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Good evening everyone
To begin - I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians of this land - the Ngunnawal people.
Recently at an issues day, held by the Australian Education Union, I listened to two New Zealand participants greet us in Moari. I understand that this is a requirement of the Waitangi Treaty, that was signed in 1840, between the British Crown and the Moari chiefs.
Later, when Karen Martin, a Noonuccal woman, spoke to us she commented that she had never heard a white Australian speak in an Aboriginal language in the way the New Zealanders had spoken in Moari.
She said too that, for her, real steps would have been made in the process of reconciliation between Aboriginal people and white Australians when this happened.
I spoke to her afterwards and said that I would like to do this and she gave me her permission to address you with this word
Yura is a deep acknowledgement and greeting from my spirit to yours and to the place where we are meeting.
It is a word from the Janidai language of the Noonuccal people of Kwan da moo ka (North Stradbroke Island)
Thank you for the opportunity to be part of this "ACT Child Care Awards" presentation ceremony.
I have said many times that, as a society, we entrust with the most significant responsibility those who are responsible for the care and education of our youngest citizens. That is each of you and the rest of your profession.
Tonight I want to talk with you about why it is now uncontested that early relationships, such as those that are formed between you and children you care for, matter so much for these children.
I want to talk about what matters in early childhood and in so doing affirm the significance and value of your work as early childhood professionals.
The early years are important and, because of this, young children merit a high priority, even though they cannot speak for themselves.
Because early relationships matter, society is wise to value those who relate to young children daily -that is all of you.
Because children are active participants in their own development, the most sensitive care is that which is aligned with the child\'s interests, needs, and goals.
Because experience can elucidate, or diminish, inborn potential, early environments must be designed to ensure young children\'s health, safety, and well-being.
And because the early years are a period of considerable opportunity for growth and, vulnerability to harm, society wisely does not take for granted the well-being of young children.
Instead, we share responsibility as adults to guarantee for each child the opportunity to thrive in the early years of life.
The relationships that matter, in a young child's life, do not end with the immediate family. They also include the relationships that young children develop and depend upon in childcare - in your care, and in other early care and education environments.
Society\'s commitment to ensuring the healthy development of every child requires far more, therefore, than hoping that market forces will make available high-quality, affordable care for young children.
It requires equipping care providers - you - with the knowledge and resources required to provide young children with the kind of focused, sensitive care that offers the essential catalysts for healthy growth.
It requires esteeming the relationships between children and caregivers sufficiently that there are incentives (in wages and benefits, the structure of child care work, and public support) for these relationships to provide stable, reliable support for young children.
Society\'s commitment to ensuring the healthy development of each child requires that all the relationships that young children rely upon are valued and supported.
The irreducible core of the environment during early development is people.
People, especially parents and other caregivers, including you, are the essence of the infant\'s and young child's environment.
The protection, nurturing, and stimulation provided by parents and other caregivers shape early development.
In a sense, just as children\'s developing brains intrinsically expect that eyes will see light and ears will hear sound because of their developmental self-organization, So also do children\'s developing minds and hearts expect that adults will talk in special ways to them and that caregivers will nurture them as they mature. Normal human development draws upon these natural and unrehearsed features of everyday early experience far more than it requires special educational toys, Mozart CDs, or flashcards.
Children merit society\'s commitment to them.
A society that is concerned with problems of violence and self-control, school readiness, and social civility society wisely takes note of the fact that the origins of these social, emotional, and intellectual qualities take shape early in the life course.
In committing itself to the well-being of the youngest of its citizens, society can promote the well-being of all.
I want to comment now on the notion of children as citizens. I do this so as to set your work and its importance in the broader picture of public policy development.
There is considerable argument now that a focus on children is necessary because they, today's children, will provide the human capital of the future and that, because of the reality of an aging population, each unit of human capital in the future will have to be more able etc than the adults of this generation.
These are important arguments and they provide the sort of economic leverage that is needed if we are to get the economists in Governments to take notice.
However, when we acknowledge that children are citizens we can also make the arguments that as citizens children have a value as human beings in the here and now, not simply for what they might become. As citizens, children have an entitlement, independent of their parent's capacity to pay and shared by all other citizens, to the resources that is policies, programs and funds necessary to ensure:
- Their well being in the here and now experience of childhood,
- Their increasing capacity to participate as full and responsible citizens in the social, economic and political life of the society and,
- That they can and will exercise their responsibility as adults for future generations of children and the society and environment in which these children will live.
The justification for a focus on children that arises from their status as citizens also suggests a commitment to the value-based goal of social inclusion.
Citizenship like social inclusion means that all children and adults are able to participate as valued, respected and contributing members of society.
Social Inclusion provides a way of looking at the well-being of children and families that has the potential to frame a national dialogue around the creation of a just, healthy and inclusive society.
It means that all children should have the opportunity to develop their talents and capacities to the full and be active and valued members of society.
A commitment to social inclusion demands that the barriers to inclusion such as disability, low income and culture be addressed.
Social inclusion means that the gaps and distances between children in terms of present well-being and future life chances are minimised.
Social inclusion starts from the experience of the individual and challenges society to provide a meaningful place for everyone.
Under the aegis of social inclusion diversity and difference are not merely seen as challenges to be overcome; they possess their own worth as do the commonalities of people's lives.
As Nelson Mandela said:
\"We all have a role to play - leaders and citizens, public and private organisations, children and young people. What we demand of our leaders, we also demand of ourselves. The Global Movement for Children calls on everyone, everywhere, to do as much as possible, in their own time and their own way, for and with children\" - Nelson Mandela
That is a call to each and everyone of us to become advocates for children.
Advocacy for children comes in many guises.
We need to recognise, name and affirm it in all of its many forms.
Each day all of you is an advocate for children when you demonstrate in the way you work with them:a respect for them as human beings;
Each day all of you is an advocate for children when you demonstrate in the unhurried, untroubled, sensitive encounters you have with the children in your care an understanding of the significance, for young children, of sensitive, responsive, trusting and caring relationships.
Each day all of you are advocates when you talk to parents and peers about children in an educated and informed way.
Each day all of you are advocates when you talk to people about your work and its value.
Each day all of you are advocates when you speak to children in special ways - to nurture them as they mature.
Early Childhood Australia is an advocate for you and your work because we recognise the significance of what you do.
What I have said to you this evening is in part my own words.
It has also contained significant, edited quotes from an article by a Canadian Ross A. Thompson. The article is called the Development in the First Years of Life.
I used the words of others from across the globe because I wanted you to know that, world wide, people are talking about early childhood differently.
For the very first time I see more than lip service to the absolute value of your contribution:
- to the everyday lives and futures of young children,and
- to the society they live in now and will help construct in the future.
No other group has a profession has a greater responsibility.
Congratulations to those of you who are the recipients of awards this evening - you are the representatives of your profession - A profession in which you can take great pride.
Thank you - I am honoured to have been invited to address you.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 14 June 2007 )
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