Lesson 1: Wishes, basic needs, human dignity and human rights

Do I have a human right to everything I wish?

The lesson

To introduce the lesson, the teacher informs the students how the lesson will be organised, but should not go into detail concerning the main topic. The students start by questioning themselves and each other about their own wishes and needs – they will find out later in the lesson that many of these correspond with human rights. After the introduction (not more then a minute or two) the students are then divided up into small groups of four or five, and are given their tasks in two phases. The teacher first explains task 1 and individually explains the next step to the groups when they have finished. In this way, individual learning speeds are catered for.

• Task 1: Student handout 5.1, Wishes, needs and rights. The groups make a list of their “material” wishes (e.g. “a good meal”) in the left-hand column of the worksheet and add a minimum of three “immaterial” wishes (e.g. “to be loved”). Then they think about the needs that these wishes stand for and add them in the middle column.
• Task 2: The teacher then gives the groups that have finished task 1 a copy of student handout 5.2, List of Human Rights, and asks them to write down the corresponding right in the last column (e.g. “the right to food”, “freedom from discrimination”).
• Task 3: Groups that have finished early should start thinking about producing a human rights poster by choosing one of the needs and the corresponding right. They should discuss the content of their concept and also look at it from the artistic point of view and then design a draft proposal.

Once the group work is finished the teacher can write the groups’ ideas on the blackboard. He or she draws a table of three columns and asks a representative of each group to add a wish, a need and the corresponding right. This goes on until there is a list of up to ten wishes, needs and rights on the blackboard (if possible, use a flip chart, as the sheets can then be posted on the classroom walls to remind the groups of their discussions).

Now the teacher leads a short plenary discussion using the following ideas:

• “You have found out that your wishes and needs correspond to the ideas of the Human Rights Convention. This needs some explanation!”
• “Some rights from the Convention have not been thought of by us. They might not be important or they might have been taken care of under another right. What is your point of view?”
• “Look at this list of human rights. When you think about what you need in order to live a decent life or what other people in other regions or countries or continents need, what is missing? What further human right would you add?”

To end the discussion, the teacher informs the students that there is a worldwide debate about the main focus of human rights. One conclusion is: “Human rights are needed to allow everyone to live with dignity.” The teacher then asks the students to think of alternatives to this conclusion. This could be a task for a piece of homework. If possible, over the next few days, the students should add their ideas to the sheets of paper that have been posted on the walls. In this way, the thinking process can continue.

As an extra task, the students can be asked to produce posters on the theme of human rights, using newspaper clippings, cuttings from magazines or drawings and paintings by themselves. These could be used for classroom decoration or for an exhibition.

Finally, to sum up, the teacher gives a short review of the ideas and the goals of the lesson. He/she might even explain the didactic principle of his induction concept: that is, to start by examining experience and personal ideas and to finish by explaining the concept or theory.