Vocabulary

Critical Thinking leads to Critical Awareness, which is an active, persistent and careful consideration of a belief or supposed form of knowledge in light of the grounds that support it, and the further conclusions to which it tends. (John Dewey, 1909) Critical Literacy is the product. 
Denial is the refusal of something that is requested or desired..
Empowerment is a process that helps people gain control over their own lives and act on issues that are important to them. It is also a social process because it occurs in relationship to others.
Oppression is a prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control.
Social Justice implies fairness and mutual obligation in society, meaning that we are responsible for one another, and that we should ensure that all have equal chances to succeed in life. 

Purpose - Questioning Root Causes

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Critical awareness in Children's Rights Education is to question oppression and denial of rights. With the knowledge, values, and behaviours children have acquired through Children's Rights Education, children are empowered to question the root causes of social injustice as they advocate to realize children's rights for all children. In these 3 sub-units in the 'Critical Awareness' section, children first identify how critical awareness leads to critical literacy, which equips the child with the tools to question oppression and denial of rights.
Child Asks: What is critical awareness in Children's Rights Education?
Children's Rights Education enables the child to identify that critical awareness in Children's Rights Education is to question oppression and denial of rights.
Child Answers: Children's Rights Education makes me become critically aware of oppression and denial of rights.

Classroom Learning Activities

1. The Story of Stuff
Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John C. Ryan and Alan Thein Durning
This small book explores a very simple but critical meme: most of the seemingly benign stuff in our everyday lives has a very complicated past that’s energy-intensive and environmentally damaging. To convey this, Stuff follows a typical North American citizen through a single day and backtracks the inputs required for their coffee, T-shirt, computer, hamburger, etc. The findings are startling: did you know that it takes 700 gallons of water just so you can have your Quarter-Pounder? Statistics like this create a kind of social unease, hopefully enough to bring awareness to the significant environmental aftermath of our everyday lives. TreeHugger hopes that Stuff will spur readers on to vote against needless waste with their every purchase.
Lesson Plans:
  • Stuff Curriculum and Resource Guide:  This curriculum package was developed by NEW BC, a nonprofit organization based in Victoria, British Columbia, to accompany a 1997 book by Northwest Environment Watch (now Sightline Institute) called Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things. As an approach to science, social studies and environmental education, this material has a simple premise: that young people are curious about their world. Stuff gives students the opportunity to explore their world in a new way. For example, students will be encouraged to think about and explore what really goes into their lunchtime french fries – where were the potatoes grown? What fertilizers and pesticides were used? How were the potatoes harvested and transported? How much energy was used in processing? How about the salt and ketchup? An entire web of connections and impacts is revealed behind those everyday items we normally don’t even think about. In learning about their stuff, students will also explore new ways of looking at their world, making links between the environment, their society, and themselves.
Story of Stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls us together to create a more sustainable and just world. It'll teach you something, it'll make you laugh, and it just may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life forever.

©Tides Foundation & Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption

Relevant Convention Articles

Article 12
1. States Parties shall assure to the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity of the child.
2. For this purpose, the child shall in particular be provided the opportunity to be heard in any judicial and administrative proceedings affecting the child, either directly, or through a representative or an appropriate body, in a manner consistent with the procedural rules of national law.
Article 13
1. The child shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice.
2. The exercise of this right may be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; or
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals.
Article 14
1. States Parties shall respect the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.
2. States parties shall respect the rights and duties of the parents and, when applicable, legal guardians, to provide direction to the child in the exercise of his or her right in a manner consistent with the evolving capacities of the child.
3. Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health or morals, or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.
Article 15
1. States Parties recognize the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly.
2. No restrictions may be placed on the exercise of these rights other than those imposed in conformity with the law and which are necessary in a democratic society in the interests of national security or public safety, public order (ordre public), the protection of public health or morals or the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
Article 42
States Parties undertake to make the principles and provisions of the Convention widely known, by appropriate and active means, to adults and children alike.

Online Resources and References