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"Educators have a fundamental role in promoting the development of the awareness of being an integral part of a humanity where the other is the bearer of the same fundamental needs and rights that everyone feels his own. It is necessary to reflect on the one hand on the themes and problems of the education to human rights and at the same time to promote and encourage the concrete translation into behaviors of the learned values, but it is not obvious and simple to concretize this purpose within the different educational agencies, first of all the school. The problem is how to make the Human rights education is a fundamental and ongoing practice of school life, training people capable of effectively and effectively recognizing and respecting human rights.An integrated educational system is necessary, with family, school, local authorities, etc. with a pedagogical goal Common: The family is the first educational environment where human rights are educated. In the school we experience the first coexistence with diversity and it is necessary next to the right to education, to teach the right to equality and the right to diversity, for a goal of civil and democratic coexistence. We must also translate these rights into behaviors, making them recognizable in collective action, without the fear of resorting to possible sanctions for those who do not respect them. Rights must be taught because this is the only way they are universally recognized. We respect what we know and recognize. Information spreads them, makes them visible. Training makes them lived and personal, it helps to make them their own, and this can happen through contact with experiences, stories. It is legitimate to ask whether the current educational structures with their programs, sometimes excessively notional and overloaded with themes, will be able, in the times assigned, to produce the formation of consciences from which the conscious and responsible citizen called to realize this new world will emerge. . Thanks to the involvement of the whole school, human rights can be integrated into the curriculum and extracurricular activities, so that everyone has the opportunity to learn human rights and take concrete action to promote them. In a "Human Rights Friendly School" young people are invited to establish what their rights are, to share them with others and to have them respected inside and outside the school environment. The school should contribute to forming a conscious and responsible society that respects social but also environmental rights. In fact, the environment is closely connected with the value of human life, since, if environmental resources were destroyed, because they were lost or irreversibly altered, human life itself would be in danger.

 

In this perspective, as a primary school educator, I asked myself how to transmit values ​​like justice, equity and equality to my students, because it is enough to look around to see how the fundamental rights provided by the international charters are continually violated.

 

In March 2013 I met Mrs. Kathleen Kennedy, daughter of former Senator Robert Kennedy invited to Trento by the Caritro Foundation. On that occasion, Dr. Valentina Pagliai, head of the RFK Foundation based in Florence, presented the project "Speak Truth To Power" - courage without boundaries. The project, a global initiative of the RFK Center for Justice and Human Rights, through the brave defenders' experiences and stories from around the world, aims to educate students and communities on human rights. It also includes an educational manual for the primary school, in which governments, organizations and schools are encouraged to support human rights with the hope of creating change. The aim is to help children understand and respect the differences with which they live together daily, help them create links between daily activities and human rights, recognizing the value of social justice.

 

This meeting becomes fundamental for the subsequent collaboration between the FRK and the school where I work.

 

In May of the same year, I took part in a seminar in Florence with colleagues at the headquarters of the RFK Foundation for personal training on human rights.

 

The following year on March 17, the RFK Foundation is invited to Rovereto (Tn) to present the educational project on human rights, "Speak Truth To Power", to primary and secondary schools of first degree. The initiative is promoted by the Associazione Grande Quercia of Rovereto (Tn), with whom I have been collaborating for some years, and supported by the Department of Education and Culture of the Province of Trento and the Caritro Foundation of Rovereto (Tn).

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In these years the theater boys have tried to build a space-dialogue in which to welcome the questions and reflections of the same with respect to issues as important as to some extent uncomfortable concerning the near reality or the most distant peoples, to meet them the possibility of becoming aware of the world in which we live in order to make increasingly free and conscious choices. During the summer months, with the group of boys, moments of common life far away from home were organized, summer camps, in which to concretely and daily experience sharing, collaboration, autonomy, a sense of responsibility, hard work, will, mutual respect. The will is to train responsible and active citizens, capable of bringing into the world with their actions what they speak on the stage with their voices.

 

In the school year 2014-15 I and some colleagues promoted the educational project "Mondo fa rima con noi" which involved pupils from the classes of the primary school of Volano (Tn). The project was suggested by reading the proposals contained in the "Courage without borders" manual of the RFK and provided for educational paths, laboratories, games and practical activities through which the students were able to learn about the experiences and stories of brave defenders of the whole world, of women and men who fought and fought for values ​​such as justice, equity and equality, recognizing the primary needs and inalienable rights for everyone, recognizing the International Charters in defense of the individual and actively exercising their role as citizens in our society. The path ended with an artistic exhibition of the works created by the students, open to the public on May 14, 2015, chaired by the RFK Foundation and supported by the Grande Quercia Association and the Municipality of Volano (Tn).

 

The theme of human rights is very current and the daily news, both in the poorest areas of the planet and in the most advanced ones, are the sad proof of this. We need the will to carry on this work with the kids, aware of the important role of educator in forming consciences. "

 

A person can change things.

And we should all try.

- R.Kennedy

 

Michela Comai

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