Cunningham, C., 2002, Where do we want to be? Children’s story writing competition October 2001: analysis of submissions from children under 13 years, The Blue Mountains City Council
- Author : Cunningham, C.
- Year : 2002
- Pages : 48
- Publisher : The Blue Mountains City Council
- Abstract in English : This report deals with the analysis of 269 entries for the Children’s story writing completion organized by The Blue Mountains City Council. The children had to imagine that they were an adult in the year 2025 and write a story about what their home and city would be like at that time. He report also discusses the complex problem of consulting with children on planning matters, drawing upon the extensive research literature that has developed on the topic in the past two decades. It then specifically discusses the results from analysis of this competition entries in the light of those problems. The competition was an excellent way of tapping into children’s vision for their future, but it also threw light upon the way children view current changes in their neighborhoods and the ways that these impact upon their lives. The entries were initially judged by appropriate people who were remote from the city Strategy process for the purpose of awarding prizes. One of the most important impressions emerging from the analysis is that children were far from optimistic about that future. Thirty-five percent of the entries had a negative tone, whereas only twenty-four percent were positive. The remaining forty-one percent were written in a matter0f-fact narrative style that indicated neither enthusiasm nor disappointment with the future of the city. The children were more or less evenly divided on whether the future would be strongly based on advances in technology, much the same as now, or would be based on simpler technology than at present.
- Comments/Notes : KEYWORDS: children, future, urban planning, play, play environment, children’s environment. [is to down laod: http://www.ourfuturebluemtns.nsw.gov.au/publications/Consultation/CunninghamvisionschildrenJan2002RD.pdf