Examining Childrens Family Life And Importance

3201 Words13 Pages
Examine children’s experiences of family life and why the family is important to them The following essay will examine children’s experiences of family life. I will show my understanding of when childhood began and elaborate on the Aries thesis to examine views of childhood. The sociology of childhood offers a theoretical perspective that interprets children’s experiences of the family and school. I will identify the reasons why family is important to children, furthermore showing how intuitions and social practices influence and shape childhood. The pinnacle point of this essay will be to explore children’s experiences of family life and show what it is like for different types of families such as lone parents and step families. In addition, this essay will look at the ideas which shape the constructs of childhood in considering what role the family play in shaping a child’s experiences. Before childhood and the family at present can be examined, it is important to recognise when childhood was discovered and began. Before the 1600’s children were seen as miniature adults, and it is only through time and change of society that childhood has been recognised as a separate stage of life and development. The Aries thesis is studied as the discovery of childhood. In 1963 a great book was discovered in France and was translated as the ‘Centuries of Childhood’. Corbett (1985) stated that it was written by a man named Phillip Aries and has revolutionised the study of young people. The Aries thesis was that there were not many ways in which to study how childhood was viewed in the medieval times, as not many people left records and many were illiterate. Instead Aries turned to Art. When looking at the art, he discovered that the art did not represent what we know as children, but little adults with the mannerisms, physiques and expressions of an adult. According to
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