Coders Meeting
Saturday 27th September, 2013.
Session 40

Course: Coding
Course Lesson: CSS
Acitivity: Animation Effects 2

Concentration Reading Activity:

The article below is a three-paragraph article, without spaces and at some points, no full stops. Read carefully and reconstruct the sentences in the article.

Since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989,Article 12 – , the provision that children have a right to express their views and have them taken seriously in accordance with their age and maturity has proved one of the most challenging to implement.

Although understanding of childhood and attitudes towards children differs widely across cultures,the experience of the Committee on the Rights of the Child has been that the reasons for excluding children from participation matters that affect them are remarkably consistent across different parts of the world: Children lack competence; they lack knowledge and judgement; involving them in decisions is to place too heavy a burden on them;parents know what is best for their children;giving children a voice will lead to excessive demands,bad behaviour, disrespect for elders; participation will expose children to risk of harm.However, we have learned over the past 20 years that the concerns are not borneout by the evidence.Time and again, experience shows that children, even very young children, given the time and opportunity, demonstrate not only that they have views,experiences and perspectives to express,but that their expressions can contribute positively to decisions that affect the realisation of their rights and well being.

Article 12 is important as a fundamental right.It is a measure of our human dignity that we are able to be involved in decisions that affect us,consistent with our levels of competence.It is also a means through which other rights are realised.It is not possible to claim rights without a voice.