The right to be different and special MAKES YOU UNIQUE

Ahoy Matey! Happy New Year.

Everything is ready to continue with our Treasure Adventure: our ship, our Pirate currency, our captains, and ... I hope all our piratesas well! I have been informed that Barbossa is better and will also return tomorrow morning!

Our blog is also ready and we finally say goodbye to the Christmas song. Hurrah!

During this term we will give great importance to values, especially regarding the diversity of our current world. That is, what makes each of you different, special and unique! 

John Lennon became famous as part of the 1960s pop group the Beatles. After their split he enjoyed a successful solo career, but it was cut short by his early death in 1980.

Imagine is an iconic song by John Lennon calling for peace around the world. 

His lyrics are undoubtedly beautiful. John Lennon believed the world would be more peaceful if there were no countries, no religion and no possessions.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today... Aha-ah...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one.

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world... You...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.

‘Imagine there’s no heaven’

 What might the man on the train be feeling? • What would you say to him? • Why are all the colours grey? • Have you seen the badge on the pigeon’s bag before? What does it mean? • What is the pigeon carrying in her beak? Where does it come from?
‘No hell below us. Above us only sky’ 

 What is the pigeon feeling in this picture? • Where do you think the boat is going? • Why has the artist changed the colours he is using?

‘Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do’ 

 

 What are the seagulls looking at in each of the pictures? • Why are the seagulls fighting? • What makes them stop? • How do you think they feel in the last image? • What do you think the seagulls do next? Draw a new page showing this.
‘I hope some day you will join us’

 • How do you feel when you are alone? And with other people? • How do you think the pigeon feels when the other birds join her on the wire?

‘Imagine no possessions. I wonder if you can’
 
• What possessions could you imagine giving up?

‘I hope some day you’ll join us and the world will live as one’

 

1. What does John Lennon mean when he says he’d like the world to live as one?  
2. How can one person help to make the world kinder, safer and more peaceful? 
3. Why is it important that people work together? 
4. What do you think would make the world a much better place?
5. Think of a time you were treated unfairly. How did you feel? What could someone have done to help? Could you have done anything differently?
6. Talk about other words associated with fairness: sharing, kindness, tolerance, equality.

• John Lennon believed the world would be more peaceful if there were no countries, no religion and no possessions. Draw your peaceful place and talk about the things that would make the world peaceful.

• Decorate a pigeon template with a message for a better world. Think about words: peace, freedom, sharing, unity, safety and fairness.

DIVERSITY

What does diversity mean?

Diversity means that there are lots of different kinds of things.

https://kidshelpline.com.au/kids/issues/being-ok-being-different

Just as there are lots of different makes of cars, bikes, washing machines, balls or just about anything you can think of, so there is diversity among people.

The beauty of the world lies in the diversty of its people. 

We all have the same general structure - two legs, two arms, two eyes, etc.  but we all look different to each other.

• Skin, hair and eyes can be many different colours.
• The size and shape of our faces and our bodies are different.
• Most amazing of all is that our DNA and our fingerprints are different to every other person's.
• In all the billions of people in the world, each one of us is unique.

It's ok to be mising a tooth.

It's ok to need some help.

It's ok to have a different nose.

It's ok to be a different colour.

It's ok to have no hair.

It's ok to have big ears.

It's ok to have wheels.

It's ok to have a shell like Jack and Barbossa.

It's ok to wear glasses.

It's ok to be prouf of yourself.

It's ok to have different kinds of friends.

IT'S OK TO BE DIFFERENT. 

You are important and special just because of being who you are.

THANK YOU FOR BEING SOMEONE UNIQUE! 

Diversity is not just about our bodies. Where we are born in the world can make for a great deal of diversity too. There are differences in:

• languages
• religions
• beliefs
• cultural traditions
• types of houses where we live
• schools
• jobs
• things to do in our spare time

I'm sure that you can think of lots more differences that all add to the diversity of human beings in our world.

You don't have to go anywhere to find diversity. Just look around at your family, classmates and friends and you will find it.

Every single person you know is different. How about your brothers, sisters and cousins?

• Do they all look alike, sound alike, have the same skills and talents, share the same interests?
• They might have some similarities (you may all have the same colour hair), but lots of differences too.

And the great thing about diversity is that it makes the world an interesting place to be, and full of interesting and different people. How good is that?

How boring if everything and everyone were the same.

“The person who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The person who walks alone is likely to find himself in places no one has ever seen before.” – Albert Einstein

“The things that make me different are the things that make me.” – Winnie The Pooh

But... how does diversity happen?

In the 'olden days' most people were born, lived and died in the same part of the world. They often looked pretty much like other people who lived there, shared the same beliefs, wore similar clothes and they probably spoke the same language.

Nowadays, there is more and more diversity around us because:

• people travel around a lot more in their own countries
• they may go to live and work in other countries.
• when people move to other countries they add their diversity to that country in all sorts of ways - food, culture, religion, beliefs, music, and art are some of these differences.
• people from different backgrounds may marry and have children together.

What's great about diversity?

As more people from different countries come to a country, then there is more diversity in the population of that country.

• Everyone can learn more about other cultures.
• Everyone can share and enjoy the differences.
• Everyone can work together to make the country a good place to live for everyone.
• You can get to learn and play new games, or find out what the games you play are called in other countries. 

What can be not so great?

• Some people are afraid of diversity.
• Some people are afraid of change.
• Some people want everyone to be the same as themselves.
• Some people don't want to accept that others do not have the same beliefs as themselves.
• Some people are unkind to others who seem different in some way.

There are three words that describe this unkindness.

Prejudice is when someone decides something about another without knowing anything about that person.

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• In the 'olden days' maybe it was understandable that people would be afraid of another group of people who looked different, had a different religion and did things in a different way, because most people lived and died in the place where they were born.
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• People who always lived in the same place with others like them might fear that people who looked or acted differently may want their land or may want to hurt them in some way.
• Nowadays, because people travel a lot, or go to live in a completely different country, or go to school with lots of people from different places, we should learn to respect each other's differences.
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• Racism is when someone is not given a fair go because of his race, skin colour or religion.
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• Nelson Mandela was the first black President of South Africa. He spent 27 years in prison for his beliefs. He fought against racism adn segregation. After he left prison, he worked to achieve human rights and a better future for everyone in South Africa.
• 

When Mandela was growing up, black people had little say in how South Africa was run. The government was whites-only. Most black people were poor. They worked as servants. They worked on farms, and in factories and gold mines.

He became a hero to people all over the world. As South Africa's President, he was respected for his courage and wisdom in bringing people together to live in peace.

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Barack Obama is most famous for being the first African American President of the United States.

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• Sexism is when someone is not given a fair go because of his or her sex.
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When someone is treated badly in any of these ways it is called discrimination.

A stereotype is something that we believe to be true about a particular group of people. 

Stereotyping can help us relate to others in our world but it can also lead to Prejudice, Racism and Sexism.

• Is every boy sports mad?

• Is every girl into fashion?

• Is pink for girls and blue for boys?

• Is everyone of a different religion to you a bad person?

• Is everyone in any group of people exactly the same as all others belonging to that age, or sex or race?

There are good and bad people everywhere. Every person is unique. What do others think of you?

Hands up those who like pizza!

Well imagine what your favourite pizza would be like if half the ingredients were missing. Each country, each neighbourhood, each school, even each class is like the best 'pizza', because of the diversity of people who are in them.

One bad apple in a box can affect the others but that doesn't mean all the apples are bad. We need to remember this and be careful not to assume that one bad person in any group in any part of the world means that everyone in that group is bad.

In Australia there is a saying "give him/her a fair go". People move around the world to live or work in other countries. Maybe when you grow up you will find yourself in a place where you are different in some ways to the people who live there. Wouldn't you like them to 'give you a fair go'?

What are the human rights? 

What are our rights?

Our rights are what every human being deserves, no matter who they are or where they live, so that we can live in a world that is fair and just.

Some of our rights

Everyone has the right to have:

• safety
• education
• shelter (somewhere to live)
• warmth
• food
• clothing
• personal space
• freedom of speech
• to be different
• to feel comfortable
• equal opportunities (given the chance to be what you want to be whether you are rich or poor, whatever religion or race).
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Of course since these rights are for everybody, that means we all have to take on responsibility too.

What is a responsibility?

A responsibility is something that is your job to do something about, or to think about. It is something that affects our lives and other people's lives.

Some of our responsibilities

• to follow the rules at home, at school and in the community after all they are there for our safety and to protect our rights and the rights of others 
• to stand up for our rights and the rights of others as much as we can
• to be the best person that we can be
• to take care of our own bodies as best we can
• to respect the rights of others
• to look after our own belongings and respect the belongings of others
• to learn as well as we can
• to care about others who are not as strong in some ways as we are.

 Can you think of other responsibilities that you might have?

Why are human rights importantant?

The right to be different and special MAKES US UNIQUE.
If we want to have rights, then we have to act in a responsible way so that everyone and everything on the earth can have rights too.