future of childhood

• according to postman what encouraged the distinct and separate life stage 


  print culture
• how did print culture affect the encourage distinct life stages


  adults had the opportunity to gain knowledge that children couldn't through reading. Mass literacy created a information hierarchy
• what blurs the division between childhood and adulthood?


  television as it does not require specialist skills to access it, making information available to children and adults alike
• Exposure to things such as social media, television and the internet mean children have a greater understanding of certain adult themes and behaviour.
• what does Jenks believe?

  that childhood is changing in the postmodernism world
• what is society becoming a post modern society doing

  the pace of change is speeding up, this means relationships are becoming unstable creating feelings of insecurity. relationships with their child become a source of adults identity and security
• what are adults relationships with their children like in post-modern society

  refuge from constant uncertainty and upheaval of life. adults become more fearful for their children's security and even more preoccupied with protecting them from perceived dangers such as child abuse
• Jenks disagrees with postman and states that childhood continues to be a seperate lifestage
• what does postman argue

  postman states that childhood is disappearing at a 'dazzling speed'
• What does Postman argue?

  that childhood is disappearing at a 'dazzling speed'
• Reasons for the disappearance of childhood

  • trend towards giving children the same rights as adults
  • disappearance of children's traditional unsupervised games
  • similarity of children and adults clothing
  • television culture
• What is the ‘information 'hierarchy'

  the printed word creates a sharp division between adults, who can read, and children, who cannot
• What does Postman state about childhood?

  childhood emerged as a separate status along with mass literary from the 19th centaury onwards
• what does television do to the information hierarchy?

  blurs the clear distinction between childhood and adulthood as it does not require special skills to access the information it feeds
• disappearance of adulthood - counterpart

  adults and children's tastes and styles become indistinguishable
• Opie's argument against Postman

  strong evidence of the continued existence of a separate childrens culture over many years that is based on a lifetime of research into unsupervised games, rhymes and songs
• Another argument against postman

  he over-empathises on a single cause of the disappearance of childhood - television - at the expense of other factors
• What does Jenks note about modern society?

  they were concerned with 'futurity' and childhood was seen as preparation for the individual to become a productive adult
• How was 'futurity' achieved in modern society

  vulnerable, undeveloped children needed to be nurtured, protected and controlled, especially by the 'child-centered' family and by the education system
• What does Jenks state about contemporary society

  childhood is under going change as we move from modernity to postmodernity - the pace of change is much faster and relationships are becoming much more unstable
• What do post-modernists state

  we all have pure relationships meaning we are only friends with people until our needs are met
• What does Jenks argue about adults relationships with their children in post-modern society?

  They argue that adults relationships with children are their last refuge from the constant upheaval of life and adults are now preoccupied with protecting children from perceived dangers
• Postmodernism has made childhood an even more protected life stage
• Arguments against Jenks

  over-generalising and evidence for his arguments have come from small un-representative studies