Middle School Students Honor Human Rights Day

The declaration, the first global enunciation of human rights and one of the first major achievements of the new United Nations, occurred Dec. 10, 1948. Eleanor Roosevelt, a member of the Drafting Committee on the Bill of Human Rights, stated at the time:

“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In the small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world.”

During Advisory, Middle School faculty and students discussed human rights and their connection to students’ work at Collegiate, in particular regarding Responsible Citizenship and Inclusion, one of the eight pillars.