When eighth-graders in Long Island studying Speak Truth To Power lessons learned that almost all of the chocolate they enjoyed was the result of child labor in West Africa, they wanted to take action. They wrote letters to the CEOs of Hershey and Nestle, urging them to help protect children. On Halloween, they went “reverse trick-or-treating,” handing out fair-trade chocolates and fact sheets about labor practices to the homes they visited. These 12- and 13-year-olds came to understand that injustice was not a remote problem, but something that touches even the chocolate that they eat. More importantly, they felt empowered to do something about it.
Speak Truth To Power is a multi-faceted human rights education initiative designed to raise awareness and empower individuals to realize their capacity to create change. The curriculum, based on Kerry Kennedy’s book Speak Truth To Power, Human Rights Defenders Who Are Changing Our World, was created by Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, which—for more than 45 years—has built an extensive grassroots network that includes human rights defenders from more than 100 countries. Speak Truth To Power draws from their inspiring stories.
What sets Speak Truth To Power apart is its power to inspire action like the chocolate campaign. By allowing students to see themselves as human rights defenders, they begin to act as human rights defenders.
Speak Truth To Power also opens students’ eyes to the injustices that take place right in front of them. One teacher reported that one of her students had been the victim of bullying. The curriculum inspired some of this student's classmates to intervene and decide on their own to speak to the bully, ending their classmate’s ordeal.
Because students can connect the lessons of Speak Truth To Power to their world, they become excited about school, and often their academic performance improves accordingly. “So many times students are being taught things out of a book,” Andrew Beiter, a teacher from Buffalo, New York, observed. “The STTP approach allows them to have discussions, to think, to feel empowered, to make them feel like they are worthy.”
Speak Truth To Power also goes beyond the classroom through the Speak Up, Sing Out Music Contest in partnership with the GRAMMY Museum, and the STTP Video Contest in partnership with the American Federation of Teachers and the Tribeca Film Institute. These contests encourage students to become engaged in human rights through song writing and video making, while teaching the value of creating change through art. Above all, Speak Truth To Power creates a new generation of students who are not only aware of human rights abuses, but prepared to do something about them.
John Heffernan is the executive director of Speak Truth To Power at Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights.