Society’s view of childhood has changed drastically over the course of our history. As society grows and evolves, we have moved on from seeing children as a burden on society as a whole, from commodities and miniature adults, to needing to be protected. This is a Westernised view of children however, and ethnic and societal backgrounds must always be considered when interacting and raising children from other cultures, as their views on childhood often differ greatly from our own. The following images will show some differences in our views on the image of childhood, their impacts on relationships and why it is important to take these differences into consideration.
Child as the Innocent
In this image, we see the children as the Innocent,
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This view of children assumes that adults will always have the best interests of the child at heart, however it denies them the right to make their own decisions, and the ability to give consent; consent is often given by the adult carer on their behalf (Docket …show more content…
A child will naturally challenge Authority (Corsaro, 1997), but the Out of Control Child takes it many steps further, and this can take many forms. Claiming sexual abuse where none has occurred, or using internalised blackmail, such as Anerexia or Bulimia, or even violent crimes (Robson 2005).
While this may start out as a bid for power over adults, this perception changes within the child, often coming to believe that no one, not their peers, nor adults, want to help them control themselves. Parents and carers themselves feel powerless and ineffectual when dealing with an Out of Control Child, with many giving up on them completely. Some therapies have been effective in regards to helping these children, allowing said children to use narrative therapies to learn to control their own actions (Epston, 1989; White, 1991).
Increasing diagnosis of conditions such as ADHD and Autism have also assisted in helping some Out of Control Children, where treatment or medication can reduce the outward cycle of violence or the manipulation of protective services.
Child as the
In pediatric cases, the parents/guardians are initially given the right to make decisions for their minor
Centuries of Childhood is a social history of family life (1960) that is a history of childhood written by Philippe Aries’s. It is about controversial claim that childhood, as a concept ,was not “discovered” until well after the middle ages. While Child Act 2011( Act 611) is an example that is repealed the Juvenile Courts Act 1947( Act 90) the Women and Girls Protection Act 1973(Act 106) and the Child Protection Act 1991(Act 468). Act 611 preamble provides that every child is entitled to protection and assistance in all circumtances without regard to distinction of any kind , such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, social origin or physical mental or emotional disabilities. Aries is an archivist for the Institute of Applied Research
James, Jenks and Prout (1998) argue that childhood is characterised by sets of cultural values whereby the ‘…western childhood has become a period of social dependency, asexuality, and the obligation to be happy, with children having the right to protection and training but not to social or personal autonomy’ (James, Jenks and Prouts 1998 pg. 62). Here, childhood is described in sets of distinguished features and these features imply that the concept childhood may vary from place, culture and time. Therefore suggesting that there is no fixed or universal experience of childhood, for example, childhood in the medieval UK will be extremely different to the childhood in modern UK and therefore it varies over time, place and culture. Since the definition and state of childhood may vary depending on our cultural and historical background, some sociologist claim that childhood is not just biological, but must have been socially constructed for a specific society needs at a particular time. In this essay, I will attempt to explore ways in which childhood is said to be socially constructed by looking at historical childhood and how it has led to construction of modern childhood in the modern society. I will also explore the agency of children as competent social actors able to construct their social world.
According to Montgomery (2014) ‘Children in different parts of the world lead very different lives, partly because of the variations of cultural beliefs about childhood’. These variations are brought about by the fact that each child is different, with different beliefs, raised with different parenting methods in different countries with different cultural influences. All of which have individual definitions of what it is to be a child, and a child’s capabilities. These cultural and social differences all vary on their emphasis of traits that are important, such as individuality, independence, inter-dependancy and expectations of behaviour. Each child is constructed in a unique way according to these differences, and each difference impacts
Childhood can be defined as bundle of ideas and sentiments that characterise the socially constructed nature of childhood (Wyness 2006). Therefore, childhood and children’s experiences of everyday life are constructed by adults throu...
Wells, Karen C.. "rescuing children and children's rights." Childhood in a global perspective. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 2009. 168-169. Print.
The dictionary definition of a child is a young human being, an immature person and offspring (Oxford, 1976). This idea is reflected in Mead’s statement ‘that children to adults are representative of something weak and helpless in need of protection, supervision, training, models, skills, beliefs and ‘character’’ (Montgomery et al, 2003, p vii). The emphasis is on the concept of the child by adults rather than the size or mentality raising the notion that a child, and therefore childhood, is not just a biological concept but also an ideological one (Falconer, 2009). This ideology makes an oxymoron of Children’s Literature according to Rose (Hunt, 2009a) as adults write, publish and purchase books with each set of adults having their own ideas about childh...
Views on childhood have and still continue to change (Waller, 2009). The contemporary view that children are empty vessels (Skinner, 1974) is being disregarded as children are no longer perceived as passive recipients in an adult world (O’Kane, 2008...
All children are vulnerable and open to be abused by any adult that has contact with them. As an early years practitioner, it is exceptionally important to be able to recognise when a child’s behaviour is changing for the worst and link this to signs of abuse. As the early years setting is an establishment young children know well and are comfortable in, adults present can make children somewhat aware of what abuse is, how it is wrong and what they must do if they recognise abuse may be or is being inflicted upon them.
The study of children and their development is a new interdisciplinary field unifying research from sociology, anthropology, development psychology, law, and healthcare. Childhood studies emerged from the universal need to understand children’s development, their susceptibility to external factors, and what it means to be a child from the child 's perspective. Children differ depending on many factors, such as place, time, social status, religion, and tradition, and each of these aspects
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
Reece, Robert. "Treatment of Child Abuse: common Ground for Mental Health, Medical, and legal Practitioners." 2000 26MAR2008 .
In societies across the world it is clear that many children never have a ‘childhood naivety’ due to events, circumstance or even people in their lives. I have chosen to explore the theme “the tragic premature loss of childhood innocence.” We are shown this theme in the novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, the film My Sister’s Keeper directed by Nick Cassavetes, the film Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle and the novel Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian.
There are proponents of the debate that childhood is disappearing which will be discussed in this section which include Postman (1983), Elkind (1981) and Palmer (2006). In considering these points of view which are mostly American, one must firstly set in context what is meant by the disappearance or erosion of childhood. This key debate centres on Postman (1983) who wrote “The disappearance of childhood” which is a contentious book about how childhood as a social category which is separate from adulthood is eroding. He defines a point where childhood came into existence, which was treated as a special phase in the middle ages based on the work of Aries in his book “Centuries of childhood” (1962, cited in Postman 1983). According to Postman, a major influence on how childhood was perceived differently to adulthood was the invention of the printing press and literacy in the mid sixteenth century. That is to say children had to learn to read before the secrets of adulthood in particular sex and violence was available...
Abstract In this essay, I intend to explain how everyday lives challenge the construction of childhood as a time of innocence. In the main part of my assignment, I will explain the idea of innocence, which started with Romantic discourse of childhood and how it shaped our view of childhood. I will also look at two contradictory ideas of childhood innocence and guilt in Blake’s poems and extract from Mayhew’s book. Next, I will compare the images of innocence in TV adverts and Barnardo’s posters. After that, I will look at the representation of childhood innocence in sexuality and criminality, and the roles the age and the gender play in portraying children as innocent or guilty. I will include some cross-cultural and contemporary descriptions on the key topics. At the end of my assignment, I will summarize the main points of the arguments.