We invite you to add your thoughts to this draft. We value additions, deletions and disagreement as a way to open possibilities. Please add your comments and articulate your reactions at tdrummon@sccd.ctc.edu

We believe it would be a contribution to the quality of life in United States of America if we could attain broad agreement upon a social and political commitment to our children and shared idea of childhood as a time for the construction of who we are individually, as participants with others, as members of a community, and as inhabitants of the Earth.

We would like this draft to be seen by ever-wider audiences, as we attend to additions and corrections to this document. We know and value a discussion, especially one that involves the complex and diverse communities of those who are not normally included in most public discourses, will benefit all of us and generations to come.

The Commitment to Children and Childhood
of the United States of America
  Preamble: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish these commitments to children and childhood.
  The United States of America commits to engage a wide-ranging and inclusive dialogue about children and childhood and to provide opportunities for all to participate.
  The United States of America commits to enact policies that enhance the economic, health and well-being of children, families, and communities.
  The United States of America commits to create supportive, safe and violence-free communities where families can thrive.
 

The United States of America commits to the ideal, as a human goodness, of children and childhood, of joy and play.