Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Childhood, Has childhood improved? - Coggle Diagram
Childhood
Social construction of childhood - how we define 'childhood' is not fixed and depends on time/ ethnicity/ social-class/ culture/ place etc
Cultural differences
Pilcher - modern western notion of childhood - 'separateness' and distinct life stage - physically and psychologically immature and need protecting
1. Legal separateness - eg Child Labour laws/ 1870 Forster's Education Act introduced compulsory schooling/ voting age 18
2. Cultural separateness - clothing/ TV / discounts eg bus ticket/ food
Bhatti - Asian families have more strict control over children, especially girls (izzat = family honour/ obligation)
Golden Age of Childhood = time of happiness and innocence; protected/ sheltered from dangerous adult world
Wagg - childhood is socially constructed and not universal - means different things in different parts of world - non-industrial cultures
eg Malinowski - Tobriand Islanders South Pacific - sexual activities viewed as experimentation/ not shunned VS Western sex ed, 'birds and the bees'
eg Punch - 5-year-old Bolivian children taking work responsibilities in local community
eg rural Sudanese children allowed to roam freely around village without adult supervision
Globalisation and homogenisation - means the Western view of childhood may be spreading to these de industrial places - most global childhood welfare policy seen through a Western lens (eg charity ads)
Are we separate from adults? PM society means identities are not fixed and children can dress as adults and therefore be treated like adults - childhood redundant
1989 - UN Rights of the Child , PREVENT UK - children seen as vulnerable and need protecting
Historical differences
Aries - the idea of childhood did not exist in the Middle Ages (10th-13th c.) - looked at representation of children vs adults in art (dressed the same and played)
Middle Ages (10th-13th c.) CHILDHOOD NOT SIGNIFICANT
1. children seen as 'mini-adults' - same rights and duties
2. same punishments for children
3. referring to babies as 'it' or giving name of dead sibling
Post-13th c. - Modern cult of childhood began to emerge OBSESSED W CHILDHOOD
1. children viewed as 'fragile creatures of God' eg Cherubs, miracle of childbirth - handbooks on childrearing
2. decline in the IMR - babies live longer so we have less of them
3. schools started specialising in education of the young
Pollock - value judgement - childhood did exist in the Middle Ages but it was just seen differently - eg disease and high IMR meant children had to grow up quickly - links to Parsons' Functional Fit theory - emotional detachment from children within family was functional for the society at the time
Reasons for changing position of children
1. decline in IMR - children more likely to survive (medial improvements) so no need to have 'replacements' - economic liability of children - CHILD CENTRED SOCIETY
2. Child protection - multi-agency approach of police/ schools/ social services - teacher trained to report signs of abuse
3. 1989 Children's Act - parental responsibility > parental rights - you have to be a good parent rather than just a parent
4. 1870 Forster's Education Act - introduced compulsory schooling - school leaving age now 18 - child labour laws
5. Postmodern self-improvement culture - children seen as a 'blank slate' to improve/ give opportunities you didn't have
-
-