Citywest & Saggart

Community National School

Room 7 First Class: Freedom!

Freedom – What does it mean for us?

In order to highlight the importance of the fundamental rights of children, PREDA Ireland invited the children of Citywest & Saggart CNS and all schools across Ireland to take part in a novel project they organised on Wednesday December 10th 2014 – International Human Rights Day. They asked the school children of Citywest & Saggart CNS to take a photo on Wednesday December 10th, which they feel represents “Freedom”.

The simple brief was as follows: This image can be fun, creative or thought provoking; it’s up to you!

After talking, discussing and brainstorming freedom in groups, the children were then asked to create a still image that they felt was most reflective of their perspectives on freedom and their discussion with their peers. It is important to note that I had nothing to do with the creation of these images. I merely facilitated a the discussion and helped the children to organise their own still image in the open space. The children were autonomous agents in the creation of the images and provided excellent reasoning for the creation of the two very distinct images.  The two images are below:

Image number one shows the children in four distinct rows – a back row of children stand, a second row of children kneeling, a third row of children sitting and a front row of two children lying down! The children represent the ‘Steps to Freedom’ and the boy in front is ready to walk up the steps of freedom.

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Image number two shows the children running around freely – some of the children are running on two feet and their image shows them with two feet on the ground, others are running and have been caught with one foot on the ground and the other slightly off the ground. There are also a selection of children aiming for a basketball hoop.

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What does freedom mean to you?