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Childhood within the 20th century
Childhood within the 20th century
Childhood throughout the centuries
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Introduction Since the publication of the influential book by Philippe Aries in the 1960, ‘Centuries of Childhood’, it caused a major topic of interest for historians. For many years, oral history has become a predominant technique used by historians to help gain further understanding of the lives people lived in the past. The Oral History Society stated that oral history is the recordings of an individual’s memories and experiences. This suggests that it is almost viewed as a technique which enables historians or researcher to gather information based on people’s unique memories and their lifestyle which enables them to reconstruct the past. Therefore to gain in-depth information, this technique was used to explore types of childhood experienced by people of different time periods and culture. Hence this technique was used to explore and obtain information based on childhood experiences of those born in the 1950s compared to those born around the 1980s. Issues such as family life, leisure and education will be explored because they are considered as factors which heavily influence the type of childhood a child will experience as well as predict the outcome of their future. These areas are considered to be important because they play a major role on the childhood experience of an individual. Procedure Secondary literature such as textbooks and websites were explored which provided insights to what was actually occurring at the period in which each interviewee was born into. This also assisted with developing questions for the interview and to gain a basic understanding of the type of childhood and education the interviewee must have experienced. Prior to the interview, a semi-structured interview, with open ended questions, was d... ... middle of paper ... ...) Making History. A Pier Production for BBC Radio 4. Accessed online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b014fkwn (4/03/2014). Bevington, D., Field, F., Rosoff, M., & Ridley, P. (2014) Live at Southbank Centre: Childhood. BBC Radio 3. Accessed online: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03y3g96 (21/03/2014). Eschiwani, G. (1993) Education in Kenya since Independence. Kenya: Printpak. Gould, W. (1993) People and Education in the Third World. England: Longman Group UK Limited Hendrick, H. (1997) Children, childhood and English society 180-1990. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Ministry of Education. (2008) The Development of Education. National Report of Kenya. Roberts, B., Hiner, R., & Harwes, J. (n.d) History of Childhood. Accessed online: http://www.faqs.org/childhood/Gr-Im/History-of-Childhood.html (4/03/2014). Wosyanju, C. (n.d) The System of Education in Kenya.
In the book “There Are No Children Here” by Alex Kotlowitz, the author followed the lives of two young brothers (Lafayette and Pharoah) while they grew up in the harsh streets of Chicago in the late 1980’s. The author uses the story of the two boys’ lives to discuss the social divide in our very own society and to persuade readers that there is a major problem in “the projects” of the United States.
The world has experienced many changes in past generations, to the present. One of the very most important changes in life had to be the changes of children. Historians have worked a great deal on children’s lives in the past. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”- Author Unknown
I chose the book, The Child Called “It” because one of my friends told me about the book. The whole story line caught my attention. I was amazed at what was going on in this boy’s life. This book, a true story, is very emotional. The title relates to the book because his mother calls the boy, David Pelzer, “It”. She does not call him by his real name. His mother treats him like he is nothing but an object. Also, I think the title fits well because it catches people’s attention and gives a clue what the book is about.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
A Child Called "It", by Dave Pelzer, is a first person narrative of a child’s struggle through a traumatic abused childhood. The book begins with Dave telling us about his last day at his Mother’s house before he was taken away by law enforcement. At first I could not understand why he had started at the end of his tale, but after reading the entire book it was clear to me that it was easier to read it knowing there indeed was a light at the end of the dark tunnel. This horrific account of extreme abuse leaves us with a great number of questions which unfortunately we do not have answers for. It tells us what happened to this little boy and that miraculously he was able to survive and live to see the day he left this hole which was his home, however, it does not tell us why or even give us a good amount of background with which to speculate the why to this abuse.
Maybin, J. &Woodhead, M. (2003). Childhoods in context. Southern Gate, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Spilka, Mark. "Victorian Childhoods." Michigan Quarterly Review 39.2 (2000): 411-21. ProQuest. Web. 7 May 2014.
Mao’s Cultural Revolution was an attempt to create a new culture for China. Through education reforms and readjustments, Mao hoped to create a new generation of Chinese people - a generation of mindless Communists. By eliminating intellectuals via the Down to the Countryside movement, Mao hoped to eliminate elements of traditional Chinese culture and create a new form Chinese culture. He knew that dumbing down the masses would give him more power so his regime would be more stable. This dramatic reform affected youth especially as they were targeted by Mao’s propaganda and influence. Drawing from his experiences as an Educated Youth who was sent down to the countryside Down to the Countryside movement, Ah Cheng wrote The King of Children to show the effects of the Cultural Revolution on education, and how they affected the meaning people found in education. In The King of Children, it is shown that the Cultural Revolution destroyed the traditional incentives for pursuing an education, and instead people found moral and ethical meaning in pursuing an education.
The book “This Boy’s Life” by Tobias Wolff is a memoir written about the author’s childhood memories and experiences. The author shows many different characters within the book. Many of them are just minor character that does not affect the author much in his life choices and thoughts throughout his growth. But there are some that acts as the protagonist and some the antagonist. One of them is Dwight, the protagonist’s or Jack’s stepfather. This character seems to be one of the characters that inhibit Jack’s choices and decisions. This character plays a huge role in Jack’s life as it leaves a huge scar in his memory. The author here spends the majority of time in this character in the memoir to show the readers the relationship between Jack and Dwight.
The various essays comprising Children in Colonial America look at different characteristics of childhood in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Children coming to the American colonies came from many different nations and through these essays, authors analyze children from every range of social class, race, and ability in order to present a broad picture of childhood in these times. While each essay deals with an individual topic pertaining to childhood, they all combine to provide a strong argument that children were extremely valued in society, were not tiny adults, and were active participants in society.
The text depicts a historical perspective on Middle Childhood, as during the twentieth century, children were viewed primarily as an economic source of income, in terms of providing for the family. According to the text this happens often in European counties and in parts of the United States. Elizabeth D. Hutchinson, Dimensions of Human Behavior The Changing Life Course 3rd, 2008. In this short review we will look at how this historical perspective in itself is not a question to how, but when these individual give.
Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood. Pearson/Allyn and Bacon. Cooper, J., Masi, R., & Vick, J. (2009). The 'Standard' of the 'Standard'. Social-emotional Development in Early Childhood.
Wertlieb, Donald. "Child." World Book Advanced. World Book, 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2011.Retrieved from http://www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar110700&st=middle+childhood+development&sc=1#h4
King E and Hill A, Women's Education in Developing Countries: Barriers, Benefits, and Policies. London: World Bank publications. 1997. Print.
Others who vanish for weeks on end, helping their parents with the year-end harvest. Still others who never come back, lacking the money to pay for school uniforms and school supplies. Such is the daily dilemma faced by many young people in the developing world as they seek to obtain that most precious of all commodities, education. With the global economy relying more than ever on brainpower and innovation rather than raw materials and manual labour as generators of wealth, a good education has become the key factor determining who will succeed and who will be left behind.