Educating for Human Dignity: Learning About Rights and Responsibilities

Issues of universal human rights are critically important topics in education today. Educators, scholars, and activists urge schools to promote awareness and understanding of human rights in their curricula from the earliest levels. Written by Betty A. Reardon, one of the foremost scholars on human rights education for the primary and secondary levels, Educating for Human Dignity is designed for both teachers and teacher educators. It is the first resource offering both guidance and support materials for human rights education programs from kindergarten through high school. It opens possibilities for an holistic approach to human rights education that directly confronts the values issues raised by human rights problems in a context of global interrelationships.

Cover -- Contents -- Preface and Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction: Purposes and Approaches -- The Purposes of This Book -- Education for Civic Responsibility and Political Efficacy -- Human Rights and Peace Education -- An Holistic Values Approach -- An Historical Approach -- An International Standards and Institutions Approach -- A Reconstructionist Approach -- Selected References -- 2. A Developmental Sequence for Presentation of the Core Concepts -- Childhood and the Early Grades -- Later Childhood and the Middle Grades -- Early Adolescence and Junior High School.

Youth, Young Adulthood, and High School -- 3. The Early Grades: Laying the Foundation for an Appreciation of Human Dignity-Kindergarten to Grade Three -- Sample 1. Kindergarten: What Is a Human Being?-Reverence for Life -- Sample 2. Kindergarten: Human Beings Are Alike and Different -- Sample 3. First Grade: Rules Are for Protection and Fairness -- Sample 4. First Grade: Respecting the Rules-Making a Compact -- Sample 5. Second Grade: Wishing a World Fit for Children-Understanding Human Needs -- Sample 6. Second Grade: Taking Responsibility to Stop Hurt and Harm.

Sample 7. Third Grade: Learning to Value Global Div…