The Positive Impressions Of Childhood In The 19th Century

Children have a reputation for being innocent and naive. This is mainly because their experiences with the world are few and sheltered. As the children grow up they are exposed to more and more of the unfiltered world. Some parents do everything they can to keep their children from seeing that world. That is because as they see more of the world they become less innocent. Normally adults are the only ones who have truly lost their innocence. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, as there are to every rule, and they are not good. Children who have lost their innocence have had horrible things happen. Elie Wiesel writes in the novella Night how he lost his innocence. Elie has suffered a loss of innocence because he is desensitized, he has lost

The various essays comprising Children in Colonial America look at different characteristics of childhood in the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. Children coming to the American colonies came from many different nations and through these essays, authors analyze children from every range of social class, race, and ability in order to present a broad picture of childhood in these times. While each essay deals with an individual topic pertaining to childhood, they all combine to provide a strong argument that children were extremely valued in society, were not tiny adults, and were active participants in society.

There are various discourses of childhood that help us understand how childhood is viewed and how children themselves are seen. It is important to also look outside the system world and look towards the life worlds as it gives a more realistic view of various childhoods and shows how diverse the concept of childhood is because children do not share the same experiences. Regardless if you are looking at the system or life world the notions of rights, opportunities and capabilities are often discussed. These notions aids us in understanding childhood, however they can often obstruct us as well.

The lives of children are greatly influenced by the environment they grow up in, and the people they come in contact with. For years, psychologists, researchers, and social workers have studied children, and why they do what they do. All have developed many different perspectives on how to view social problems and the development of individuals.

In the article, “In a war, children without a childhood,” by Los Angeles Times, the central idea was that children lose their innocence because they lost their childhood. For example, many children lost their childhood because they’ve watched their parents become victims of murder. According to the article, “Children have seen their parents killed and watched as boys and girls just like them were hurt.” Well, when children see their parents get killed, they tend to grow up with brutal, aggressive tendencies, which causes them to lose their innocence. In addition to being orphaned, children will grow up making mature, adult decisions, also causing them to lose their youth. In conclusion, when children lose their childhood, they lose their

The way children grow up and are treated by their parents has changed immensely from the 18 and 1900s. Adult perspective of children has also changed. Children are no longer viewed as property, but an actual human being who has choices. New laws and organizations have outlawed and forbid certain acts against children. In the United States, if one is under the age of 18 years old they are considered a child. There is a vast difference between how children were treated in the 1800s and in today’s society; whether it’s child abuse or child labor, how children are raised has changed for the better.

Different discourses of childhood have different ideas of childhood which has different implications on the way in which children are treated. Within the social constructionist theory there are 3 main discourses - romantic, puritan and tabula rasa. This essay will look

 The world has experienced many changes in past generations, to the present. One of the very most important changes in life had to be the changes of children. Historians have worked a great deal on children’s lives in the past. “While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about.”- Author Unknown

As time goes on the aspects and views of individuals change, which is usually caused by their surroundings. These aspects can generally be displayed in various physical forms and actions . During the duration of the 1500’s to the 1700’s major events lead to many to Europeans alter their religious and cultural views which can clearly be seen through their techniques of childrearing. The techniques displayed the mindset of the individuals as views based on the corrupt church transformed into new ideas of enlightenment.

Childhood studies is a subject area surrounding the study of children’s lives through many different concepts or ideas with many different features. It is related to many different fields such as law, history, sociology, health, anthropology and much more as Martin Woodhead (Open University) said “It uses multiple methods rather than just singular methods” and is “inter-disciplinary” Childhood studies expresses and tries to understand the many different parts of a child’s life and the different issues surrounding childhood, therefore it has many different features.

Since the seventeenth century, children have been given a voice in the family home; by letting them to make their own choices. Reference This has changed the nature of childhood dramatically, which can be seen a positive and negative effect. It has enabled children to be more independent with decision making which prepares children more for adulthood; this is what childhood is ‘supposed’ to do. On the other hand, it can put too much burden on the child, meaning they are being treated more like an adult rather than a child.

These curiosities should have been answer by a parent, Victor Frankenstein. However, Victor never put any effort in guiding the poor and innocent child. Evelyn Yeo in “How Does Emotional Abuse Affect Self- Esteem,” concludes that from the time of infant-hood to childhood, a child’s sense of self is defined by how he was treated and what he was told by his parents and primary caregivers. Infants especially, have no knowledge of who they are as a separate person so they rely heavily on their parents’ feedback. From parents’ trust, affection, and encouragement, the child will eventually grow up with confidence and achieve potential to make him or her parents’ proud. Overtime, self esteem will soon build upon them so they are prepared to be set in the real world (1).

Therefore by arguing that childhood is social constructed, the “new sociology of childhood” enables one to understand young people from a different perspective. Such notions of childhood innocence, vulnerability, helplessness, economic dependence among others are scrutinized with regard to broader structural forces. Thus young people even though by virtue of their biological and psychological make-up may be similar across all cultures, what they are expected to do or how they view themselves differ from place to place, situation to situation. For instance even though the United Nations universalize childhood by defining it as,   “Childhood is the time for children to be in school and at play, to grow strong and confident with the love and encouragement of their family and an extended community of caring adults” (UNICEF 2005).

Children have been losing their childhoods and their innocence since the dawn of modern society and media. Before the dawn of the modern world, children actually had the time to play, daydream, use their imagination, and just be a kid. However, modern society has put this pressure on children to grow up faster and faster that their childhood all bu

Children’s Social Welfare has been an ongoing development since the early 19th century in aa a way of improving the lives of children suffering from multiple disadvantages. Social welfare can be broken down into severe area affecting individuals in society, social welfare can pertain to an individual's physical life health, and even a happiness. That is the simplest breakdown. A social welfare system, is a system that provides to needy individuals in various situation, children are the focus of child social welfare policy. Child welfare can also apply to a family in need of assistance. During the 19th century the first major public wide intervention was implemented focusing national attention on the abuse and neglect of children (Barusch 2006).