What Images of Childhood Do Children's Books Create?

Behind every image of a child in a story lies a view of the child's place in the family, school, and society. Children's literature can portray the child as a being who merely needs protection, or recognize them as a person who both needs protection and holds rights. This distinction is very important from the perspective of children's rights.

Iran's Arjan Ambassador Child and Adolescent Service (Arjan Ambassador) - Mohammad Mehdi Seyed Nasri, lawyer, university lecturer and researcher of international children's rights: Every society represents a child in its stories as it has created in its mind. If we think of the child as a small, weak and obedient being, we will probably make a child in our stories who must listen, obey and finally cope with the decision of the adults. But if we consider the child as a human being with dignity and rights, his image in literature will also change; A child who questions, comments, chooses, protests, makes mistakes and sometimes even makes adults reconsider their decision.

From this angle, we can reach one of the less frequently asked questions in the field of children's books: what image of "child" do our children's books create? This question is not just literary. Behind every image of a child presented in the story, there is a view of the child's place in the family, school and society.

Children's literature can show the child as a being who needs support or recognize him as a human being who needs support and has rights. This difference is very important from the point of view of children's rights. Children's rights have seriously changed the traditional view of children in recent decades. The child is no longer just an object of adult decision-making. The Convention on the Rights of the Child considers him to be the holder of various rights and, in addition to the protection and security rights, also gives him participation rights.

Article 12 of the Convention recognizes the right of the child to express his opinion on matters affecting his life, and the Committee on the Rights of the Child has emphasized the position of the child as a "subject of rights" in General Comment No. 12. But this legal development is institutionalized in the society when it comes out of the text of the law and enters the culture. The law can say that the child has the right to be heard; But the society must learn to hear the voice of the child.

The law can speak about the dignity of the child; But the family and the school should treat the child in such a way that this dignity becomes meaningful. The law can consider the child as the owner of the right; But the child should also be able to see himself like that.

This is where children's literature becomes important. Before the child learns many social concepts in the classroom, he experiences them in the story. He sympathizes with the character of the story, gets upset with the behavior of a character, rejoices with a decision and judges whether the behavior is right or wrong.

In this process, the book is directly or indirectly creating a picture of human relationships. For this reason, children's books are not just stories for children; It is part of the cultural environment that shapes childhood. This is where literature and children's rights meet. Of course, it should not be concluded from this discussion that all children's stories should be educational, direct and rights-oriented. Incidentally, such an approach can weaken children's literature. A child needs a story to develop his imagination, not a book that teaches him a legal matter on every page. The issue is how the author sees the child and how this view is reflected in the characterization, dialogues, conflicts and the ending of the story.

An entitled child is not necessarily a child who always wins or is always right. By the way, one of the signs of mature literature is that a child can make mistakes and at the same time preserve his dignity. He can make a wrong decision, experience the consequences, seek help from others and choose again. "Being right" does not mean "always being right".

This distinction is important to our general culture. Sometimes in the discussion about children's rights, there is a concern that if we talk too much about children's rights, the authority of parents or family order will be weakened. But child rights are not fundamentally designed to eliminate the parent-child relationship. The main issue is changing the nature of this relationship from a relationship of domination and obedience to a relationship based on dignity, responsibility, support and participation. Children's literature can depict this relationship without issuing legal statements.

The character of a father who talks to a child instead of humiliating him, a mother who asks his child's opinion on a decision related to his life, a teacher who gives him a chance to explain instead of silencing a student's voice, or a child who stands up to another's misbehavior, can all play a role in the formation of a child's rights culture.

From this point of view, the children's author and publisher are not just producers of a cultural product. Consciously or unknowingly, they are participating in shaping society's perception of childhood. This responsibility becomes more important when we know that the right of the child is not limited to the protection of violence or the provision of basic needs. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, in Article 29, links education with the development of the child's personality and talents, as well as respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in Article 31, it recognizes the child's right to rest, play, and participate in cultural and artistic life. As a result, children's books and literature are part of the system of children's cultural rights. This point is sometimes less seen in discussions about children's rights.

When we talk about children's rights, we usually think of protection against violence, child labour, child abuse, education or health. All these are fundamental, but the child does not only have the right to survive and be safe; He has the right to be present in culture, art, games and the world of fiction, and the presence of a child in literature does not mean only the presence of a child character in the story.

The more important issue is whether the child has a "voice" in literature or not. This question can be asked even about the ending of stories. Does an adult always come in the end and solve the child's problem? Does the child hero only succeed when an adult character saves him? Does the child get a chance to understand his problem and find a solution for it? Does a disagreement between a child and an adult always end with the adult winning? These seem like simple questions, but they actually go to the heart of child rights culture.

In a UNICEF study about child rights education in 27 countries, it is also emphasized that child rights education is not just the transfer of information about rights and can happen in different environments, from formal education to family, media and children's groups. This finding reminds us of an important point: child rights culture is built from a set of everyday experiences, not from a training session or a textbook. Therefore, if we want to strengthen the culture of children's rights through books and literature, it may be necessary to ask other questions in addition to literary and artistic criteria when producing and evaluating children's books: What is the position of the child in this work? Can his voice be heard? Is it possible to choose the character of the child? Is the difference between support and control seen in the story? Can a child react to injustice? Are the relationships between children and adults formed based on fear or based on trust and dialogue?

These questions do not mean creating new content censorship for authors. On the contrary, it can be an opportunity to deepen children's literature. A writer who takes the child seriously inevitably creates a more complex character; A child who is not just "good" or "bad", but a human being with feelings, doubts, desires, fears, the power to make decisions and the right to choose. In the meantime, libraries can also play an important role.

Children's library can not only be a place to borrow books; It can be a place to talk about children's stories and experiences. If we ask the child after reading a story, "What would you do if you were the main character?" In fact, we give him the opportunity to think about decision, justice, responsibility and the right to have an opinion. This is what separates teaching children's rights from memorizing legal material.

Perhaps one of the best measures to measure the success of a children's rights book is not how many rights the child can name after reading it. The more important criterion is whether, after reading it, the child can better recognize an unfair situation in his real life, ask questions, ask for help or express his opinion with more confidence. Ultimately, it's not just about what books we write for children; The issue is what image of childhood we present to the society with these books. If we always see the child as a being to be decided by, we will end up creating a culture that talks a lot about the child but listens less to the child himself. But if we consider the child as a human being with dignity and rights, the book can be one of the first spaces where this view is practiced.

From "obedient child" to "entitled child", the distance is not just a few words. This distance is the result of a deep cultural change; A change that should start from the law, continue in the family and school, and take root in culture, art and literature. Children's books do not have a small place in this. Every story in which a child is seen gives an image of childhood to him and society. Therefore, it might not be bad to ask ourselves a simple but serious question every time we publish a book for children: have we told a story about a child in this book, or have we really allowed the child to have a voice, choice and right? The answer to this question can show how far our literature has moved from "child for adults" to "child as a human being with rights".

Behind every image of a child presented in the story, there is a view of the child's place in the family, school and society. Children's literature can show the child as a being who needs support or recognize him as a human being who needs support and has rights. This difference is very important from the point of view of children's rights.

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