Our education philosophy is based on our belief that the human rights of all children should be protected, and that all children should be aware of these rights. All of our workshops address these rights as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the International Declaration of Human Rights.
In an age of imbalanced representation in mainstream media, and a constant flow of negative and stereotypically imagery reaching our youth, we strive to encourage self-advocacy and self-representation through film. We help youth to generate their own stories, represent themselves, and portray their lives with human dignity and integrity.
In these reflections, I will be considering our impact, as facilitators and educators, on the youth we serve. Specifically, I will reflect on human rights issues in the following ways: 1) As they directly apply to our students in the South Bronx, 2) Our ability to successfully educate youth about thier rights as children, and finally 3) Whether our students apply human rights concepts in their media projects.
Published by Flannery Miller
Human Rights is one of the key themes that we focus on in our project and we focus on rights in the spectrum of youth media practices that tap into issues regarding communication rights and the normative international standards. Our goal in looking at Human Rights is to help the youth understand articles in Universal Declaration of Human Right and Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Our community based projects take the youth thorough the concepts of specific articles such as: the rights to participate in their cultural community, to share the latest technological advancements, the fundamental rights to education and training. We help the youth understand the right to generate their own stories, represent themselves, and portray their lives and stories with human dignity and integrity. In exploring these concepts, we help the youth to approach different issues using positive peace and taking those ideas to make transformative media.
Our projects aim to tap into core values of human rights though numerous workshops in which the youth are able to explore these themes in practice, then take that knowledge into the field for filming and then they can reflect and edit on what they bring back from the field. Our main goals is to make sure students leave the workshops with the capacities to read and view the world through a human rights lens.
Published by Sean Thomas
Article 28 (abridged)
1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to education, and with a view to achieving this right progressively and on the basis of equal opportunity, they shall, in particular:
(a) Make primary education compulsory and available free to all;
(e) Take measures to encourage regular attendance at schools and the reduction of drop-out rates.
2. States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity and in conformity with the present Convention.
This article has been interpreted in a few ways: Some believe that this stipulates that disciplinary procedures should be administered strictly to promote non-violence in schools (therefore removing children that cause others harm). Others interpret this article as a safeguard for all children that ensures that disciplinary procedures will not further victimize the child or restrict access to education.
In the South Bronx, our students consistently talk about the prevalence of violence in their communities--violence, for these children, is an everyday part of their lives. While it is important to protect children from violence in schools, it is also important to remember that violence is a symptom of a greater social problem—whether they are re-enacting this violence themselves, or weather they are exposed to it—they are all children and all victims of violence.
The common response to violence in schools is in a strictly punitive approach that endorses the removal of children from school for extended periods of time. In my opinion, this sends the message to children that they are criminals and therefore do not belong in schools. This also creates a school environment that not only prepares children for the juvenile justice system, but pushes them into it. This problem is commonly referred to as a “School-to-Prison Pipeline.”
In the year 2000 alone, over 97,000 children were expelled from schools in the United States. Thirty four percent of these children were African American which explains why 45% of children involved in the juvenile justice system are also African American. Children of color are also more likely than a white student to be suspended or expelled from school (for the same offense). Education, therefore, is becoming exclusive and does not demonstrate that children of color have a right to education. Are our educational disciplinary systems providing dignity to our children?
As facilitators, it was our responsibility to understand the system in which we work, and to create a partnerships with faculty, administration, teachers, and youth to ensure that our students were prepared and protected while filming. If I were to do anything again, I would have also put greater emphasis on mentorship and given adequate guidance to our students before sending the children out with cameras in hand.
While this raw footage gave us an amazing window into the lives and realities of the children in this community, the presence of the camera also perpetuated violence and limited our student’s access to education as a direct result of what he filmed. This was exactly the opposite of what we set out to accomplish.
