Many adults do not understand human rights – what they are, why they’re important, how their presence or absence affects the well-being of society. As far a I can tell, the reason adults don’t understand human rights is that they didn’t learn about it in school. What’s worse, even if human rights issues are covered in social studies or ethics classes, it’s damn near impossible to convey the importance of human rights when the humans in the class don’t have any. It’s like trying to explain the importance of the internet to people without electricity. Here are 6 ways schools systematically undermine rights education by ignoring human rights in their own practices.
6. No trials
If a students is accused of wrongdoing, he has no right to any sort of trial or tribunal, and sometimes no opportunity to defend himself. Consider, for example, the no-tolerance policies for fighting at some schools. Self defense? Bah. Never through a punch? Bah. You’re suspended anyway.
5. No elected government
Schools are dictatorships. The students get no say in who’s in charge or what the rules are.
4. No mobility rights
Just imagine if, as an adult, you got up to go take a piss and some dude told you to sit your ass back down and hold it. I’d be so shocked, I don’t know if I’d even have the presence of mind to tell him to go fuck himself.
3. No right to privacy
Here’s a favorite in movies: the teacher intercepts a note and reads it in front of class. Who the fuck does she think she is? Interfering with the post is a federal offense in many countries, but nabbing student’s notes is ok? Another: police need a warrant to search your house or car, but your kids locker in school? Nope. Here’s one that’s far more nefarious: a Canadian school board is considering mandatory drug testing for students.
2. No freedom of association
Something that always rotted me was when teachers give detention to whole classes because some of the students were loud or otherwise misbehaved. This is taught in education degree programs as a method of encouraging students to self-police. Bullshit. It teaches students that punishing people for the actions of others is ok and that freedom of association is nonsense.
1. No freedom of speech or expression
And here is the kicker. Uniforms. No Swearing. No criticizing your school on MySpace. No describing scientific research that conflicts with the views of the school. No criticizing human-rights-violating referendums. Et cetera.
So when the Bush Administration turned the US into a dictatorship, when people are held in prisons without evidence or trial just because they were near by where trouble happened, when people are told to watch what they say and not criticize their governments, when the government spies on its own citizens and taps their phones with no prior evidence, don’t expect outrage. Nobody’s surprised, because that’s what they grew up with.
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It’s called ageism, and I consider it to be as bad as sexism and racism. Think about it: women and other races, at one time (even sometimes today) are given less rights and consideration and treated less than human. Basically, until a person reaches the magic age barrier of 18 they are treated like shit.
Ageism is the only “ism” that is still tolerated and in fact openly welcomed in our society.
“women and other races, at one time (even sometimes today) are given less rights and consideration and treated less than human.”
This comment is correct, but not entirely. Men and white people can also be given less rights or consideration.
This is very prominent in our current domestic violence laws, and in divorce court for men, and there are various examples for white people. Watch ESPN Basketball commentary and they almost always laude black players for their natural talent(because they’re black), and then say things like “he may not be very athletic(Even though he’s a professional athlete, I am pretty sure being much more athletic than an average human is a given) he sure does work hard” about white players. This is racist in that it says “white people can only be as good as black people at sports by practicing way more than they do”, and it also discounts the hard work of black players because in their eyes the “talent” was there at birth–which is total bs–Like MJ or Lebron never practiced….yeah right.
I know it’s fashionable to restate the tiresome “women and minorities are opressed” line, but to ignore infractions against the rights of males or white people is misandric and racist.
Sorry if this is off topic, but had to say it. There’s plenty of hate going around and everyone is getting some albeit in different flavors, so please stop with the “women and minorities” bullshit.
“Why Nobody Understands Human Rights (hint: had none in school)”
Forget about school, is there one single country on the planet that is setting a clear, consistent, objective, example? I mean, by my definition, there’s human rights violations taking place all over the world (right now) and guess what, it’s not going to be on my nightly news channel.
H, you’re right. Although unfortunately there’s also ageism against the elderly AND teenagers. Both groups have been marginalized, which is kind of fucked up considering we’ve all been kids and (hopefully) we’ll all get to be seniors… I guess most people are too short-sighted to think about that. I guarantee if we treated children and teens with more respect they would grow up to be better people. They need boundaries, but they don’t need belittling!
J, you’re right that there’s prejudice and bullshit for every cultural group. But as a hetero white guy even I have to say that I have it pretty good, and definitely better than most women and minorities in my country (USA). Although to be fair I am not a divorced basketball player…
@H, I agree with you that this is agism, to some extent, and that agism is a big problem. However, I would go so far as to say Ageism is the only “ism” that is still tolerated and in fact openly welcomed in our society. I think classism, anti-rationalism, racism against arabs, sexism against men and unfair discrimination against homosexuals are all widely accepted and promoted in North America.
@J, good point about the ‘women and other races’ thing. Also, the term ‘other races’ is itself racially charged in that it gives ‘white’ a default status, although I don’t think H meant it that way.
@Rick. See Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark for the best examples of countries setting a clear, consistent example. Objectivity is a myth.
@D, good comments. You’re view is supported by studies of some african cultures where children become adults through a coming-of-age ceremony in the teenage years. These societies not only do not have problems with adolescent angst, they don’t even have words for ‘adolescence.
@Kavan – “See Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Denmark for the best examples of countries setting a clear, consistent example. Objectivity is a myth.”
Maybe within their own borders ,but what are they (or any country) doing to stop the genocide in Darfur and Sudan? Not enough I can tell you that.
“Objectivity is a myth” – I don’t understand how you could be any kind of steward for human rights without it. Human rights shouldn’t just apply to the people I care about, or think deserve them.
my first day of college, the first class, there were students wearing coats in class, one was eating a bagel, one student and the teacher each said a 4 letter word, and one guy got up and went to the bathroom while the teacher was in mid sentence and the teacher didnt even flinch. i was SO impressed that college wasnt like high school, where i had to wear an ID badge, kiss the ass of anyone working there, and be in my seat when the bell rang or i got written up. even for lunch. add to that the factory food, filthy bathrooms, no AC eccept the office and english wing… even adults cant stand working under these conditions. i vowed to grow up and respect people younger than me.
this was in the mostly white, middle class suburbs, btw. we have pretty banners hanging from the light posts, and kids knifing each other in the cafeteria. then we all turned 18 and were expected to act like functioning grown ups. (sigh)
@Rick, I agree completely that no country is doing their part in de-escalating the cycle of violence. Regarding the myth of objectivity, you may be right that effectively promoting human rights is difficult or impossible if objectivity is a myth. However, the truth of a statement is not in its consequences. In comparison, pointing out that landing a plane with no wings is very difficult has no bearing on whether the wings have fallen off a particular plane.
@me, interesting…