Death of Childhood - Essay Example

Death of childhood Michael Jackson's biographer described this icon of the 21st century as "the man who was never a child and the child that never grew up." This essay will evaluate the view that in the 21st century we are witnessing the death of childhood. To do so we will compare and contrast the sociological views of Postman, Aries and other key sociologists. The first two things that come to mind while examining this question in the context of the UK, is that firstly, in the 21st century, there has been an increase in the number of teen pregnancies; and secondly, that there is a growing tendency for mothers to take their seven and eight year old daughters to the beauty parlour for elaborate hair sets, manicures and other treatments. Neither of these two scenarios exactly matches the conservative view of childhood. Since the sociologist Durkheim defined education as,"The influence exercised by the adult generation on those who are not yet ready for adult life."(Dubey p 184) -could it be that we are influencing our kids to grow up too soon Anti-aids campaigns in schools do not help matters since they tend to indoctrinate a child on the methods of safe sex, long before he/she feels the urge to have any. If we take Rousseau's view that childhood is a time of innocence, then we could agree with Postman who says that we are witnessing the death of childhood or innocence in the 21st century thanks to the media, which is full of explicit sex and violence as well as internet pornography. But this is a very one sided view because the affect of TV and the internet can also have positive educational affects. "TV has multiple uses and a variety of featureswhat exactly is this thing A reliable companion A teacher A warehouse full of stories....it is all of these things" Fisherkeller p. 9 (2002) With the sea of change that is taking place both technically as well as culturally it is often felt that things are no longer the way they used to be. "The claim that childhood has been lost has been one of the most popular laments of the closing years of the 20th century we no longer seem to know where childhood can be found."(Buckingham p3) Postman is of the view that parents of the 21st century tend to treat their children as adults while behaving like children themselves. He defends his view by pointing out that children's games like 'hide and seek' and 'hopscotch' are fast disappearing. According to Postman childhood as a social phenomenon began with the invention of printing. This created a world of adult 'secrets' in books and so children were required to be protected from these secrets through schools, special clothing and sheltering from sexual knowledge. Hence the idea of 'for adults only' began. The Western Mail is also of the view that children can no longer enjoy their childhood but due a different reason, ill health. This is because as industrialized societies grow in affluence children start to suffer from adult diseases like cancer and diabetes. In that sense this source argues, children have been robbed of the carefree health and happiness of childhood (Western Mail, 2006).Similarly a child watching TV argues Postman, can quickly learn about sex and violence or pick up dirty words and can therefore loose their child-like innocence and carefree nature As a result young girls get a bikini wax done and six year olds attend soccer camp. Due to these reasons, argues Postman we are witnessing the death of childhood in the 21st century. Since parents find it difficult to control over electronic media. Like Postman, Palmer too is of the view that electronic technologies like the television and the internet are corrupting the experience of childhood. As a result of this, " Every year children become more distractible, impulsive and self-obsessed - less able to learn, to enjoy life, to thrive socially."(Palmer 2006) This is because children are having toxic experiences due to the lack of a stable and peaceful environment and increased divorces.It is not always possible to be there for children or to exercise parental control which is why children these days do seem to grow up too fast. Wendy Earle from the education space in London University however, feels from her own experience, that the danger of television and the internet are exaggerated as these do not dominate the lives of children as much as they are made out to. Earle's critique states that Palmer, " makes a distinction between adults and children - adults can handle change but children can be damaged by it. But if this were the case, human civilization would surely have disintegrated well before the 21st century."(Earle 2008) Libby Brooks in her book, ' The Story of Childhood' goes straight to the horses mouth with case studies of a cross section of nine children from the UK as she examines issues that affect them-like sex education and consumerism. The modern educational system is also very demanding as a result of which children have to stop playing and behave more like serious and studious adults. The social historian, Philippe Aris holds the opposite view to Postman. He feels that childhood is not now dead but has just been born and is a relatively new phenomenon that developed in the 16th and 17th centuries. In medieval times, he argues, children between the ages of seven to fifteen years were looked on as adults and there was hardly any difference in clothes that were worn by adults and children. Therefore he states that childhood is a relatively new concept. Sociologist Margaret King is also of the view that the idea of childcare is a more recent one when, "elite mothers embraced their destiny to breast feed.the children's-book industry was born--along with children's clothing, children's furniture, and children's games" (Margaret L. King, 2007) With the flowering of the idea of childhood in the 19th and 20th century argues Aries, the need for protecting the innocence of children from adult reality emerged. (For Aries the further back we go in time the more backward the ideas of child care. It is only recently that sex and tragedy have come to be hidden from children.) In other words, "The history of childhood is a nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken." (Lloyd Demause) Finally whether or not the 21st century has resulted in the death of childhood is relative since it depends on the social and cultural context. We cannot generalize on the model of affluent western children because things would be very different for children of developing countries in the 21st century. In countries like India for instance a child is a potential bread winner and so, is encouraged to work at an early age to facilitate the family's economical survival. So we find that the idea of childhood varies from society to society and between different sexes and ages-(since girls grow up faster.) To conclude, this essay has evaluated the view that in the 21st century we are witnessing the death of childhood. While Postman and Palmer hold the view that the media is making children grow up too soon, Earle feels this has been exaggerated while the resilience of the younger generation has been underrated. Aries feels the 21st century is witnessing not the death but the birth of childhood, since in earlier times, children were treated like adults and encouraged to work from an early age. Philippe Aries and Lloyd De Mause conclude that the treatment of children has improved through time. While they would argue that the availability of toys and children's books is proof of the growing awareness of childhood, for Postman and Palmer this would just be due to materialism and mass production. Since the social meaning of childhood varies from one place to the next and as we try and cope with changing technologies and values the very concept of childhood is also changing. References Aries P. (1960) Centuries of Childhood Harmondsworth: Penguin Brooks, L. The Story of Childhood: Growing Up in Modern Britain Amazon.uk Buckingham, D. (2000) After the Death of Childhood: Growing Up in the Age of Electronic Media, Cambridge UK : Polity Press, p3 Childhood Cancers 'Linked to Affluence and Isolation'. (2006, July 20). Western Mail (Cardiff, Wales), p. 8. Cunningham, H. (2006) The Invention of Childhood Pub: London BBC Books Dubey; S.M.& Sharma D.(1990) Sociology an Introduction, NCERT Delhi Earle, W. (2006) Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About It. University of London Palmer, S. (2006) Toxic Childhood. How the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it. London: Orion Postman, N. (1985) Disappearance of childhood, Comet UK Demause, L.(1982) Foundations of psychohistory , The institute of psychohistory, New York Fisherkeller, J. (2002)Growing Up With Television: Everyday Learning Among Young Adolescents, Temple University Press, Philadelphia Read More