Tell me the story

of your rights
Teaching Guide

Madrid Institute
of the Minor and the Family
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Community of Madrid
This teaching guide has been made possible thanks to the
collaboration of Ana Luisa Ramírez
Man of color!
I -black man- when I was born, I was black.
You -white man- when you were born, you were pink.

When I grew up, I was black.

When you grew up, you were white.

When I sunbathe, I become black.

When you sunbathe, you turn red.

When I am cold, I am black.

When you are cold, you turn purple.

When I am afraid, I am black.

When you are afraid, you are gray.

When I die, I will be black.

When you die, you will be yellow.

And YOU call me a man of color!

(Translation from French of a written text

Ruillier based on a tale
poem of African tradition
The defense of children's rights:
the never-ending story

Duties and rights are like the two sides of a sheet: one cannot exist without the other.
another.

Children - like all people - have duties, and we are not talking here about school duties.
Instead, the duties that a just coexistence demands. It is worth remembering that the rights of
One person's end is where another's begins; we often call this 'respect,' and duty.
To respect ourselves, beginning by doing so with ourselves, is the main duty that everyone
a person -of any age- would have to meet in order to achieve together the other face
of the sheet, that is, the one about rights.

We know that there is a Convention on the Rights of the Child, but we also know that,
Unfortunately, those rights are not always respected. This does not happen, as many people
I believe it happens not only in poor countries, but in all countries around the world, including ours.

It is therefore important that both children and adults are well aware of the Rights of the Child in order to
to report their non-compliance and to demand that they be respected, even though we know
that this is a long and arduous task. The United Nations Assembly proclaimed the Declaration-
Declaration of the Rights of the Child on November 20, 1959, twenty years later the approved The
Convention on the Rights of the Child, and even today these rights continue to be violated
chosen from all corners of the world, so that the struggle for their defense seems effective-
a "never-ending tale" before which we must never give up.

From the Madrid Institute for Children and Family and from Save the Children, we work for the
Children's Rights. As the 21st century has already begun, we do not give up in this struggle and invite everyone,
large, small and medium to get involved once again in the defense of Rights of
Child, on this occasion through the creation of STORIES.
1. Introduction
Suggestions to motivate childhood, children's programming of
the televisions, the 'swap-cat for hare' of
the activity affection and attention for material goods
of consumption, the children of domestic violence
It is always important when addressing yes, the marginalization of children with
a job, to make an estimate of the knowledge- diseases and a long etcetera. Neither
previous thoughts that the group has, in this It would be redundant to reflect on that dangerous
case, about the Rights of the Child: which ones adjective that is often used so cheerfully:
they believe they are, how they are attacked against them,
"normal" people. All people
What cases do you know about through the news? we are human beings and we all have our
international as well as through their entanglement overcoming personal deficiencies and our characteristics
not immediately... unique and unrepeatable characteristics, what does it mean
Well, 'normal'? What do they comply with? What nor-
Next, we will proceed to document- more?
to discuss more concisely about the Con-
Convention on the Rights of the Child, its history- Based on this, the objective we pursue
RIA and other data. All of this will allow us to create it is that the children write stories, but for
debate, but not only around the extremes that a person -as a sender- is capable
and lamentable conflicts of the third world, to create, it is important to have a background
also regarding our immediate environment previously as a receiver. Therefore,
diato: immigration, the Roma ethnicity, children to ask a child to write stories,
mistreated, those emotionally poorly attended to it is necessary to 'fill it' beforehand with stories.
the 'oversights' of the rulers towards in this sense it is advisable to remember in
group some stories that you know,
reconstruct them orally and offer other readings
whether one way or another they get closer to the
subject that concerns us. Thus, we manage to achieve-
two fundamental aspects: for one
part, regarding the form, review the charac-
characteristics of the story; on the other hand, regarding the

content, to approach the theme that concerns us

interest and observe possibilities of addressing
Regarding the recovery of basins
known or the act of making known
others new, it is advisable, in front of the strip
of the age we are dealing with (9-12 years), contains
to range widely from a
traditional structure story like 'The
"The Ugly Duckling" or "The Little Tin Soldier", up to the
children-juvenile book (story/novel), passing
for the illustrated album. We offer continuously-
Here are some bibliographic suggestions that,
among others, could serve as models:

Illustrated album
Some children, three dogs, and more things.
Caramel Rose Juan Farias Austral.
Oliver Buton is a girl. (Tomie de Paola) Green fields, gray fields.
Minion. Wolfel) Lóguez.
Goodbye! (Lygia Bojunga Nunes) Alfaguara.
Elmer (David Mckee) Altea.
Federica the redhead. (Christine Nostlinger)
The composition. (A. Skármeta/A. Ruano)
S.M.
S.M./Ekaré.
Konrad: the boy who came out of a can
At night on the street. (Ángela Lago) Ekaré. canned goods. (Christine Nostliger) Alfaguara.
Miguel Vicente Pata Caliente. Ben loves Anna. (Peter Hartling) Alfa-
Araujo) Ekaré. guara
A handful of seeds. (Mónica Hughes) Elvis, Elvis. Elvis Karlsson. (María Gripe). Alfa-
Hello. guara.
The first strawberries. (J. Bruchac) J.J. Olañe The most beautiful place in the world.
ta. Cameron) Alfaguara.
•Stories of suns. (Davi) Destiny. On the Hunt for Lavinia. (Roger Collison) Alfa-
Nadarín guara.
Two friends. (P. Rodero/J. Wilkon) Kókinos. Billy and the Pink Dress.
The Guardian of Forgetting. (Joan Manuel Gis-
ra.
The Conference of the Animals.
bert) S.M.
Kastner) Alfaguara.
Asmir doesn't want guns.
gley) Alfaguara.
Children's / Young Adult Books The Great Gilly Hopkins
Alfaguara.
The Two Monsters. (David Mackee) Austral. The little man dressed in gray.
Rubí the reckless. (H. Oram/T. Ross) Timun Alonso) Alfaguara.
More (Cotton Cloud Collection). The Children of the Glassmaker. (Ma Gripe) S.M.
The story
Regarding the stories of tradition, it is worth remembering
that most of them have children and/or as protagonists
girls (or instead small animals) that are seen thrown
to confront fears and conflicts of abandonment,
donation,poverty,rejection,contempt,harassment...

And in the case of the stories, they represent nothing else

that the idea of 'growth' to which every child is faced
That is to say, they do not appear as dramatic events.
warnings
about life" that necessarily are encouraged with a mirror-
happy ending.

In the topic that concerns us, when we take a look at the

situation of childhood in the world, unfortunately
we find that happy endings are still too scarce, which does not mean at all
that there are still hundreds of possible solutions to propose, imagine, suggest, and even demand. No obs-
Aunt, when we talk about stories, we are not exclusively referring to the tales.
wonderful systematic closed ending. What Literature in general and the Short Story in particular
It is -in an exercise of 'estrangement'- to transport the reader to the world of fiction, distancing-
the supposedly of reality through symbolic images, to end up returning it from
new to the real world in which the reader elaborates, identifies, and incorporates what they have read. It is not therefore of

to miss that, from the ancestral wisdom of orally transmitted tales, they reach us and manifest
they have the various formulas for the beginning and end of stories (Once upon a time... They say and tell...
Well, sir, once upon a time many, many years ago... And that’s the end of this tale.
still.And story told, story finished. Etc.) These are formulas that warn the receiver of
the "exit" and the "entry" to the world of known reality.

3. Stories and more stories

The tale is ultimately a brief literary narrative that generally fulfills a structure.
from setup-conflict-resolution. Evidently, there is no story if there is no conflict.
In the case we are dealing with, the conflict arises from an attack on certain rights and the
claiming them. But the short story is a very broad genre that allows us to tell
stories adhering to both the mentioned basic structure and other variations and alte-
possible rations:

We can frame the story through a There is a possibility of giving it in the story
dialogue. a greater expressive weight to the illustrations
We can conclude it with a legendary ending. than the text itself, as happens in
since then to the children occasions with the illustrated album.
everyone likes... We can even build it with rhyme to
We can give it a fable-like appearance. mode, for example, of romance or of auca
Make sure that your main characters do not O hallelujah (with couplets or quatrains at the foot)
animated beings just as they are understood of each illustration).
demos in real life, but any object
to whom we want to grant a soul.
If we look at the initial story-poem But...(A conflict arises that concerns the
"Colored man!", we will see what is planned. protagonist/s. Which one is it?
monologue form and that is not What happened next? (How did he/she react?
except in the last sentence where it says neta- the character before the conflict...
made manifest the conflict that, in turn, So...(This is the most open section...
it has a surprise ending. to the story: the development of the events
mindset to face the conflict.
Ultimately, the creative possibilities that An auxiliary character may appear that
offers us the tale as an expression of a provide help or give recommendations; the
story with fantastic traits, it is enormous- the protagonist may find themselves subjected to the
broad mind. overcoming tests...)
How did it all end? (Or maybe how it didn't)
it's over. There are open endings, in suspense,
The key questions
happy, dramatic, unexpected...)
To begin weaving the plot of a
story, it is important to answer oneself a We may explicitly include all
series of almost unavoidable questions for the these data in the story and it may be overlooked-
creation of a story. It is even recom- some or many of them, but in which-
You can do it in a relaxed environment or in which case it is important that the author has
with closed eyes to go "imagining" "seeing" all these aspects.
(seeing it in pictures):

Who? (Who is the protagonist or prota-

gonistas, what do they look like, how old are they, The characters
how they are dressed...)
When? (At what time does the story occur) Treating Children's Rights as a focus
river: past, present, future, a time thematic, the main characters in the
out of time...) what we immediately think is -of course not
Where? (In which place it happens, what it is like) it could be different - in girls and boys,
that place, what events took place but let's try to see alternatives. These peo-
they arise in it...) you can, without ceasing to represent the
What? (What was happening to the protagonist/s, in childhood, represented by girls and boys,
What situation was living... but also by:
• Adults who in their day were authentic melodramas of complicated
girls. worthy of a soap opera ending.
Animal offspring.
Plant beings. Let us propose, then, from a certain strange
Fantastic or mythological characters. lie, a list of possibilities. The perso-
Beings from other worlds that look at us with the individuals in question (which for simplicity name-
astonishment. we will gather here more frequently as
Color spots. child, but could be both human,
Family objects (pencils, shoes, chairs, as animal, vegetable...) could be affected
marbles, sheets of paper, televisions, pant- due to situations like the following:
dolls, toys...)
Elements of nature (water, air,
fire, sticks, leaves...) Regarding the Convention
• Animated spaces (for example, a about the Rights of the Child
school, house, shack... that tells its story-
toria). Article 2
People who do not appear directly
in history, but manifest themselves through- Rights are for everyone without distinction
through letters, diaries... of race, color, sex, language, religion, opinion,
national, ethnic or social origin, impediment-
to physical, birth or any other condition
The conflict tion.

The choice of conflict in the plot of the The blue circle that arrived in the territory of the
the story leads us directly to the orange circles.
Children's Rights. Here we run an impo- The child who had two ears, two eyes or
so much risk; without proper guidance, a nose in a place where everyone
children will resort more frequently to they had an ear, an eye or two noses
taking literally as conflict the attack- ces.
against any right in the person of a The girl who did not want to be a princess.
child, which could lead them to write The square that was born round.
The boy who played at being a mom, at cooking The child who had no voice.
Nitas, who liked ribbons, the clothes of The child that no one saw.
flowers... The child who was always answered "A-
The rose that had no thorns. don't answer me.
The tree that had eyes instead of leaves. The boy who wanted to be a father to eat
• The die that didn't want to be a marble. The cani- eggs.
because he wanted to be given. The silly girl who wasn't.
The boy who only wanted 'cloned' friends
(that they were like him, thought and felt Article 16
like him...)
The unicorn that was born without a horn. Right to private life and intimacy.
The mermaid that had legs.
The girl who was supposed to be perfect. The thief of childhoods.
The child who had three dads (or two The theft of the drawer of secrets.
moms).
Article 17

Article 7 Right to receive information through

books, newspapers, the radio, television...
Right to receive a name and a nationality
dad, to meet your parents and to be careful- The country where reading was forbidden.
given by them. The girl who saved the Book of Tales.
The television that ate children.
The girl who had no name. A country called Silence.
The boy from nowhere/from no country.
What am I? Article 18

Right to education.
Article 12 and 13
The child who educated their parents.
Right to express opinions and be taken into account. The parents who wanted a designer baby.
Right to seek and receive information and The chubby boy/girl who just wanted to
freely express ideas. eat kisses.
 The child who had all the habits
"mistaken". Or the fish that came from afar and
he did everything backwards.

Articles 33-35

Right to be protected against drugs,

abuses and kidnappings.

• Announcement in the newspaper: Due to inability

For sale, child in good condition...
The boy who sold his shadow (or who sees-
walnut as shade).
The broken doll.

Article 38

Article 19
Right not to be recruited as soldiers.

Right to protection against abuse and

The school of learning to shoot.
the abuse.
The girl (the flower, the tree, the stone, the bird)
that stopped the war.
The girl/boy who was waiting in the warehouse
The children who were playing hide and seek with the
the lost and found office.
Death.
The drawer of lost / broken treasures
defective.
The egg that fell from its nest.
Article 39

Article 27 Right to reintegration into society.

Right to an adequate standard of living. The child who was old.

The ostrich that didn't want to leave the egg.
The cardboard city. The child who did not dare to be born.
The city of the Golden Neighborhood and the Neighborhood of

Tinplate.
Article 42

Articles 30-32 Right for everyone to know their Rights

of the Child.

Rights of minorities, right to play,

right to be protected against work The president who did not want children in his
painful and dangerous. country.

The children who didn't know how to play. These titles proposed as suggestions in
The country where no one spoke the same language. relationship with the statement of certain
language. Children's rights can lead to very
The country that closed the schools because the various variations and to the suggestion of
children were working. other possible titles. In any case,
perhaps the most important goal is that the according to the linguistic convention of the
boys and girls learn to think in a relative way majority, who would look at him in amazement seeing him
certain situations that often we move the mouth continuously with strange gestures.
they come from a par- viewpoint
social, limited, occasionally, unfair. In the same way that we have referred to
here to physical differences, we could think
As for 'differences' or inequality- in many others: in terms of customs,
data, when it comes to entering the situation is more beliefs, races, languages, dealings, etc. Do you want
recommended (though more reflective) to raise the to say what the majority always 'commands'?
just the opposite of how it usually is Generally yes, but it's not just about
it usually presents us, that is, to play in some way to understand it, but also to make oneself understood
way to "estrangement". For example, it to ensure that differences are accepted.
labels a deaf person as "different" or
blind to a majority of listeners or viden- Both in oral tradition and in literature
Yes, let's turn it around: A person we now have models that can
clairvoyant joins the country (group or family) serve as help: songs and poems
of the blind. The seer thus becomes the that speak to us of upside-down worlds; the his-
different Alicia's Stories ("in Wonderland")
"modus vivendi" of the majority, trying to com- o "Through the Looking Glass") where the protagonist-
to learn how to live without seeing, and this "without seeing" is he debates between strenuous exercises of
it can be interpreted both in a literal sense logic and nonsense to try to understand
as figurative. dreamlike worlds that do not correspond
with the vision of his own; or Pinocchio, the
In the case of the listener in the land of the deaf, unfortunate wooden boy who wants to be
the "different" should learn to communicate human.

4. Suggestions and guidelines for others

proposals
Meeting of story characters

Let's suppose they meet at a conference

the following story characters (and perhaps
some more):

Tom Thumb and his siblings; Hansel and Gretel; The

7 little goats; The Ugly Duckling; the little soldier of
lead; the children of the city of Hamelin;
Cinderella; Snow White; the Half Chick; the
match girl and the girl from the bowl
to the Jumping Dwarf.

What could they all have in common?

to meet at a conference?
What does each one talk about or protest?
them? What are their arguments?
What conclusions do they reach?
What decisions do they make regarding this?
The hypothesis as a starting point

It is an exercise (recommended for older individuals) whose main function is to provoke ideas.
for the creation of the story. It starts with a brainstorming of hypotheses led by the question-
What would happen if...?

What would happen if children were made in factories?

What would happen if somewhere in the world the rights of all children were respected?
Do all the Rights of the Child really exist?
What would happen if all goods, food, and medicine had to be distributed equally?
What... exist on the planet?
What would happen if there were no advertising or violence on television?...
What would happen if in a country only girls were respected and not boys (or vice versa)?

Let’s take the first hypothesis as an example:

If children were made in factories, there would be children designers. If that were the case, children would be manufactured-
They would be educated and obedient children, according to the preferences of the factory owners or the rulers.
teeth that would never protest for anything and would comply with everything commanded by the elders
There would be child soldiers, child workers... If any of them turned out defective, they would be thrown into the bucket.
for recycling so that it wouldn't create problems...

Once upon a time in a country

in which no more children could be born, then the factories for children were created. Those factories
case...

Barajas

This proposal would consist of creating with cards decks made up of five blo-
card questions:

Block 1: Each card must include the beginning of a story (Once upon a time... / There was once...
many years...)
Block 2: Each card features a place (In a corner of the world... / In a luminous city...
ours... / In an abandoned village...)
Block 3: Each card features characters (A very poor boy, a doll, a leaf of
paper...)
Block 3: Each card presents conflict situations (That I didn't understand others... /
That had been lost...
Block 4: In each card, someone or something (or both) is mentioned that can be of assistance.
help (an old woman, a book, a magic ring...)
Block 5: Each card features an ending of a story (And as I was told, I'll tell you)
Story told, story finished.

Although the details of the rules of the game are interesting, it is important that they are established by consensus.
The players themselves, the basic operation consists of the participants (individual-
mind, by pairs, group...) randomly pick a card or token from each block, respecting the
order of the blocks, start composing the story based on the structure marked by the
cards.
The text, its support and illustration The same happens with the illustrations; they do not
they must adjust exclusively to the
It can be a trigger for the creation of the pencil or marker drawing. There is the collage (in
story to start thinking about the support that some of the glued elements
about what the text will be about, considering they can be the protagonists themselves) the
it accounts for its format, texture, design... The texts watercolor, wax and various techniques
not only can they be written on sheets; they can for plastic expression. It even includes the
being the content of a box, having appearance possibility that the story tells more
of accordion, of paper roll or being writte- from the plastic language that from the
supports of other materials. In oca- text, especially when it comes to
the same support can suggest to us the authors who have more skills with the
structure of the text, the protagonists of the plastic expression that with the verbal or that
history, etc. they have difficulties with writing.

5. And to finish...
The objective that this initiative pursues, inviting girls and boys to tell the story of their
rights, it is not so much about highlighting the personal work of an individual (a boy or girl in concrete-
like that of an entire collective and the groups that compose it. Therefore, they are important
In the work process, team collaborations that may entail both for the
for children as for adults a greater shared awareness about the situation of the
childhood in the world and the many achievements that remain to be accomplished in this regard.

At the same time, the intention of this guide is to support teachers in the development
of a work process; it is not intended that this work be an 'addition' that hinders
the provider of curricular content, but rather, on the contrary, it is founded with them, since
encloses contents from very diverse areas: language-literature, knowledge of the environment, ethics,
religion or possible cross-cutting issues.
...And to finish, let's begin the tale of returning to
start.

Do you want me to tell you again?

Once upon a time...

 The defense of children's rights:
The never-ending story

Madrid Institute
of the Minor and the Family
DEPARTMENT OF FAMILY AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS

Community of Madrid
Gran Vía, 14 Puerto Rubio Square, 28
28013 Madrid 28053 Madrid
Tel: 91 580 36 32 91 513 05 00
91 580 37 47 91 552 32 72
www.micromadrid.es www.savethechildren.es
[email protected] [email protected]