VOICE, CHOICE, AND ACTION

Psychiatrist Earls and neurobiologist Carlson bring decades of research in child development and experience with at-risk children to their persuasive plea for young people’s inclusion in active citizenship. Organizing their book into four themes—nurture, voice, choice, and action—the authors examine the influences on children of their earliest attachments, citing in particular Romanian orphans who, from birth to age 3, were deprived of loving contact and Brazilian street children, whose care for one another reflected early nurturing by adults. The authors reveal how young people were inspired by the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child “to assemble, to find common cause, and to speak up about their concerns.” Working with two groups in Chicago’s urban neighborhoods demonstrated to the authors how children’s participation helped communities make choices “about how to monitor stress in the context of out-of-home care and urban violence.” In Tanzania, children conceived of and conducted “a massive public education campaign, showing their parents and neighbors the reality of HIV and how to combat it.” Reflecting their years of research and dedication to an action-based, participatory approach, the authors provide specific guidelines for parents, teachers, police, and other authority figures in setting up a Young Citizens program, aimed at children ages 10 to 14, in their own communities. They recommend, for example, that children should be selected randomly, ensuring equal opportunity for all, and that adult facilitators “have some grounding in child development and complete a two-week, full-day training in a standardized but highly participatory curriculum.” Drawing on Amartya Sen’s writings on human development and Jürgen Habermas’ theories of social justice, the authors underscore that “when members of a community come together to identify and freely discuss their common problems, their discussion is not ‘just words’ but rather the first step toward consensual, rational, shared social action.”

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