A Radical View on The Social Construction of Childhood
The historian Philippe Aries has an extreme view on childhood as a social construction. He argues that in the Middle Ages (the 10th to the 13th century) ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’ – children were not seen as essentially different to adults like they are today.
However, despite broad agreement on the above, what people mean by childhood and the position children occupy is not fixed but differs across times, places and cultures. There is considerable variation in what people in different societies think about the place of children in society, about what children should and shouldn’t be doing at certain ages, about how children should be socialised, and about the age at which they should be regarded as adults.
Knowledge
is a powerful tool in the hands of man.
Knowledge can both help and hurt people,
build and destroy relationships and help determine right from wrong.
Because of its power, children are taught to seek knowledge at a rapid pace,
which could lead to both a revolutionary and destructive future if it continues.
At the wrong time, this knowledge could potentially teach children inappropriate behaviors.
Parents believe that exposing their children to vasts amount of knowledge
at a young age
will aid them in adulthood,
however,
what they don’t know is that this knowledge could at the same time ruin their innocence.
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