DOCUMENT RESUME ED 052 828 PS 004 829 TITLE Report to the President: White House Conference on Children 1970. INSTITUTION White House Conference on Children, Washington, D.C. PUB DATE 71 NOTE 439p. AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402 ($4.75) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF-$0.55 HC Not Available from EDRS. DESCRIPTORS Bias, *Child Care, *Child Development, Civil Liberties, *Conference Reports, Creativity, Educational Technology, Environment, Family (Sociological Unit), Handicapped Child7:en, Health, Learning, Leisure Time, Mass Media, Reading, Self Concept ABSTRACT Most of this document consists of the individual reports approved by the 25 Forums at the 1970 White House Conference on Children. Also included are the conference preamble that set the tone of the conference proceedings; the lettev of transmittal submitted to the President by the national conference chairman, Stephen Hess; and an appendix containing lists of conference staff, consultants, advisory committees, and contributors.(AJ) Report to the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE DF EDUCATION MIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO- DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG- President INATING IT. POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN- IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU- CATION POSITION OR POLICY. White House Conference onChildren N.I N O c V, FOr8310by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Govemment, Pruaing OfRce Washington, D. C. 20402 Price $4.75 White House Conference on Children 1970, Washington, D.C. Table of Contents Preamble 4 Letter of Transmittal 5 Forum Reports Emergence of Identity : The First Years 17 CO Expressions of Identity : The School-Age Child 41 Crisis in Values 61 The Future of .Learning: Into the Twenty-First Century 73 Creativity and the Learning Process 87 C=1 The Right to Read 103 L.1.1 Confronting Myths of Education 121 Educational Technology : Constructive or Destructive? 143 Keeping Children Healthy: Health Protection and Disease Prevention 153 Making Children Healthy : Delivery of Health Care Services 181 Children Who Are Handicapped 195 Children Who Are Injured 207 Changing Families in a Charging Society 225 Children and Parents: Together in the World 239 Family Planning and Family Economics 257 Developmental Child Care Services 271 Children Without Prejudice 293 "It's All Where You Live": Children anc: Their Physical and Social Environments 305 Child Development and the Mass Media 323 The Child and Leisure Time 333 The Rights of Children 343 Children in Trouble: Alternatives to Delinquency, Abuse and Neglect 371 The Child Advocate 387 About the Law : Communicating the Law's Mczsage to Children 399 Child Service Institutions: Meeting the Needs of the Seventies409 Results of Ballotting 423 Back-up Statements 428 Appendix Staff List 443 Consultants 445 Advisory Committees 446 Contributors 449 Preamble As we begin this significant national reassessment, let us remind ourselves of our purpose. This should be a Conference about love... about ourneed to love those to whom we have given birth... and those who are most helpless and in need. .. and those whogive us a reason for being ... and thosewho are most precious for themselvesfor what they are and what they can become. Our children. Let us ask what we want for our children. Then let us ask not less for all children. We want for our children a home of love and understanding and encouragement. We want for our children a full opportunity for learning in an environment in which they can reach and grow and take pride in themselves. We want for our children the right to be healthy, to be free of sickness. But if sickness comes, to have the best care humanly possible. We want for our children the right to have the respect of others. We want them to have respect and dignity as a right because they are, not because of who their parents are. We want for our children to live under laws that are fair and just and that are administered fairly and justly. We want for our children to love their country because their country has earned their love, because their country strives to create peace and to create the conditions of a humane and healthy society for all of its citizens and is dedicating the resources necessary to redeem its commitmel t to these ends. This we want for our children. Therefore this we must want for all children. There can be no exceptions. To those who have food, it is intolerable that there is a child somewhere in our land who is ill-nourished. To those who live beneath a sound roof, it is intolerable that there should be a child who is ill-housed and without adequate clothes. That we are well, so then is it intolerable that a child is needlessly sick or lives in an environment that poisons his body or mind. That we have the knowledge, so then is it intolerable that there is some child who does not have a full opportunity to learn. That we are a Nation founded on equality, Po must we not tolerate intolerance in ourselves or our fellows. We must recognize that there is some child in special need.And he especially must be our child. At a time when it is aii ',AR, easy to accuse, to blame, to fault, let us gather in trust and faith to put before the Nation that which is necessary and Lest. All this we say with the greatest sense of urgency and conviction. Our children and our families are in deep trouble. A society that neglects its children and fears its youth cannot care about its future. Surely this is the way to national disaster. Our society has the capacity to care and the resources to act. Act we must. There is a need to change our patterns of living so that once again we will bring adults back into the lives ofchildren and children back into the lives of adults. The changes must come at all levels of societyin business, industry, mass media, schools, government, communities, neigh- borhoods, and, above all, in ourselves. The changes must come now. We as Delegates to the 1970 White House Conference onChildren do now affirm our total commitment to help bring ourNation into a new age of caring. Now we begin. 3 The President The Whit.. House Wa.shingion, D. C.20500 Dear Mr. President : On December 5, 1969, when you appointed me as National Chairman of the White House Conference on Children and Youth, you stated : Never has this White House Conference come at a time of greater national questioning. Long held attitudes on such subjects as family planning, pornography, health services, school curricula, sex education, family structure, drug abuse, moral standards, governance of higher education, responsiveness of government all are now openly challenged and debated. The White House Conference can and will define problems, seek new knowledge, evaluate past success and failure, and outline alternative courses of action. I believe that this report, which I am pleased to transmit to you, demonstrates how well the Children's Conference met this chal- lenge. But the accomplishments and the lessons of the Children's Conference are not all reflected in this report. Therefore, in ad- dition to stating what I believe to be important themes of this document, I would like to take this opportunity to relate a number of other unique aspects of the Conference. First, the design. One of our earliest decisions was to separate the children and the youth phases of the Conference. Our purpose was to give both children and youth the time and attention they so much need. While all young people are affected by certain common factors, there are numerous areas where age is a critical element. This has long been reflected in our social institutions and our laws, which usually distinguish between the child and the adolescent. But today the differences have become even more pronounced, with youth becoming more and more concerned with what was once considered the adult domain of public affairs, while children still live in their own special world. We were determined not to let this important children's world become secondary because of the greater attention currently being paid to youth. Hence, we decided to hold a Children's Conference (ages 0-13) in December 1970 and a Youth Conference (ages 14-24) in April 1971. It is my firm belief that it will no longer be realistic for future planners to hold a single Conference for both groups. Next, our approach to the Children's Conference. From your mandate, several things became evident. For one, a significant amount of pre-Conference study was needed if we truly were to "define problems, seek new knowledge" and "evaluate past suc- cess and failure." Certainly such a considerable task could not adequately be accomplished by 4,000 people suddenly brought together for a brief week in Washington. Second, the Conference had to be multi-disciplinary bringing to- gether social scientists and clergymen, educators and businessmen, health practitioners and lawyers, parents, media representatives, children and many others t3 work together toward solving the 5 many related and overlapping problems affecting children. It had ; . to break down organizational and professional barriers that have prevented open discussion and cooperation in the past. Finally, the delegates could not merely be passive observers at massive sessions where experts read their papers. If they were to carry home Law insights into children's lives, new motivations, new desires for cooperation among disciplines, the delegates had to be active participants in the Conference. Thus we had to develop new Conference techniquesvisits to institutions dealing with children ; the use 3f such media as films to capture children in their own surroundings ; the creation of smaller, inter-disciplinary discussion groups ; the involvement of delegates in situations similar to those encountered by children.