An advocacy system for children

One of the more troubling paradoxes of our time is the apparent positive correlation between human misery and the accumulation of knowledge and skills for the alleviation of that misery. Our increasing knowledge about human institutions is not accompanied by reduction in our failure to have meaningful social participation. Inner city violence, fundamental breakdown in family life, etc., suggest the extent of the failure of some of our most basic institutions. At the same time, there is increased participation in those institutions whose social function is to contain, repress, and remedy (correctional facilities, psychiatric hospitals, special classes, etc.). These trends are nowhere more apparent than in what is happening to our children. School drop-out rates, populations of juvenile correctional facilities, numbers of children seen in mental health clinics, special classes, admissions of children to psychiatric hospitals, etc., serve as reminders that all is not well. Both public and professional concerns call for reexamination of the knowledge we have accumulated, the relevance and utility of our formulations of the issues, the institutions which represent our formulations, the logistics of deployment of the professional cadre who dispense the services based on our knowledge, and the extent to which our professional practices with people are actually consistent with our best understand

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