Human Dignity Programme

This initiative involved working through the school hierarchy, with the understanding that behavioural change is linked most importantly to the personal example of those who hold power. Thus, the management team was trained to model dignity in their dealings with the teachers, the teachers with their students, and the student leadership with their fellow students. Proceeding "top-down," beginning with the management team, organisers used interpersonal communication along 2 major axes:

1. Raising awareness of the need to respect the human dignity of every person in the school, identifying where dignity is lacking, and practicing new, dignified, and dignifying behaviours.
2. Implementing visible, structural changes in the daily routine of the school.

This approach was based on the conception that consciousness-raising without tangible change tends to evaporate, whereas organisational changes without consciousness-raising tend to be technical and superficial.

Specifically, at each school, staff was guided through a series of workshops designed to raise awareness of dignity and abuse of dignity in the daily life of the school (e.g., the minor, daily interactions - cliques in the teachers' room, sexist remarks of teachers toward each other, lack of cooperation - and also the significant transactions, such as the degree to which the principal includes staff in making policy decisions). Organisers then assisted staff in crystallizing their "human dignity vision," and joined them in choosing a new organisational structure whose implementation will ensure that dignity becomes an integral part of everyone's daily lives in the school. For example, a school could choose to institute a student-teacher parliament or a programme of student-led mediation. Organisers often suggested ways in which teachers could bring forth human dignity issues in the curricular material they were already teaching. Teachers were urged to examine their teaching approach in a fundamental way.

In addition to a focus on internal school issues, the programme involved supporting the staff in reaching out to parents, including them in the raising of awareness of the importance of human dignity in the relationships with their children.

Early Childhood Development, Education, Rights.

In a 1998 survey of 1,600 Israeli students, 57% stated that their teachers do not respect them. A 2002 study shows that 13% of elementary school students have been grabbed or shoved by their teachers. 14% have been pinched or slapped by teachers, and 9% have been punched or kicked by their teachers.