Connect Your Students to a 250-Year Legacy. Make history with the Bill of Rights Institute and iCivics! Teach the themes of the Declaration of Independence throughout the 2025-26 school year for a chance to win prizes and swag.
In partnership with iCivics, the Challenge celebrates teachers who share the themes of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the birth of our nation during the 2025-26 school year.
Educators who log activities that touch on these themes are entered into a prize drawing. Each item logged counts as an entry. Four prize drawings will occur throughout the school year, and $200,000 in prizes will be available for you and your school.
Scholar Eve L. Ewing, in conversation with Rethinking Schools editor Jesse Hagopian and Rethinking Schools executive director Cierra Kaler-Jones, will discuss her book, Original Sins: The (Mis)Education of Black and Native Children and the Construction of American Racism, an examination of how the U.S. school system helps maintain racial inequality and social hierarchies. ASL interpretation provided and PD certificates offered to attendees. Register here
HREA in collaboration with Pedagogy Futures has just released a six-lesson module addressing AI Human Rights and Education! The curriculum empowers educators and students to critically engage with how AI shapes society, from education to governance, public services, and civil liberties. Through interactive lessons and real-world case studies, participants build essential literacy around AI’s potential and risks, all grounded in a commitment to dignity and human rights. Download this free curriculum here.
This project was developed by a team of New Jersey educators and is tied specifically to their state’s social studies standards. However, the guide can be used as a model for any educator seeking to integrate human rights into their curriculum.
Curriculum highlight writer: John Terry, HRE USA Steering Committee, NJ Regional Rep
The Kemper Human Rights Education Foundation(khref.org) is offering prizes of $5000, $2500, and $1250 to high school students who are citizensor residents of the U.S.judged to have written the best answers to the following question:
Many claim climate change poses a threat to human rights. Do you agree? Provide a clear explanation of the reasons you think specific proposals to deal with the issue are beneficial or harmful.
The essays are due on December 10th (Human Rights Day). More information about KHREF and a downloadable flyer may be found here.
In the Epilogue to his book, How the Word Is Passed, Clint Smith writes:The history of slavery is the history of the United States.It was not peripheral to our founding; it was central to it. It is not irrelevant to our contemporary society; it created it.This history is in our soil, it is in our policies, and it must, too, be in our memories.One of the ways this foundational history enters our memories is through the classroom. That is why we are delighted How the Word Is Passed will be available in a YA edition.Join us for class with Clint Smith on August 25. He will be interviewed by Jesse Hagopian and Jessica Rucker.ASL interpretation and PD certificates will be provided. Twenty-five attendees, randomly selected, will receive a free copy of the book.
Kick off the school year with a practical and inspiring look at how to bring high-quality civic education into your classroom from day one. Join our 60-minute virtual program on Tuesday, August 26, at 7 p.m. ET and get a roadmap for launching the Center for Civic Education’s We the People and Project Citizen programs. The session will feature scholar and political scientist Dr. Francene Engel, along with two experienced mentor teachers, who will share proven strategies for engaging students in constitutional principles, democratic practices, and real-world problem solving. Dr. Engel is an expert in American constitutional law, civil rights and liberties, constitutional theory, women and the law, and American government. She excels at making complex constitutional issues understandable to everyone.
Studying the Constitution is essential — especially now, as constitutional rights are increasingly under attack.
Each September, schools across the country celebrate Constitution Day — students create posters praising the document, watch patriotic videos, or recite the Preamble — rather than engage in critical inquiry. These rituals present the Constitution as a sacred text, not a document created and amended through struggle.
Students rarely learn who the Constitution was written for — and who was excluded. They are taught to revere the document as the cornerstone of democracy, not to question its origins or its limits.
Today, powerful figures wield the Constitution — and undermine it — in ways that intensify profound harms across the country. It is essential that students know their rights: not just to pass a test, but to protect themselves. They should learn that throughout U.S. history, people have fought to expand the rights the Constitution promises, and to demand the rights it omits. Constitution Day should not be a celebration of myth, but an invitation to think critically.
The schools that receive federal funding are mandated to teach about the Constitution on Constitution Day (September 17). So, let’s do that. Let’s engage young people in an active study of the Constitution.
We encourage teachers to use Constitution Day to do one or more of the activities outlined here.
Sign up to participate — let’s make our commitment to teaching truthfully visible and contagious. (Not a teacher? We suggest ways you can support the campaign and defend the freedom to learn.)
We are proud to launch the Kirby Edmonds Fellowship Campaign, one of our most important fundraisers of the year. Centered around the theme “The Future is Now: Shaping the Next Generation of Human Rights Leaders,” this campaign reflects our belief that investing in young leaders today is essential to building a more just and equitable tomorrow.
The campaign supports the Kirby Edmonds Summer Fellowships, created to honor the remarkable legacy of Kirby Edmonds, a founding member of Human Rights Educators USA and a lifelong advocate for social justice. These fellowships provide emerging human rights education leaders with invaluable mentorship and hands-on experience.
Your donation will go directly toward funding the training and mentorship of Edmonds Fellows for Summer 2026. Each fellowship costs us $2,000. This year, we are proud to support four Edmonds Fellows, and with your help, we hope to expand these transformative opportunities to even more young leaders next year.
To encourage a new generation of human rights activists, the 2025 Youth in Action for Human Rights Awards recognize youth leaders, one individual and one group, whose work explicitly or implicitly reflects and promotes human rights values. Because young activists must nominate themselves for the awards, HRE USA urges adults familiar with their work to urge them to apply.
HRE USA 