Children and the Sense of Placement - Essay Example

? Children and the Sense of Placement Children and the Sense of Placement Introduction Contemporary developments in education saw growth of childhood studies as a chief area for research and development. There is immense research in the field of education in order to educate a child during the early schooling years. Varied perspectives and techniques have been repeatedly discarded and developed. Educationists today consider that a child develops a sense of place with the help of reading. It helps the child develop the feelings of belongingness and is able to relate to their environment. The following paper highlights the importance of placement in childhood and its correlation with children’s books that tell a story through pictures along with accompanying text. Before, understanding the correlation it is important to be familiar with the concept of placement and its importance in childhood and education alike. For understanding the mentioned topic, it will interchangeably explain the depiction of childhood in children’s books. Importance of placement in Childhood During early years, as a baby the child starts to develop visuospatial attention. A visuospatial attention is developed by being familiar with the visual stimuli. In case of a baby, it starts to recognize its siblings, parents, and other close family members. This kind of attention span starts to develop at an early age and continues to evolve over the period of time (Smith & Chatterjee, 2008). The importance of place holds a greater significance in the development of a child at every level. The concept of place develops in a child the sense of self, sense of community, sense of destiny, and the sense of mortality. By the term sense of place, it is meant a child’s relationship with its surroundings. Many children are not able to relate to what they were taught in school. This is mainly because of the fact that when they read they understand, but when they look around in their environment and try to implement it they repetitively fail to do so. Therefore, books that explain the text with images increase their sense of place in a way that when they look at their environment they are more familiar with what they have been taught in the school. It also increases their ability to recall and retain. Moreover, many educationists are of the view that if a child is made familiar with its environment than only will it be able to maintain it. For this reason, it is important to develop a sense of place in children at an early age. This could be developed with different activities such as pictorial books, outdoor activities, and play (Derr, 2002). Sense of Place: The Bigger Picture During the seventeenth century, the literary books written for children were didactic. The books usually focused upon teaching the sounds of alphabets to children. However, some books explained to children the moral and spiritual values. Nevertheless, in 1700’s, John Newbery, a British publisher, was impressed with the idea of John Locke. The idea expressed held the notion that books must be published for children where they can enjoy the content in the form of a story. With the innovation in the literature for children, they started to develop a sense of personality and were better able to understand people around them. Most importantly, they started to recognize and build their own personality with the help of the revolution in the field of literature (State University, 2013). However, children were encouraged to read books in order to enhance their sense of placement. To make children familiar with their surroundings and culture in particular, many educationists concluded that a story must be formed that depicts the culture of that particular country. In order to develop the sense of place, many educationists incorporate culture along with nationalism in a story. The story instils in the children a sense of place through the characters of the story. It is widely believed that binding a story with elements of culture helps the child to be sensitive towards his or her cultural values; and be able to implement as well as admire and encourage the values further. Many literary books written by Enid Blyton were close to the society and the treatment of people. Her books depicted the harsh and decent side of the society. Books like The Three Golliwogs, St. Claries, and Malory Towers all showed a social stratification and heroism embedded in the characters of the story. Therefore, books of Enid Blyton hold a substantial element of heroism and cultural significance in order to penetrate feelings of belongingness in a child (Enid Blyton, 2013). Hence, it is necessary for the world of literature to provide authentic books like Roll the Thunder Hear My Cry, where the character of Cassie is well aware of the cultural values that emphasize upon family values as well as their right over the property that they possess. Through her character the reader is taught that no love is greater than the love of family and that it is the family that stands through thick and thin in the face of troubles (Beech & Taylor, 1999). Moreover, her character is also adamant upon the fact that every individual have rights, like her mention of having the right over the property. Mentioning of such strong values therefore, forms personality of a child along with the sense of placement. In this manner a child is able to relate well with the values that are taught to them at home and in the institutions. Moreover, the child is able to recognise between relations that are important and those who are less important. It also creates a sensitivity and concern among children for their family; making them more understanding and helpful during the hard times. Furthermore, there are certain characters in the books that children starts to admire or relate to therefore they try to adopt the attitude and behaviour of those characters. Usually children are attracted to the characters that exert the heroic qualities such as being helpful around people (Black & Jobe, 2005 (Beech & Taylor, 1999). Moreover, it can be said that a child initially develops the sense of self and place through these institutions by being familiar with the folk tales, aspirations, dreams, myths, symbols, and the images through the institution. Furthermore, it is also highlighted that the element of history in the children’s books also aids in developing the sense of place. A classic children’s book written by Philippa Pearce named Tom’s Mid Night Garden thoroughly describes the Victorian era in the book which teaches the children about the history of England and the Victorian times. It provides a child an insight into the elite class of the Victorian era and their life style, thus depicting the flowery history of the country. Furthermore, it reveals the architecture and construct of the Victorian era making the children more familiar with the artefacts that hold significance in the history as well and the culture (Pearce & Einzig, 1958). However, on the contrary, the book Roll the Thunder Hear my Cry depicts the historic facts when the slavery was on its peak and the discrimination was consistently overpowering for those who fell in the lower class. Moreover, it displays the hard times that the slaves faced along with the harsh rules set for the blacks. The story also managed to reveal what factors were considered in the previous times to treat someone and to offer companionship to others. Thus, in order to give the flavour to the children about how people lived in poverty and the challenges they faced the book narrates through the characters the historic element that eventually was changed. Moreover, it creates a sense of right and wrong among the children through the characters of the story. Furthermore, Cassie mention of the limited number of books available at her school is a source of irritation for her because she believes that these books are a leftover of the whites that were now made available to the blacks. It is believed that if a child is well aware of his history, understands it, and is able to relate to the past experiences than the sense of belonging in a child is stronger than those who possess a vivid knowledge of history. Therefore, the books of children that posses the element of history regardless its positive or negative side it instils in a child the sensitivity and nationalism to be a better citizen. If the child is well aware of the hardships that the people faced in order to provide a better future that they enjoy in the present it will also penetrate the feelings of valuing the present (Black & Jobe, 2005; Beech & Taylor, 1999). Furthermore, the evidence provides and argument that as much as history is important geography of the country holds an important place in developing the sense of place. It is suggested that Canadian children are encouraged to be familiar with the geographic significance of their country. Literary books such Tom’s Mid Night Garden thoroughly describes the place in the book that Tom encounters; she mentions a mansion that closely resembles the mansion where the author herself has spent her childhood. The book also describes the place in the book that according to the descriptions resemble Cambridge, England. Therefore, children are expected to possess the element of geography that to make the children recognize the physical terrain of the country along with the climatic conditions and the crops that grown and eaten. This in details provides a child with the concept and idea of the life they live in Canada. Moreover, the cultural artefacts are a source or reflection the weather conditions in the country. Therefore, artefacts become the symbol of recognition for the children as now they are better able to relate an artefact to a certain region in the country. However, it is important for the child to identify well with their region and community. Therefore, children must see the instances and examples provided in the text and illustrations present in the book (Pearce & Einzig, 1958; Black & Jobe, 2005). Poets, novelists, and writers may serve as a good example here in explaining that with their literary pen they tend to describe places and culture that leaves the reader imagining and longing to pay a visit to these places. Similarly, novels that depict culture or are based upon the history make the reader imagine the war zones; painters paint with the flow that the finished picture has the power to captivate the audience. These elements help in empowering the child with the sense of place. Thus, continuous reading of such literary products develops in the children the element of recognition. For example in the book Roll the Thunder Hear my Cry Mr. Morrison’s character believes that the weather is in synch with his emotions. He explains that the dust, mud, and rain emphasize the deprivation and humiliation of the black children (Beech & Taylor, 1999). Moreover, in the book the rain is symbolisation of the barriers that are put forth in order to create hindrance in the education of the black by the school board authorities. Similarly, close to the ending of the book there is an overpowering storm that is the personification of the emotions of the blacks that are repetitively hurt by the school board. Such representations in literary books create a sense of place among the children, for children become aware of the place in terms of its climate and geographical terrain ((Beech & Taylor, 1999; Pearce & Einzig, 1958; Frome, 2013). Although, the books for adults have the element of sense of place, but the children’s books has it in greater quantity. For the reasons that a child is better able, to learn and implement the learning in the classroom. Thus, pictures in a book help a child to develop a sense of place by looking at things and that is how their initial learning takes place. Furthermore, the books like The Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry and The Mid Night Garden inculcate in a child not only the sense of place but also the makes children familiar with relationships and the way of dealing with them. List of References Armstrong, T., 2013. Chapter 3. Early Childhood Education Programs: Play. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 January 2013]. Beech, L. & Taylor, M., 1999. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. New York : Scholastic Inc. Black, M. & Jobe, R., 2005. Are Children Gaining a Sense of Place from Canadian Historical Picture Books? New Perspectives on Children's Literature, 9(3). Derr, V., 2002. Children’s Sense of Place in Northern New Mexico. Journal of Environment Psychology, 22, pp.125-37. Enid Blyton, 2013. enidblyton. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 4 Feburary 2013]. Frome, K., 2013. ESSAY: "A Literary Sense of Place". [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 January 2013]. Ohgi, S., Loo, K. & Mizuike, C., 2009. Frontal brain activation in young children during picture book reading with their mothers. PMC, 99, p.320. Pearce, P. & Einzig, S., 1958. Tom's Midnight Garden. London: Oxford University Press. Smith, S. & Chatterjee, A., 2008. Visuospatial Attention in Children. ARCH NEUROL, 65(10), pp.1284-88. State University, 2013. Children's Literature - History, Literature in the Lives of Children, Environment, Awards. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 27 January 2013]. Read More