Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Kids and rights

Apparently Dager is not standard reading in elementary school. These were at the Valley West Hy-Vee, apparently elementary schools kids were asked to write about what freedom meant to them.

The first one says "Freedom to me is having a government that the people are in charge and that is called a democracy. We the people have a thing called rights, and those rights came from the government and we fight in wars to regain(?) our freedoms"



The second one says "It means I can do what I want, when I want, however I want". I thought these were a good example of how rights are perceived in everyday life. The kid who wrote the second one basically gives the simplest explanation of how rights work in the US. This is especially interesting because you can tell by the writing that the child is very young. This isn't something they came up with all on their own after contemplating the nature of rights and responsibilities. The more likely (and depressing) explanation is that this what they were taught by their parents or in school. This kid's hyper-individualized notion of rights is being rewarded by having it displayed in public.

3 comments:

  1. Wow, I thought I remembered how focused the education system here is on individualism, especially with regard to individual rights, but the second picture is a very blunt reminder that it is even worse than I thought! This is interesting. Thanks for sharing this Darin!

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  2. Thanks for sharing! This is just a reminder that America is all about "ME".

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  3. Also, how do we add pictures to blogs. They are very beneficial.

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