The Future of Childhood

Question 1

Why is it expected that childhood will continue to change in the future in response to social changes?

Answer 1

• it is a social construct and has developed from pre-industrial to modern society so would be expected to continue to change in the future

Question 2

Regarding the disappearance of childhood, what does Postman comment about the rights between the rights of adults and children?

Answer 2

• children are increasingly granted the same rights as adults

Question 3

Regarding the disappearance of childhood, what does Postman comment about games of children?

Answer 3

• children’s traditional unsupervised games are disappearing

Question 4

Regarding the disappearance of childhood, what does Postman comment about clothing and activities between children and adults?

Answer 4

• there is growing similarity in clothing and activities

Question 5

In Postman’s view, what is the cause of the emergence of childhood and now its disappearance?

Answer 5

• the rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by television culture

Question 6

Regarding the Middle Ages, what meant that the division of the adult world from children was none existent?

Answer 6

• the fact that in the Middle Ages, most people were illiterate and speech was the only skills needed for participated in the adult world

Question 7

When did childhood emerge as a separate status?

Answer 7

• with mass literacy in the 19th century

Question 8

What did the printed word create and how did this create a division between adults and children?

Answer 8

• it created an information hierarchy which then divided adults who can read and children who cannot

Question 9

How did television blur the distinction between childhood and adulthood?

Answer 9

• it destroyed the information hierarchy

Question 10

What doesn’t TV require?

Answer 10

• TV doesn’t require special skills in order to access it

Question 11

When the boundary between adults and children is broken down and adult authority diminishes, what happens to the ignorance and innocence of childhood?

Answer 11

• it is replaced by knowledge and cynicism

Question 12

What is the counterpart to the disappearance of childhood and how is it defined?

Answer 12

• the disappearance of adulthood, where adults’ and children’s tastes and styles become indistinguishable

Question 13

What do critics believe about Postman?

Answer 13

• that he attributed too much emphasis to television as a single cause in the disappearance of childhood and ignored other influences

Question 14

Regarding a separate childhood, what have Opie and Opie spent a lifetime researching?

Answer 14

Children’s games, rhymes and songs

Question 15

What do they argue about the existence of a separate children’s culture?

Answer 15

• there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children’s culture

Question 16

What do Opie and Opie believe Postman over-emphasises?

Answer 16

• the impact of television on childhood

Question 17

What do Opie and Opie’s findings contradict about Postman’s claim?

Answer 17

• they contradict his claim that children’s own unsupervised games are dying out and comment that actually children can and do create their own indeendent culture separate from that of adults

Question 18

In modern society, what were adult relationships?

Answer 18

More stable

Question 19

In postmodern society, what has resulted in feelings of insecurity?

Answer 19

• the pace of change speeding up and relationships becoming more unstable

Question 20

In postmodern society, why have relationships with children become more important?

Answer 20

• they are a source of adults’ identity and stability

Question 21

In postmodern society, due to the constant uncertainty and upheaval of life, what have relationships with children become?

Answer 21

• they have become adults’ last refuge from the constant uncertainty and upheaval of life

Question 22

As a result of children becoming adults’ last refuge, what have adults become more fearful of?

Answer 22

• their children’s security and even more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers

Question 23

What does the increased protection of children result in strengthening regarding the view of children?

Answer 23

• it strengthens the prevailing view of children as vulnerable and in need of protection

Question 24

What does Jenks conclude about the separate status of children?

Answer 24

• that it continues to be a separate status and the legal and other restrictions placed on children continues to mark them off from adults

Question 25

Regarding the globalisation of childhood, what do child liberationists believe about western childhood?

Answer 25

That it is oppressive

Question 26

What do child liberationists believe is happening to the western notions of childhood?

Answer 26

They are being globalised

Question 27

What are the four aspects of western norms of childhood?

Answer 27

• it is a separate life stage, it is based in the nuclear family and in school, where children are innocent, dependent and vulnerable, they have no economic role

Question 28

Give a couple of examples of how western norms have been exported and imposed on the rest of the world

Answer 28

• campaigns against child labour or concerns about ‘street children’ in under-developed countries