TIME FOR A CHILDREN'S MOVEMENT
Wingspread Journal, Winter 1997

A CULTURE SHIFT OF THE HEART

by Richard Kinch, Senior Program Officer, The Johnson Foundation

The well-being of any nation's children depends on a culture that values them. By many measures America's children are not doing well. Twenty-five years ago, the 1971 White House Conference on Children concluded: "We like to think of America as a child-oriented society, but our actions belie our words. Our national rhetoric notwithstanding, the actual patterns of life in America today are such that children and families are lost."

It is little comfort that today similar words are spoken regularly at meetings and conferences and can be found in letters to the editor, editorials, opinion and professional journals, and occasionally in political speeches.

The limited constituency for children, the witness of child advocates, and the aspirations of some public policy have not sufficed to make us a child-oriented society. There are those (ourselves included) who believe a seismic "culture shift of the heart" will be required if the root of the problem--adult re-engagement in the lives of our children and youth--is to be effectively addressed.

Culture shifts result from movements. Several Wingspread conferences and briefings of the past year aimed to contribute to such an idea and to encourage our nation to be more effectively child-centered.

The most ambitious and most promising conference was a February 1996 meeting, "Building a Constituency for Children: Community and National Strategies." This conference measured the "children's movement" against other social movements, in part by carefully examining the values and opinions of the American public.

About strategy, about what sorts of actions will most likely be effective, caring people will differ. But at this Wingspread conference there was agreement about this: the need to build a much broader constituency on behalf of children. Theda Skocpol and Raphael Sonenshein deployed their extensive political and historical knowledge in suggesting ways to recognize and develop a social movement. Their conclusion is that the children's movement is not a movement--yet. John Deardourff and other conference participants helped explain why. The ideas shared at this conference, and the action plans proposed, are outlined in the Special Section.

Major players in a children's movement would of course be parents and lawmakers. The latter can be influenced by the former. Child advocate Jack Levine, director of the Florida Center for Children & Youth, used the forum of a Wingspread briefing to challenge parents to "join the parade for kids" in order to make a political difference.

Engaging adults of all ages in supporting youth was the focus of a conference convened by Generations United. In part a sequel to a meeting held at Wingspread 18 years earlier, the 1996 conference sought to develop strategies for intergenerational community building.

During the past year, the Foundation has assisted in supporting efforts to create social environments friendly to young people and their families. A teen writer Marcia Chatelain eloquently describes one such conference that viewed youth not as problems to be fixed but as promises to be fulfilled.

Is it time for a children's movement? It will be when hundreds of thousands enroll in the effort to make our communities more youth-friendly, when there are opportunities for young people to become involved in the general public life, and when adults become engaged in the lives of young people.

We welcome conference proposals on adult engagement in the lives of children and youth. For more information, contact Barbara J. Schmidt, program secretary, 33 East Four Mile Road, Racine, WI 53402, fax: 262-681-3325.