Institutional rites and rights

An Inaugural Professorial Lecture Over the past century in Britain, adults' rights have completely changed so that, at least in theory, all adults are respected choice-makers and not submissive dependents. Yet children and young people are still excluded from many areas of society - as women used to be. They are seldom seen as real, thinking, competent people, but rather as pre-persons, puppets twitched by nature or nurture, needing firm adult control while their minds grow as slowly as their bodies. The Institute of Education has played a leading part in inventing, testing and trying to organise this supposedly gradual growth. Newer research methods of working with young children are re-discovering how highly competent, organised and motivated they can be. In this millennium, it is time to adopt up-to-date research methods, theories, and findings to inform all its work in order to promote every person's rights to respect for their worth and dignity.

An Inaugural Professorial Lecture Over the past century in Britain, adults' rights have completely changed so that, at least in theory, all adults are respected choice-makers and not submissive dependents. Yet children and young people are still excluded from many areas of society - as women used to be. They are seldom seen as real, thinking, competent people, but rather as pre-persons, puppets twitched by nature or nurture, needing firm adult control while their minds grow as slowly as their bodies. The Institute of Education has played a leading part in inventing, testing and trying to organise this supposedly gradual growth. Newer research methods of working with young children are re-discovering how highly competent, organised and motivated they can be. In this millennium, it is time to adopt up-to-date research methods, theories, and findings to inform all its work in order to promote every person's rights to respect for their worth and dignity.