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TEACHING THE HUDSON VALLEY BLOG
| Where, After All, Do Human Rights Begin? In Small Places, Close to Home |
| on September 02, 2010 |
 That quote from Eleanor Roosevelt is close to Susanne Norris's heart. An educator at the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Sites, Susanne stays busy running a Discovery Center and a long list of education programs each using the historic homes in Hyde Park as teaching to tools in lessons about history, ecology, forestry, and many other topics. One of Susanne's favorites,"Where do Human Rights Begin," takes place at Val-Kill Cottage, Eleanor Roosevelt's home. It builds on Roosevelt's accomplishments to help 7th-12th graders grasp the role of human rights in the real world. Those interested in teaching about human rights can join Susanne for a special workshop September 15. See below for details.
Norris then explains Roosevelt’s work as chair of the United Nations’ Human Rights Commission, which authored the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
“Then it starts to get personal,” Norris told me. Students walk to different tablets around the room and write down what they like to eat and wear, the technology they use, where these things come from, and what they have to do with human rights. The session also explores Roosevelt's “My Day” articles -- the first lady’s daily newspaper column in which she reported her day-to-day thoughts and activities, often relaying personal encounters with injustice or opinions on local legislation. Norris believes this helps convey the relevance of human rights to individual students. The Colorado teachers had a lot of fun during this session--comparing gardens, joking about flannel, and commiserating about love-hate relationships with cell-phones. But they were also very serious in recognizing that many products are affordable as a result of poor working conditions or environmental degradation. Norris explained that usually her students aren’t very aware of these relationships. She said most of them don’t think very far beyond the store where they’ve purchased something. This exercise is designed to introduce a connection between what we buy and what goes into producing it. For the rest of the program, students use “My Day” columns and videos about current human rights issues, including migrant labor in the Hudson Valley, and some alternatives like Fair Trade, to compare and contrast Eleanor’s era with today. During the workshop I participated in, teachers seemed to share Eleanor's personal concern about human rights. For example, many talked about contentions in Colorado over migrant labor and the effects on their home towns when businesses outsource labor. At the end of the workshop, we reconvened, and the teachers discussed the difficulty of finding a solution to the problems presented. Norris said the program can be challenging for students for that reason. “But all we’re asking them to do is think critically,” Norris said. “We want them to make the connection between these issues, Eleanor, and themselves. She becomes the role model, and I just tell them, whatever you’re passionate about, act on it.” Norris said she gives a few, general suggestions for ways to do this -- school projects, family discussions -- reiterating Eleanor’s idea of starting close to home. Interested? Experience this workshop for yourself at 4:15 p.m., Wednesday, September 15 for a program very similar to the one described here. Go through "Where Do Human Rights Begin" as a student would and then discussion how to engage students in the lessons and activities presented. Join Susanne at Val-Kill just off 9G in Hyde Park. For more information, or to register, visit the Mid-Hudson Teacher Center before September 12. Check out The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project for lessons, photos, resources, and a comprehensive collection of "My Day" columns. Visit the FDR Presidential Library and Museum for historic documents, photos, recordings, and electronic archives. The Eleanor Roosevelt quote at the top of this blog was part of a speech made at the United Nations, March 27, 1958 and can be found at The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project. Photo of Susanne Norris by Bill Urbin, National Park Service. Photo of Eleanor Roosevelt courtesy of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum, Hyde Park. |
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