Children: An Oppressed Class

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If reality was a picture, it would be a small, malnourished, beaten, violated, hopeless, poor, devastated, oppressed child. There are many more like this child, sitting in the corners of the dirty cities around the world witnessing all the oppression that has evolved from this reality. This realism is the life of a child being destroyed by the ways of the world. This child, along with countless others, has had their freedom to a healthy life stolen by the restrictions of authority. Therefore, the oppression of children is a result of restrictive authority that limits what the world has to offer adolescents.

At a young age, kids generally are submissive to the world around them, and I’ve found that there are two specific influences that factor into a child’s development of values, social norms and perspectives. The first influence is what the child is taught or forced to practice by their parents beliefs and perspectives. The second is what a child learns from the world and their life experiences. Unfortunately, children generally are not allowed to practice “youthism,” where they live with free-spirits and objective minds, because parents force their own lessons, beliefs, values, rights, wrongs, behaviors, and perspectives into the lives of their children. As a result, children are oppressed because the opportunities that the world offers them are limited based on the values and perspectives of adulthood.

Unlike the others, the oppression of children has been ignored. This oppressed group is not a minority of its own, nor is it controlled by the opinions of society. It is not the oppressed victims who can be blamed themselves. In fact, all other groups and societies have belonged to this group. Truly, every human that has walke...

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Saslow, Linda. “How Do Children Feel about the War?” The New York Times. New York Times Company, 17 Feb. 1991. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. .6.2: 102. Print.

Klass, Perri. “Poverty as a Childhood Disease.” The New York Times. New York Times Company, 13 May 2013. Web. 1 Mar. 2014.

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