Watch the videos from the Institute’s Culminating Ceremony!
You’re invited! Join us at the Institute’s Culminating Ceremony on August 6!
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INVITATION FROM THE WORLD AS IT COULD BE IN COLLABORATION WITH
INTERNATIONAL AND MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF SAN FRANCISCO SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
Three-Day Institute to Experience The World As It Could Be Program Curriculum
Tuesday-Thursday, August 4-6, 2015 at Balboa High School in San Francisco
For
Class at 2014 Summer Institute
- San Francisco Unified School District Middle & High School Teachers
- Teachers, Administrators, Curriculum Developers of Bay Area High Schools
- University Faculty and Graduate Students
Please join us for our sixth highly acclaimed Three-Day Institute on The World As It Could Be Human Rights Education Program curriculum.
Click here for the Institute Flyer and Registration Form.
Twenty-one hours of Continuing Education Credit or 2 CEUs are provided by the University of San Francisco for a cost of $100; details and registration here. There is no charge to attend if not seeking CEUs. The link to process the CEU request will be available in mid-June, 2015.
Attendance is limited to 30 people.
We are excited to hold the Institute at Balboa High School this year and have many teachers from the San Francisco Unified School District take part so as to deepen the impact of the curriculum across the District. And, of course, we welcome other Bay Area teachers!
During the three-day training, participants gain knowledge about the Human Rights Education framework and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), and their importance in promoting the values, beliefs and attitudes that encourage all individuals to uphold their own rights and those of others. Participants will also experience using creative arts disciplines, including music, visual arts and performance arts to deepen understanding of human rights principles, as well as to express their own ideas of why and how these principles relate to addressing in a positive way the issues we face day-to-day in our schools and communities.
Check out the following links for further reference:
Scenes from the 2014 Institute: Culminating Presentation and Q&A
Background on the Development of The World As It Could Be (TWAICB) Curriculum
The impetus to develop TWAICB curriculum, which utilizes the creative arts and a culminating celebratory presentation focused on the UDHR, arose from 2006 project work. In this initial work, a collaborative original production that included dance, song and spoken word was created and performed live at Balboa High School in San Francisco by the high school youth of Destiny Arts Center and Youth Speaks to convey the importance of the UDHR. From this experience, along with continuing program and Human Rights Education work, we have identified the following issues that impel our ongoing efforts:
The UDHR provides an exciting framework for actively engaging in local and global efforts toward the achievement of life, liberty and human dignity for all people. Although the United States played a crucial role in the drafting of the UDHR and its adoption on December 10, 1948 by the UN General Assembly, many people, across all ages and demographics, are not aware of the UDHR, even though the document is part of the Standards for Social Studies curriculum in most public schools;
When youth have the opportunity to not only learn about the UDHR, but also be leaders in teaching its importance to their peers and to adults they demonstrate increased involvement in their studies, enhanced social interaction skills and greater commitment to be positively engaged in their school and community;
The creative arts provide a powerful mechanism for teaching in a way that compels student engagement, deeper learning and personal connection to otherwise abstract content, yet the arts are now subject to deep cuts from many schools due to budgetary constraints;
The culminating, celebratory presentation of the students’ creative reflections on their studies of the UDHR provides a unique rite-of-passage experience that motivates both higher levels of academic engagement as well as enhanced awareness of and commitment to being engaged members of their immediate and broader communities.
