Eurochild’s Key Messages on the Demographic Renewal
Social Emotional Education International Report
Social Emotional Education An International Analysis Fundacion Marcelino Botin Report 2008
See here for the Preface: Social and Emotional Learning. An International Analysis and Introduction by Christopher Clouder
This can be ordered through the Alliance for Childhood UK office: info(at)allianceforchildhood.org.uk
Building a Europe for and with children – Towards a Strategy for 2009-2011
More info on the Stockhol Strategy - the end of violence against children
Building a Europe for and with Children - Council of Europe booklet
A VISION ON CHILDREN AND CHILDHOOD IN THE EUROPEAN UNION
This paper by Michiel Matthes was discussed on 4 March 2008 by the Working Group on the Quality of Childhood within the European Parliament, under the chairmanship of MEP Karin Resetarits
European Children's Network - EURONET Newsletter 34 Summer 2008
Meetings concerning the Rights of the Child
January 27, 2009: Working Group on the Quality of Childhood in the European Parliament. Key-note speaker: Professor Michel Vandenbroeck from Belgium. Location: European Parliament Time Schedule: 13.00- 15.00 hours. Dinner Party: 20.00 hours
January 28, 2009: Meeting of the Alliance for Childhood European Network GroupLocation: Rue du Trône 194, Brussels. Time Schedule: 9.00 until 15.00 hours
March 3, 2009: Working Group on the Quality of Childhood in the European Parliament. Key-note speaker: I am in discussion about this with Andreas Schleicher, the OECD Project Manager of the PISA Study. Location: European Parliament. Time Schedule: 13.00- 15.00 hours.
April 28, 2009: Working Group on the Quality of Childhood in the European Parliament. Key-note speaker: Professor Peter Moss from the UK and the editor of the magazine Children in Europe, which is published in a dozen European countries and a dozen European languages. Location: European Parliament. Time Schedule: 13.00- 15.00 hours.
SUMMARY REPORT OF THE FOURTH SESSION IN BRUSSELS ON 15 MAY OF THE WORKING GROUP OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT ON THE QUALITY OF CHILDHOOD
Four Points for Change Christopher Clouder
At a joint hearing entitled “Towards a EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child held in Brussels in April this year , Franco Frattini, European commissioner for Freedom, Security and Justice, announced that families and schools are in crisis and he appealed for a broader vision regarding policy towards children and childhood because “ a legal approach is good, but insufficient”. The hearing was mainly concerned with what had gone wrong and how it could be “repaired” rather than how these problems have arisen in the first place.
In many counties this concern has become a prominent area of debate. In France a recent edition of journal Le Point has on the cover “Education – Enquiry into a National Disaster”. Similarly in Spain, Italy, Denmark, Germany and others this concern is being made more and more vocal. However a clear sense of discernment is needed because sometimes this sensationalised attention is born out of political expediency to justify new legislation or policy, and can even be amplified on behalf of a sales pitch. Yet on other occasions these concerns are much more soundly based, yet hidden by the public clamour and then too easily be dismissed or disregarded.
In the UK the last 18 months have highlighted a plethora of such headlines with the undertone that the wellbeing of childhood is under threat in our society and the dire consequences that could ensue if urgent rectifying action is not taken. The perceptions that we imbibe through the media contain an element of exaggeration and sensationalism because of their existential need to catch our attention. Nevertheless there is also sound research that shows that the experience of childhood is changing and not always beneficially for the child. The latest being the NCH survey that found a 100% increase in the prevalence of emotional and social disorders among young people since the 1930’s and that 1 in 10 children have a mental health disorder to a “clinically significant” level. Naturally this is contested but the debate around the exact definition of “disorder” fails to diminish the generally held perception that something is going awry.
This is a cultural trend which Professor Layard, Director of the Centre of Economic Performance at the LSE, suggests needs to be countered by new teaching skills. “I am talking about something bigger than a programme: I am talking about a reversal of a major cultural trend towards increased consumerism, interpersonal competition and interest in celebrity and money.” He calls for education to be the catalyst for change. According to his research, in order to create a happier and mentally healthy generation, children should be taught: to care more for other people than themselves, not constantly compare themselves with other people, chose goals that stretch them but are attainable and challenge negative thoughts by focusing on the positive.
If we as educators wish to bring about such change, we could do worse than following through Layard’s four points ourselves, which requires us to allow our perceptions to be alerted but not dictated by the anxiety around childhood that currently prevails. The list is remorseless; children are less able than they used to be, UK children are the unhappiest in the western world, they are loosing the capacity to play and experience nature, food additives are creating behavioural problems, depression is becoming endemic, psychotropic medications are being increasingly used, testing stress is undermining well-being, violent videos are enhancing aggressive reactions, computers are changing brains and destroying imagination, excessive television viewing has measurable health repercussions, ADHD and autism are on the rise and much more. In the face of such an onslaught the healthy response and key to effective action to bring about positive change is in the Gandhian mode of “being the change we wish to see”, which is what teaching is about in the first place.
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
The future of the European Constitution. Request by the European Parliament Working Group on the Quality of Childhood to add two sentences to Article II-84.
Dear Mrs. Merkel, dear Mrs. von der Leyen,
On behalf of the European Parliament Working Group on the Quality of Childhood, we would like to thank you for all your efforts aiming at improving the quality of life of children in the European Union.
Our Working Group, which consists of several political parties, works in co-operation with NGO’s and scientists. We meet five times a year in the European Parliament in order to exchange opinions with experts in the Quality of Childhood and education.
At the next European summit, you have stated that you will take further steps for the future of the European Constitution.
In this context, we would like to ask you to strengthen the rights of children, which are laid down in article II-84, as follows:
Preamble to be added:
This article is based on the vision that children are fellow human beings who have the right to their own individuality and the right to develop their own inner potential.
Argument to support this request:
Our Working Group attaches great importance to the addition of this sentence to Article II-84, because the starting point for the healthy development of children begins with this new perspective on the child. This approach is fully in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Point 4 to be added:
The Union shall regularly evaluate the quality of childhood and the well-being of children in the Union.
Arguments to support this request:
Our Working Group is of the opinion that we should look at the topic of children and the Quality of their Childhood in an integral way, because many problems facing children and society at large are the result of shortcomings in the Quality of Childhood. At this moment, governments mainly focus on the ‘repair side’ when things go wrong instead of really thinking through how to take away the real causes of the problems in the first place.
The various scientific disciplines represented in our Working Group, such as pedagogy, psychology, the science of learning processes and the science of the development of the brain, have gained a deep understanding of cause and effect in their respective fields. For this reason, these scientists and NGO’s are urging our governments and the EU institutions to first address the causes of the difficulties being experienced by children. The regular evaluation of the Quality of Childhood and the well-being of children will encourage all stakeholders concerned to do their part in realising the general improvement of the Quality of Childhood. The UNICEF Report Card 7 (An overview of child well-being in rich countries) shows the way how this respect can be achieved and the Report Card should be followed by more in depth studies.
We wish you success in your work in relation to the future of the European Constitution.
We trust we have your understanding and support.
Sincerely yours,
EP Working Group on the Quality of Childhood
Karin Resetarits, Chair
European Forum on the Rights of the Child created to look to the future
Reference: IP/07/746 Date: 04/06/2007
IP/07/746
Brussels, 4 June 2007
European Forum on the Rights of the Child created to look to the future
The European Commission, today, is launching, in cooperation with the German Presidency of the European Union, a Forum on the Rights of the Child. This Forum, the first of its kind, will involve children and bring together stakeholders to exchange information and practice and take positive action for children and young people. 'Towards and EU strategy on the rights of the child,' adopted by the Commission on 4 July 2006, was the first step in the Commission's work on Children's rights. Today's Forum, in Berlin, is a further step.
Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for Justice, Freedom and Security, said: 'I welcome today's Forum. Children and the future are interlinked. Children make us face up to the future and tackle the issues facing our society from demographic challenges to crime and climate change. This first forum will focus on child pornography and paedophilia. These require urgent attention. The number of internet sites with child sexual abuse material, increased 1500 percent from 1997-2005. New technology brings new challenges including how we guide and protect our children when they often are more knowledgeable, certainly IT literate, than parents.'
The Forum brings together key players – Member States, the German Presidency, the UN, the European Parliament, the Council of Europe, Interpol, Unicef, national observatories on childhood, Ombudspersons for children, civil society and other stakeholders. How to ensure children's effective participation, as they will come to future forums, will be discussed.
Placing children at the heart of decision making and the positive opportunities this brings, for example, in education, integration and external relations will be a key theme. Children make up a third of the population in Europe - this is a lot of voices to exclude. This Forum aims to develop and implement strategies to promote the rights of children at national and international levels. Especially for the effective implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the European Union Strategy on the Rights of the Child.
The Forum will include an opening address and Declaration from Vice President Frattini, research by the German Presidency on violent video games, and the high level discussion on child pornography and paedophilia. This will include tracing credit cards used to access pornographic material, something discussed at the recent G8 of Justice and Interior Ministers in Munich.
For further information on the activities of Vice-President Frattini, please visit his website at: http://www.ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/frattini/index_en.htm <http://www.ec.europa.eu/commission_barroso/frattini/index_en.htm>
New Alliance for Childhood partnership in the EU
As part of the advocacy work in Brussels, the European Council for Steiner Waldorf education (ECSWE), together with the Austrian MEP Karin Resetarits, has founded a working group on the Quality of Childhood in the European Parliament. This group will meet every two months to discuss issues related to its remit, starting in the 5th December with the Toxic Childhood Syndrome that has been so prominent in the UK media of late. Two university representatives from Spain and the Netherlands and six other NGOs and from Denmark, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and Belgium have joined ECSWE to support this initiative on a new platform called the Alliance for Childhood – European Network Group.
Christopher Clouder
(and here some more about Christopher Clouder - in Spanish)
Towards an EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child - a report from the Commission of the European Communities - 04/07/2006 (pdf file)
Annex Paper to the "EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child" (pdf file)