Children and Young People's Unit
The idea that children's and young people's experiences and opinions have as much validity as those of older people has long been a fundamental part of the Woodcraft Folk principles and practice.
Our formal 'educational aims and principles' document, for example, talks of helping children and young people to develop the knowledge, attitudes, values and skills necessary "to secure their equal participation in the democratic process". Our publicity logo carries the phrase "Empowering young people".
Our council circles are one practical attempt to reflect these aims. In a circle, all are equal and all have a chance to have their say. Our use of the circle symbolises the fundamental human equality between the ages to which we aspire.
In many respects, therefore, the key principle of point 9 of our International Camp declaration is one which is implicit in much of the normal activity of Woodcraft Folk groups. However, it can be the explicit focus for our work as well. These pages offer a few ideas for activities, some useful weblinks, and some additional resources.
Whilst the Woodcraft Folk obviously welcomes initiatives that encourage young people's voices to be heard in civic society, our approach is significantly different from what often passes for 'citizenship'. We'd argue that attempts to engage children and young people in 'democratic life' can typically suffer from a number of difficulties:
- over-emphasis on the structures of adult political life (eg 'Parliaments for young people', rules of formal debate etc)
- adult control of resources and channels of communication
- no opportunity for young people to take genuine decisions; talking shops
- patronising attitudes by adults
- tokenism
- lack of access by young people to the resources (money and power) they need to take effective action
- lack of understanding that young people are excluded from real political life because of age discrimination within society
Or, as young people were told back in 1969, "Nearly all the changes in which you're allowed to participate are in things which aren't very important. The real and difficult changes are those which give more and more people power to decide more and more things for themselves". (The quote comes from an erstwhile cause célèbre, the Little Red Schoolbook).
A good starting
place for planning activities is Article 12 of the UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child. This states that countries "shall assure to
the child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to
express those views freely in all matters affecting the child, the views
of the child being given due weight in accordance with the age and maturity
of the child." More on the UN Convention can be found in the page
on children's rights.
