Rich Task – Do all children play?
Posted by room18space on October 24, 2008
This term Room 18 children are looking at social justice and social action. We are investigating the big question – Should all children play? This includes looking at the topics of play, poverty, inequality and making change. We will work to select and support and fund-raise for an organisation that we have found the most beneficial to our chosen cause.
Room 18, for this post provide us with information and links to organisations and information about our topics key areas as mentioned above.
Remember to follow the links on our blog roll to find out more about support organisations. I have added Kids Can Charitable Trust to our link list – this is a charity dedicated to meeting the basic physical needs of financially disadvantaged children, levelling the playing field for them so they have the chance to reach their full potential.
Check these out these blogs too, they are looking at a similar topic as us – leave a message about what you have found out.
Wyatt 67, Tasmania, Australia.
Room 3, Te Awamutu have begun discussing the genocide crisis in Darfur. Click this image to view a video about this issue. Who supports the people in Darfur? Where is Darfur?
October 26th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
I think all children should have at least ten minutes to play every day or do some thing that makes them feel good like a sport, drawing, games, or playing with somebody in their family. I think it is not fair for the kids that are in poverty that work in mines all day long looking for copper and sell it for little money and food and the buyer that sells the copper from the kid gets way more money fore it then when he or she bought it from the kid.
October 28th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
I think all kids have the right to play and have freedom – even if they don’t want to.
kid should have rights and some time to do what they want because if they do not
have freedom then they will miss out on their childhood .
Harry
October 28th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
http://www.oxfam.org/
Hi guys,
Here is a charity kind of like World Vision which try’s to stop poverty and injustice.
You can visit and I think you can donate things like books or cows to other countries which are poverty stricken.
Going onto the big question SHOULD ALL CHILDREN PLAY?
I think yes definitely because kind of going back to Harry, I think that a well balanced childhood includes play no matter where you are.
If you don’t play when you are a kid you won’t be able to raise your kids properly and they won’t be able to raise theirs properly.e.t.c, e.t.c.
I also agree with Harry because they also need a time to be free and do what they want. Not to just do what everyone tells you to do.
Gilbert
October 29th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Hi,
I feel really strongly about the topic we are doing this term.
I’m worried that children in poverty and child labour don’t actually know what play is and they think that how they are living is what life is like but where as us in New Zealand think it is really bad and awful.
I think the video at the refugee camp in Chad was quite upsetting because the lady that used to live in Sudan was mainly kicked out of her village because of the stupi* janjaweed they got forced to leave and that man that got shot in the head was quite sad and it was great that he survived but there is mainly no answer because the world is getting worse not better so we can’t really do much anyway.
I think that every child should have the opportunity to play or something they like do because if they don’t then they will always feel unhappy as our class has seen many videos of children in child labour and poverty; when you see them they are never happy always sad and that makes me feel sad as well because of how they are living.
I think it’s unfair that people hire children instead of adults because they don’t have to give them as much money as they are younger, if they do the same amount of work they should get paid the same amount, its all about fairness.
I don’t think children should miss out on their childhood-let the children in poverty and child labours have some fun!
Nina
October 29th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
Excellent response Nina. I can see that you do feel strongly about this topic, but my question to you is, when you say “but there is mainly no answer because the world is getting worse not better so we can’t really do much anyway.” Do you really think this?
A big part of this term’s topic is to help you to understand that even though some children in the world live this way, that there are some things that you can do. Your learning will help you uncover this.
For other posters and Nina – What do you think we can do to make a difference?
Andrew.
October 29th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
I an also thinking about this terms rich task deaply because i feel very sad for people that live in poverty or children that work and i believe that our class can do something to help them.
I think all children should have the chance to play for atleast 15-20mins a day it might just be drawing but that is normaly fun so kids that live in poverty or not a very safe enviroment they might not now what it like to draw or run around with there friends or family.
November 1st, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Hi,
I think that all the children deserves to play even for a few minutes and they also deserve to be free.Adults must work instead of children because adults are stronger than children and children doesn’t deserve to be treated badly.I think that factories are wrong because they shouldn’t hire children to work for them.I think that children shouldn’t miss their childhood.
November 1st, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Hi
Its horrible to think that people would do that to those poor families! I think the answer to the question is definitely yes because all children in the world have the right to play and no matter how awful their environment is they will still find a way to play because that’s what children do. I watched the video and saw some children singing how much they loved their country even though there was war and violence there. They still felt it was their home. I also saw children playing soccer and running and they were still having fun. Its sad because they have the same feelings and everything as us and they get treated horribly. I wish people would be more nicer to each other and live in peace.
bye
November 2nd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
Hi! Alicia here!
I think the video about Darfur, in Sudan really shows how people live in poverty.
I think that people could help donate to Unicef, World Vision, or Oxfam to help people living in poverty.
I think people can help by donating instead of spending their money on unessessary stuff such as Alcohol and drugs which don’t help them in life.
On the video clip, in Darfur, I noticed that Sudaneese people are helpless without any help from the government, and when I visited a website, I found out that the government was involoved in helping the Janjaweeds, that raided the village in Darfur by recruitung horse owing Arab men, promising them a gun and a monthly salary of $116, in exchange for joining a Janjaweed cohort.
I think it’s not fair how the government try’s to use Arab Janjaweeds to raid the helpless people in Africa.
See you later!!!
November 5th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
Hi Francesco here
I think that video was really sad when the janjaweeds took over and left the people homeless. I think we should help these people by giving some money to a charete becuase if you do you could be saving a life. Before they no home and shelter and now they have a village of camps so they have protection from the weather If you give money to world vision,oxfam and other ones you could be making some difference.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Hi Everyone
I think that it is the most terrible thing that is happening in places like Darfur and Chad because no one should be allowed to live in such harsh conditions because it isn’t far. Everyone including adults should have the right to play whenever and where- ever they want. Everyone has the right to be FREE! The people in the video called the janjaweeds should have no right to do that to anyone especially people living in such poverty.
Bye, Isabella
November 6th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Hi!
I think this Term we have a very good topic to discuss on our Room 18 Blog: “SHOULD ALL CHILDREN PLAY?”.
Some people think that everyone has shelter, food, clothes, money etc. But that’s not true. A lot of people are living in proverty and their children are forced to work for money which is called “Child labour”. They do not go to school and play like us. Some even don’t know what a play is because they think doing such horrible stuff is normal.
So, to answer the above question, I think strongly that children of any country, town or village should play, have fun and free time. Children should not work because they are small and weak. By working everyday they miss their education which is very important in their lives.
Some children are sold by their poor parents to rich people and they are forced to work as slaves. They wear torn clothes and get leftover food to eat.
If we donate money to charities they can get these children freed from their masters. They can get food, shelter, clothes, education and fun in play. If we do not donate, someone as little as us is going to die every 2 seconds in this world of starvation, infection, accident or torture.
November 6th, 2008 at 7:31 pm
hi this is Ahmed.
i think that we should help organizations that stop child labor because there just kids and there as important as us.every one is unique and special in their own way.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
Hi
I think the video of the Janjaweeds is terrible because most of the population were killed; most of the childern were thrown into the fire and others were shot. I think that government should not have set the Janjaweeds on the people. Even though the children’s families were killed, they still sang how they loved their country and home. They still played soccer and still had fun. They have to move on to survive – they can’t just walk around grieving – they make the most of their lives.
Other children in poverty should still have some play time each day. The people who own the big companies should not be able to hire children because they pay them less than an adult and the children can be forced to obey. It should not be legal to hire children. It upsets me to see children in poverty. Children are in poverty all over the world – even in Auckland.
Bye
Felix
PS VOTE FOR AUCKLAND CITY MISSION- Fight poverty- we can make a difference.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Hi
I could not make the clip work so I don’t have anything to say about it.
But I do think that all children should play.At school somone said that what if children don’t know what play is because all they do is work and sleep then i think somthing that they feel comfortable in doing then that is play like there dreams they could have a nice happy dream that they enjoyed then even thiugh it is not the type of play we are used to then it is still somthing to make them happy.
I disagree with what Nina said about that we can not do anything about it. I think we if everyone helps then we can. For a start I think that people should stop all of these wars and be nice to each other because many people in poverty live in places were there is wars not nessacearly big wars but there is fights and what is the point of killing people just to look more powerful or to get what you want. Also Ithink even that is not the way the world works why cant people that need money get money why cant people just get a macheane and print out a whole load of money for those people and then volenters can help get the place they live in cleaned up and nice and clean to live in. I think that we take the way we live for granted (inclding me) and that we think oh school is soooooooooooooooo boring but there is kids in the world that would kill to go to school and would love to learn new things. Imagen being sold by your pearants to work just because the family needs the money it is sad.
I think we can help by donating useful things to chartys such as:
Clothes
Food (that will keep for a while)
Toys
Money
Books to read and write in.
I agree with Isabella all people should have the right to be FREE and NO ONE should be allowed to live in such horrible conditions
I also agree with Alicia because bying things like ciggeretts and drugs is absaloutly pointless.
bye bye
from
Kate
:)