WRITINGS
FOR THE CHILDREN WRITINGS
FOR THE CHILDREN
...BY THE CHILDREN
As part of our "We the Children..." project, the Grade 6/7S students of ABC Charter Public School, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, explored the Charter of Children's Rights, drafted by the United Nations in 1989. We have looked at
some of the basic rights and freedoms stated in that document and analyzed our own environment and that of children around the world to see if the 1989 charter effectively changed the quality of life of children in all parts of the world. We considered whether the basic rights outlined in the charter were "Reality" or just empty "Rhetoric".
Our class identified the criteria that constituted a "Safe Place" and wrote about the degree of safety that we felt existed in own classroom. This background set the stage for us to write a speech to be hypothetically delivered to the Special Meeting on the Rights of Children at the United Nations in New York City, May, 2002.
"We the Children..." challenged class to use the basic facts surrounding the rights of children to interpret, judge, and in some cases even argue about it. We had the opportunity to work alongside a class from TelAviv, Israel on our project. Through this, we learned about Israel, corresponded with the class from
Magen International School via
email and followed the news of political unrest in their country.
As part of this project, we learned how to create our own web page using FrontPage 98. The links below will take you to these web pages containing the speeches that we wrote to the United Nations about the state of Children's Rights in our world today:
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SPEAKING UP
QUOTES BY ABC CHARTER STUDENTS:
"Thank you for helping me understand them (children's rights) and seeing the world from a different view ,even if for just a second. There’s a lot of oppression in this world, but as history has proved it can be defeated."
"I've learned about what make a safe place, and how children in different places of the world are still struggling for freedom. I believe that every child should get the love and equality that we are offered here."
"An other part of the Child's Charter of Right’s and Freedom’s that I would like to discuss is the law stating a child’s right to an " Education that supports developing to the fullest potential." To have an education taught to you at you at your fullest level is not an easy task. A teacher and a school however must comply to the fullest abilities of a child as an individual and not as a class. Each child has their own level of knowledge and a teacher has to find were each student stands and exceed that level every day.Individualized learning programs are most essential for this law and should be used especially in schools that are known to exceed the normal teaching level."
"I have learned how some people are in a country where the government is unfair. For example, in South Africa, the black people have small classrooms for a lot of people. Then the white people have a large class room size for a small amount of people. Black schools have minimal amount of supplies while the white schools have a lot of supplies for a lot less people. The black people look dumb just because the school has very little supplies and the classrooms are so crowded. The black people then have troubles getting a degree. The white people on the other hand look smart just because they get a better education."
"A safe place is a place where everyone has a smile on their face"
* THE "HANDS" ARTWORK ABOVE WAS CREATED BY:
NUREEN, A GRADE 7 STUDENT.
WEBMASTER:
BRENDA DYCK, ABC CHARTER PUBLIC SCHOOL
ANIMATED FLAGS
COMPLIMENTS OF fg-a.com
