An important aspect of education is being exposed to concepts that we would have never thought to consider otherwise, given the tools to critically examine them with a new point of reference, and finally to think about them in a new way. The importance of how childhood is defined is one of those concepts for me. In wrestling with new frameworks, I am always a little self-conscious that I will do the complexity of the topic injustice from sheer ignorance. Nonetheless, I intend to tackle the topic with the help of an art piece I created and with insight from the readings.
Like many other areas of philosophical dispute, the discussion around the definition of the topic at hand profoundly shapes the way it is viewed and concurrently discussed. And to the victor go the spoils. In this case, defining the concept of childhood is the battleground. Not only are there implications for how childhood is discussed, there are also far reaching ramifications for what those definitions denote. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s look at the tug-o-war combatants who would strive to pull the proverbial knot across the line and claim victory and the right to shape a generation of children.
I have included a helpful picture to give you a visual representation of how this contest might look below.
Like many other areas of philosophical dispute, the discussion around the definition of the topic at hand profoundly shapes the way it is viewed and concurrently discussed. And to the victor go the spoils. In this case, defining the concept of childhood is the battleground. Not only are there implications for how childhood is discussed, there are also far reaching ramifications for what those definitions denote. But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s look at the tug-o-war combatants who would strive to pull the proverbial knot across the line and claim victory and the right to shape a generation of children.
I have included a helpful picture to give you a visual representation of how this contest might look below.
An analogy from history books
A common criticism of the narratives of wars in history books is that they are written one way by the conquerors and another way by the vanquished. Someone once told me if you really want to understand a war, you need to read the history books and look at the art produced by both countries during the war. The idea of creating the definition of events has very powerful implications.
Purity
The discussion around the sexuality of children “debate is largely driven by morally inflected adults concerns about the media’s role in precipitating the premature and inappropriate sexualization of children” (Channel Nine, 2008a, 2008b; Rush and La Nauze, 2006a, 2006b as cited in Taylor, 2010, p. 48). Taylor goes on to “shift the focus from discussions about how best to protect innocent children from age-appropriate sexuality to a discussion about adult protectionism and our fraught relationship with children’s sexuality” (2010, p. 48). This discussion on sexuality highlights the importance of definitions. If children are pure and innocent, it implies that adulthood is contaminated. It also implies that ignorance of sexuality is somehow clean and the understanding of sexuality is dirty. The eroticization of children’s bodies in advertising somewhat supports this. If being an adult and knowledge of sexuality did expose venality, it would be of no use to use children’s bodies to sell goods. The objectification of the good old days has led to a dangerous phantasm of illusory wholesomeness that suggests childhood vulnerability in need of adult protection. This way of looking at the child’s body and childhood in general is from a purity perspective.
Incompleteness
A second area of consideration is that children are incomplete adults. This has grown out of a colonial perspective and is embraced by developmental psychology, thus child ‘development.’ Castañeda argued that “the figure of the child is characterized by it’s mutable potentiality which articulates competing adult desires and projections... thus for the child body to figure as an adult-in-the-making” (as cited in Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 231). Incompleteness implies temporality between childhood and adulthood, which is true in a physical sense but has other inferences when considered against what critics of this theory would argue. New sociological perspectives would counter that the child is a “competent social actor... to counter the deficit and dependency models informed by developmental psychology” (Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 230). Finally, children and women have historically shared similar descriptions. “The infantilization of women has long been close to the feminization of childhood, as a state of dependency, and the naturalization of both conditions was central toe the elaboration of the colonial project” (Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 228). This has led to women being “constructed as the bearers of cultural continuity” and also “been used to warrant the surveillance and regulations of their sexuality” (Bruman & Stacey, 2010, p. 229). The implications of considering childhood as incompleteness has a political and social consequences that go far beyond simply a magnanimous memory of childhood innocence and frivolity that are endearingly reminisced about by adults.
Implications for CYC
In this brief consideration of two schools of thought surrounding childhood, we can appreciate that it is a complicated topic, which must continually be examined. For CYC, the definition of the body of the child and the interpretation of childhood carries definitive ramifications. As we can see, challenging our thoughts on previously unconsidered definitions of the concept of childhood will shape our practice in subtle yet powerful ways.
References
Burman, E., & Stacey, J. (2010). The child and childhood in feminist
theory. Feminist Theory, 11(3), 227-240.
Taylor, A. (2010). Troubling childhood innocence: Reframing the
debate over the media sexualisation of children.
A common criticism of the narratives of wars in history books is that they are written one way by the conquerors and another way by the vanquished. Someone once told me if you really want to understand a war, you need to read the history books and look at the art produced by both countries during the war. The idea of creating the definition of events has very powerful implications.
Purity
The discussion around the sexuality of children “debate is largely driven by morally inflected adults concerns about the media’s role in precipitating the premature and inappropriate sexualization of children” (Channel Nine, 2008a, 2008b; Rush and La Nauze, 2006a, 2006b as cited in Taylor, 2010, p. 48). Taylor goes on to “shift the focus from discussions about how best to protect innocent children from age-appropriate sexuality to a discussion about adult protectionism and our fraught relationship with children’s sexuality” (2010, p. 48). This discussion on sexuality highlights the importance of definitions. If children are pure and innocent, it implies that adulthood is contaminated. It also implies that ignorance of sexuality is somehow clean and the understanding of sexuality is dirty. The eroticization of children’s bodies in advertising somewhat supports this. If being an adult and knowledge of sexuality did expose venality, it would be of no use to use children’s bodies to sell goods. The objectification of the good old days has led to a dangerous phantasm of illusory wholesomeness that suggests childhood vulnerability in need of adult protection. This way of looking at the child’s body and childhood in general is from a purity perspective.
Incompleteness
A second area of consideration is that children are incomplete adults. This has grown out of a colonial perspective and is embraced by developmental psychology, thus child ‘development.’ Castañeda argued that “the figure of the child is characterized by it’s mutable potentiality which articulates competing adult desires and projections... thus for the child body to figure as an adult-in-the-making” (as cited in Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 231). Incompleteness implies temporality between childhood and adulthood, which is true in a physical sense but has other inferences when considered against what critics of this theory would argue. New sociological perspectives would counter that the child is a “competent social actor... to counter the deficit and dependency models informed by developmental psychology” (Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 230). Finally, children and women have historically shared similar descriptions. “The infantilization of women has long been close to the feminization of childhood, as a state of dependency, and the naturalization of both conditions was central toe the elaboration of the colonial project” (Burman & Stacey, 2010, p. 228). This has led to women being “constructed as the bearers of cultural continuity” and also “been used to warrant the surveillance and regulations of their sexuality” (Bruman & Stacey, 2010, p. 229). The implications of considering childhood as incompleteness has a political and social consequences that go far beyond simply a magnanimous memory of childhood innocence and frivolity that are endearingly reminisced about by adults.
Implications for CYC
In this brief consideration of two schools of thought surrounding childhood, we can appreciate that it is a complicated topic, which must continually be examined. For CYC, the definition of the body of the child and the interpretation of childhood carries definitive ramifications. As we can see, challenging our thoughts on previously unconsidered definitions of the concept of childhood will shape our practice in subtle yet powerful ways.
References
Burman, E., & Stacey, J. (2010). The child and childhood in feminist
theory. Feminist Theory, 11(3), 227-240.
Taylor, A. (2010). Troubling childhood innocence: Reframing the
debate over the media sexualisation of children.