Sociology of Childhood
How the concept of Childhood has evolved over time
For this assignment I will explore the concept of childhood and how this has evolved over time across different societies, looking particularly at the role education has in childhood. I will also take a closer look at the different sociological perspectives of childhood and will use these to interpret children’s experiences in order to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of early childhood. I will explore how certain constraints of childhood have emerged over time and how these have shaped our knowledge and understating of children’s lives.
What is childhood and when does it end?
“Childhood is a period of growth, that is to say, the period in which the individual, in both the physical and moral sense, dos not yet exist, the period in which he is made, develops and is formed”
(Durkheim as quoted in Smart, Neale and Wade, the changing experience of childhood, 2001, Page 1)
Philippe Aries, a French historian, is credited with making historians take childhood seriously. In his famous book ‘Centuries of childhood’ he claimed that childhood did not really exist until the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Before that, children had been treated as small and inadequate adults. He stated that they were often ill-treated, and that today we are now more careful about protecting children. Since then there has been lots of changes in the way people view the perception of childhood. “There have been many debates over the age that childhood ends from the Anglo-Saxons onwards. In the middle ages it was set at 12 years old, in the eighteenth century a girl of seven was hung or Norwich for stealing a petticoat” (Pinchbeck & Hewitt, Children in English Society, Volume 2, 1973, Page 351)
There are many ages that some might say signifies the end of childhood, and when a person officially becomes an adult in the United Kingdom, for example: * Is it when the court of law states that a child cannot be tried in an
For this assignment I will explore the concept of childhood and how this has evolved over time across different societies, looking particularly at the role education has in childhood. I will also take a closer look at the different sociological perspectives of childhood and will use these to interpret children’s experiences in order to gain a greater understanding and knowledge of early childhood. I will explore how certain constraints of childhood have emerged over time and how these have shaped our knowledge and understating of children’s lives.
What is childhood and when does it end?
“Childhood is a period of growth, that is to say, the period in which the individual, in both the physical and moral sense, dos not yet exist, the period in which he is made, develops and is formed”
(Durkheim as quoted in Smart, Neale and Wade, the changing experience of childhood, 2001, Page 1)
Philippe Aries, a French historian, is credited with making historians take childhood seriously. In his famous book ‘Centuries of childhood’ he claimed that childhood did not really exist until the sixteenth or seventeenth century. Before that, children had been treated as small and inadequate adults. He stated that they were often ill-treated, and that today we are now more careful about protecting children. Since then there has been lots of changes in the way people view the perception of childhood. “There have been many debates over the age that childhood ends from the Anglo-Saxons onwards. In the middle ages it was set at 12 years old, in the eighteenth century a girl of seven was hung or Norwich for stealing a petticoat” (Pinchbeck & Hewitt, Children in English Society, Volume 2, 1973, Page 351)
There are many ages that some might say signifies the end of childhood, and when a person officially becomes an adult in the United Kingdom, for example: * Is it when the court of law states that a child cannot be tried in an
References: ... (Durkheim as quoted in Smart, Neale and Wade, the changing experience of childhood, 2001, Page 1) (Pinchbeck & Hewitt, Children in English Society, Volume 2, 1973, Page 351) (Maynard & Thomas, an introduction to Early Childhood studies, 2nd edition, Page 35)