Childhood Flashcards
Benedict (1934) argues what?
Children in simpler, non-industrial societies are treated differently to children in the modern west.
Three ways children are treated differently in simpler, non-industrial societies?
Children have more responsibility at home.
Less value placed on obedience to adult authority.
Behaviour expected of children and that expected of adults is less clearly separated.
Three ways children are treated differently in the West?
Childhood seen as a special innocent time.
Seen as fundamentally different to adults.
Need a lengthy protected period of nurturing and socialisation.
Cunningham (2007) children seen as opposite of adults with the right to happiness.
These differences show what?
These differences show the key sociological idea that childhood is not fixed in the same form in all societies. Different cultures construct it differently.
Aries (1960) said in medieval Europe?
The idea of childhood did not exist.
Three things Medieval Europe saw children as?
Children not seen as having different ‘nature’ to adults.
Work began at an early age.
Children were ‘mini adults’, same rights, duties and skills as adults.
Modern Western idea of childhood emerged when?
Emerged in the 13th Century, and is a relatively new idea.
Modern Western differences in childhood, name two?
Schools specialised in the education of the young.
Church increasingly saw children as ‘fragile creatures of God’ needing discipline and protection from worldly evils.
Why has the position of children changed? Suggest 5 reasons.
*Lower infant mortality rate and smaller families. (Fewer children)
*Specialist knowledge and children’s health (Now known that children needed supervision and protection)
*Laws banning child labour (dependant on parents)
*Compulsory schooling (separated children from adult working world)
* Child protection and welfare laws
Industrialisation: Modern industry needs educated workforce
Two competing views: ‘March of Progress’. Who’s view was this? And what was it?
Aries and Shorter = Childs position is steadily improving.
Better cared for: -Medically -Educationally -Psychologically
More babies surviving
Protected from exploitation by Laws.
The Conflict View. Who’s view? And what was it?
Marxists and Feminists. March of progress was over-generalised, ignores inequalities among children and between children and adults.
Third World children have different life chances to those in the West.
*Gender Differences
*Ethnic Differences *Class inequalities
‘Child Liberationists’ argue what?
Argue extensive care and protection are forms of oppression.
Banned from paid work is now an inequality.
Sociologists see childhood as what?
Socially constructed, defined and created by society.
