Tom Kertes
 
 

At the intersection of human rights and education is love.

Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. - Frederick Douglas

Tom Kertes in Baltimore at United Workers rally


I believe that every child has the human right to:

Human Rights Education
At the intersection of human rights and early education is love. Universal love requires respect and dignity for all. Love enables human growth and learning. Every child has a right to human rights education. Children have a right to be treated with respect, which includes learning through joyful discovery. Beyond respect, children also have the right to be loved, without condition, by those responsible for their care.

About Me - Human Rights Organizer
I am an organizer in the fight to end poverty and to expand human rights to all. Working with the United Workers, a Maryland-based economic human rights organization of over 1,000 low-wage workers, I have participated in popular education workshops, countless home visits and in protests against poverty.

I helped co-ordinate the planned Living Wages Hunger Strike of the United Workers. Announced in August 2007, the strike was called off when the governor agreed to workers' demand for a living wage at Camden Yards. This victory followed a three-year struggle and shifted over $300,000 annually from temp agencies to low-wage workers. Wages more than doubled from the average flat-rate of $4.50 an hour in 2003 to $11.30 an hour in 2008.

I am currently working on the Human Rights Zone at Baltimore's Inner Harbour campaign, which will extend the human rights to health care, education and work with dignity to every low-wage worker in the Harbour.

About Me - Preschool Teacher
I have also been a preschool teacher, storyteller and toy store owner. I've told stories to thousands of children at school assemblies, science shows and birthday parties. I've taught children ages two to twelve, young adults thirteen to twenty and adults of all ages.

I love teaching because education opens up life's possibilities - for both me and the students I work with. Teaching is being part of liberation lived daily. Teaching is opening up choice and truth, generating power through knowledge, organizing ideas into new meanings and expanding the lived experience. Teaching is nurturing creative growth.

I believe that the core human rights values of respect and dignity extend to all persons of all ages. I also believe that the core values of education - love, truth, intentionality - are the same no matter how young or old the learner.

 

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© 2007-09 by Tom Kertes | This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License