Children’s Day
Children’s Day is observed world over on 20th of November every year. In India, we observe it on 14th November on Jawar Lal Nehru’s birthday. On Children’s Day we celebrate the joy and innocence of childhood that every child brings into this world. The day reminds us that childhood is precious and that each one of them deserves to be supported, to be happy, and inspired every day.
The theme of this year’s Children’s Day according to the UN is “Inclusion for every child.’
This means that beyond every humanly created boundary be it the state, culture or religion – every child deserves to be treated equally globally. They must be welcomed by the global community and provide every child the space they deserve to grow and flourish in their life. This will make the world a peaceful place and help remove any prejudices that are harmful to the wellbeing of the global society and building of global citizens.
Why is it important to take care of the well-being of children and how can we contribute to it as teachers? As an IB school, how can we contribute to the development of our children? And what role as teachers could we play in that development which will contribute to global peace? According to anthropologist Tom Weisner the important things that influence the child’s development is not only a good schooling, or a good parenting, or good nutritious diet. But it is what he called the ‘context’ of the child. He says that the belief that the child existed as an autonomous person is a construct of the western societies. In indigenous societies like the African nations we can see that the child is securely attached to a social setting. Family and other members are a part of that community where social responsibility and collaborative learning takes precedence.
What kind of a child is desired or considered morally important in that community determines the nature of child development. Children’s well-being is also determined by how the child can successfully participate in the activities of that society – those which are consider morally important and desirable.
Hence as care givers if we teachers can become aware of the importance of context in child development, rather than looking at them as autonomous actors it would immensely help the development of children in a much better way for our society, nation and the global society for which we are preparing them.