holding a meeting in the second week of term to explain what I wanted to do.

The members of staff have been either disinterested or negative about the course, although the principal has communicated occasional approving comments. He has observed on several occasions that this 'is the best year of 7s we've ever had', and he attributed it to the human rights course. I have a class of nineteen Year 7s and four Year 6s with an even balance of each sex. I was given three Year 7 boys who were considered to be behaviour problems throughout their schooling because I have dealt satisfactorily with others in previous years. They have learning difficulties as well, due I think to their behaviour, but on the whole the class would be above average in behaviour and ability.

Curriculum implementation

Sarah
My school follows the state Social Education course which encompasses three areas of the curriculum- these are Social Studies, Health and Religion Studies. After reviewing the human rights materials it was obvious that I could substitute the human rights activities for the suggested topics in this subject area. At the beginning of each year I spend approximately eight weeks on a 'Self-awareness' program so the human rights section of this course was easy to incorporate. The second topic listed for Social Education is 'Who Makes the rules in Australia?' so I combined 'Human rights and the law' with this over a period of four weeks.

'Indigenous people in change' (Australian Aborigines) fitted well into 'Non- discrimination/Racism', but our discussions were not confined to Australia. 'Sexism', 'Life', 'Freedom of conscience, opinion and expression', and 'Economic, cultural and social well-being' were covered briefly. They were an integral part of all other topics dealt with and, because of their prominence in current affairs during this year, were constant topics of discussion.

Wendy
My school follows the state 'Learning and living', Social Studies course. The topics suggested in this course and the Health course are so broad in perspective, that I decided to replace them entirely with the Human Rights Program which covered all of the suggested curriculum areas. 'Human rights', which is the introductory topic and includes rights and responsibilities, was dealt with over most of first term. As the concept was so new to the class I found it needed all of that time to discuss., define and implement. However, because of its very nature, it has--like all other human rights issues--overlapped into all the other topics covered. This is especially so as one of my innovations for this topic was to organise a student respresentative council which has met weekly throughout the entire year, with varying success. I began 'Non-discrimination/Racism and sexism' towards the end of first term and continued into second, followed by 'Human rights and the law' and 'Life'. Like Sarah, we briefly discussed the other issue-areas as separate topics , but as they too cropped up in the areas we dealt with in depth, there proved to be no need to spend a long time on them as individual issues. This term's topic from the 'Learning and living' guidelines is 'Looking at a continent'. I have chosen to look at Africa from the point of view of human rights as it is so topical, and information and resources are so plentifully available from the media.

Because we were trialling this course, and because it was new both to the children and ourselves, we decided to structure our teaching of the topics from the handbook. This entailed, at first, following the suggested activities in sequence. As we became more confident and learnt from our mutual experiences with successes and failures, we became more selective in choosing what to use. We found that some concepts were readily understood by the students and that we did not need to use the somewhat repetitive activities suggested in the handbook; others needed additional resources to reinforce them. This was one of the areas where our many meetings were invaluable. The feedback we obtained from each other, re class response, interest, and outcomes, helped us to plan and program future lessons. The exchange of information that occurred when we were doing different topics included successful and unsuccessful strategies. Such strategies enabled us to avoid those activities which had been either unnecessary or had failed to achieve their objectives.

Although our observations and results were similar in many ways, we were mindful that the two classes came from different backgrounds. In some instances what failed with one class, succeeded with the other.

Our goals
Our goals were to help the children become aware that:
 

When planning our program together we decided that we would actively involve the parents as much as possible in this course. We also planned to set up a pen pal correspondence between our classes with the ultimate aim of having them meet later in the year at a conference for human rights which we would organise.

Strategies used

In-depth report on two human rights topics
We decided that this report would be more authentic and helpful if these in- depth accounts were included, just as they were written up at the time in our record books. They are therefore presented as un-edited versions of our daily experiences and reviews, with accompanying comments.

Sexism by Wendy

Lesson 1
Began this topic by reading old fairly tales, Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. On finishing, I asked what common factors they had noticed.

Result: The class is now so aware--whether or not they are putting what they have learnt into practice, or how long lasting the influence of this course will be, they have certainly progressed in their thinking and have developed a.number of observational skills relating to attitudes and values. Almost every student recognised the stereotyped sexism so prevalent in these and other fairy tales e.g.

• All the heroines are beautiful
• All the heroines are helpless
• All the heroes are handsome
• All the heroes are strong
• All the heroines need to be rescued by the strong heroes

I then read some 'Fractured fairy tales' to them--the reversal of roles and upsetting of stereotypes was much appreciated by students. I then asked them to observe at home and playground any examples of sexism that they might see or hear for discussion tomorrow. These are also to be recorded in their books.

Lesson 2
Some interesting reports from students about sexist remarks made at home last night. One older brother's comment that, 'All women are only good for one thing-cooking!' was not well received by the class. Activity-Class Reunion 

Aim:

Method: as per handbook

Result: I have taped the answers but a little difficult to hear.

Review: I found these results interesting--I had not expected the boys to have discussed marriage and children as much as they did (result of human rights lessons?). Also, as many mothers of these student do not work I was surprised that they all saw themselves working in the future (same question as above). I feel, about many of the activities lately, that the students' awareness of the issues are influencing results. They now know what their responses should be and are producing them. I don't know whether I am obtaining convictions or conditioned responses.

*Meeting with Sarah
 

Lesson 3
Student Council meeting this afternoon which I also taped, but meeting became so emotional and noisy the tape is useless.

Council read from suggestion box:
Boys and girls sport should be integrated.

Result: Emotions ran very high, many agreed, some disagreed. One boy agreed but upset a number of students by making personal remarks, becoming upset and abusing many class members. Eventually I sent him out of the room to cool off--I have never done this before in my teaching career, but felt it was necessary to protect everyone's rights. I feel he may have been upset about something before we began, but he does not wish to discuss it with me. His remark--'When the girls play footy they mess about and don't do it properly'--caused a storm. I suggested to him that this may be because no one has ever taught them football skills--he did not want to acknowledge this as a reason and went on to add that he would like to play netball or softball. But by this time the meeting had degenerated, he became abusive and I sent him out.

Meeting ended, I calmed Anthony down, brought him back and then suggested to the class that two human rights lessons next week be devoted one to the boys teaching the girls football skills and the second to the girls teaching the boys netball--all agreed enthusiastically.

Lesson 4
Integrated football skills lesson
Aim:

Method: I paired a boy with a girl and a football throughout the entire class, on oval. Gave a preparatory talk to boys on their responsibility to be patient and tolerant as teachers:

Result: One of the most satisfying and successful lessons I have ever participated in. The boys and girls worked so well together, every boy was a patient, understanding teacher; every girl did exactly as she was shown, tried very hard to follow instructions and some were quite successful in acquiring some of the skills. The lesson finished on a happy, caring note-both sexes very satisfied with the activity.

Review: I think a great deal was achieved during this activity.

Lesson 5
Activity from handbook: 'The Commercial'--sending up of stereotyped advertisements. Students placed in groups and working together--will see results next week.

Lesson 6
Today the girls taught the boys netball skills. A repeat of last week--very successful--boys freely confessed 'It's harder than it looks'. The working together and integration of the sexes gratifying to watch. I have noticed at least half the girls in my class playing football at lunch time with the boys.

Lesson 7
Commercials shown today.
Result: For the short amount of time given to them to organise, students presented quite interesting 'send ups' of ads that are sexist e.g. 'Cold Power', 'Marlboro', 'Rita the Eta Eater', 'Fab II', 'Ponds'. Everyone enjoyed the activity.

Lesson 8
What's a boy? What's a girl?
Aim: To see what, if any, stereotypes of boys and girls emerge.
Method: followed from handbook

Result: Class provided with large list of personal characteristics. When I asked them to allocate them to male, female etc. there were some surprised looks and mumblings, but no actual objections--which I found disappointing. I stopped them half way through as it was consuming so much time and conducted a survey of results. I was very pleased that three boys in the class had put each one in the 'both' column. As we reviewed results, I received many objections from students; they had not wanted to do it as it was 'stereotyping'. I asked why they had gone ahead and done it and was told, 'Because you are our teacher and we didn't want to argue with you'. I told them I was disappointed they hadn't but they had had the option of using the 'both' column and only three had done this. The remainder had put the 'passive' qualities in the girls and the 'positive' in the boys.

Review: Disappointing-I had hoped their convictions would be stronger by now. However it led into good discussion based on points on p. 134 of handbook. This proved fruitful and they contributed many reasons why stereotyping is destructive to individuals, groups and society.

• I have arranged for an elderly lady from a local nursing home to visit the week after next to talk to the class on differences in expectations of females when she was young.
• Meeting with Sarah re results of activity so far.

I have decided not to do any more of the suggested activities in the handbook except for the class keeping a diary of 'examples of sexism' they notice for a week, as they are so aware of the topic now that further work seems pointless. They see through situations that I attempt to present and they are failing flat. 

Lesson 9
Two ladies from a local Nursing Home visited class today both 86 years of age, born in 1899. Each student had prepared questions to put to them on topic of 'Sexism'. I also had prepared thirty questions. This was a disappointing session from the aspect of sexism, although the class enjoyed the visit. Neither of the women understood the concept of sexism and were both so socialised into their sex stereotyped roles, that they did not understand the bias of the students (nor my) questions. They both vehemently denied that they had ever been discriminated against because of their sex, nor had they ever felt unequal to men. They did however, unwittingly, reinforce some of the ideas we have discussed. In answer to a student's question 'Do you agree with Women's Liberation?' they answered, 'Oh yes, it's a wonderful thing' A further question, 'Do you think it is good that women have more freedom?' one answered 'Oh yes, but not too much--we didn't have all these broken homes when I was young.' The rest of the session became a history lesson with the ladies telling the class what it was like to live through the wars.

In discussion with the class afterwards, some of the more aware students observed that the above answers were contradictions to original statement--'How could they think Women's Liberation was a good thing if nothing had been wrong before?' I was pleased that this had not gone unnoticed. Also, 'Why relative freedom for women and not men?' On reflection, a woman in her late fifties or early sixties would have been a better choice I feel. Growing up post World War I, she would have experienced the dual values system that operated from then more than these who fully accepted the status quo.

This is book week and all energies will be directed towards that-no actual activities planned for this week.

Sexism diaries handed in--some interesting observations by most students including:

Evaluation of Sexism
In the short term I have observed a noticeable change in attitude from the whole class on sex role stereotyping. Both sexes seem to be very much more aware of this when it occurs and are constantly on the lookout for examples of it, e.g. constantly reporting to me about sexist ads, newspaper articles, statements made at home or at school. In my opinion the activities recommended in the handbook were excellent and I would be happy to use them again next year.

Two positive results I have observed following this topic:

It was clear that she had a problem relating to boys and I could sympathise with her, but after doing this particular topic I could not condone her behaviour, which unsettled the class. The students discussed possible strategies they could use to combat this and agreed that in the next session the girls would sit at the back, the boys in front, and the girls would not volunteer any answers. The result was almost amusing--the teacher obviously felt very threatened, ignored the boys' raised hands and still insisted on girls answering and demonstrating until one brave girl informed her that she was being sexist. It was gratifying to see that both boys and girls were equally concerned about this unfair situation.

In the term the attitudinal changes noticed after this course will depend very much on their experiences at secondary school--I would hope they will retain at least some of the values they have acquired.

Human rights by Sarah
I have always started the year with a new class by concentrating on a self- awareness program and because the human rights materials arrived three weeks later than expected, these were suitable introductory activities for the topic of human rights. They came from the book I've got me and I'm glad by Farnette, Forte and Loss. I will mention the activities the children did but will not go into details.

The human rights materials arrived and from then on I used the activities from the handbook.

Lesson 1
Rights and responsibilities.
Aim: To focus upon our fundamental rights and responsibilities as human beings.

Method: The children organised themselves into groups of three to four to decide what rights they had as members of the class. I wrote my rights while they were doing this. I gave them fifteen minutes to come up with their list. I then blackboarded all their responses, even if they were considered to be unrealistic or inappropriate to me or anyone else. Next we did the same thing for our responsibilities. These lists were to be left on the blackboard so that we could study them and either add to or withdraw from it.

Result: It was obvious to me that children knew the correct responses for their responsibilities, though whether they put them into practice or not was debatable.

The other surprising feature was that many of their rights contradicted their responsibilities.

Lessons 2, 3, 4
Each day we spent time discussing the list of rights and responsibilities. They discovered that many of their so called rights infringed upon others' rights, and each of these were discussed at length. During these lessons many of their rights (which were not really feasible) were removed from the list after a vote had been taken and it was found that only a small minority wanted them. Next I read the 'rights and responsibilities' from the handbook and the questions. This proved valuable because it gave them starting points, so they were able to recall many things that had happened to them. We then discussed my rights and responsibilities. By this time the children had a sound knowledge of why I had, rights and could also see my responsibilities. One quite perceptive child stated that in many instances I could not carry out my responsibilities to them as a teacher if they did not act responsibly in class. We spent three weeks discussing, adding to and removing from the original lists. For all concerned, it was time well spent.

Conclusion: It seems that students have been made aware of their responsibilities throughout their lives by parents and teachers, because they could list them so readily. However most of the children had never considered that they had rights. These initial lessons have heightened the children's awareness of rights and responsibilities and hopefully this will encourage a co-operative atmosphere in the classroom.

Review: When we had finally reached a consensus., we found that the children had a list of rights and responsibilities which really complemented each other. Mine were the same. These were put on special paper and have been an excellent, constant reminder of behavioural expectations and something all of us could refer to when necessary.

Lessons 5, 6
Prior to this lesson, for homework the children were asked to find out what their parents thought were their rights and responsibilities as parents. These were very interesting and once again parents seemed very much aware of the responsibilities but could not verbalise their rights. Some were unable to do it at all, so the following night the children took their own list of rights and responsibilities home so that their parents could get some idea. This produced a few more which were more appropriate. As a class we looked at the lists supplied by the parents and discussed what they meant and why they were listed. Some were very amusing, some were very confused, but on the whole parents who responded seem to know their responsibilities but were unclear of their rights as parents.

Thought: If everyone is so aware of their responsibilities, why is the world in such a mess???

Lesson 7

Theme: Who are you? Being me.

This discussion did not go the way I thought it would. The children found they fitted into many categories e.g. children, female, white etc. which, although they were the same as lots of others in the class, were untrue for others. The discussion then changed direction and we looked at problems they had as children in being able to get their rights. This was a real problem because they had to do what everyone said--parents, grandparents, teachers etc.--because they had no real power to disagree. And if they did try to explain their thoughts most adults thought they were being cheeky.

Review: We did not get very far with this discussion. I had to agree with their argument up to a point, but because the session degenerated and they were not listening to each other I stopped it and referred back to their rights and responsibilities e.g. to be listened to and listen when someone is talking. I realise that the children needed a more explicit definition of what is human in order to be able to establish a sense of themselves as human beings.

Lesson 8
Activity: Being a human being.
Using a wastepaper bin on the desk, I explained that it was an alien from space and it was curious to know about lifeforms, especially the bi-peds who seemed to speak in so many different ways.

Review: This lesson sparked off much discussion about the kinds of groups all over the world and the children often needed me to clarify some of the information they were not too sure of. We covered poor, blacks, women, men and as so often happened in previous lessons, we often became stuck on one topic like 'women' or 'poor' and it became necessary for me to intervene and try to get onto other sections of humanity.

* It would be possible to spend the whole day in discussions of human rights.

Conclusion: We have established a pin-up board of human rights issues and children are to bring these articles to show each other. We will have discussions on these each morning as they are pinned up. I am very pleased with the children's enthusiasm and the parents' too.

Lesson 9
What makes us human?

This was more difficult for them than I imagined and some of the children could not do it well. It was a little like Lesson 7. They mentioned things that were not appropriate and could easily have been characteristics for animals etc. I kept reminding them that they must have on their lists things that only humans can be, but this was just a little too difficult for them. After much talking we finally came up with a list.

Conclusion: I would do this lesson differently next time.

Meeting with Wendy
I did the activity 'What makes us human' before Wendy and explained my results and how I thought it was not very successful. She decided to do it and had the same results.

Lesson 10
At the beginning of this lesson I asked the children whether they were enjoying the lessons and activities in human rights and was overwhelmed with their response. I asked them then to write down what they thought human rights were, and they came up with a comprehensive list.

Comment: I am very pleased so far with students' responses and they seem to be trying harder to be kind to one another.

Lesson 11
Today a newspaper clipping arrived which as a class we believed was extremely sexist. The discussion which developed was one of 'What can we do about it?' We talked about various ways and settled on writing a protest letter to the paper concerned. The class, with some help from me, composed a letter and sent it off. We are watching the paper to see if it has been published.

Comment: This was a valuable exercise where we discussed how often girls do not get a 'fair go' and that even worse than this, the girls do not recognise it. I am pleased to note that the children are becoming very aware of unfair treatment of them and are comfortable enough to say so, even to adults. I decided that by this time I should move on to a different topic because enough of the activities from the section of human rights have been covered and I do not want to overdo it. Also so many other topics have been covered, incidentally throughout this time, through the newspaper medium, that some of the situations will not be new to the children. Overall I consider this section of the booklet very valuable; it has been successful in my classroom and I would use this with any class I may have in the future.

Evaluation of Human Rights topic
This topic has proved to be an invaluable learning experience for the children, their parents and me. Although the concept of rights seemed to be new to the students, after we had articulated and listed these rights, it was apparent to me that they were very much more aware of their responsibilities. The same proved to be also true of the parents as their own lists show. It came as a shock to me to discover that I also was more aware of, and could more easily list, my responsibilities, than my rights. Although I had always been aware of the fact that I should have rights as a teacher, I had never verbalised them and made them 'real'. Listing our rights and responsibilities, which had been mutually agreed upon, gave me a point of reference throughout the year and has actually influenced my teaching and methods of discipline. I have found that when I draw their attention to a problem of behaviour, they can readily verbalise the 'right' that they have abused. This however does not constitute a behavioural change, because at this stage they are still infringing on people's rights. It is obvious to me that my expectations at the beginning of the course were too high, and the goal of achieving student self-discipline would need constant and long reinforcement of the values inherent in this topic.

Parental feedback
We have received an enormous amount of both verbal and written feedback from parents about this course, both positive and negative. The majority of parents, however, have been supportive and in the main pleased with most aspects of the topics covered. On the positive side, parents have commented on their child's heightened awareness of the social environment, a pleasing readiness to discuss issues of areas covered in the topics, and a new interest in current affairs and news. The only negative parental response has been complaints about children insisting on their 'rights' or only recognising their own rights at the expense of other members of the family. Although we accept that this has been happening, we also feel the parents are attributing this apparent change in behaviour to the course, when much of it is normal pre-adolescent development.

Decisions/Resolutions
We both gained far more than either of us anticipated from teaching this course, and it provided us with a most valuable and satisfying learning experience. Taking into consideration that trialling any new course must necessarily have its triumphs and its defeats, we feel that the learning that took place in our classrooms was considerable.

We would both be happy to teach the course again next year to any grade of children. Familiarity with the material would obviously diminish preparation and programming time. We have come to the obvious conclusion that a course like this needs to be introduced throughout the school and continued into secondary education, as constant reinforcement in an on-going process seems to us to be essential if it is to have a lasting effect upon attitudinal changes. Because we have experienced the benefits of working together we feel that the Commission should look at implementing support for new teachers next year. This could be accomplished either by releasing an experienced human rights teacher on a part- time basis to in-service schools in the vicinity, or if this is not possible, teachers trialling in schools in one area could possibly form support groups for each other. We feel this is an important point because of the nature of the material. The time involved in planning and programming would offset the negative responses which can sometimes be encountered among staff members and parents.

We feel the course could be improved in the area of visual resources, especially video. We have made use of videos during the course, taping relevant documentaries and films with a strong human rights message. However, because the visual media is so effective, especially in capturing interest at the introduction of topics, we would like to see more resources of this nature included in the kit.

Although we had programmed 'Human rights' to be taught in the previously mentioned curriculum areas, we soon found that it was impossible to confine the subject to those prescribed time slots. Instead, it permeated every subject area and we found that we were really teaching it right across the curriculum-to the extent that we sometimes felt that we were teaching nothing but human rights. In fact some parents even commented that they were receiving the impression from their children that the only lessons they were doing were human rights. This would not of course happen in a secondary school situation, where classes and teachers are constantly changing.

Very early in the year we encouraged children to bring in news clippings dealing with any human rights issue and after discussion these were displayed on pin-boards in the classroom. Due to the fact that they became invaluable points of reference for various topics and have provided a focus for discussions, they remained displayed until replaced by others. So this board was full throughout the year. The interest these displays created amongst the students made the board an important resource, almost like a human rights text book, to which they constantly referred. We would recommend this as a teaching aid to any new human rights teacher and would definitely retain it as part of our program for the future.

Students responses to some human rights lessons
On a number of occasions through the year, to gauge the enjoyment/learning of the students, we borrowed the idea below from the Human Rights Commission's Occasional Paper No. 9 by Colin Henry, David Hitchcock and Michelle Michie.

Below each scale the student included a short reason for number grading the lesson.

Another form of student evaluation we used was an occasional written review of their assessment of human rights to date.

Human rights mini-conference
On the 14th August, 1985, we held a Human Rights Conference for the Year 6/7 children at Sarah's primary school. This involved a lot of work in planning and preparation, but the benefits far outweighed the work involved.

At first we had difficulty in engaging guest speakers for this particular age-group, because many of the organisations we approached are run on a voluntary basis and can only supply speakers at night, and they are only used to speaking to groups of adults.

However as the date drew nearer we were embarrassed by having more volunteers than we needed! This was also the case when Wendy called for volunteer transport for her children. This resulted in more mothers attending, for interest rather than transport. Overall fifteen mothers participated in activities with the children.

The three guest speakers chosen were ideal, in that they were able to converse on most of the issues covered by us this year. We all appreciated the effort they made to tailor their talks to the children's level of understanding.

The speakers represented:

• Australian Freedom from Hunger
• Amnesty International
• Female fitters and turners from the Trade Union Training Programme

After the conference we were gratified to receive a letter from the first speaker stating that he was so impressed with our teaching of this course that he had spoken for half an hour on a local radio station, mentioning the conference and how we had organised it.

Our Evaluation
The day was an unqualified success in all areas., e.g. Organisation, timing, content, enjoyment, learning, sharing and feedback and we would thoroughly recommend it to people interested in teaching for human rights.

Resources
Farnette, Cherie et al. I've got me and I'm glad Incentive Publications, Sacramento, Calif, 1977.
Farnette, Cherie et al. People need each other. Incentive Publications, Sacramento, Calif, 1979.
Forte, Imogene. The me I'm learning to be. Incentive Publications, Sacramento, Calif., 1983.
Dr Zeuss on the Loose. 16mm film.
Big Henry and the Polka Dot Kid (Learning to Be Human series). 16mm film.
The Shopping Bag Lady (Learning to Be Human series). 16mm film.
The Seven Ravens. 16mm film.

YEAR 7

Our school is one for Specific Purposes and caters for children ranging from severely to moderately intellectually handicapped. Its policy is to involve these students, wherever possible, in the outside community. In particular the school tries to place as many students as it can in other schools where they gain invaluable social experience. In line with this policy it was decided to use money from the Human Rights Commission Small Grants Scheme to help the integration of two students into a nearby high school.

The high school's motto is 'We Care' and the staff and students pride themselves on living up to the spirit of the school motto. In addition it has a class of mildly intellectually handicapped (OA) students.

The two students from our school were placed in the class for two days a week. They were supported by a teacher funded by the grant, who liaised between the two schools, as well as devising and implementing relevant programs.

Alice presented as a very quiet, nervous girl who suffered from hemiplegia, a result of extensive brain surgery. She had a lot of difficulty adjusting to the rigours and demands of the OA class. In addition, she is affected by petit mal epilepsy.

Geoff presented as a young man lacking in many social skills and confidence. He has Down's Syndrome and difficulty in speaking.

It was decided to link the program with a similar Human Rights Small Grants funded Integration Program run by a local high school OA Class. Consequently we decided that there needed to be some preparation of the whole school population, and in particular the OA class, before these students were placed in the new situation.

The preparation was along the following lines.

Strategy (1)

Whole school approach
The incoming Year 7 students at the high school were, as part of their Personal Development Program, shown the video on the Human Rights Charter for Handicapped People, Don't Think I Don't Think. Discussions were followed by the students drawing up their own charter and then comparing this with the Handicapped People's Charter. Many were surprised at the similarities. The teachers were requested to avoid using the OA class as an example of handicapped children, so that the Year 7 students would be free to form their own opinions.

Strategy (2)

OA class approach
It was felt that the OA class also needed to use material from Teaching for human rights to help foster positive attitudes that would, in turn, help facilitate a supportive environment for the two students from our school, Alice and Geoff.

In particular, it was necessary to give the OA students a positive perspective of intellectual handicap by reshowing the Handicapped People's Charter video to them. The discussions that followed certainly helped to break down some of the students' barriers by showing:

Comments on activities

The above activities were popular with the class and I feel helped the class see that the rights of all people--and not just themselves--were very important and should be basic to one and all.

The bulk of the support teacher's work has been to supervise in the transition of educational and social programs from one school to the other. This initially involved consulting with our own teachers and devising appropriate educational programs to bridge the gap between the classes here and at the high school. The implementation of these programs has led, in particular with Alice, to pleasing progress. Through giving these students real and positive forms of self-esteem, particularly in comparison with the students in the OA class, progress has been made.

The support teacher helped supervise their integration with specialist classes such as P.E., Sport, Music and Home Science. In Alice's case this was necessary as it had to be proved that her form of epilepsy would not present a danger to herself and to others. This was particularly so in the Home Science class.

Geoff needed a great deal of this assistance just to help him to go along to these classes. Throughout the program this proved to be a continuous problem.

One aim was to involve Alice and Geoff in the widest range of activities. This was most successful when they attended the excursion to an art exhibition in the city. Attending the exhibition really did help to establish them as one of the class.

Alice's progress in her academic work, and her desire and ability to participate in class, led to a one week trial at the high school. Its success has led to Alice being enrolled in the OA class for 1986. Unfortunately Geoff did not respond so well, and did not want to be a full-time member of the class. Overall, what we have been able to do with the grant has been remarkably successful with Alice, and partially so with Geoff.

Continue to Appendix 2 part 3

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Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Appendix 1 |
| Appendix 2 part 1 | Appendix 2 part 2... | Appendix 2 part 3 |