SociologyExchange.co.uk Shared Resource

AIM: TO UNDERSTAND THAT CHILDHOOD IS A SOCIAL

CONSTRUCTION

Key Question:

Using historical evidence/examples, explain the idea that “childhood is

socially constructed”

TASK:In your pair fill in the table, using findings from your ½ term homework to decide what childhood was like for the three different age groups you interviewed

Childhood experiences:

60+Grandparents

30+Parents

5-20Siblings or

friends

What can you conclude about the experiences of childhood from these pictures?

•Childhood is a SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION- created and defined by society, rather than simply a biological state

•Ideas about childhood vary between different cultures, societies and different historical periods

Historical differences in childhood

Sociologist Phillippe Aries (1962) argued that childhood is a relatively ‘recent’ invention......

PRE INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY

Pre- industrial society

• Childhood as we know it did not exist

• Children were ‘little adults’ who took part in the same work and play activities as adults.

• Toys and games specifically for children did not exist.

• Children seen as an economic asset, rather than something to be cared for

• Children were punished for crimes in the same way that adults were (In Tudor times a 7 year old could be hung for stealing)

Industrial family

Industrialisation

• Children from W/C families still worked in mines, factories etc

BUT!!!

• M/C attitudes started to change- parents investing emotionally in children as the death rate of children was starting to fall

Mid 19th Century:

• Adult started to become concerned with children who were begging on the streets and child prostitution.

• children were banned from working in the factories and mines where many had been killed.

• BUT some W/C parents resisted changes as they depended on children wages and many children continued to be badly treated

20th Century:

• Emergence of child- centred society- ‘children are valued, loved and protected!’

• As a result of improved standards of living= major decline in infant mortality rates

• Increased availability of contraception meant couples could choose to have fewer children= invest more time in them in terms of love, socialisation and protection

Give examples of how society has allowed children to become valued, loved and

protected?

Child centred society

Special food/drink for kids

Have their own toys, TV programmes, play areas made especially for them!!

Have their own doctors, teachers

etc, to care for them

Children are provided with an education

Changes in the position of children

“ how did the position of children change from being the invisible

mini adults to being the centre of our society?”

Read page 76 in blue book or page 31 in orange book to answer the

question

Watch this video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fI40wizRNc4

Task

• Read the following statements and decide which period of time it fits into....

• Write on your whiteboard

• PI= pre industrial

• IS= industrial society

• TS- today’s society

What period of time am I?

• Children and adults both work

• Children’s toys and games do not exist

• Lots of laws to protect children

• Childhood seen as separate from adulthood

• Many middle class children stop working

• increased contraception

• Aries argued that children were regarded as an economic asset

What period am I?

• High infant mortality rate• Child centred society• No laws to stop children being over-

worked• Adults start to become concerned about

child prostitution • children work in mines, factories etc• Infant mortality rate starting to fall• Children are like small adults, taking part

in the same work and play activities

Homework:

Remember...your exam will consist of 3 short questions worth 12 marks, followed by two 24 mark essay questions

a) Explain what is meant by the term child centred society (2 marks)

b) Suggest 2 reasons why childhood can be argued to be a social construction (4 marks)

c) Identify three changes linked to industrialisation that have led to changes in the position of children (6 marks)