Category:

Human Rights

Subcategory:

Justice

Title:

A Definition Of Fairness

Author:

Amnesty International

Background:

Aim:

This brainstorm activity helps to develop children’s natural sense of fairness.

Learning point:

- Rights are based on fairness.

Time:

About one hour

Description:

How to do it:

~ Brainstorm with the class on the question "what is fair/unfair?". Write down all the class's ideas where they can be seen. Try to keep ideas short, but don't shorten them without checking what the child meant. Ask the class to form small groups. Give the groups five minutes to write a definition of what fairness is.

~ Display the results on the wall. If some of the definitions are different ask the class if they can think of a common definition that includes all the definitions. Display this definition on the wall (If there are several definitions, display them all).

~ Ask the questions below to help the children to think about what fairness means. If possible, illustrate the definition with drawings about fairness/unfairness.

Questions:

~ Is fairness important? Why? Can you think of a time from your life when something was fair and a time when something was unfair?

~ What makes things unfair? How did it feel when things were unfair?

~ Can things always be made fair? How can we try to make things fair in our class/school/country/world?

Choices:

~ This process of definition can also be used for freedom, tolerance, responsibility, peace, or any other issue related to human rights. Its value lies in encouraging children to express their in-born feeling about what is "right". As a long-term project children can make human rights dictionaries. When unfamiliar words come up during you human rights teaching, work with the class to reach a simple definition which they can write in their dictionaries.