UNICEF Anniversary: A Responsibility to Look Forward

For Release: December 11, 2003
ACEI Contact: Gina Hoagland, Public Relations Manager
(301) 570-2212 or aceihq@acei.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UNICEF Anniversary:
A Responsibility to Look Forward

December 11, 2003—Olney, Md—On this, the 57th Anniversary of the establishment of the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF), the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI) asks world leaders to reaffirm their shared duty to nurture the children of the world, and to recall the words that Paul J. Misner, former Superintendent of Schools in Glencoe, Ill., spoke more than 50 years ago:

"It would be foolish and unrealistic to deny that we are living in times of great confusion and uncertainty. To many individuals the problems that confront us appear to be completely overwhelming and quite unsolvable. These individuals reflect attitudes of fear, despair, and defeatism. They would escape the realities of the present by an ignominious retreat into the past.

"[Young people] live in times when events of worldwide significance daily impinge upon them. They are living in times when the utter futility of war is being continually and dramatically demonstrated.

"The teachers of America [and the world] dare not succumb to the enervating effects of defeatism and despair. They have a responsibility to look forward rather than backward. To them the problems and uncertainties of the present must become a challenge for the building of a better tomorrow."

ACEI was granted membership to the Non-Governmental Organization Committee of UNICEF in 1980, and has served on the United Nations Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) since 1977.

ACEI'S primary purpose is to promote the inherent rights, education, and well-being of children in homes, schools, and communities. The organization publishes Childhood Education and the Journal of Research in Childhood Education. For more information, visit www.acei.org. Reference: "A Responsibility to Look Forward," Paul J. Misner, Childhood Education, November, 1952, pp. 107.

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