This topic will be treated in the decentralised gathering in Frayssinous.

Rethinking our relationships to childhood, to age, to school, to knowledge...

We plan to seriously devote some time to questions of childhood, knowledge, education and relationships between people of different ages. For us, if the PGA defines itself as a platform for struggles against various forms of domination and discrimination (gender, power, work, racism...), then it seems to us that more consideration needs to be given to "children" and how people of different ages relate to and participate in our processes. When this topic has been raised, in Belgrade for example, it was limited to parents discussing their own children. Just as racism isn't just a concern of black people, and gender issues aren't just for girls, these questions seem to us to be general, cross-topic and theoretical as well as practical.

Here, therefore are the starting-points for this gathering which can be modified and enriched. We propose to:

• reflect on concepts such as childhood, adulthood, the legal status of minors, protection, parenthood...
• observe and criticise: the domination of children by adults, the control exerted on them from the youngest ages onwards (the need to get results in school, focus on the control of truancy, construction of penitentary institutions for minors), the repression that parents receive when they do not conform to laws around education and social control, the requirement for state employees and social workers to report behaviour that falls outside the law, the generalisation of a conception of childhood where imprisonment, repression and medication become normalised (new laws on delinquence in France inspired by the INSERM and Benisti reports, recourse to psychiatrists and psychiatric medication, creating myths of a genetic basis for deviance). Faced with such social control, how can we go about constructing a resistance to it? Collectively, how can we build different relationships?
• invite young people who participated in social movements that took place this spring to go back over what happened, and tell us how it will continue...
• critisice school and the schooling of sociery. How should we build and transfer knowledge? How can the native curiosity of children and their creativity be taken into account and respected? Is there a role for "pedagogies"
• rethink how we approach parenthood, our choice of education, our lifestyles, our rhythms...

We will organise little by little the outlines of this topic, always leaving the maximum space possible so that each collective or individual can come and share their own reflections, practices or struggles.

The gathering can easily become an interesting and pleasant occasion for children if we make it in such a way that we:

• look for and organise a place together with the children where they can relax and play. A calm place, in the middle of everything that's going on, where they can live their lives.
• bring together the necessary material for various relevant activities for kids (theatre, puppets, wood-carving, making a playground)
• make discussions accessible, and build a common dynamic of reflection together with children. Use creative forms of interaction (theatre forum, puppets, games, radio shows, texts)
• make special workshops to explain the topics and share some of our activites with the children.
• find and promote the tools of self-organisation and to allow the children the opportunity to participate in the organisation of the gathering if they want to (meetings, cooking, construction, communication...

We also want to facilitate the access to women who arrive on their own with children, so that they can have some free time, knowing that they often face specific difficulties in being able to participate fully.

Finally, the organisation of this gathering cannot just be the work of a few people. Come and join in with this adventure!

Some contributions and easy to find info (if you can read French)

About deschooling:

• website about deschooling in France
• Catherine Baker's book "Insoumission a l'ecole obligatiore", here with complements and also a link to an interview with the author, an audio filefrom the radio program "offensive" on Radio Libertaire
• A series of pamphlets about "education / the schooling system" on infokiosques.net. Notably the test "on voudrait nous apprendre a marcher en nous coupant les pieds"
• An article on paris.indymedia.org "boycottons le systeme scolaire ou si le système scolaire était conçu pour enseigner quelque chose à quelqu'un ca se saurait"
• and more generally about the rejection of ideas around teaching and education, you can type in key words especially "unschooling" and "france" into www.google.fr

Around social control and the imprisonment of minors:

• the delerious report of INSERM on the prevention of delinquancy.
• Struggles of the last months against the construction of the EPM (penitentiary estabmishments for minors) "Pas de prisons pour mineurs, pas de mineurs en prison, ni à Lavaur, ni ailleurs" and an indymedia article about the occupation of the construction site of a prison for minors, nantes, february 2006
• the topic of social control will also be dealt with in the decentralised gathering in Lyon.

Some groups in struggle:

• Collective of kids who fight for the equality of young people and adults in Germany : Kraetzae (KinderRÄchTsZÄnker)
• Asfar (Americans for a Society Free from Age Restrictions)
• ACS (Association for Children Suffrage)
• Youthspeak

And more...

• rights for the young in Wikipedia
• An interview with Christing Delphy on the construction of gender, where she deals with the status of minors.
• On ambiguities : "Autour de l'affaire Cohn-Bendit, libérer et protéger l'enfance" and "Pudeur et Débauche montent un bateau"