Aries claimed that childhood began from the early 13th century as fee-paying schools were open to provide education for the rich. The church also began to separate children from adults as saying that they needed to be punished differently,
This then led into the early industrial times, with the industrial revolution (1760s onwards) the position of children had changed, but this certainly wasn’t for the better. Children were still made to work, but now not in fields but in factories, coalmines and up chimneys. There were no laws to protect the children from this, as the children were seen to be bringing in the much needed income to the household. Gradually laws did come into place to protect the children; this then led to the child-centred society.
Childhood as we know it today started to come about in the 1950s onwards. Child-centred means that children are now loved, valued and cared for properly. Children now have to attend mainstream school from the ages of 5 to 16. They have there own doctors, teachers and social workers to care for them. Children’s books, magazines, TV programs and films are made especially for them and finally have laws in place to protect them, such as the working hours to age consent.
The changes in the position of children have been greatly changed over the last few years, when the pre-industrial times existed children were not getting the care and love they needed which resulted in the high infant mortality rate, but in today’s society now there is an increase in medical knowledge and that each child is cared and nurtured for that this mortality rate has dropped. When the education law was introduced making free mainstream school for every child till the age of 16. This increased the amount children that are dependent on adults, which kept them as children for longer. Laws were introduced such as the Prevention of Cruelty to Children Act 1889 and more recently Children’s Act 1989. Also the children stopped been economic producers and came consumers. Adults now work less than they did in the 19th century so they have more time to spend with their children, resulting in the family becoming more child-centred. Finally they have age restrictions on things such as cigarettes and alcohol are age restricted to 18 and over, also the age of sexual consent is 16. These changes in the law and general society just show how childhood has progressed through the different times.
Childhood is although not necessarily a positive experience for every child, as divorce is on the increase many sociologists; particular functionalists and the New Right argue that this has a negative effect on children. Bulling is also a main factor as it happens in many schools. . The main effect is that child abuse exists; this could either be physical, sexual or emotional. Although it is more in the public eye and talked about much more know body knows what goes on behind closed doors. Child line receives an increasing number of calls from children, but this could be due to the amount of public awareness. So childhood isn’t necessarily a good experience for every child due to these factors which are getting more common in the modern world.
The future of childhood, the functionalist, New Right and the Conventional say that clearly the lives of children have improved and that the western society have become child-cantered. Although they see a negative view on two types of inequalities, being those among children such as some children suffer material deprivation or experience relative poverty or homelessness. Boys also tend to have more freedom than girls and Asian girls have much less freedom than white girls. Secondly there is inequality between children and adults, such as the controls over children’s time and space, where they play and who they are with. They use of discipline, what they ware and what they eat.
Childhood which is now greatly different to how it used to, is now said to be dying out, according to Neil Postman (1994) he claims children are growing up too quickly and loosing their innocence. He says evidence for this is, underage sex, drinking, smoking, teenage pregnancies, children wearing older clothes and watching adult television, films and playing violent computer games. Although these point are valid they can be argued that if the correct parental supervision that they will stay children longer.
In conclusion we can see just how much the society has changed when it comes to childhood, from the pre-industrial time been when childhood were none existent, where they were forced to work resulting in them suffering a hard life, and been a unit of production, how we know childhood today. The child-centred society, children are now greatly cared for and are valued. The laws which have been put into place to ensured children have a good quality of life, although we know of the exceptions, such as bullying, child abuse and divorce which effect children greatly.
Although it is argued that childhood is dying, the progressive development in childhood has overall been a positive outcome.
