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Childhood - Coggle Diagram
Childhood
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The future of childhood
- Postman (1994) - childhood is 'disappearing at a dazzling speed' - trend towards giving children same rights as adults, disappearance of children' traditional unsupervised games, growing similarity of adults and children clothing, children committing 'adult' crimes
- Cause of first emergence is now cause of disappearance - rise and fall of print culture and its replacement by TV culture
- Middle Ages - most illiterate, speech only skill needed for participation in adult world - enter adult society from early age
Information hierarchy:
- Postman - childhood emerged as separate status along with mass literacy from 19th century - printed word creates info hierarchy: division between adults who can read and children who can't
- Adults had power to keep knowledge about sex, money, violent, illness, death, 'adult' matters as secret from children - became mysteries, childhood associated with innocence and ignorance
- TV blurs distinction by destroying hierarchy - no specialist skill to access it, info available to all - boundary broken, adult authority diminishes, ignorance and innocence replaced by knowledge and cynicism
- Counterpart = disappearance of adulthood - adult and children tastes become indistinguishable
Evaluation:
- Opie (1993) - childhood not disappearing. Based on lifetime research into unsupervised games, rhymes and songs - strong evidence of continued existence of separate children's culture over many years
- P study - valuable showing different types of communication tech influence construction of childhood - over-emphasises single cause (TV) - expense of other factors influencing childhood development
Childhood in Postmodernity:
- Jenks (2005) - childhood changing. Childhood creating of modern society, concerned with 'futurity' and childhood seen as preparation for individual to become productive adult - vulnerable, undeveloped children need nurtured, protected, controlled, especially in child-centred family and education system which imposed discipline and conformity on children
- Childhood changing as move to postmodernity - pace change speeds up, relationships become more unstable = feelings of insecurity
- Postmodern society - relationships with children become adults last refuge from constant uncertainty and upheaval of life - more fearful of child security and more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers
- Strengthen prevailing view children need protection as vulnerable - greater surveillance and regulation of lives
Evaluation:
- Some evidence parents see raltionship with children as more important than with partners and parents very concerned rishs believe children face - small and unrepresentative
- Over-generalises - despite greater diversity of family and childhood patterns he makes sweeping statements implying all children are in the same position