[hr-education-na] HRE in California: legislation and challenges

Dear Colleagues:

For your information the State of California mandated the teaching of HRE
in grades 7-12 of all public schools in California, per Education Code
sec. 51220. California Education Code section 51220 states re Social
Science Instruction:

"2(b) Instruction shall provide a foundation for understanding the
history, resources, development, and government of California and the
United States of America; instruction in our American legal system, the
operation of the juvenile and adult criminal justice systems, and the
rights and duties of citizens under the criminal and civil law and the
State and Federal Constitutions; the development of the American economic
system, including the role of the entrepreneur and labor; the relations of
persons to their human and natural environment; eastern and western
cultures and civilizations; human rights issues, with particular attention
to the study of the inhumanity of genocide, slavery, and the Holocaust,
and contemporary issues."

The legislative intent, the social purpose and goal of this law was stated
by the Legislators as follows:

     (a) The Legislature recognizes and affirms the importance to pupils
of learning to appreciate the sanctity of life and the dignity of the
individual.  Pupils must develop a respect for each person as a unique
individual, and understand the importance of a universal concern for
ethics and human rights.
     (b) The Legislature recognizes the importance of teaching our youth
ethical and moral behavior specifically relating to human rights
violations, genocide issues, and slavery, as well as the Holocaust.

The Legislature must have been convinced that teaching human rights would
cause a changed awareness and some attitudinal and behavioral changes in
students. It does.

The only problem is that schools in California are not teaching HRE as we
specialists in this field know it as an academic discipline. Sadly, it is
the law in California that students study human rights, but there are no
teachers who know how to teach human rights because there is no reasonable
context for teachers to get education in human rights themselves. The
trouble is that most teachers have no idea what HRE is.

I will remain a believer in HRE as long as I see human rights violations
and as long as I see the positive results in my students, many of whom are
now "out there" doing the things you wish students would go out there and
do. We need to convince ourselves that HRE works, and then convince
schools of this positive "impact" potential, which I would describe as
positive attitudinal and behavioral transformation. We must learn how to
teach to create a human rights consciousness.

We also need scholarly and scientifically sound research done by persons
with a very solid knowledge of the academic field of human rights as
understood in the international context. Too few of us have ever formally
studied human rights, much less have any academic degrees in it. Let's
ourselves learn human rights so that we can teach human rights, and then
research and write about the effects of our teaching. We will certainly be
rewarded.

Let's get to work. The future is waiting.

For Human Dignity,

H. Victor Conde
Prof. of International Human Rights and Humanitarian Law



======== North American Human Rights Education listserv ========
Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education-na@hrea.org>.
If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact
<owner-hr-education-na@hrea.org>.
**You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item,
but please retain the original and listserv source.