Introduction

Raising Children With Roots, Rights & Responsibilities is about citizenship. It is about education for problem solving and critical thinking. It is about building moral and ethical character and increasing self-esteem and self-confidence in children and families. It is about empowerment and responsibility. It is about education for democracy.

This curriculum builds on the power of the parent-child relationship. It helps to build a positive self-image for both the parent* and the child. By offering a positive parenting approach, it has community and societal impact. It calls for human dignity for everyone and gives concrete, distinct examples of what that looks like. This curriculum calls us to action.

The fight for human dignity has been fought throughout the history of the human race. It is revealed in small, everyday rebellions by children against their parents or by workers against their bosses. It has been revealed in tremendous battles by slaves and freemen against slave holders and ethnic groups against their dominators. No list of these struggles could possibly reflect how intensely humans are willing to struggle for their human rights

By starting with human rights for children, we help ensure human dignity for all. To educate for democracy, to educate for citizenship in that democracy, to teach children problem solving, negotiation, critical thinking and sharing skills, is to promote human dignity. When we teach about human dignity in the form of rights and responsibilities, we are taking active steps against crime and violence. In a democratic society, each citizen is important for making decisions, for providing for the good of all, and for ensuring the rights we all enjoy. When one person is not contributing, not only are his or her ideas and insights lost, but he or she may experience a disenfranchisement that can seem to justify actions that hurt the whole.

Our children are not born with the skills for active involvement in a democratic society. We, as adult citizens, must carefully consider what we and others do to convey healthy values that support and preserve our precious democracy. There is a window of opportunity for educating children and their parents when children are young. The children are willing learners, and often their parents are more interested in improving their parenting skills at this time than they are later in their children's lives.

By teaching this curriculum, you are helping ensure that the youngest members of our society and their parents know about children's rights - and their responsibilities. You are making a contribution to today and tomorrow, when the children you have taught make their contributions as adult citizens. These grown children can now parent their children in respectful, democratic ways, giving them the roots they need to stand up as responsible citizens and defenders of human rights.

"There is one thing stronger than all the armies of the world; and that is an idea whose time has come."

Victor Hugo

he word "parent" is intended to include anyone in the role of guardian or caregiver for a child.

This curriculum helps parents advance their skills for building trust, respecting children's rights, encouraging empowerment, fostering children's sense of responsibility, and helping children develop the skills for working and playing with others fairly. With this strong focus and intentional effort, children can move toward understanding and protecting their own rights and the rights of others, and developing to their full potential as responsible citizens.

You, as the facilitator and teacher, become a role model for parents and children by helping them become aware of human rights and how we protect them. We suggest you read the sessions in advance and become familiar with the books in the bibliographies. Do some deep thinking and reflection to assess your experience with human rights. You will benefit from working together with a buddy or a whole staff so you can support and discuss with each other. You are an important role model for both parents and young children.

"Education must not simply teach work. . . it must teach life."

W. E. B. DuBois

So often in today's world and national news we hear people lament about their condition of life. Frequently they stay imbedded in their conditions and perpetuate a culture of victimization. When parents learn they have a right, indeed a responsibility to speak out against injustice - whether it is directed at them or others - social change happens. Using this curriculum, you will help adults make changes. You will help empower them as role models, so they may practice democracy in their home. You will help them see the varied sides of issues, ask questions and get involved. They will have more capacity for and more interest in protecting not only the rights of the children in their household, but the rights of other children.

How and why do we educate preschoolers for democracy? Don't these things come up later in their education? Our answer is this: Educating for democracy is a lifelong process. At every developmental stage this type of education takes a different shape in order to fit the needs of the learner. But, at every age, educating for democracy is about roots, rights and responsibilities.

All sessions are designed to provide experience with the following:

1) Building Trust/Roots: Creating a safe environment helps children build trust and enables them to think and act independently. Knowing that they are loved and they belong, children can learn and try out the behaviors of their role models as well as experiment with other behaviors. Developing rules with their family, class, or other community group helps children develop trust that their opinions matter. When they see that everyone follows the rules, they develop trust that all will be safe. Children develop deep, healthy roots when they spend time in safe places.

2) Respecting Rights: Assisting children to learn about and to understand their rights and the rights of others through turn taking, sharing and promoting empathy helps children learn to see other points of view. When we help children speak up for what they need and express their opinion, we are promoting democracy. When children learn about what other children might be feeling or thinking, they begin to think of the world as larger than themselves. Children are then more sensitive to others' cues and needs and eventually able to take another person's perspective. Viewing others more empathically helps children recognize that each of us has the right to be safe, to learn, to play, and to make friends. Honoring these human rights encourages children to make responsible behavioral choices.

3) Developing Responsibility: Responsibility is an empowering word. Taking responsibility empowers people to have a say in their own lives. Helping children recognize their capability to choose what they want to do fosters a sense of mastery and competence, which, in turn, makes them feel worthy of participating in community life. When children feel a part of the community - that they belong - they are more willing to make responsible choices.

"Education makes a people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave."

Lord Brougham

When children learn to make decisions and consider the consequences of their actions, they make better choices - choices with fewer negative results. Children who learn problem-solving strategies, negotiation skills, peaceful play, and cooperation are more likely to analyze and make choices that are good for themselves and others. When children pick up after themselves, take turns, work out problems, share, or help someone, they are showing responsibility and thus benefitting themselves and the whole community. When children pour their own juice, decide about what toy they want to use, what activity they want to do, what they want to wear, or what they want to eat, they are showing responsibility. In a cooperative-interaction setting the emphasis is on everyone taking responsibility for their part of working together, so the group can accomplish mutual goals for the common good.

Raising Children With Roots, Rights & Responsibilities is more than a curriculum. It is not finished when the last session meets. This class is merely an impetus for a new beginning in living with a human rights focus. We want parents and participating staff members to learn how powerful each person can be when contributing to a democracy. We hope participants become more empowered to write letters, protest, and stand up for the human rights of themselves and others in compassionate, peacemaking ways. This curriculum is intended only to supply the priming for the pump of human rights activism. This activism begins during the 12 weeks of classes, but continues for weeks, years, and even lifetimes. We hope adults, now empowered and committed to human rights for children will "Go forth and multiply!"