Childhood

Question 1

What does Jane Pilcher note?

Answer 1

The most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and distinct life stage, and children in out society occupy a separate status from adults. This is emphasised in the laws regulating what children are allowed, required or forbidden to do. Differences in dress, toys, food, books, entertainment etc

Question 2

What is the idea of childhood as the ‘golden age’

Answer 2

Happiness and innocence- re;laying to separateness

But this innocence means they are seen as vulnerable so they must be kept ‘quarantined’ from the adult world. Children’s lives are I the sphere of family and education

Question 3

What did Wagg argue about separateness?

Answer 3

View of childhood as a separate age is not found in all societies. It is not universal.

Question 4

How are children treated differently in non western cultures according to Benedict

Answer 4

They take responsibility at an early age eg Samantha Punch’s study
Less value is placed on children showing obedience to adult authority
Children’s sexual behaviour is viewed differently

He argues that there is much less of a dividing line. Childhood is not universal but socially constructed

Question 5

What was Samantha Punch’s study?

Answer 5

In rural Bolivia, once they are 5 they are expected to take work responsibilities in the home or in the community

Question 6

What do sociologists argue about the globalisation of western childhood?

Answer 6

Western notions of childhood are being globalised. Internatiano;l welfare agenceues have imposed western norms on other countries. Eg campaigns against street children in developing countries show where we think children ‘ought to be’

Question 7

What did Aries argue about the Middle Ages?

Answer 7

In the Middle Ages ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’. They did not have a different nature or needs to an adult. After being weaned the child entered wider society on the same terms as an adult. ‘Mini aadults’. Eg laws did not have a distinction between children and adults. Art shows children as the same as adults but smaller.

Question 8

What did Shorter argue?

Answer 8

High death rates encouraged indifference and neglect. Eg it was not uncommon to call a newborn the same name as a dead sibling or to forget how many children they had

Question 9

What did Aries argue after the Middle Ages?

Answer 9

Schools became purely in education for the young. Reflected the influence of the Church as fragile ‘creatures of god’ who need protection from worlds evils.
Growing distinction of clothes
Handbooks on child rearing by the 18th century

These developments culminate in the modern ‘cult of childhood’. Now in a world obsessed with childhood

Question 10

How is Aries criticised?

Answer 10

They simply had a different notion of childhood, it still existed

Question 11

How is Aries work valuable?

Answer 11

It shows that childhood is socially constructed

Question 12

What are the reasons for changes in the position of children?

Answer 12

Laws restricting child labour - children became a economic liability dependent on adults
Introduction of compulsory schooling- dependency
Child protection legalisation
Children’s rights- UN basic rights 1989
Declining family size and lower IMR- make greater financial and emotional investment
Industrialisation underlies many of the above changes

Question 13

What does Postman argue about the future of childhood?

Answer 13

Childhood is disappearing. The trend of giving the same rights to children as adults, similarity of clothing, children committing adult crimes.
The emergence and disappearance of childhood lies in the rise of print culture and replacement of television culture.
During the Middle Ages most people were illiterate so speech was the only skill needed to participate in the adult world.
Mass literacy in the 19th century created an information hierarchy- children cannot read. They could keep adult content secret to children - childhood became a time of innocence
Television now blurs the distinction- no specialist skills required. Information is available to children
Adult authority diminishes

Question 14

How does Opie argue against the disappearance of childhood

Answer 14

Strong evidence that child separateness exists

Question 15

How is Postman’s study useful?

Answer 15

How different types of communication technology influences the way childhood is constructed
But he overemphasises one single cause

Question 16

What does Jenks argue?

Answer 16

It is not disappearing but changing. Agrees with Aries that childhood is a creation of modern society. Modern society was concerned with ‘futurity’- preparation into adulthood. They need to be nurtured by the child centred society to do this.
Jenks argues that now childhood is moving into postmodernity. Relationships become more unstable eg rising divorce rate. This generates feeling of insecurity. Relationships with children become refuge for the uncertainties and upheavals of life. = parents more fearful for their children’s security and safety. Resulting in greater surveillance and regulation of children.
Disagrees with Postman

Question 17

How is Jenks criticised?

Answer 17

Over generalises. He makes sweeping statements that imply children are all in the same position

Question 18

What did Lloyd De Mause say?

Answer 18

“The history of childhood is a nightmare from which ear have only recently begun to awaken”

Question 19

Who holds the march of progress view?

Answer 19

Aries and Shorter. Today’s children are more valued, better cared for etc than previous generations

Question 20

What was the IMR in 1900 and today?

Answer 20

154 per 1000, today is 4 per 1000

Question 21

What do the march of progress sociologists argue?

Answer 21

The family has become more child centred. They are the focal point of the family, consulted on many decisions as ever before. Parents invest a lot in them emotionally and financially, high aspirations. Society as a whole is child centred

Question 22

What does Sue Palmer argue?

Answer 22

Children are experiencing a toxic childhood. Rapid technological and cultural changes has damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development- junk food, computer games, marketing to children, testing in education.
UNICEF ranked the UK 16th out of 29 for children’s wellbeing

Question 23

What do conflict sociologists argue about the march of progress view?

Answer 23

Based on a false and idealised image that ignores important inequalities.

• there are inequalities among children in terms of the opportunities hey face- many remain unprotected and badly cared for
• the inequalities between children and adults are greater than ever- children experience greater control, oppression and dependency

Question 24

What gender differences are there between children?

Answer 24

Boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses, go unaccompanied after dark. Girls do more domestic labour - five times more housework than boys in lone parent families

Question 25

What does Firestone and Holt argue?

Answer 25

Care and protection are in fact just new forms of oppression and control. Eg ‘protection’ from paid work is a form of inequality. It is a way to forcibly segregate and make them dependent and powerless
Child liberationism

Question 26

How are children’s spaces controlled?

Answer 26

‘No schoolchildren’ in shops. Forbidden to play in some areas. Close surveillance of children in public places. Fears about road safety and strangers mean more children are driven to school than get there independently.

Question 27

How are children’s time controlled?

Answer 27

Adults control daily routines. Control the speed of how they grow up by telling them they are too young for things

Question 28

How are children’s bodies controlled?

Answer 28

How they sit, what they eat, what they wear. Whether they can get their ears pierced.
Restrict the way in which children touch their own bodies

Question 29

How are children’s access to resources controlled?

Answer 29

Economically dependent on adults-
Excluded from work
Child benefit goes to the parent
Pocket money depends on good behaviour

Question 30

What does Gittins argue?

Answer 30

There is an age patriarchy. Violence against women and children.

Question 31

What do critics of child liberationism argue?

Answer 31

Some adult control is justified because they are unable to make rational decisions and cannot safe guard themselves

Question 32

What is the ‘new sociology of childhood’?

Answer 32

This approach sees children as active agents who are not simply adults in the making. It allows them to express their points of view with unstructured interviews