Early childhood culture and education for children's rights

Young children below school-age, especially those under three, have gotten more and more attention paid to them during the last years. Is it for good or for bad? Extreme and consequential views and actions towards (especially) the youngest children may result in problems - for the children. This essay presents a discussion about different ways to let children perceive and act in their environments, for instance preschool, related to some of the articles in The United Nations' Convention on the rights of the child. Two important questions raised by this convention are: What is best for the child? and What is best for children and childhood? Schooling, caring and play are actions that involve adults and children in various ways. In research as well as practice which involve young children, it is of importance to consider what may be best for them, from their views and as members of society at present, not just for the future. A theory of affordance is sketched, using thoughts from James and Eleanor Gibson, as well as others, together with earlier works by Jerome Bruner and Janusz Korczak, who both would underline the importance of taking children's own motives as a departure for communication and socialization. The essay ends with some questions which point to the importance of taking young children's perspectives seriously, as a source of knowledge about their cultural conditions and life-world.