Cultural deprivation means when children are deprived from things what they need. This can include the lack of values and support they get from their parents, which can influence on socialisation skills. It can be argued that due to lack of family structure, social cultural and soft skills pupils are less likely to underachieve. Cultural deprivation is a theory that many working-class children are inadequately socialised and therefore lack the ‘right’ culture appropriate for a successful education. Many people argue that development is vital in the younger years in the child’s life, and the ability to solve problems and apply ideas help in the long-term.
However, this innocence means that children are seen as vulnerable and in need of protection from dangers of the adult world. Children’s lives, as a result of this, are lived largely in the confinement of the family and education, where adults provide for them. Similarly, unlike adults, children mainly lead lives of leisure and play and cannot partake in paid work. Cultural differences have an impact on people’s views of childhood. Ruth Benedict argued that children from Less Economically Developed Countries and non-industrial societies are treated differently from modern, Western children: they take responsibility from a younger age.
Sociologists say that childhood socially constructed (which means that it is created and defined by society). They say that the position children have in society is not permanently fixed, it changes over time. This is obvious by looking at how childhood is seen in other cultures and the past. It is accepted in our society now that childhood should be a special time of life, children are seen as being different from adults so should be treated differently because they are physically and psychologically immature and are not able to be dependent. So they are seen to need a lengthy period of time where they are nurtured and socialised before they are seen as responsible adults in society.
As Jane Pilcher (1995) believes the most important feature of the modern idea of childhood is separateness. Childhood is seen as a clear and a distinct life stage, and children in our society occupy a separate status from adults taking in the account of how much time they would spend with the family, children in today’s modern society are more isolated from their parents and do not bond enough with them. This separateness is emphasised in many different ways, for example, there are laws which regulate what children can and can’t do for example laws restricting child labour, no smoking also law says that children have to
More couples are choosing either to not get married, get divorced or even homosexual couples are raising children and are considered to be a family. The trend is now more non-traditional than what would have been the norm fifty years ago. This essay will attempt to look at how the changes in family structure impact our children and the different family structures that now do exist and their consequences to mankind. The most important issue at hand is how this is all affecting our children. The children are the ones that will carry on our society and it is our jobs to teach them morals and values.
Do you agree that the 1870 education act was a significant step forward for educational opportunities for girls? Although many see the 1870 Education act as a massive step towards women becoming equal to men, it was not. They gained access to education but not the same as boys and also only mostly domestic subjects. Even though education was made more accessible through new school boards, there were still hefty fees which people of only a middle or upper class could afford. Source 16 supports the statement by saying ‘In 1870, the Government made elementary education up to the age of 13 compulsory for all children.’ This shows that by opening education to all children aged 13 and below, they had approached the problem of uneducated children especially boys from falling into lower classes.
In addition to this, another state policy was the Factory Act which saw the removal of young children from work, strict hours placed upon adolescents and compulsory education put into place. This effected society by presenting and supporting the idea of separateness and children’s need of education. Furthermore, Phillips, a new Right theorist, argues that children are vulnerable and in need of protection. They are too immature to make decisions about their lives, particularly as they have become increasingly important over the past 50 years. Increases in eating disorders and suicide show this.
IS CHILDHOOD ‘SOCIALLY CONSTRUCTED’? Most sociologists argue that the idea of childhood is not something natural and given How we treat children – how we expect them to look, behave and develop – is decided by the kind of society you live in. This is what ‘socially constructed’ means. • Different societies have treated children very differently • Different historical periods have varied a lot in the way children are regarded and treated. HOW WE ‘CONSTRUCT’ CHILDHOOD TODAY (western societies).
Special education was not always seen as an option and children with disabilities often suffered the fate of being forgotten members of society. Throughout history, children with different abilities gained rights to a fair education and treatment in society. Physical disabilities were wrongly viewed as limiting a person’s mental abilities. Laws were passed securing proper treatment and education for students with special needs. The Civil Rights movement is remembered most for racial equality, however, this era also sparked the accelerated progress for people with special needs as well.
Also, because the teachers have middle class values as well, the cultural deprivation theorists believe that they will have a bias against the working class kids and therefore they will not be able to teach them properly since their values and cultures conflict. Compensatory education is a policy that was designed to deal with the problem of cultural deprivation, by providing extra resources to schools and communities in deprived areas. Compensatory education programmes were introduced to intervene early in the socialisation process to compensate children for deprivation they experience at home. The most comprehensive programme was Head Start. It involved health care, social services, and education.