Participation, Protection, and Provision We

Participation, Protection, And Provision

We have all heard -- over and over again -- how children are the most precious resources that any society has, that we have no future if we do not care properly for our children. But -- while this is certainly true -- it is all too often also true that children are denied the kind of care that they need to be able to grow into whole, happy, and productive adults. There are a wide range of reasons why children do not get their needs met, from poverty to drug use in the family to simple lack of understanding on the part of parents or caregivers of how to be good parents. This paper explores the conditions that are needed to help children grow up to fulfill their potential.

A basic assumption behind this paper is that the conditions that one faces in early childhood must be designed so that the rights of children are acknowledged and protected. Indeed, the very idea that children have rights is itself an important place to start. There are now a number of written protocols -- both specific to New South Wales and more general ones, such as that promulgated by the United Nations -- that outline the basic rights of children. But there are still many people who do not recognize that children have rights just as adults do. More people do so than a century ago, or probably even than a generation ago. But the idea that children are full human beings with all of the rights of their elders is still an idea that has not been universally accepted.

Until there is such universal acceptance, it is imperative that public agencies and child welfare authorities work to educate the public about the conditions that have to obtain for children to be cared for as they should be. And when education is not sufficient, then public officials must be willing to step in to provide direct intervention, either in the form of providing support to a family up to removing a child on at least a temporary basis from his or her family. The conditions necessary for a healthy childhood cross several different arenas of a child's -- and family's -- life. And a number of these conditions require that adults in the household, especially the mother, also be given consideration.

These rights include the meeting of the most basic of human needs, such as medical care, food and water, shelter, and clothing. Children who are not given these have very little chance indeed of being able to fulfill the potential that all children have. It is also true that the health of the child is linked to the health of the mother. This is true in the most basic sense in terms of ante-natal care: A woman who does not receive proper nutrition during pregnancy, who is not protected from physical harm (including domestic violence) during pregnancy, and who does not receive appropriate medical care curing pregnancy will be less likely to give birth to an infant who is as healthy as possible. Therefore every possible social support must be put into place to allow women to receive the support and the resources that they need.

While children must be protected as honored as individuals, they must also be honored as members of families. Familial caregivers in general want to provide safe and loving conditions for their children. But because of lack of education or the level of stress in their own lives they may need help in providing the best for their children. Professionals trained in child development can work with parents and other caregivers to provide the knowledge and support that they need. Parents can sometimes feel threatened when child development professionals step in to offer help, even when the former are respectful in doing so.

The Quality Improvement Accreditation System (QIAS) standards include a discussion on how professionals can interact with caregivers in ways that allow as seamless a transition as possible between the family environment and educational environments (including preschool and before-school and after-school care). The QIAS standards argue that good communication amongst all of the adults in a child's life is one of the most important conditions that can obtain for children to be given the support that they need to develop.

Children must both be protected and given autonomy, guided and respected, disciplined and yet treated with dignity. Their value must be acknowledged as individuals even as those who care for them must bear in mind at all times that children, because of their lack of experience in the world as well as their natural level of cognitive development, must sometimes be constrained that would not be appropriate or permitted for adults.

Children must be provided the kinds of human and civil rights that adults should also be given. Among these rights are those to citizenship, to freedom of worship and religious belief, "to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of the child's choice." (UN Convention of the Rights of the Child, Article 13). The convention also argues that children should be encouraged to participate in their communities through the practice of peaceful assembly so that they come to believe that their presence in their community is valuable.

Centrality of Education

Among the key areas in which the rights of children must be initiated and protected as much as is possible is that of education. For families in the middle classes and above living in the developed world it may be difficult to imagine a world in which children are not given the educational support that they need. But for far too many children -- and not simply in the developing world -- many children do not have the kind of environment in which it is possible to become educated in the ways that will best serve them. This is especially true for girls, who all too often are not considered to be worth educating for as many years or as comprehensively as is the case for boys.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child describes in detail a number of the key attributes of a supportive educational environment. Among the most important of these is primary education that is compulsory and available to all children without charge and secondary education that includes "both general and vocational education." (Article 28). School staff should endeavor to provide all necessary guidance and support for students, especially guidance that will help keep them in school until they graduate. Key to a healthy educational experience is one in which "discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child's human dignity" (Article 28).

Central to the UN convention is the idea that while education must be designed to benefit the child, the benefits must not stop with the child but rather must be directed at the long-term future as well as the future of that individual child. The child's future must be considered by educators, who should act to maximize the "development of the child's personality, talents and mental and physical abilities to their fullest potential." But education, while valuing the individual child, should also seek to connect the child to her or his community, strengthening cultural identity and native languages.

At the same time that schools help children understand the value of themselves and their own culture, they must also help children understand the value of other peoples and other traditions. As Article 29 states: "The preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society, in the spirit of understanding, peace, tolerance, equality of sexes, and friendship among all peoples, ethnic, national and religious groups and persons of indigenous origin."

Education extends beyond the school day, and the conditions that children meet in daycare and preschool also have important impacts on their development. Because many families have both parents in the workforce or have only a single parent or caregiver who must work, many children spend time being cared for by professionals either before school or after school, during vacations, or before they enter school.

Especially when they are still too young to enter school children are highly vulnerable to poor care, which could include everything from not getting nutritious food for snacks or meals to not receiving needed help for homework. The 2004 Children's Services Regulation for New South Wales acknowledges the vulnerability of children who are not in school but also not in the care of their families. These regulations establish everything from the ratio of caregivers to children from setting and enforcing standards for preschool education.

Attachment Lessons for Caregivers

The Children's Services Regulation also provide guidelines and support for children who are in out-of-home care. While considerable effort should be made to keep children with their birth or adoptive families, sometimes children must be removed for their own safety. When this is done, a great deal of attention much be given to minimize the disruption that the children feel. Being removed from one's home is traumatic for children -- even when the home itself is traumatizing. Children may find it extremely difficult to trust their foster parents -- or anyone else -- and their difficulty in trusting others may be especially severe depending on the conditions they have been exposed to.

The harm from dislocation that a foster child feels can be mitigated if foster parents and social workers are attentive to the dynamics of attachment. Providing an environment in which children can form secure attachments is one of the most valuable things that caregivers can provide children. (This is of course true for both children at home and in foster care.) But it can be very difficult for caregivers "to anticipate, respond to and interpret the child's attachment behaviour."