Opening Charge

 “This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless Calvaries. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.” Martin Luther King Junior

Just as I thought I would bring this discussion to a close yesterday, I found my mind insisting on supplying further and better facts on why the Nigerian Child must be taught their rights and responsibilities. When I observe my mind work this way, I am compelled to follow. It simply means, my subconscious, which is the seat of inspiration is loaded with more than I know in the conscious. I hope you get my point. So join me as I bring this discussion to a close, believing that my subconscious will keep his cool this time and allow this matter to rest.

I think this piece is long, but it is coming at a good time when we have the whole of weekend ahead of us to soak in the contents of this piece of advocacy.

It is my joy that we are soaking in critical information that will help us advance the cause of our children who are very dear to us and in whose hand lies the state of humanity, according to Abraham Lincoln.

I charge you today to move beyond lip service and make a commitment to ensure that we introduce Child’s Rights Education in our homes, agitate for its mainstreaming as parents in private school, who must have a say, not only in the school curriculum, but how the school is run and make bold representations to governments at the States and Federal levels.

We must rise above lip service. You see, one thing I have found in this part of the world is that we over promise and under deliver or never deliver. We have perfected the act of paying lip service to matters that affect our collective destiny and future, like children’s matter. Unfortunately, it is a culture that we are transferring to our children and when they are grounded in it, they begin to pay lip service to matters that concern us when they take tomorrow the positions, we occupy today.  

To begin Child’s Rights Education in the home we may begin by taking time to study the trend of development and the contemporary issues in every area (value, development, sex, love and related matters touching on emotional development, sibling relationship and rivalry, developing friendship with same and opposite sex, development of the spirit of enterprise, nation building, success principles and many more) of the life of our children. The goal of the foregoing exercise to enable you as parents prepare what I will call Frequently Asked Question Handbook on Contemporary Children Development Issues (FAQCCDI) to provide credible answers, which are subject to review every three months. The exercise referred to above, that is the preparation of Frequently Asked Question Handbook on Contemporary Children Development Issues must be done with parents deliberately requesting for the active involvement and informed inputs of the children. This is a document to which the children will have access from the time they are able to read. 

In introducing Child’s Rights Education we must be conscious of what Child Participation is not as outlined below: 

• Not a right to autonomy

• It does not give children the right to control over all decisions irrespective of their implications either for the child or others.

• It does not give children the right to disrespect the rights of others including parents.’

• Children do not participate by merely attending a function. That is decoration and not participation.

• Children do not participate by being merely consulted when adults make all the decisions.

• Children do not participate if they are manipulated so that they express views that are not genuinely theirs, nor rooted in their own experience.

• If a child is asked to give his/her opinion as representing “other children” when he/she is not properly briefed nor have the opportunity to discuss the issues with the very peers he/she is meant to be representing.

Dear reader, making the foregoing commitment is not an easy task as it will require us taking giant steps in the best interest of the child in a society, where it seems its time has not come. I want us to understand that, truth is lacking and we find a situation, where it is a typical case of ‘everyone to himself and God for us all.’  I therefore charge you with the words of Martin Luther King Junior made in 1963 that “This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. Dangerous passions of pride, hatred and selfishness are enthroned in our lives; truth lies prostrate on the rugged hills of nameless Calvaries. The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”

Friends, permit me to rest my case here. Do have an INSPIRED Weekend

I’m Taiwo Akinlami & I Lead the TeacherFIRE™ Revolution

POINT 2 PONDER:

‘We must rise above lip service. You see, one thing I have found in this part of the world is that we over promise and under deliver or never deliver.’

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