Institutional rites and rights : A century of childhood

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.