Celebration of the Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child
It is a custom of Montessori schools to invite special guests - people from different professions who want to share their work and passion with children.
On November 20, our Academy celebrated the anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We had the opportunity to welcome a special guest - a real expert on children's rights, the grandmother of one of our students - Ms Ala.
During an hour-long meeting, children learned about the fundamental rights of children - the right to speech, the right to education, the right to rest, and the right to privacy. The students worked in groups, and based on materials prepared by Ms Ala, they could find out by themselves what particular rights might be related to.
The topic aroused the curiosity of the class. There was also a fundamental question: "do all children in the world have the same rights?" We learned that children worldwide have the same rights, but due to different economic, political, or religious situations, these rights are often not protected and realized. We also discovered that individual rights, e.g. the right to speech and personal inviolability, are not just slogans but also present in school life.
As an expression of disapproval of the fact that children's rights are still violated in many places in the world, the whole class conducted a particular "lesson" of silence - all the children took turns extinguishing the flame of a candle. It was a calming and reflective experience. This special lesson was part of our project "WE SCHOOL - We Are Silent".
More about the project here: https://www.we.org/we-schools/program/campaigns/we-are-silent/