3. Read the main points out of Declaration on Child’s Rights and make sure you won’t break a law in future. Write down your recommendations both to the parents and teachers.

Eglantine Jebb, the founder of the Save the Children Fund drafted the Rights of the Child in 1923. It was revised in 1948 by the present Declaration of the Rights of the Child commonly known as the Declaration of Geneva.

These principles form the basis of our work and the Charter of the Save the Child Fund.

1. The child must be protected beyond and above all consideration of race, nationality or creed.

2. The child must be cared for with due respect for the family as an entity.

3. The child must be given the means, requisite for its normal development, materially, morally and spiritually.

4. The child that is mentally or physically handicapped must be helped, the maladjusted child must be re-educated, the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succored.

5. The child must be the first to receive relief in time of distress.

6. The child must enjoy the full benefits provided by social welfare and social security systems, must receive training which will enable it, at the right time, to earn a livelihood, and must be protected against every form of exploitation.

7. The child must be brought up in the consciousness that its talents must be developed to the service of its fellow men.

4. Read a little nursery rhyme. Tell the class what point of the Declaration the teacher violates.

Doctor Faustas was a good man,

He whipped his scholars now and then,

When he whipped them he made them dance

Out of England into France,

Out of France into Spain,

And then he whipped them back again.

RELATIONSHIPS WITH PARENTS

5. Read an article and suggest why tolerance and harmony are important in relations with the parents.

Do your parents love you?

Mark Twain, the great American writer, used to say when he was fourteen his father was so ignorant he could hardly stand to have him around. But when he was twenty-one he was astonished at how much his father had learned in those seven years.

Today, your parents may seem to you to be people who keep on saying: “Now when I was young …” But believe me that is how their parents seemed to be to them when they were young. Today parents are in my opinion more tolerant of the behavior of their sons and daughters than ever before. I wonder, however, whether you are tolerant.

I heard recently of a father who was found sitting on the front steps of his house at three in the morning by a policeman. ‘What are you doing here?’ asked the policeman, ‘Oh,’ said the man, ‘I’ve lost my key so I’m waiting for my children to come home and let me in.’ but few parents stay out ‘partying’ until the early hours in the morning. I wonder how you would feel if your parents started doing this and you had to wait up until they came in? Even if you didn’t wait up for them! Would you not be asking such questions as ‘Where have you been? What have you been doing?’ How would you react to their answers? What we all need – you, the young people and those who are older – is tolerance. There are, you all know, black and white keys on a piano. Play them altogether thoughtlessly, without any rules, and you get discord. But if you understand music and spend some more time practicing, you can, with the same black and white keys, produce sweet harmony. Why not try? You start. You’ll be surprised at how quickly your people will respond.

After Gordon Williams.

6. Ask your parent or a close relative about his or her schooldays. Write down your interview survey.