Here is what my group of students (ages 7-13) came up with in our Class Meeting on the first day of school. After all, before deciding together on our classroom rules, we have to be clear on what rights need to be protected!
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Children have the right to have choice.
Children have the right to speak up and be heard.
Children have the right to feel safe.
Children have the right to be healthy - air, water, food, exercise.
Children have the right to have privacy.
Children have the right to have their own thoughts.
Children have the right to rest and relax.
Children have the right to be treated with kindness and honesty.
Children have the right to have friendship and connection.
Children have the right to make mistakes.
My plan is read out their rights at the start of each school day this year, to help guide us whenever we run into problems in the classroom.
As Heather Shumaker says in It's OK Not to Share and Other Renegade Rules for Raising Competent and Compassionate Kids, "Of course, rights and limits go hand in hand. One person's rights can't trample another persons." (p.17)
I read them one of my favorite quotes from her book: "Limits are the way people live together and get their needs met." (p.24)
We also talked about my rights. Adults have the same basic human rights as children, plus just a few extra. Because I'm the adult, I have the right to set more limits if I think they are needed. I'm here to keep them safe, and I'm the person responsible for directing their education.
After we finished our discussion of the Rights of the Child, we agreed to use the Golden Rule from Heather's book as our one school rule.
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Immersive Experience
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