Universal Children's Day: Bridging the Gaps in a Changing Society

Adults have a commitment to teach our children to strive for a healthier and more peaceful world. For Universal Children's Day, this is an appropriate message from Parker Centennial Professor Joe L. Frost, "It is time for adults to say to children that immoral and unethical behavior is unacceptable."

Olney, MD (PRWEB) November 23, 2003 --"It is time for adults to say to children that immoral and unethical behavior is unacceptable...for them to impose and enforce consequences...and to admit that guilt is an acceptable and useful human emotion. The conscience should hurt even if all the other parts feel good."

Joe L. Frost, Parker Centennial Professor Emeritus, University of Texas, Austin, and a past president of ACEI, delivered these words in an address at the 2003 Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) Annual Conference. He spoke of war, homelessness, AIDS, and other societal gaps that affect the care and education of children. "These gaps overshadow in their magnitude and severity those faced by children of the industrialized world."

Frost's suggestions for bridging these gaps are relevant at any time, but are especially important as the world commemorates Universal Children's Day on November 20.

In his address, Frost said that the first step to bridging the societal gaps is making the commitment to teach our children to strive for a healthier and more peaceful world. "The bridge that must be built is one of the heart-giving, sharing, caring, working for others, devoting larger portions of energy and abundance to those who are struggling to exist."

The next step is a reexamination of political responsibilities--"One vote in the hands of a politician can exert greater power over the welfare of children than most professional educators can exert in a lifetime."

Frost then called for adults to rediscover ethics and morals. "Children learn not only what they live, but also what their significant adults live." Morals, ethics, and character are matters of the heart. "Mind bridges are taught, heart bridges are lived," he said. "Mind bridges will never be built without the heart bridges."

In conclusion, Frost states,"We must commit ourselves to bridging the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. It is time we begin to live responsibly."

November 20, the date designated "Universal Children's Day" by the United Nations General Assembly, is symbolic because it marks the day on which the Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989).