Teach Human Rights

From the SMH.

This article came from a push by human rights lawyer and member of the Queens Council (QC) – Georffrey Robertson in comments made at Canberra’s  National Public Education Forum held over the 27th and 28th of March.

Robertson is advocating teaching a compalsary human rights course in all Australian public schools, similar to that introduced in British schools.

Mr Robertson said the departments of justice and school education had evaluated a trial of the new subject in Hampshire and found it helped energise students and improve their behaviour. It also helped improve their self-confidence. Teachers reported it had made their jobs more enjoyable.

Among the course tasks, students were asked to consider a fictional set of school rules that included statements such as “teachers may hit students at any time”, “students must convert to the head teacher’s religion”, “teachers can go through students’ bags at any time and examine their property” and “anyone who criticises the new rules will be punished”.

Students were also encouraged to call talkback radio programs and write letters to the editor to develop their ability to think critically about world events.

Mr Robertson said the new course would form a solid basis for teaching students about values. He was critical of the approach former education minister, Brendan Nelson, had taken with posting value statements on school walls.

However, it seemed like the underlying motive of Robertson’s comments was to advocate for equality between the public and private sectors of education:

After hearing the Education Minister, Julia Gillard, address the conference on Friday night, Mr Robertson said she had failed to address the need to make public education a first priority.

“A real [education] revolution will come when state schools set the standards,” he said. “Then, and only then, will we have equity.”

The article relies on a conflict and comparison to captivate readers, and is another article in the debate on how and what should be taught in schools.

It seems like topics reported on education to come down into 3 catagories:

• What should be taught
• How should it be taught
• Scandal (teachers with students, cheating etc)

And really; all of these come down to the basic premise of conflict.