Childrens’ Bill of Rights
Children’s Educational Bill of Rights
(To be added to article 17&18 of UN’s “Children’s Bill of Rights.” (1996)
Children have a right to:
1) unconditional love from at least one adult. (be valued for who they are, not what they do. Love is not a feeling but a discipline. It is not something you withhold when the other person isn’t the way you want them to be.)
2) room to be decision makers.
3) clear definition of boundaries and rules of the road.
Children need:
Freedom to:
1) own their own education
2) Play
3) Do things upon which others depend.
4) Find the intrinsic rewards for their decisions
5) Make mistakes and learn from them
6) Learn from conflict
7) Choose challenges and to struggle with and without the watchful eye of an adult.
Freedom from:
8) Being underestimated
9) Being labeled and compared to others.
10) The imposition of extrinsic rewards
11) Choosing sides in adult conflicts
12) The anxiety of their adults
And:
§ A safe, private place of their own
§ Teachers and parents to play different roles
NOTES
In April 20 1996 the united nations brought children from 17 countries together and they wrote The Children’s Bill of Rights. My experience as an educator, parent and grandparent has taught me that a few critical things are missing. Article 17 & 18 read as follows:
17. Right to education
Every child has the right to education, education that aims to develop his or her personality, talents, and mental and physical abilities to the fullest extent, no matter how wealthy the child’s parents are.
Education should foster respect for a child’s parents, for the child’s own cultural identity, language and values, as well as for the cultural background and values of others.
Children have the right to an excellent education in any school. Schools will differ not in the quality of the education they offer, but only in their philosophies of teaching, and what professional specializations they stress.
18. Right to access appropriate information and to a balanced depiction Of reality
Adults have the obligation to provide children with information from several different sources.
Children should be protected from materials adults consider harmful.
Children have the right to have reality presented to them in a balanced and accurately representative fashion.
What do you think? Our audience is parents, teacher and school policy makers.
Welcome to my blog about the delights, mysteries, and challenges of educating our children. These stories and reflections are based on my 40 years of experience working with students, teachers, and parents as a principal, father, and education consultant. Join me as we journey down the road of discovering how to bring out the best in our children!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Have been reading through this site and am very pleased with almost everything I read. How do you feel about children whom are homeschooled, as I plan to do with my girls. Does that blur the line between parent and teacher in your view? As a parent, taking on the role and responsibility of my children’s primary education, what do you, as an educator, think I need to know?
Homeschooling seems to be one of the better educational systems (non-systems) we have going int the country and I am glad for it. Parents often wear more than one hat. It is helpful to the child if parents could be clear about what roles are being played. In fact often kids love to “play school” at home. If what is going on at home is “school,” then it is good for a parent to be clear that he or she is playing the role of teacher, now.
It might even be fun to literally have a teacher hat, and or a room that is the “school” room, so that school is not an ever present thing, but something we can take a break from. (We don’t want our kids to get sick of school.)
The most important thing is that school be fun. If it is more fun at home than at the “real” school, …well that is one of the things that should be gained by homeschooling.
Parents are always teaching, of course, everything from how to tie shoes to get along with others. When parents feel pressure to teach school work (whether they go to school in or out of the home) the child can feel oppressed, and that is the point of separating the roles. “Can I have my Mommy back now?” “Do we always have to _______.” “Can’t I go over to Sally’s house and play?” There has to be room for freedom from school.