Announcing: Energy of a Nation Curriculum

Proudly presenting...

The Advocates for Human Rights proudly announces the publication of Energy of a Nation: Immigrants in America, 3rd Edition. This curriculum is a distinctive, comprehensive guide to teaching students about immigration in the United States with human rights analysis woven throughout lessons. It can be used in several disciplines and with different age levels, and it is available free for download on The Advocates' EnergyofaNation.org website.


Energy of a Nation, 3rd Ed. provides learners with fundamental concepts and critical context, such as:

* Definitions of key immigration-related terms;

* Admission categories and processes;

* Statistics and trends of immigrants over time;

* Root causes of undocumented immigration;

* The complex realities of removal through the immigration courts;

* Other countries' experience with, and response to, immigration;

* Nativism and public discourse around immigration;

* Push and pull factors that cause people to move;

* The special case of refugees and asylum seekers;

* The human rights of immigrants;

* Local and national U.S. policy considerations; and

* Service learning opportunities to create a welcoming school and community.

The curriculum is filled with engaging, student-centered activities that follow best practices for human rights education (HRE). Students learn by exploring their own immigrant history; role-playing a refugee's journey; deciding under what conditions they might risk being undocumented; playing games to understand the immigration system; drawing representative pictures of policies; rehearsing deliberative dialogue; constructing a gallery of nativism over the centuries; and creating a service learning project for their classroom or school.

Using the HRE framework for immigration allows students to acquire the knowledge to understand immigration topics, but also to gain the skills and values necessary to process future information or experiences. Students learn to put information in context, check it against reliable sources, consider root causes, make essential connections, and participate in democratic processes. They are provided the opportunity to view themselves and the United States as actors in a global, fluid movement of people and to see the human beings that make up these mass flows as individuals - each with a story, a life, and the same rights that bind us all.

The entire curriculum will be available to school and community educators online, free of charge. In addition, staff will respond to teacher requests to demonstrate lessons in K-12 classrooms and provide trainings to teachers and other school staff on immigration and human rights through professional development workshops.