The future of children Flashcards
What does Postman argue abou the disappearnace of childhood
Childhood is ‘disappearing at a dazzling speed’ and there is a trend towards giving children the same rights as adults, disappearance of children’s traditional unsupervised games, rowing similarity between child and adult clothing, and even cases of children committing ‘adult crimes such as murder
What does Postman blame for the emergence and disappearance of childhood?
The rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by television culture (middle ages everyone was illiterate so children knew everything from overhearing conversation, then information hierarchy where children couldn’t read and so adult information was kept separate, but then with the TV and internet, everything is accessible to children)
How does Opie counteract Postman?
Childhood isn’t disappearing and found there is strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate children’s culture over many years
What is a negative point about Postman’s study?
He over emphasises a single cause (television) at the expense of other factors that have influenced the development of childhood
Childhood is changing, not disappearing?
Jenks believe, unlike Postman Childhood is changing, not disappearing. Childhood also continues to be a separate status, and legal and other restrictions placed on what children can do continues to separate them from adults
Childhood is changing again as society moves from modernity to postmodernity. In modern society, adults’ relationships were more stable, but in postmodernity the pace of change speeds up and relationships become more unstable eg higher divorce rates
What do these changes mean for childhood?
They generate feelings of insecurity so relationships with children become more important as a source of adults’ identity and stability (if marriage ends, you still have your children) so these relationships become adults’ last refuge from constant uncertainty in life, so they are more fearful for child’s security and more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers such as child abuse (adds to the view of children as vulnerable, needing protection, as part of the modern notion of childhood)
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What is a supporting evaluation point for Jenks?
Some evidence that parents see their relationships with their children as more important than that with their partners’, and that parents are very concerned about the risks they believe their children face, though this evidence comes from small, unrepresentative studies
Some evidence that parents see their relationships with their children as more important than that with their partners’, and that parents are very concerned about the risks they believe their children face, though this evidence comes from small, unrepresentative studies
Guilty of over-generalisation. Despite greater diversity of family and childhood patterns found today, he still makes sweeping statements that imply that all children are in the same position
