The Kites are Flying

The Kites are Flying

Set our Children Free

The Dimbleby Lecture, Tuesday 15^th February 2011

          I watched the Dimbleby lecture last year and was moved to tears by Terry Pratchett’s thoughts on coping with his althzhiemer’s disease and chosen manner of dying.

This year I watched and listened to Michael Morpurgo the author of 120 children’s books and champion of children’s rights.

He moved me to tears too.

          I have never read any of his books but as he began to speak about parents, teachers and children I knew I would empathise with his writing.

As a teacher of one sort or another for more than 25 years I warmed to someone who promotes the idea that ‘teaching is a noble profession…’ and mourns the fact that working with or for children has too low a status in this country.

"If we are to make real progress in enriching the lives of children, and enhancing their education, we have to put the people who are responsible for their upbringing first - that is, parents and teachers," he said.

The status of those who work with and for children in this country is low”

"And how often do we hear that tired old jibe, 'if you can't do it, teach it'? This, about what is surely one of the noblest professions.

He went on to point out that

… parents and teachers are preparing children and young people for a host of decisions they will have to make in their lives.

We must remember that WE are preparing children… for the difficult decisions they will have to make in their personal lives, in those moments when they have to take responsibility for themselves, when they decide whether or not to have sex with someone new, to be tempted into drugs, bully a school mate on the internet, carry a knife, or throw a brick through a window.

"In those critical moments their decisions, the choices they take, rely so much on the good relationships they made when they are young - with their parents and their teachers - built on self worth and self confidence - and there is no league table for relationships."

There is nothing too much to cry about there, even if you think it IS a pity the people whose focus is the education and care of children are not valued sufficiently.

It was when he went on to talk about the children whose rights are abused here at home in the UK, that tears began to come.

He tells a good story;

about the girl whose home was invaded by ten policeman who hauled her and her family off to confine them an immigrant camp, in Yarls Wood,

about our most vulnerable children appallingly treated (note some of the social services cases that hit the headlines, torture and death of  babes recently), and

about our 3.5 million children mired in poverty.

          In the UN articles described in the 'Rights of the Child' there are over 40 –Michael mention just three: the rights to Survival- including access to healthcare, Freedom and Education.

His description of the plight of children in Israel and Gaza, for example, would move anyone to tears.

          In spite of our efforts we still desperately need to tackle the problems of exploitation, neglect and impoverishment.
We still need to address the lacks in our education system.

For example the OECD ranked countries according to the excellence of their education systems….We came twentieth.   New Zealand which doesn’t  have league tables came fourth and Finland where children don’t start formal education until they are seven, came second.

We are certainly going wrong somewhere.
Perhaps the shackles of stats and league tables stifle our teachers and children. Perhaps in the effort to get the right percentages we lose the the space to listen, learn and dream.

Its is important to remember that interpersonal relationships are the most important factor in a child’s life.   Thankfully we have not yet devised a league table for mature fulfilling relationships, for a sense of self worth or for selfconfidence. 

We need to forget a confining restrictive curriculum and focus on the talents of our children led by the commitment and skills of those who teach them.

Thank you Michael Morpurgo.

 

NB The UN Convention on Children’s Rights has yet to by ratified by two nations:  Somali and the United States.