Sherraden 1

Amanda Sherraden
Professor OBrien
C&T 762
24 November 2013
Human Rights in a Freshmen Geography course
When deciding how to structure my World Geography course, I decided to focus more on
current events than historical events. There is no current events course where I teach, and it is my
opinion that students need to know what the world around them currently looks like. Therefore,
current celebrations and world problems find their way into my curriculum on a daily basis. This
allows for the students to connect with the content more than if the course was instead tailored to
the past. When deciding what current events to include in class, I try to use materials that have an
impact on the world, that will significantly change something about a particular country, region,
or culture, or events that help illustrate how much different areas of the world have in common.
With this in mind, the idea of teaching about human rights to freshmen in a World Geography
course fits extremely well. I teach human rights, and the violation of those rights, because the
students can identify with the issues and the subject allows students to see how similar issues
affect people of different cultures.
The definition of human rights is relatively new. It stems from John Lockes idea of
natural law (people have the right to life, liberty, and property) but was not a term widely used
until after World War II. By one definition, a human right is a universal moral right, something
which all men, everywhere, at all times ought to have, something of which no one may be

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deprived without a grave affront to justice, something which is owing to every human being
simply because he is human (http://www.globalization101.org/human-rights-vs-naturalrights). These rights cross country borders; they connect and/or affect people around the world.

For example, a situation can create refugees which greatly affect the culture, economy, and
government of the surrounding countries. Issues can also create a global call for help, thus
joining many people from different backgrounds together.
Freshmen in high school have, understandably, a narrow view of the world. They focus
on issues within and involving themselves or sometimes the Unites States as a whole but aside
from that, they ignore the rest of the world. Unless they are forced to look at it. By using human
rights as a topic of discussion throughout a semester class, the students are forced to look at the
world around them and see how countries impact each other and the world as a whole. Human
rights affect the world economy, they create or change world alliances and relationships, the
existence of these violations can either validate the existence of the United Nations or challenge
its true usefulness, and because the issues cross so many borders, it is a way to see globalization
at work.
Take human trafficking for example. The trade of a human being creates a monetary
exchange between at least two, usually more, countries; thus affecting each of those economies.
The discovery or continued trade of humans changes the relationship countries have with each
other, often times damaging them, particularly if the trade is on a large scale. The fact that human
trafficking happens on such a grand scale and involves so many countries around the world begs
the question of what is the United Nations doing?. Why does the organization not stop such an
atrocity from happening, an atrocity that directly violates human rights? Finally, the world is in
constant communication and trade. There is very little that one could not trade for, humans

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included. Human trafficking is an issue that affects nearly every country around the world
whether because they are selling or buying humans, or because these humans are knowingly
crossing the land of a neighboring country on the way to their destination. Students need to see
these connections. More than that, they need to learn to make these connections on their own so
that they can further understand issues that arise throughout their lives.
Human rights is a naturally controversial topic to cover in class and can therefore be
shied away from. However, if not covered in school they may hear a very one-sided view about
issues and never have a chance to form their own opinions. Worse, students may never learn
about these topics at all. In a democratic country and an age where information is at ones
fingertips, it is necessary to teach students to form their own opinion about topics around the
world. Allowing students to do this within a classroom is one of the most important jobs of a
teacher. We can control the environment. We can create a classroom where it is not only
acceptable to have a differing opinion but where it is encouraged to share those opposing views.
Students need to learn how to base their opinions in fact and use those same facts to defend their
opinion. More importantly, however, students should learn how to accept a viewpoint different
from their own. By covering human rights issues and sharing opposing viewpoints in class,
students may be more apt to help solve an issue because they have a better understanding of the
issue as a whole, rather than just one side of it. They may also be more understanding of a
different viewpoint rather than thinking of that view as strange or crazy.
Acceptance is a powerful tool but one that is difficult to acquire; something I have to
keep in mind when I cover these issues in class. News articles, news segments, pictures,
statistics, graphs, maps, and interviews are used often in my class. Anything I can use to find
information about the same issue from different viewpoints or across time is of great importance.

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When I teach human rights issues, there is very little information that comes directly from me. I
will clarify vocabulary or cultural terms and ideas or answer questions but by and large, the
students have to put the information they have together themselves. Often times, there is an
accompanying chart or some sort of organizer to help them put the information together. The
reason I take more of a hands-off approach when it comes to teaching these issues is because I
want the students to come up with their own opinions. I want them to weed through information;
I want them to talk through their thinking with a partner or in a group of their peers; I want them
to come to their own conclusions that are based on information that they found and put together
rather than grasping on to a thought, idea, or concept of mine. An opinion has a longer lasting
and meaningful impact this way.
When deciding on information to cover concerning the regions of the world, I look for
materials that are generally relatable or issues that cross country borders. Information that can be
compared to another region is some of the most helpful because it cements an idea or concept in
students minds. When it comes to deciding what human rights issues to cover, I look for events
and situations that may not be common knowledge. I do not want to grab the most obvious of
situations; instead, I want to challenge my students thinking and opinions and/or introduce new
concepts to them. There is typically at least one human rights violation in each region of the
world that we investigate. Issues we cover are: violence surrounding the growing of drugs and
the selling of them, human trafficking, healthcare, education, immigration, disease control,
having a say in the government, the number of children a family can have, religion, the right to
vote, womens rights, the right to choose a job, the right to live as a civilian without the fear of
being killed, the right to love, the right to speak and write, and the right to live in your native

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culture. Each of these issues has greatly changed a country, affects countries other than where the
issue originates, crosses country borders, and/or has at least two opposing points of view.
Introducing and discovering ways to teach these controversial human rights issues is
perhaps the most difficult aspect to teaching them. I have to be mindful of what the culture of my
school is and know that I can offend people by our classroom topics. Therefore, I give students a
heads-up about our discussion topics and we review how to have a conversation in a respectful
manner. I also give opposing points of view from the beginning of the topic and make sure that
the approach taken with the issue is not one of having a right or wrong answer but instead of
being interpretive and open-ended. Another difficulty I face when discussing human rights issues
in a class of freshmen is making sure that I approach it in a way the students will understand. I
have to approach issues as though the students have no knowledge about it and use articles and
other information that is at a level the students understand. I am able to differentiate ability and
reading level in this way but at some point, there has to be a holistic view of the issue from start
to finish, or at least to present day. As issues are brought up, we find as much of the story as
possible and will relate it to something that has been previously discussed or that the students
have a reference to. However, it is not until the end of the semester that we will look at human
rights as a complete and separate entity.
Throughout the semester, I bring up human rights issues typically in the region where the
issue originates or is making headlines at the time. For example, students today associate
terrorism with the Middle East and with Muslims. So, I bring up the issue of terrorism and how it
is carried out when we talk about this region. We discuss who terrorists are, what their goal is,
and whether or not they are successful. Then, we discuss what acts of terrorism look like.
Students will explain that terrorism is wrong or bad, but getting to why it is wrong or bad is

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where they struggle. They recognize that loss of life is never really a good thing but tying that to
a human right is a struggle and it is here where I would like to focus more time in my classroom.
Suicide bombers and acts of terrorism in general are surprise, unannounced attacks; as are mass
shootings.
Most students in the United States find it very difficult, if not impossible, to relate to a
suicide bomber: they do not regularly hear about or see the effects of these attacks on the news.
What they do see are mass shootings and the effects those have locally and nationally. These
examples or situations are not the same. Mass shooters are not viewed as martyrs and are not
looking for a religious or family reward; they may not even be trying to draw attention to an
issue. However, both of these examples take away the right to life in traumatic and largely
viewed ways. The right the life is a natural, human life. People have the right to go to the mall, to
work, to a place of entertainment, and to school without the fear that they will lose their life. It is
this right that is being taken away from humans by suicide bombers and mass shooters. It is this
connection for why terrorism is wrong or bad that I want my students to make. I connect the
actions of these two groups of people because I want my students to understand how human
rights is affected by the decision of a few radical thinking people. It is easy for a high school
student to think of a suicide bomber whose actions are things completely un-relatable and
something that he/she will never have to experience. However, if as a teacher, I can connect
something seemingly un-relatable to an action my students have background knowledge with to
show that they are violating the same human right, then perhaps I can help students make a
connection for why this human right is so significant and needs to be protected.
Expressions are powerful. They can result in death, destruction, exile, hatred, ridicule,
etc. While we may shortly discuss how terrorists and/or mass shooters could better express their

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goal or belief, the right to expression is one that is instead typically brought up with the United
States. Students believe that they should be able to say what they want to say, when they want to
say it, no matter where they are. This semester, there have been two large freedom of expression
issues at the forefront of news at different times that challenge this thinking. The first example
was the former CIA employee and NSA contractor who leaked classified government
information about surveillance programs to the media. The information involving Edward
Snowden and his actions could place students in a rather polarizing discussion as it directly
challenges the right to freedom of speech. A structured discussion (a fishbowl, Socratic seminar,
or four-corners discussion around the topic was Snowden exercising his right of freedom of
speech or did he not have the right due to his job) would not only allow students to share their
thoughts but would also allow for students to really examine the right to free speech. Here, is an
American citizen who exercised his freedom of expression, his First Amendment right
Snowden has given interviews, has contributed to blogs, has at least talked of writing a book
and who is a wanted criminal for doing so. Structuring the discussion in a way to allow students
to talk about situations where the right exists and building to the Snowden events, students may
truly start to understand the complications with this human right.
The relationship between the United States and Russia is a complicated one with a long
history. A discussion revolving around Snowden and freedom of speech could tie to what
Vladimir Putin was expressing when he granted Snowden asylum. This would allow for a further
look into this relationship, which brings us to a second freedom of expression issue today. The
right to express who you love in a public, lawfully binding way has been an issue homosexual
people have faced for most, if not all, of history. This human rights issue has recently come to the
forefront of America politics and culture, specifically with the Supreme Court cases Dennis

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Hollingsworth v. Kristin M. Perry and United States v Edith Schlain Windsor. When the United
States Supreme Court decided to hear these cases, the issue of gay marriage became something
heard on the news and on the radio (Macklemores Same Love). Many people have spoken both
for and against this human rights issue. However, when a report emerged that Russia would not
allow protests for nor allow any show of support for this issue; the world reacted in a very strong
and mostly negative way.
Having students look at the issue of gay rights as a freedom of expression is certainly
controversial. However, being an issue that is so vocal in todays society, it is one I feel should
be discussed. Same Love is on the public radio, a song clearly in favor of making same-sex
marriage legal. Discussing the ability of the song to not only be written, but to be played on
public radio is a great way to discuss both the issue itself as well as the human right to the
expression of love. Does or should a song be censored because of the message? To tie in with
Russia and their announcement of how this issue would be dealt with at the Sochi Olympic
Games in February 2014: does Russia have the right to not allow gay-rights protests? Same-sex
marriage overcame a hurtle in the United States but that does not mean that other countries have
reached that same level of acceptance. In this case, students should understand the outrage aimed
at Russia but also have the ability to decide if it is justified or not.
The final example of a human rights issue to possibly discuss in a World Geography class
with high school freshmen, is the right to get an education. Students in America look at school as
a place they have to go in order to learn some information, much of which they deem irrelevant
to their lives. With this attitude in mind, American students do not typically look at education as
something to fight for, let alone something to be killed over. When I heard the story of the
Pakistani sixteen-year-old girl, Malala Yousafzai, who has been lobbying for rights to education

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and womens rights since the age off eleven or twelve in her blog for the BBC, I knew I wanted
to use her story in class. The idea that someone the students age would get shot in the head for
lobbying for the right to go to school, survive, and tell her story to the world is amazingly
powerful. American students grow up with rights, and in Kansas it is very easy for those students
to look at those rights as being something that every human being has. However, when it is
pointed out that some rights are extremely rare in certain areas of the world, students attitudes
about life in general tends to change a bit.
Malala Yousafzais story can be found in many places on the internet. I would like to
teach her story using a jigsaw combined with a timeline of events. Jigsaws allow for
differentiated reading levels and have the ability to cover a lot of information in a short amount
of time. Assigning students articles to read that deal with Malala and the issue of the right to an
education over time, particularly in Pakistan, will allow for a cohesive discussion of this human
right. From there, looking at the impact Malala has had on not just the South Asia and Middle
East regions but on the world as a whole, would be a great discussion to have with students.
Knowing that someone their age is making waves in a world run by adults, is a powerful
message to students, and one where they can see the value of an education.
Human rights are rights that belong to all humans, across country borders. Yet, each
country deals with them in their own way. It is easy to lay blame for human rights violations but
when examined at a deeper level, students can begin to see that things are not as black and white
as they may seem when it comes to certain freedoms. Placing students in the shoes of people,
relating things to students lives, allows them to truly understand a situation and form their own
opinion about it. It is easy for teachers to say they do not want to cover a current event because
of the controversy surrounding it. It is easy for parents to say that they do not want their children

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discussing controversial issues around the world. However, it is in a school where students have
a safety net to talk about controversial issues and develop an opinion about them before they get
into the real world and have to face these issues head-on.

Works Cited
Please see the links on the blog: http://sherradenhumanrights.weebly.com/summative-assignment.html for websites and
articles used to aid in the writing of this paper.