Children are vulnerable and dependent and need care from others. In Franco's regime, it was thought that children needed discipline and punishment more than rights. After the regime collapsed, Spaniards began to realize children's abilities and that they only needed guidance to learn to express themselves. Children have been granted more rights to participation since the fall of the regime. Society has finally recognized children as the country's future. This change in attitude brought the necessary reforms along with it. Spain is finally seeing children as less of a group in need of protection, and more of a group that needs facilities to learn and develop to change society.
Spanish society sees children as needing specific values to succeed. As children acquire these values, such as responsibility, tolerance, good manners, respect, obedience, and work ethic, they can move up in society. Values learned in childhood, promoted by Spanish society, move a child ahead to opportunities otherwise missing. All of these values affect the development of a family oriented society. Because there is not much tradition in Spanish society, it is hard for children to know where they fit in. This system of values gives children the definition they need to be included in society.
Society excludes children because there is no real place for them. There is no way for them to take part fully in decisions made in their lives. They are considered lesser citizens, unable to make decisions to effect their own wellbeing. There is an elitist attitude in Spain that comes from this lack of place or purpose. In exclusion, blame is either placed on parents, society, or the government. Each should help to make a place for children in Spanish society. Children that are not well off to begin with have little hope to change their futures alone. They need help, and this is why they have more rights to protection than to participation.
Thousands of school children fill up a square in Cuenca,
center-eastern Spain, Thursday Feb. 3, 2000 as they carry a sign reading, "En Este Sociedad ETA No Tiene Lugar," (In This Society ETA Has No Place)
during a demonstration against the Basque separatist group ETA and in
favor of peace. These children make their voices heard. (AP
Photo/Santiago Torralba/EFE)
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This website was designed and composed by Joanna Cross-Call, Chana Lewis, and Lauren McBride. It was created to provide web users with information on the status of children in Spain. This is part of a collaborative web project for the first year writing seminar Children and Society, at Tulane University taught by Professor April Brayfield.