Declaration of Rights

Lauren McCabe writes:

Today was one of those days when I walked about class with a big ol’ grin on my face, thinking “I didn’t even plan for that!”

My last period of government class on Friday always tends be a little hard for students to focus on, because the weekend is just an hour away. We had been on a field trip the day before and all day it had been difficult to get students to concentrate -- or even wake up, for that matter. 

My lesson focused on the Declaration of Human Rights and how we see these rights used or not used in the United States.  My students found it hard to find many rights that actually applied to them or to the way the United States runs.  Immigration became a heated topic; so did homelessness.  Finally, after listening to a lot of valid arguments, I decided to veer off the lesson plan and turn the discussion into something productive.

“Let’s create our own Declaration of Human Rights!” I said, with an enthusiasm that is not the norm for our Friday government class.

Students started throwing out ideas.  We decided to narrow the topic down to a doctrine for human rights at our school and went from there.  After setting a standard: that we would come up with at least 10 rights for our school, the students took control of the debate and I stood back and watched in awe as they came up with logical and thoughtful rights.

Of course there were a few “We have the right to pizza parties every Friday” and “unlimited bathroom passes,” but through conversation (that did not include me) as a class they decided that in order for the administration and teachers to take them seriously they had to make these rights reasonable.  One student even pointed out that “If we have unlimited bathroom passes, people will take advantage of that and miss out on their learning!”  I was beaming with pride.

The number one rule the students made was that everyone has a right to a quality education.  This led students to say “You’re violating my right to an education.  Look at rule No.1!” to any student talking out of turn or being disrespectful.

I think I may have just discovered the best classroom management plan for my students, one that holds everyone accountable because, after all, they are the ones who created it.

In a moment of extreme pride, all the students and I signed the board which displayed the 10 rights.  Only time will tell how powerful this tool will be.

Comments

[Tony Burzio]

Interesting that the actual Bill of Rights is not taught at our schools, nor is the meaning of those rights. Instead, the teacher indoctrinates her class that they are not citizens of a Republic, but some nebulous "world order" which will come to free them from oppression. Such claptrap makes me sick!

[adinasi]

Those days when students are enthused are worthwhile, but I'm going to play a bit of devil's advocate:

If your students can't see how 'rights' are applied to them tells me they have little knowledge of their own Constitution, which probably was neither taught to them or discussed in their homes. Don't be fooled by the education intelligentsia's push for 'developing critical thinking skills' without having deep and broad background knowledge. As I tell my students, "If you don't know stuff, you can't do stuff," and sadly too many of our students have spent many class hours creating 'projects' but have little grasp of the fundamental skills and knowledge that would truly enhance their critical thinking.

The Constitution itself was driven in part by 'inalienable' rights granted by God (let's not go there in public school ;-) which is a relatively shallow depth of American history all HS students should know, but sadly don't. As I said, deep background knowledge would enhance your students' abilities to evaluate current rights and synthesize new ones (I get points for using Bloom's Taxonomy!).

As the adult in the classroom YOU are responsible for that new 'tool' in your classroom. As in this country laws must be enforced, and when things break down you will be held accountable, not the students. When things go well in my class I say it's the students, yet when things go wrong I draw blame back to me, and I fix it as best I can.

You can still create expectations based on your experience and responsibility as an ADULT that don't require student buy-in. Requiring students to be quiet when you or others are allowed to speak is rooted in the ethic of respecting others and their opinions; everyone wants that, and you do not need 'group discussion' or 'signatures' to expect that from your students.

Remember that you learn as much in a classroom as your students, and what you've experienced is just another step in our growth as educators.