Kidlink's "What Are My Rights": Lesson 1

"No you are not allowed." How many times have you heard this before? We will be spending eight weeks together thinking about the rights that all kids should have. In addition to thinking about and discussing these rights you will also end the project by sharing your ideas and thoughts with others outside this project. Together you will also create a "Kids' Bill of Rights."

Did you know that there was a year dedicated to young people? 1979 was called the "International Year of the Child." During that year a group appointed by the Commission on Human Rights began to draft the articles in the Convention on the Rights of the Child because children need special care by their families and legal protection during childhood. These articles were written by adults. You might agree with them and you might not.

Each one of us has a responsibility to make sure that using our rights doesn't spoil things for others. Spoiling another's rights is called, "infringing" rights. We don't want to do that because we are trying to protect the rights of others.

Before we look at these articles that the Convention developed let's think about some questions. Talk about the questions together in your classes and tell us what you think.

Discussion Questions

What is a "right?"
What rights do I think I have?
Do adults have different rights?
When does a child become an adult in your country? Do you agree with this age?
What is the difference between a right and a privilege?
Can we demand rights without assuming responsibilities?
When are some rights infringed? How does it feel to have your rights infringed by others?
What is one right you want that infringes on someone else's rights?
How does it feel when you have to stop doing something you want to do when it is infringing the rights of others?
Go to the summary pages for the Articles. Do your rights match any of the rights found there? Are any missing? What are they? During the next eight weeks we will be discussing these rights.

Classroom Activities

Take a few minutes and write an introduction of your class. Tell us about your city, your school and your class.
Make a survey of what rights the students in your classroom think they have. Make an analysis of the result, and discuss possible reasons for differences in opinion.
Make a Venn Diagram on the chalkboard or on a large sheet of paper. In one circle list the rights all children should have and in the other put the rights that adults should have. Which rights are in both circles? Show that in the diagram.
What do you think every child should have?
- Divide the class into groups. Each group draws the outline of a child on a large piece of paper. Name your "new child."
- What special qualities do you want this person to have when it is grown up? Write those qualities in a circle around the child. You might include qualities such as "healthy," "well educated" and "happy."
- Draw pictures and place them around the child and inside the circle to symbolize these qualities. Pictures from magazines such as a book to represent "well educated" are fine.
- Inside the outline of the child write the needs that each child has in order to grow into this adult you have described. Proper food and education in some form will be necessary. What else? Go back to the Convention and see which ones guarantee the needs that your ideal person will need in childhood.
- Place the number of the Article near the good qualities that you listed.
- Groups "introduce" their ideal child to the class and explain the qualities and needs that each listed.
Write a Haiku about one of the rights that is important to you.