YOUTH'S BILL OF RIGHTS

(A petition directed to parents, teachers and other adults.)

    STAND BY US, NOT OVER US... Give us the feeling that we are not alone in the world, that we can always count on you when we are in trouble.

    MAKE US FEEL THAT WE ARE LOVED AND WANTED... We want to love you, not as a duty but because you love us.

    TRAIN US BY BEING AFFECTIONATELY FIRM... You really will achieve more with us through patient teaching than by punishment or preaching... Say "No" when you feel you have to, but explain your rules, don't merely impose them.

    BRING US UP SO THAT WE WILL NOT ALWAYS NEED YOU... Teach us how to take on responsibility and become independent of you... We will learn this faster and better if you will let us question you, your ideas and standards.

    DON'T ACT SHOCKED WHEN WE DO THINGS WE SHOULDN'T... It is going to take us time to learn how to grow into life properly.

    TRY TO BE AS CONSISTENT AS POSSIBLE... If you are mixed up about what you want from us, why shouldn't we be mixed up too in what we give you?

    DON'T TRY TO MAKE US FEEL INFERIOR... We doubt ourselves enough without confirming it... Predicting failure for us won't help us succeed.

    SAY "NICE WORK" WHEN WE DO SOMETHING REALLY GOOD... Don't hold back the praise when we deserve it.  That's the way to spur us on.

    SHOW RESPECT FOR OUR WISHES EVEN IF YOU DISAGREE WITH THEM... Respect for you will flow naturally from your respect for us.

     GIVE DIRECT ANSWERS TO DIRECT QUESTIONS... But don't give us more than we ask for or can understand... when you don't know, say so, but find someone for us who does know.

    SHOW INTEREST IN WHAT WE'RE DOING... Even though by your standards our activities may not be important or interesting, don't reduce them in our eyes by your indifference.

    TREAT US AS IF WE ARE NORMAL, EVEN WHEN OUR CONDUCT SEEMS PECULIAR TO YOU... All God's children have problems... That doesn't mean we're all problem children.

    SOMETIMES ALL OF US RUN INTO SERIOUS EMOTIONAL DIFFICULTIES... Should that happen, obtain for us professional counseling... It isn't always easy for boys and girls to understand themselves or know just what they want.  That's why there are specialists in personal adjustments and vocational selection.

    TEACH US BY EXAMPLE... "What you are speaks louder than your words."

    TREAT EACH ONE OF US AS A PERSON IN HIS OWN RIGHT... Children are people, not carbon copies of grownups... Treat all children in your care fairly; that is, as of equal value to you... That is how we will learn to respect the rights of other people and to treat them fairly.

    DON'T KEEP US YOUNG TO LONG... We want a chance to prove what we can do as soon as we are ready to give proof... Don't hold us back by love which over-protects and paralyzes.

    WE NEED FUN AND COMPANIONSHIP... Help us share our interests and happy feelings with groups of friends... Give us time to be with them and make them welcome when they come to visit.

    MAKE US FEEL THAT OUR HOME BELONGS TO US... We are at least as important as furniture... Don't protect "things" at our expense making us feel like intruding bulls in a china shop.

    DON'T LAUGH AT US WHEN WE USE THE WORD "LOVE"... The need to love and be loved starts early (and never ends)... Getting romantic is merely setting to soft music the eternal desire to belong to someone and have someone belong to us.

    TREAT US AS JUNIOR PARTNERS IN THE FIRM... Democracy starts at home... If you want us to be worthy successors to you, take us into your confidence, and let us help you in managing our family, our school and our community.

    MAKE YOURSELF AN ADULT FIT FOR A CHILD TO LIVE WITH... Prove to us "it ain't so" that parents are the worst persons in the world to have children, or that teachers are precisely the people least suited to teach... Show that home and school are not simply places where children learn how to get along with disagreeable adults.

    PREPARE US TO LEAD OUR LIVES, NOT YOURS... Find out what we can do or we want to be before you force us beyond our capacity or make us become what you want us to become.

    GIVE US THE RIGHT TO MAJOR VOICE IN OUR OWN LIVES... Decisions that will affect our whole future should be made with us, not for us... We have a right to our kind of future.

    LET US MAKE OUR OWN MISTAKES... To make wise decisions takes experience... That means we have to try ourselves out and find out for ourselves... We can only learn from our own actions - not yours.

    PERMIT US THE FAILINGS OF AVERAGE CHILDREN, JUST AS WE PERMIT YOU THE FAILINGS OF AVERAGE PARENTS... Let us both break the rules sometimes... We can grow only at our own rate, which means in easy stages... We want to become the best we can become, but we would not be human if we were perfect.

 ( Copied from How To Be Happy Though Young by George Lawton, copyright 1949, by Vanguard Press, Inc. Published by Vanguard Press, Inc.

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