Overview: FAIR’s K-12 Pro-Human Learning Standards
FAIR’s K-12 Pro-Human Learning Standards aim to inform and guide curricula toward a fair and accurate view of our nation’s history. Our standards emphasize constructive principles that inspire optimism for the American future based on humanity, diversity, understanding, and fairness.
HUMANITY
Students will learn:
- Universal human character strengths that exist among diverse human cultures
- How humans and societies have struggled against and overcome injustice
- How to recognize the humanity of others through compassion, respect, and empathy
- The relationship between humans of diverse backgrounds and American political principles, including the importance of immigration to the American story
DIVERSITY
Students will learn:
- To appreciate the benefits of a diversity of ideas, beliefs, and ways of being
- To appreciate the experiences, histories, cultures, struggles and accomplishments of people of diverse backgrounds within American history and society
- To build awareness of the diversity that exists within and across demographic groupings
- To understand the diversity of human personality and that each person’s story is unique
UNDERSTANDING
Students will learn:
- To analyze historical issues from multiple perspectives, to understand alternative arguments, and to respect the human freedom that gives rise to disagreements
- To think critically about their own opinions and maintain an open-minded attitude in dialogue with others
- To explore how belonging to a group can influence one’s personal opinions and how cognitive biases can impair one’s ability to comprehend objective reality
- To explore the human tendency toward tribalism and the complex and problematic history of using skin color, ethnicity and other traits to dehumanize and stereotype people
FAIRNESS
Students will learn:
- The concept of the rule of law, including both successes and failures of the rule of law in American political history
- To relate the requirements of fairness to the ideas of human equality and human freedom, by engaging with the historic and ongoing struggle for justice and tolerance in the United States
- To understand our shared history and be motivated to further progress by applying the principles of human dignity, freedom, and equality in American society
- To cultivate a sense of fairness that counters racism and appreciates human personality
- To learn to treat themselves and others as imperfect individuals shaped by their humanity, their unique life experiences, and other factors including diverse ancestry and cultural belonging
FAIR standards foster students’ understanding of the importance of humanity, diversity, understanding, and fairness in building a more just society.
