The Next Generation and Human Rights Education

Recently, the local public international school in Lund, Sweden (where I am spending the year as a Fulbright scholar) invited me to speak on the topic of “what are human rights.”  My audience consisted of a group of twenty-five 5th graders from Sweden, the UK, Canada, Pakistan, India, the US, China, Iran and no doubt other places, too. 

I have to say, I was impressed.  The kids have been going through the Universal Declaration of Human Rights provision-by-provision.  They are up to Article 12, and they were very knowledgeable about the origins of the document and why human rights are important.  They even knew the difference between a declaration and a treaty!

However, then we started to talk about practical application of human rights.  And because it’s been in the news in the US, I brought up the issue of women in military combat positions.  I assumed that, understanding equality issues, they would immediately see that anyone who is qualified should be permitted to serve.  And there was, in fact, one lonely student who articulated that view.  But the rest who spoke (both boys and some girls) were adamant that women need to stay home and, as one Swedish boy said, “take care of babies and clean the house.”

So here’s where the rubber meets the road.  Even in a country that values gender equality and in a school that takes human rights education seriously, 10-year-olds can’t get beyond women as caregivers.  Of course, at age 10, the kids’ views on equality may be colored by deep fears that their own moms could come to harm and they’d be left to fend for themselves.  But I’m afraid that these understandable fears for a 10 year old may form the foundation for rigid gender views in adulthood. 

In short, human rights education in the early grades is critical and wonderful, but standing alone, it’s all academic.  Kids need real-world role models and examples of gender equality in movies and other media from an early age (certainly before age 10) in order to truly understand that both men and women can “take care of babies and clean the house,” or not.