The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
I was visiting Mrs Ullah’s class earlier this week and walked in to find the children engrossed in two books! One of the books was The Boy in the Striped pyjamas and the second book was UNICEF’s Pocket Book of Children’s Rights. Very interesting, I thought to myself. What’s going on here?
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas is a book about a friendship struck up between a child in a concentration camp during Word War Two (the boy in the striped pyjamas) and the son of the camp commandant. If you haven’t read the book, do have a look at it or maybe watch the DVD. The book and film give a very honest look at what life was like for people and, more importantly, children in concentration camps during WW2.
Always being on the nosey side, I decided to ask the children what they were up to and they told me they were comparing their rights to the rights or lack of rights that the children in the concentration camps had. Mrs Ullah, very kindly, summed up the task as follows, “Pupils felt the concentration camps and what was happening during the war was not protecting children and wanted to research it more. They chose 4 articles each and then found evidence within the text to support the idea that the articles were not being met. They worked really hard and are now typing them up during our ICT slots.”
This lesson has shown Mrs Ullah’s class how important their rights are to them!
UNCRC / RRSA
Article 1 – Everyone under the age of 18 has all the rights in the Convention.
Article 2 – The Convention applies to everyone: whatever their race, religion or abilities, whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from.