child care - Digital Library Collections

.... T...-HE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
Where America Stands
Among industrialized countries, the United States ranks:
1st
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1st
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1st
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10th
16th
17th
18th
in gross domestic product
in the number of millionaires and billionaires
in health technology
in military technology
in military exports
in defense spending
in eighth-grade science scores
in living standards among the poorest one-fifth of children
in rates of low-birthweight births
in the income gap between rich and poor children
18th in infant mortality
21 st in eighth-grade math scores
Last in protecting our children against gun violence
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
U.S. children under age 15 are:
12 times more likely to die from gunfire,
16 times more likely to be murdered by a gun,
11 times more likely to commit suicide with a gun, and
9 times more likely to die in a firearm accident
than children in 25 other industrialized countries combined.
Good implementation requires massive public
awareness and citizen involvement so that children
and parents know about and can actually benefit
from policies and programs intended to serve
them. Bureaucratic leaders and front-line administrators
need good training, high expectations, and
an ethic of serving children and families rather
than bureaucratic convenience.
3. We can counter the idols of our culture and
pervasive adult hypocrisy that are confusing and
leading so many children astray. Parents, child advocates,
and spiritual leaders must become profoundly
and doggedly countercultural. We must reject our
culture's glorification ofviolence, excessive materialism,
and easy feel good-ism. We must know and
teach our children the difference between heroism
and celebrity, not to confuse money with meaning,
educational degrees with wisdom and common
sense, or power with worthwhile purpose. Someone
has said, "The hero is known for achievements, the
celebrity for being well known. Celebrities make the
news, heroes make history. Time makes heroes,
time dissolves celebrities."
Children need heroes and role models with
integrity who struggle to live what they preach and
admit it when they make mistakes. I would have
been devastated as a child to fmd that my parents,
teachers, and preachers were not who I believed
them to be and that they told me one thing and did
another. Adult hypocrisy is the number one cause
of family, community, national, and moral disintegration
today. Our children are confused because
we adults are confused about right and wrong.
4. We can have the courage to try to see and
speak the truth like the little boy who cried out that
the emperor had no clothes amidst the crowd pretending
not to see the naked, preening king. Let's
not let the spinmeisters in Washington, state capi-
xx CHILDRE 'S DEFENSE FUND