Welcome to ¾ NH2’s final blog post for this term.
Over the last 2 weeks, we were inspired by some of the themes in Harmony Week which lead to discussions about stopping racism. We learnt that it was also a week to celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. We learnt that racism means not respecting people for who they are, treating them differently because of what they look like and where they come from. We decided that it’s not right for people to have different rights based on this. We did some workshops on what rights we have and what rights all children in the world should have. Ivy Belle, Siri, Charlie and Ayshe interviewed people in our Neighbourhood about what rights we should have. We created a collaborative Google Slide presentation so that other people could add what rights we should have, why we should have them and how this would make people feel.
Here are some of the rights that the children discussed:
Coco: The right to have a name.
Sumaya: The right to have a birth certificate so you can go to school.
Flynn: The right to not get attacked by strangers.
Makaila: The right to make your own decisions.
Huon: The right to be included.
Robert: The right to have pocket money. Without pocket money, when you grow up you might not have all the things you need like a house.
Charlie: The right to say stop when you don’t like something.
Elias: The right to be safe.
Zenny: The right to have the resources to survive.
Hattie: The right to have a family.
Annie: In the UN declaration on the Rights of the Child it said that if you’re adopted the government has to come and check on you to make sure that you are safe.
In order to have rights, some people have the responsibility to protect them. For example, if someone is adopted, the government has to come into the house and check if you’re alright and that you have what you need (Jack B). We are still learning what the ‘government’ is and what it does. Siri knows that it’s a group of people and there might be a boss of Melbourne. Ayshe adds that the government is people like the Prime Minister, the mayor all together in a group. They make decisions together like what rights we have. E says the government also means the people who make things better for the country or state. They are kind of the leaders for our state like Dan Andrews. When COVID hit, he had to tell everyone to go into isolation because he was doing that for our safety. The government are people who are helping us have a better life. Max wonders why we have a ‘Prime’ minister but also other ministers? Is the Prime Minister the highest minister? Prime means the best out of most of them. You can also be the Minister of Magic (a reference from Harry Potter). Next term we will be exploring these and other questions about who makes decisions in our community.
Some rights are also the responsibility of other people. For example if you tell someone to stop something that you don’t like, it is their responsibility to hear you and stop.
We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable break over the holidays.
Year 3/4 N2