Changing Concepts of Childhood
Introduction
The history of childhood has been a subject of heated debate amongst many scholars. Many philosophers have emphasized how early contemporary and medieval child-rearing was not negligent, indistinct, nor vicious. However, in today’s unpredictable and rapidly changing world, people tend to depend on kids’ concerns to ensure their welfare following distressing events. Due to this, teachers and guardians need to be keen on the ways of considering these concerns to encourage their efficacy and health throughout their lifetime. This essay takes the literature review position covering contemporary and past developments in the field of childhood, child concerns, and child abuse.
Childhood Development
Nowadays, the world has become very unpredictable. There is daily news about physical disasters like ethnic wars, terrorism, and global natural calamities like cyclones and wildfires. Disasters are destructive and more prevalent than most individuals realize. According to St. Thomas and Johnson (2007), the fear of loss and death has become the norm because of news events’ immediacy. Consequently, kids are viewing these cases daily and might be profoundly affected than grown-ups. Respectively, UNICEF (2017) has noted that nowadays, approximately 535 million kids live in dreadful conditions, exposed to hunger, conflicts, and diseases globally. These events distress kids, affecting them throughout their life span (UNICEF, 2017). Indeed, kids are the most vulnerable in any catastrophe, mostly relying totally on grown-ups, materially, and emotionally. Kids’ problems, such as abuse or parental divorce, are the most detrimental to their psyche because the abuse is a deep violation of their rights.
In the past, kids’ needs were paid less attention. However, currently, charity organizations like UNICEF pay more attention to their rights. The concept of childhood is a dynamic and intricate process with indistinct interpretations. Viewed customarily concerning child-rearing exercises, childhood is an adult cultural and social development in North America. Chaffin (2006) asserts that it is a contemplation of the specific political, social, and cultural activities of the unique space and time in which kids manage to mature. Social groups in North America and some other parts of the world indicate distinct trends culturally because of changes in beliefs and attitudes, which vary eventually because people’s conduct depends on vivid interaction daily.
Regarding childhood, Chaffin (2006) asserts that historically kids have been reared in ways varying from nurturing to indistinct to savage. For example, infanticide was practiced in most cultures, based on the understanding attitude of society. Chaffin (2006) further argues that for many centuries infanticide has been used to not only dispose of sickly of or deformed infants but entire such newborns to avoid straining a family or larger community’s resources. Nonetheless, cultures that depended on infanticide could be somehow supportive of kids in need of warmth and care upbringing.
Concerning this matter, scholars into the history of education and childhood have managed to differentiate the information gathered according to their area of study. Dubinsky (2010) asserts that the contemporary child welfare system is merely an alternate of the institutionalized school approach towards eliminating and absorbing indigenous kids. Additionally, modern kids face negative outcomes emerging form policies that may be implemented with favorable intentions. Dubinsky (2010) finds the outcome suggestive of the implications of the 20th-century institutionalized schools. Barman (1995) agrees with Dubinsky on institutionalized school policy, which originally premised on merely problematic absorption, finally causing marginalization. From these comments, it is apparent that macro-environmental aspects like education, as portrayed in the two sources, had the same implications as contemporary effects of child policies. Eventually, similarities can be made between the sources and contemporary notions of childhood.
“Education of Yukon Indians: A Position Statement” by the Yukon Native Brotherhood (1973), portrays the image of childhood for the indigenous in the context of broader social life and education as that of alienation and uprooting. The source argues that India’s learning system has been an example of cultural reversal through teachers, schools, textbooks, and the philosophy behind education. It shows that the kids face denial in reserve, whereas still not finding a position in the native population. The result is the disappointment that then triggers problems such as crime, alcoholism, delinquency, and prostitution. This source is parallel to Stanley’s (1995) position that maintains that supremacist authority informed the discourse of educational guidance.
Child Concerns
Recently, people have experienced an exemplar transformation in the development of childhood theories. Throughout history, it was alleged that kids were inferior to adults in North America. They were considered unknowledgeable and had to find skills to become useful members of society (St. Thomas & Johnson, 2007). A considerable change started in the 18th century and became apparent in transforming childhood ideologies after the Second World War. Inspirational in this transformational model was the article, “Education of Yukon Indians: A Position Statement” by the Yukon Native Brotherhood” (1973). It developed a plethora of research into parenting publications, the declaration of kids’ rights, protection laws for kids, anti-authoritarian learning to develop a happy childhood, and a psychological study into parent-child associations.
Eventually, learning and childhood development theories advanced. The unique theories of kid cognitive development in phases were introduced by Piaget, Erikson, Kail, and Cavanaugh, (2019). These theories of human intelligence and childhood development have offered directives for guardians and teachers. Concurrent to the transforming relationship of kids to adults is the establishment of self-emerged. With this notion, there was introduced the idea that instead of forecasting adult desires, or cultural or society’s expectations onto the kid, it is better to assist kids in developing their inherent potential. Contemporary studies suggest providing the kids’ agency suited to their stage and ability of development (‘The Eyes of Children,’ n.d.).
Initial research by Bandura (2017) had focused on individual agency, which asserted that if there is no direct intervention, then some kids can be encouraged to attain a certain goal. In this event, a collective agent can achieve the desired outcome for a specific objective (Bandura, 2017). Stanley (1995), coincide with Bandura (2017) in that agency is ethnically conditioned. This could imply that kids in a certain situation might be more constrained in the manner they are allowed to air their grievances. Research by Stanley (1995) has noted that kids constrained agency in learning environments to express, develop, and reflect their own ideas. Nonetheless, a lot of effort is made to motivate kids to handle problems or make decisions, either in groups or individually. For instance, UNICEF (2017) encourages agency and independence while paying attention to kids and implementing their perspectives into daily chores. Vivacious actions between adults and kids are encouraged. In clinical environments, the kid is viewed as a competent social actor who portrays comprehension and resourcefulness of treatments rather than a passive recipient of treatment (Barman, 1995).
St. Thomas and Johnson’s (2007) idea that kids have an uncanny potential to depend directly from the oblivious content of their life is quite sensible. Nowadays, children are overwhelmingly creative, owning a great deal of understanding and insight. Kids’ ideas are thus considered when the concentration is, for instance, on domestic flights they have witnessed. Not only have mistreated kids supported the mistreated mother, but they have also encouraged them to abandon the abuser (Dubinsky, 2010). In family court processes, kids’ complaints may be heard as there is intricate value in the directives they give to decision making and assessment (‘The Eyes of Children,’ n.d.)
Child Abuse
As the notion of changing childhood concepts is spread throughout places, culture, political and social religions, ideologies, and systems, it has become crucial in the Western world for the issue of child abuse to be outlined. Historically, kids and women had been helpless within marriage and society because of society’s norms and financial dependency. This led inevitably to abuse and maltreatment. Besides, an outline could only be identified by communities that were willing to endorse societal intrusion into the upbringing of kids’ (Chaffin, 2006). This occurred particularly in the latter half of the 20th century but allowed experts t to intervene, create, and develop laws to safeguard and ensure a better future for kids. According to ‘The Eyes of Children’ (n.d.), parent education would eliminate child abuse. Critical experts recognized that childhood was an important stage in child development, researched, and then categorized child mistreatment into four parts: psychological, physical, neglect, and child abuse.
Conclusion
In summary, this review has explored the journey of child-rearing throughout history, from birth to the recognition of their rights. It has been discovered that the attitude to children and childhood as powerless and voiceless has been transformed recently. Therefore, it is critical to inform teachers and parents that they have an additional responsibility to children in this challenging era. Because of the many transformations globally, they require to be aware of the kids’ welfares. Moreover, these individuals should be acquainted with the consequences and significance of child mistreatment for a kid’s future life span. When society, teachers, and parents adhere to children’s’ rights, a positive attitude will be created toward child concerns. As a result, a kid’s full potential will be developed.
References
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