Right to participate

Year level: Upper primary/Lower secondary Learning outcome Students will explore how attitudes to children affect the lives of children. Collect or list information about ways people your age can be involved in making decisions about their communities. You may like to choose a particular theme, for example, the environment, social justice, sport. Analyse the 'what, how and why' of this information. Make a statement about the information available to help young people participate in decision making about activities that involve them. List the skills you need to be involved in the activities you have information about (eg decision making, reporting, promoting, letter writing, public speaking). Select one activity from the information and participate as well as you can. (Groups may organise an activity.) Learn about involvement of young people in other countries (eg read Children learn active citizenship in Bangladesh) and reflect on what you can learn from them. Imagine you are expected to follow an adult's way of doing things, but you do not agree with this way. How would you go about convincing this adult that young people need to participate in developing a better way? Reflect on the consequences for society when young people do not participate in the decisions that affect them. Assessment task Write a report on what you have learnt about involvement, and how societies can improve the participation of young people.