Vlietland Secondary School visits Leiden Law School to learn about children's rights
Secondary Education
On 27 May, 180 pupils from Vlietland Secondary School visited Leiden University’s law faculty. At the school, pupils learn about themes that are important for them as well as for the world, such as sustainability, globalisation and children's rights.
As part of her PhD research, Chrisje Sandelowsky spoke about global citizenship with Marije Joosten who works as a teacher at Vlietland Secondary School and is one of the organisers of the World Weeks at that school, when pupils work interactively on themes such as sustainability, globalisation and also children’s rights. Together, they came up with the idea to give pupils a lesson on their rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, to be taught at Leiden Law School.
It turned out to be a fascinating session where pupils talked with Professor Ton Liefaard, UNICEF Chair of Children's Rights, and Chrisje Sandelowsky about the relevance of their rights in their daily life, and the lives of many others. UNICEF the Netherlands provided booklets so that every pupil left the session with a child-friendly version of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in their hands.
Marije Joosten was happy with the initiative: ‘It was wonderful to talk with pupils about their rights and to make them aware that every child, no matter where they live, has the right to be protected, to receive an education and to be heard. The lesson had even more impact being taught in the beautiful lecture hall at Leiden Law School’. Chrisje Sandelowsky was pleased with the response from the pupils: ‘rights are worthless if the people they are meant for don't know about them. I think it’s great that teachers from Vlietland Secondary School wanted to organise this visit here to help advance that cause!’