-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 22, 2007 12:40:12 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: No Child NOT Left Behind
Kay's Comments
By Kay James
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.wiscnews.com/wde/opinion/119801
A report from the United Nations starts with this quote: "The true
measure of a nation's standing is how well it attends to its
children — their health and safety, their material security, their
education and socialization, and their sense of being loved,
valued, and included in the families and societies into which they
are born."
Would you agree with that statement?
If you do, and I do, we need to do something. That statement opens
a 52-page report comparing the well-being of children in 21
industrialized countries.
Overall the United States finished second to last in that ranking,
with Great Britian last. Politicians in Great Britain claim
children there aren't as bad off as the report makes them seem.
They claim that some of the statistics in the report are outdated
and that improvements have been made.
I have not heard anyone in our government comment on the report,
much less dispute the findings.
I think it's shocking that children in this country are not doing
as well as ones in 19 other countries including places such as the
Czech Republic, Portugal Germany, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the
Netherlands.
Canada is at the mid-point on the chart while we're at the bottom.
The report examined children's material well-being, health and
safety, educational well-being, relationships, behaviors and risks,
and subjective well-being. In measuring children's material well-
being where the U.S. ranked 18th, the report measured the
percentage of children living in homes with incomes below 50
percent of the national median, the percentage of children in
families without an employed adult, the percentage of children
reporting low family affluence, the percentage of children
reporting few educational resources and the percentage of children
reporting fewer than 10 books in the home.
In looking at material well-being, the researchers also asked a
group of 15 year-olds in 41 countries whether they had the
following items in their home: a desk for study, a quiet place to
work, a computer for schoolwork, educational software, an Internet
connection, a calculator, a dictionary and school textbooks. In the
United States, 30 percent had less than six of those items.
It also asked how many books were in the home and a large
percentage of children in the U.S. had less than 10 books in the
house. My house is overflowing with books. I have more than 10 in
just about every room in the house except the bathrooms. I will
give some to any children who want them.
Health and safety section examined such measures as infant
mortality. For a country that claims to have the greatest health
care system in the world, why is the infant mortality here higher
than other countries? Iceland and Japan have among the lowest rates
with 3 per 1,000 births. In the U.S., the rate is 6 per 1,000. The
U.S. also ranks high for the percentage of low birth weight babies.
We also don't keep our children safe. Only New Zealand had a higher
rate of deaths from accidents and injuries among children than the
U.S. did among the 21 countries.
The United States did better in the education well-being section or
at least we made the middle of the pack. We weren't at the bottom.
We were next to the bottom in children's relationships. We had the
highest percentage of children living in single-parent households
and the highest percentage of children living in stepfamilies.
This country didn't do well in measurements of behaviors and risks.
We had a high number of children engaged in risky behaviors such as
smoking, drinking, using drugs and having sex without using condoms.
We need to do better for our children. We have made tremendous
strides in this country in caring for and providing for the
elderly. We have not done the same for children.
The government provides insurance for people over 65. It does not
provide insurance for children.
Children are our future. We can't expect to lead the world if we
can't care for our children.
Kay James is editor of the Dells Events. She can be contacted at
(608) 254-8327, ext. 3567 or kjames@
capitalnewspapers.com
------------
NEWS EUROPE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/13_02_07_nn_unicef.pdf
United Nations Study:
US, UK 'WORST PLACES FOR CHILDREN'
no link between gross domestic product and children's well-being
Britain and the United States are the worst places in the
industrialised world for children to live, according to a report by
the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
They ranked among the bottom third in the study which looked at
overall well-being, health and safety, education, relationships,
risk and their own sense of well-being.
The study said that child poverty - defined as the percentage of
children living in homes with incomes below 50 per cent of the
national median - remains above the 15 per cent mark in Britain,
the US and Ireland, as well as Spain, Portugal and Italy.
"The evidence from many countries persistently shows that children
who grow up in poverty are more vulnerable," the report said,
especially in terms of academic underachievement, chances of
unemployment and low self-esteem.
Child well-being was rated highest in northern Europe, with the
Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark leading the list.
"All countries have weaknesses that need to be addressed and no
country features in the top third of the rankings for all six
dimensions," David Bull, the UK executive director of Unicef, said.
Risk behaviours
Britain lived up to its reputation for "binge-drinking," hazardous
sexual activity and drug use, with the report putting the country
at the bottom of the rankings for risk behaviours "by a
considerable distance".
Almost a third of British youngsters aged 11, 13 and 15 reported
being drunk on two or more occasions, against just an average of
under 15 per cent in the majority of countries in the Organisation
for Economic Co-Operation and Development.
Britain had made progress in the field of child safety, having cut
the incidence of deaths from accidents and injuries to the
"remarkably low level" of fewer than 10 per 10,000.
Sweden, the Netherlands and Italy also achieved the same rate of
progress.
Relationships
Britain and the US were also found to have the worst rankings in
terms of children's relationships with their families and peers.
Unicef noted the sensitivity of this field, but said "at the
statistical level, there is evidence to associate growing up in
single-parent families and stepfamilies with greater risk to well-
being," including dropping out of school, leaving home early,
poorer health and low pay.
The US, Britain and Sweden had the highest proportion of children
living in single-parent families, while Italy, Greece and Spain had
the lowest.
The study, which looked at 40 indicators to gauge quality of life
in economically advanced nations, is the first of its kind.
The report said no direct link had been found between gross
domestic product and children's well-being.
It highlighted how the Czech Republic had a higher ranking than
many richer countries, including France, Austria, the United States
and Britain.
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