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.
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
Young children could be hired to do the same jobs as adults for much less pay and could often fit into places adults couldn't. Parish apprentices were the most exploited type of child worker (Dunlop, 1912). These were children, who were either orphans or abandoned by their parents, that were under the care of local parishes. Mill owners bought the children from the parishes for the purpose of labor. The mill owners housed and fed the children in lieu of pay.
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. Hyman argues that the lower classes create a self imposed barrier to learning their values. This is because he believes that they have a low value on education, with a ‘play safe’ culture and also a low level of self belief. This would all impact on the child performance at school as they would not have the attitude needed to progress. If at any point they failed, they would see this as a big mistake and give up and have a lack of motivation.
Stuff is Not Salvation After reading “Stuff is Not Salvation” by Anna Quidlen, It felt as if she wrote my thoughts of society on paper. It made me realize that I’m not the only person who views humans and especially Americans as a materialistic genome. In the essay, she basically explains that the vast majorities of people that have a strong and durable financial income often lose sight and focus on what’s really important in life. For example, parents these days rather take their kids to the mall or buy them new educational toys that help them learn instead of actually taking the time to instill common sense knowledge. For those of us who didn’t grow up in the most sturdy and high incomes, seem to care a lot more for things that they acquired by working hard for their own money.
Since they let their responsibility go, the house replaced the parents which made the children feel that the house is their parents. Also, with the amount of technology they have, they rely on technology too much which became other human contact. With that being said, technology doing everything for you is not great but to an extent it is fine. In the short story, “The Veldt”, the house takes responsibility for the family and the children feel that the house is their parents. The children rely on their technology that is available for them instead of their parents.
Twenge says, “There’s this idea that, ‘Yeah, I don’t want to work, but I’m still going to get all the stuff I want” (Peck 303). Some young adults have not even left their home before. They enjoy staying at home and not realizing that they should go out to find jobs. The main reason why young adults do not want to work is that their parents still guide them like children. Today, millions young adults are facing real problems: lack of job opportunities, housing, and trying to survive in a fast, globalized world.
Education and consumerism blindly targets you and is easily mistaken for happiness and satisfaction. Children have become fair game for advertising agencies, which undermine adults to create a $40 billion dollar a year industry according to this documentary. Kids are getting older younger and are taught that brands make us
Feminists suggest that socialization within the household can cause inequality in the future as they are treated differently as children, for example; girls are given dolls and play kitchens whereas boys are given trucks and play power tools, etc. Ann Oakley is a feminist who criticises this view of Willmott and Young. She said that within this figure of ‘72%’ that some men only did very little, only having to do as little as one job a week. Ann Oakley suggests the idea that women are more likely to do more tasks and spend more time on household chores than men, thus creating the idea that
The parents were the ones who sent them out for work. Why they had to do that was because they needed money. Even a few cents or few dollars was good enough to support the family. (Commission report pg23) This was what Angela wrote in her book that ‘children were at a particular stage in the family cycle where they were young and there were no breadwinners in the family to boost the family income’ (Angela V. John, pg118). However, after the report came out, the government took charge of being the agency for the children as it introduced compulsory education and set a minimum working age for the children.