Day of the Child
Every day is/should be Children's Day. Starting now.
Last Wednesday, November 20th, was World Childrens Day, a day chosen by the United Nations to recognize the Rights of the Child and commemorate the dawn of this idea. We’re all aching at the idea of these upcoming attacks on childhood, from separating kids from parents again, to taking their public schools away, to giving fetuses more rights than children, to, say, have living mothers—etc. etc. etc. We’re all looking for ways to fight back with consciousness and reason, to protect the future.
This week, Everybody's Everybody: A Musical Promoting Awareness of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child was released, the third book in Spiraling Music’s incredible We Agree series, and I was honored to write the introduction!
Here it is:
Everybody’s Everybody
100 years ago, before there was a United Nations (1942) or the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration on the Rights of the Child, which basically stated that humanity “owes to the Child the best that it has to give.” This 1924 declaration articulates that children need priority, protection, and a dignified upbringing. The UN adopted this declaration in 1959, but the idea got real teeth in 1989, when it became the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a convention being different from a declaration in that it moves from being an ideal to being the law. For the past 35 years now, the world has begun the process of making sure children are legally protected everywhere in the world.
There are 41 rights listed in the CRC, many of them (like the right to identity, nationality, and freedom from discrimination) echoing the UDHR. Some of them are very specific to children, such as Article 27, which states that children have the right to food, clothing and a safe home. Articles 12 and 13 that say children have the right to express their views. Article 42 states that everyone needs to know what the rights of children are.
Author and composer Merrill Collins took these mandates to heart when she and her collaborator, Fredrick Gums, who were running an arts program for kids to teach concepts in Peace, created this poignant children’s musical. They wrote it with children, in the voices of children, for audiences of children, all of whom are trying to understand this grownup world and problems like poverty and hunger. And they wrote it as a fundraiser to help children who were experiencing famine. The brilliance of this co-creation is, to quote actor Jeff Bridges, that “poverty is a very complicated issue, but hunger isn’t.” It empowers every single person involved in the production to help raise awareness, and raise money, and simply send food to those who need it.
The musical is beautiful. The staging is imaginative. Best of all, Merrill’s passion for educating communities about key world agreements through music is infectious. This guide provides detailed instructions that make the production simple and strong, including activities to engage children about The Rights of Children, and impactful information to provide during intermission. When children understand Children’s Rights, they become humans who understand Human Rights. And as we move forward on this magnificent project of creating a world where everyone has dignity, the planet becomes a more respectful, safe, optimistic, and beautiful place where “everybody’s everybody.”
—Kristen Caven, playwright and co-author of The Bullying Antidote and The Winning Family: Where No One Has to Lose
The thing about this guiding document is that every member of the United Nations except the United States has either ratified or accepted it. Our tolerance for baby men who manipulate voters into giving them grownup powers keeps American kids unsafe, with fewer rights than in any other country.
The thing about this wonderful new book is that the amazing composer and keyboardist Merrill Collins (booking now for holiday gatherings) has offered a discount for my lucky subscribers! Grab a copy for your or your kids’ or grandkids’ school, church, or after school program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wwfUEM3BWU
Kristen Caven and her mom Louise are gifted writers as well as deep humanitarian heart love expressers.
A World Gone Right is exactly what we all need to focus on !!!I hope someone will choose to do a LIVE production of Everybody's Everybody. I am as composer and co-writer available for consultation. There are also options to simply present Help Them Live , which includes readings from the Convention. Blessings on all the children on the planet and the adults responsible for protecting them and guiding their development as global citizens .