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Felisa
Tibbitts, Case Studies in Human Rights
Education: Examples from Central and Eastern Europe,
Council of Europe/HREA, 1997 ROMANIA: HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION THROUGH EXTRACURRICULAR ARTS
The drawings are childish, but imaginative, full of color and sensitivity. One water color, shows a girl and a boy standing on the outline of a globe, birds and animals peacefully about. This represents global harmony. Another is a collage representing the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child, with individual drawings devoted to certain principles. One shows a little girl standing with her mother in a forest, representing Article 18 and parental responsibilities; in another, children are playing ball and skipping rope, showing Article 31 in action, or leisure and recreation. These drawings were made by children participating in after-school drawing clubs organized by the Romanian Independent Society for Human Rights (SIRDO). The non-governmental organization has worked primarily with primary school teachers and children in offering supplemental human rights education materials and extracurricular activities. Several of their programs have focused specifically on the arts, recognizing that HRE as related to individual expression, creativity and esthetics. The goals of the extracurricular art programs are to use recreational, artistic activities to help children to think about human rights, to give them pleasure and, through the children's artistic expressions, to influence parents, peers and community members. "It's a nice way for children to express themselves, and also for the people watching them or seeing their picture," explained former program director Ligia Neacsu. "When you see a picture, your own thoughts [about human rights] fly though your head." In this respect, art programs have the potential for a unique multiplier effect in human rights education. The idea of developing formal programs in the arts came after the organization had developed an original coloring book for Romanian children. This book presents a fairy tale related to the development of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and some of its key principles. Using appealing animal cartoons, children learn about these principles through the story, and can enjoy coloring in the animals, etc. At the back of the coloring book, children are invited to make their own drawings or write their own thoughts, and to send these back in to SIRDO if they would like to. These drawings have then been displayed in public settings, such as in-service teacher trainings and methodological centers; exemplary drawings are also included in the SIRDO newsletter. They are also intended to become part of moving exhibitions that will move between schools, highlighted especially on relevant occasions such as the commemoration of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Of a more formal nature, are organized "Drawing Clubs" that are held for a couple of hours after school. Around fifty upper primary school children in a Bucharest school are given the pleasure of using watercolors, crayons and pencil and ink to reflect upon topics that relate to human rights, and to present their views and feelings in visual form. These gatherings take place under the direction of a local art teacher twice a week. The classes begin with a brief discussion of human-rights related principles, after which students are given unstructured time to present their own creative views using a variety of artistic materials. Schools as a whole also benefit from the program, since the classroom used for the drawing club was freshly painted and renovated by program staff. A completely different artistic medium used by SIRDO relates to the theatre arts. In the after-school "Drama Clubs", 7th Form students, under the guidance of a dramatist, are asked to select and reflect upon a favorite and well-known fairy tale in Romanian society, such as Beauty and the Beast, Snow White or Red Riding Hood. Original, unfinished stories written by a staff member have also been used. Discussions are held about possible motives for the actions of each character -- particularly less savory ones -- and alternative scenarios are brainstormed for ending the fables in such a way that all the characters are well understood, conflicts resolved, and "bad guys" are either reformed or find justice. The format is that at the beginning and end of the production, the children step out of character to explain their rationale for changes in the language and structure of the original fairytale. In this way, the theatre productions are original, moral plays developed by the children. Particular stress is placed upon breaking superficial stereotypes of negative stereotypes in such stories. "Usually, we only hear the "good persons"' side of the story," explained Ligia. Through an analysis of the story of Beauty and the Beast, the students also tried to draw a relationship to modern Romanian society. They tried to demonstrate the reasonableness of someone desiring privacy, and that such impulses are more complex than first apprehended. The revised fairytales have been presented at school assemblies, attended by younger children, parents and other teachers. In this way, familiar moral tales taken from the lives of young children are used as opportunities for broader reflection and understanding of human personality and the resolution of interpersonal conflicts that can take place in human society. These depictions on the stage for their fellow students and adult community members are also clearly intended to model skills related to HRE at a young age, namely listening skills, empathy, tolerance and understanding, as well as conflict resolution. A final artistic forum used by SIRDO in the promotion of human rights education are summer camps, which took place for the first time in 1995. A total of 30 children were selected from throughout Romania on the basis of essay and drawing contests related to human rights themes to spend seven days in a picturesque mountain setting in central Romania. Led by SIRDO staff members, each day emphasized a different artistic or recreational medium, such as drawing, singing and sports. The children were able to mix pleasure and expression with human rights-related learning. In the future, an international summer camp will be attempted, which will enable a direct intercultural element to be introduced.
Felisa Tibbitts
© Human Rights
Education Associates, 1997
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