NATURE OF CHILDHOOD Flashcards
1
Q
Philippe Aries (Changes overtime, childhood in the Middle Ages)-
A
- In the Middle Ages, ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’.
- Children were not seen as having a different ‘nature’ or needs from adults- at least, not once they had passed the stages of physical dependency during infancy. In the Middle Ages, childhood as a separate age-stage was short.
- Soon after being weaned, the child entered wider society on much the same terms as an adult, beginning work from an early age, often in the household of another family. Children were in effect ‘mini-adults’ with the same rights, duties and skills as adults.
- For example, the law often made no distinction between children and adults, and children often faced the same severe punishments as those meted out to adults.
- As evidence of his view, Aries uses work of art from the period. In these, children appear without ‘any of the characteristics of childhood: they have simply been depicted on a smaller scale’.
- The paintings show children and adults dressed in the same clothing and working and playing together.
- Elements of the modern notion of childhood gradually began to emerge from the 13th century onwards.
- Schools came to specialise in the education of the youth (reflecting the influence of the church which saw children as fragile ‘creatures of God’ in need of protection), saw a growing distinction between children’s and adult’s clothes, and there was a wider availability of handbooks on childbearing available.
- These developments culminate in the modern ‘cult of childhood’. He argues that we have moved from a world that did not see childhood in any way special, to a world that is obsessed with childhood.
- He described the 20th century as ‘the century of the child’.
2
Q
Eval (Linda Pallock)-
A
- She argues that the idea the Middle Ages didn’t involve the notion of childhood is incorrect, and that it’s more accurate to suggest that in the Middle Ages, they simply had a different notion of childhood than today.
3
Q
Palmer (Toxic childhood)-
A
- As against the view that the position of children no was better than it has ever been, some writers suggest that children in the UK are experiencing the ‘toxic childhood’.
- She argues that rapid technological and cultural changes in the past 25 years have damaged children’s physical, emotional and intellectual development.
- These changes range from junk food, computer games, and intensive marketing to children, to the long hours worked by parents and the growing emphasis on testing in education.
- Concerns have also been expressed about young people’s health and behaviour.
- For example, UK youth have above average rates in international league tables for obesity, self-harm, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, early sexual experience and teenage pregnancies. A UNICEF survey in 2013 ranked the UK 16th out of 29 for children’s well-being.
4
Q
Eval (Edward Shorter)-
A
- Holds a march of progress view.
- They argue that today’s children are more valued, better cared for, protected and educated, enjoy better health and have more rights than those of previous generations.
- For example, children today are protected from harm and exploitation by laws against child abuse and child labour, while an array of professionals and specialists caters for their educational, psychological and media needs.
5
Q
Neil Postman (The disappearance of childhood)-
A
- Childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’.
- He points to the trend towards giving children the same rights as adults, the disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games, the growing similarity of adults’ and children’s clothing, and even to cases of children committing ‘adult’ crimes such as murder.
- In his view, the first of the emergence of childhood, and now its disappearance, lies in the rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by television culture.
- During the Middle Ages, most people were illiterate, and speech was the only skill needed for participation in the adult world.
- Children were able to enter adult society from an early age.
- Childhood was not associated with innocence, nor the adult world with mystery.
- There was no division between the world of the adult and that of the child.
- Adults originally had this ‘information hierarchy’, whereby adults had the power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violence, illness, death and other ‘adult’ matters away from children.
- However, TV now blurs the distinction between childhood and adulthood by destroying this hierarchy.
- The boundary between adult and child is broken down, adult authority diminishes, and the ignorance and innocence of childhood is replaced by knowledge and cynicism.
6
Q
Eval (Opie)-
A
- Argued that childhood is not disappearing.
- Based on a lifetime of research into children’s unsupervised games, rhymes and songs, conducted with her husband Peter Opie, she argues that there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children’s culture over many years.
7
Q
Christopher Jenks (Postmodern, childhoods in postmodern society)-
A
- He doesn’t believe that childhood is disappearing, but rather changing.
- He argues that childhood, just like after the Middle Ages, is now changing again as society moves from modernity to postmodernity.
- In modern society, adults’ relationships were more stable, but in postmodern society, the pace of change speeds up and relationships become more unstable.
- For example, divorce becomes more common. This generates feelings of insecurity.
- In this context, relationships with their children become more important as a source of adults’ identity and stability. While your marriage may end in divorce, you are still the parent of your child.
- In postmodern society, relationships with their children thus become adults’ last refuge from the constant uncertainty and upheaval of life. As a result, adults become even more fearful for their children’s security and even more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers like child abuse
- This further strengthens the prevailing view of children as vulnerable and in need of protection that we have already seen in the modern notion of childhood, resulting in even greater surveillance and regulation of children’s lives.
8
Q
Eval (Mayer Hillman)-
A
States that Jenks is guilty of over-generalising and implies that all children are in the same position. Not all children share the same status or experiences, for example Hillman found that boys are more likely to be allowed to cross or cycle on roads, use buses, and go out after dark unaccompanied.
9
Q
(Extra) Diana Gittins (Age patriarchy)-
A
- Uses the term ‘age patriarchy’ to describe inequalities between adults and children.
- Just as feminists use the concept of patriarchy to describe male domination and female dependency, Gittens argues that there is also an age patriarchy of adult domination and child dependency.
- In fact, patriarchy means literally ‘rule by the father’ and as Gittens points out, the term ‘family’ referred originally to the power of the male head over all other members of the household, including children and servants as well as woman.
10
Q
Eval (Raymond Firth)-
A
Found that among the Tikopia of the Western Pacific, doing as you are told by a grown-up is regarded as a concession to be granted by the child, not a right to be expected by adults; there is less value placed on children showing obedience to adult authority.
