EDFN

I think that this class was very helpful for my future in many ways. First of all I think that learning about the history of all the different topics we disscussed has made me more aware of what society has been through to get the where they are today and that ideas about the topics have changed many times over the years. Also I found that the video's we watched in class protrayed how it really is in society and that there still are things that need to be changed even today with all the new technology and young adults not moving out of their parents homes as early as they used to. In this class I really like our dissussions because I find that I learn best when I can personaly relate to the material that is being taught, so talking about it with my friends helped me find that personal connection and helped me understand the concepts being taught. Also it is nice to hear other peoples perspectives about the topic, because everyone has a different background and everyone looks at things differently.

Child Soldiers

We watched this video in class and I found it very interesting. I think his story is a sad one to hear, but it needs to be heard because we need to raise awareness about issues in the world like this one that people are not doing much about. I think that child labour is one thing, but making a child kill another human being... that is crossing the line for me. I think that this should be put to an end as fast as possible. I think that war and people killing others is wrong already but bringing kids into it just makes everything that much worse.

Chapter 8 - Heywood

Children at work

Overview

    - Thing of history - think of child labour

    - Children in a wider world

              - Healthcare

              - Working

    - Common opinion that childhood was bad, but not as bad as we think

    - Not as bad or widespread as we think

    - Reformed movements

              - Have to bring in law to take children out of workplace

              - Bring them into school

    - By the 20th century western society was really using schools

Pre-urbanization

    - Most children lived in the country with family

    - Casual undemanding work on the family farm

              - In the home

              - On the farm

              - In workshop

    - Children under 10 are just there for liability because they are not doing anything - started working between ages of 10-14

    - Slavery is absurd

Industrial Context

     - Peak of child exploitation for child labour

     - Major health problem

     - Moral decline

     - Exposed to harsh language

     - Rowdiness and horseplay


Coming from a farm, and still living on the farm today I find that I can really relate to the casual work on the farm and in the household. I started working on the farm when I was nine years old and have been working on it ever since. I only work at home everyother weekend now that I am going to college and working another job, but I still enjoy working at home because my mom and dad and brother work here full time when I work here it makes me feel closer to the family. I do think that child labour is wrong and should not be practiced anymore, I think that me working on the farm was more to give me some responsibility not that they actually needed me to work the farm.

Chapter 7 - Heywood

Relations with Parents and the Peer Group

Breeching

   - Traditionally boys would wear gowns

   - Growing up was going to wear trousers

   - Stop Sleeping in the same bed as siblings or servants

   - Have to start making a contribution to family

   - Get married

   - Canon law - church law

          - Males can get married at the age of 14 and females at the age of 12

Peer Group & Gangs

    - Decrease of influence of family

           - Peer group replaces this

    - Gets a good girlfriend

    - Gets into hockey

    - Always have to have a win win situation

Gender Differences

    - Girls - mocking the boys

    - Family keeps girls much closer to home then they do with boys

    - Taught values of modesty and chastity and making oneself useful

Chapter 6 -Heywood

Beginning a child’s education

1) From the Mother

      - Religious Character -From middle ages

              - How to make the sign of the cross

              - Prayers

              - Pictures of religious to show children

              - Older kids, religious dolls

              - Moral

                    - Every aspect should be a learning opportunity

              - Boiling vegetables - Ideal opportunity to instruct child of what happens to sinners

              - Cooking eggs - time by how long it takes to cite a common prayer   

     - Reading and writing was also taught, was mostly seen by educated elite by four or five, they were learning casual reading

2) Middle and Upper Class

       - Social skills are important

       - Good Manners

            - Was a sign of superior breeding

            - Behave Like ladies and gentlemen

       - Erasmus - 1530's

            - Do not wipe nose on sleeves

            - Have confidence

            - Do not swear

            - Do not stand with mouth open

Chapter 5 - Heywood

Chapter five discusses caring for infants. There are three main themes that emerge.

The first theme is wet nursing.

In this theme the mothers practice giving their child to another mother that has also recently had a child and this mother breasts feeds the child so that the biological mother can keep her figure. This started being practiced in the 14th century in the middle and upper class and by the 18th and 19th century it was practiced a lot. Now it is no longer practiced because people are opposed to it because people that practice it have a lower infant mortality rate.

The second theme is the scientific approach

This theme occurred in the 19th and 20th century and what happened was that medical professionals were dismissing female knowledge.

The third theme is Michel Foucault and he did some research in genealogy, which is tracing family history.

Coming from a dairy farm I know how important the first three feedings are, if a child does not get these feeds from their own mother or a mother that has a baby at almost the exact same time, the baby is going to miss out on the essential colostrum that the mother produces the first three days after childbirth. Therefore I am against the idea of having another mother take care of someone’s baby. The fact that the mothers do it just to keep their figure almost makes me a little angry. It is not just the mother’s life that is being affected there is now a baby that has to be taken care of. I know that when I have kids I will do what is best for them, even if I do not like it or it ruins my figure.

Chapter 4 - Heywood

Overview

      - Phases of Childhood

Desire to have Children

      - Was a noble thing to do but serving god was higher

      - Women took steps to enhance fertility

Childbirth

      - Difficult time for the mother

      - Most moms get baby blue or can develop postpartum depression (PPD)

              - Midwife comes to help her through her emotional problem or female family member can also help

Professional Tensions

     - Who is most appropriate to help the mothers, family, midwife, or medical professionals

     - Feminist Perspective, medical profession is an example of men trying to take everything over

     - Michelle Foucault was a historian we started to question the power medical professionals, because they pretty much had the choice of life or death

I think that having a midwife is a good thing as long as they do not get in the way of the family. I think that if they are just going to cause problems between people in the family that it is not a good idea, but if the whole family is happy with having a midwife it is a good idea. In Holland when my mom had children there was a nurse that came home with her for a week to help her with the baby and to make sure that the baby was healthy and everything went well. I think that this is also a good idea, because I think that new moms worry a lot about their babies are doing or not doing, and the nurse is there for reassurance. 

Chapter 3 - Heywood

Overview

    - there are not going to be a huge number of people that think that children are either perfect or evil, people usually think that they are somewhere in the middle. This is the case in most historical periods

Some Themes

    - Depravity/Innocence

           - Children were looked at as angels

    - Nature/ Nurture

           - Heredity or environment

     - Age/Sex

           - Childhood is an age but is different between boys and girls

                  - Boys were first children differentiated by sex

           - Androgyny

                  - This is a person that exhibits traits of both sexes

     - Independence/Dependence

           - Help out enough so they can continue on their own

Finding the Turning Point

In the text they are trying to find the turning point of when childhood actually started to exist. There are five main points that we looked at

1) The quest for a Turning Point

         - Aries believed that we had no conception of childhood

         - Postman wrote a book called the end of childhood

                - In this book he writes that childhood is disappearing again, he believes that the written word is what creates childhood and literacy is the birth of childhood. He goes on to say that television is the end of childhood because he believes that if you can watch television you can be an adult.

2) The Industrial Revolution and Machine Age

        - Before the Industrial Revolution most people lived in rural setting, but then land became more profitable if people could produce cotton and wool on it. People then had to move to cities to work in the factories

        - Then Marxian Alienation happened which is that people that are working in factories did not know what was being produced with their work, and people were searching for lost lives

3) The Romantic Conception of the Child

        - This happened in the late 18th early 19th century

        - It was a reaction against industrialization, they thought it was not right for children to be working in the factories, and they believed that children represented: innocence, grace, glory, heaven, and flowers in a garden.

4) Resistance

        - This was the concept that everyone was born with the burden of an original sin

5) So...

        - According to Heywood there is no single defined turning point for when childhood was developed.

I think that childhood as always existed, just back then it was a different kind of childhood. I think this because children have the natural instinct to play and even the way that things were back in the day does not change that. I children have that natural instinct it is going to happen regardless of the condition the child is living in. 

Hyper Parenting

This is a preview of the video that we watched in class I found that it really opened my eyes to a lot of things that are actually going on.

The children these day are getting everything they want and the parents are being overprotective. I found that the little girls first birthday was ridiculous, who remembers their first birthday I know I do not. Also I know for my first birthday it was just my family and mom made a cake and I got a doll, none of this crazy Cinderella and amazing cake birthday party. If I was this little girl and I saw these pictures later on in life I would have asked my mom why so would put so much into my first birthday, I do not even remember it. Also in the full version of the video they talk about teenagers and their moms always texting them asking where they are, what they are doing, and when they will be home. It seems like the teens are not living their own lives anymore and taking their own risks and making their own mistakes. I find that my mom is a hyper parent in this why and I am now 19 years old and she still tells me what I can and cannot do. I find this a little much because I know that when I am on my own I will not know how to fight my own fights and solve my own problems. I think that people that are being hyper parented have just as much stress as those that do not because those that do not have to find a way to pay for everything and figure everything out themselves, but kids that are being hyper parented have to live up to an expectation and once they are on their own they will not know what to do so they will keep turning back to mom and dad which is not always the best because one day they are not going to be there for you. I know that for me personally I would like to move out so that I have the freedom and independence but also I am scared because I will not have my parent’s right there all the time. I think that parents should be caring about a child’s life and be there when they need them but if they want to do something that the parents disagrees with let them. I think that teens need to figure stuff out for themselves, like many people say you have to see it to believe it, or you have to live it before you know the consequences.

Heywood Introduction

Colin Heywood is the author of the textbook that we are using for this class. it is called A History of Childhood.
1) Overview of the book - compairing then to now
      - Western context Europe & the states
      - Things have gotten easier& more Difficult over time
      - No more work, better health, acknowledged that childhood does exist
      - Have more to do, sport, school, after school programs
2) Childhood as a social construct
      - Childhood did not exist back in the day is the point of view he takes in the book
      - Childhood emerges as an object of inquiry, when it did not before
3) Children in their social context
      - Relations with siblings, friends, families
               - Intamite social relations
4) Work, Health & Education
       - Look at childhood so it occurs in the premodern world ( pre 20th century)

Child Labour

Guarcello, Lyan and Rosati wrote a paper on child labour. The aim of the study was to describe the relationship between education and childhood. They also talk about education for all and a program called UNESCO which is a organization that is trying to make it so that all the children in the world will have equal access to school. They then talked about the relationship between Labour and school access/success they say that where work is more values school is less valued and vice versa. They then finish with talking about the availability to quality school will determine whether the child will work or go to school.

Chocolate the bitter truth. part 1 of 5

Here is a video on child trafficking, I only posted the first clip the other four are on youtube and they are very interesting to watch and if you like this one then watch the other ones they are just as good. This video really made the think about the fact that this is still going on in the world and there are still so many people on earth that are not living the life that they deserve to be living. There are children that have a right to an education but instead they are working the hours and have the responsibility of an adult. I know that children here complain about having to do a little house work, but the children there that are working full day do not complain at all. They have a very hard life and have to just learn to deal with it, while here we have children that when one thing goes wrong they got ten people that will make it better. I am not saying that the children here should not be treated that way I am just saying that there is still a big difference between the two lifestyles.

Children and Advertising

There are many things that children learn from advertisements; one of these things is their gender roles. Boys are taught to play with action figures and Lego, while girls play with dolls and Barbie. If a child does not want to play with their genders toys many people may think that there is something wrong with that child. Toys are also in agent in socialization, it teaches children how to perform their gender from a very young age. There are six points that we discussed in class about children and advertizing they are:
1) Postwar Period - was in the 50's, 60's, and 70's there was a reaction between advertizing, children and a broader consumer society
2) Advertising helps create childhood - when people have money they should spend it so people can have jobs and provide for their family. Children are the best resource of this because they have money to burn. They keep the supply and demand going. Advertisements help children become consumers and helps create childhood because it is not a naturally occurring thing. Also it is historical specific and culturally unique.
3) Child world - immersed in advertising, the rise of technology changed childhood, before children did not see very many advertisements in the things they did now they are surrounded by it when they are watching TV.
4) Childs mind - Children do not think that same as adults, they think about playing and they have hardly any problems in the world.
5) Gender - for different genders there are different toys as I have already mentioned.
Girls - Barbie is a cultural expectation for girls. I very much disagree with Barbie because girls think that they need to be just like Barbie, meaning thin, beautiful, social able, rich, heterosexual, and likes to shop. We all know that not everyone is the same and that no girl can be exactly like this. Therefore many girls have self-esteem issues and some cases it leads to depression
Boys - action figure are what boys are expected to play with, they create an expectation of muscular, and fighting for boys.
6) Implications - all these things imply call for regulation and I think that children need to be educated of what is out there and that they are not expected to be like the toys that they play with.

"Challenges in the History of Childhood"

Peter Stern looks at the social history of everyday people, but he finds it perticularly challenging to study the history of childhood there are three main reasons for this difficulty they are:
1) accessing childrens voices
2) missing topics
3) learning from the past
Accessing Childrens voices is hard because everything made for children is made by adults, even when adults are thinking about their past it is still from your adult perspective. Also children are able to communicate but they are always communicating with adult so it would still be an adults interpretation of what that child is saying. Stern goes on to say that it is easier to hear the adolescent voice becuase they actually know how to communicate and they are older so they are at an age that they want their voice to be heard.
Missing Topics: Stern says that people can only imagine how life looks for children because you can only talk about your own perspective and look at your own perspective. He says that friendships and siblings are untouched in the history of childhood and the children that is does have history on is mainly from the working class and that the history favors a European background.

I find that it is important to study the history of children just because people learn from the past and it is easy for history to repeat itself and in many cases we have improved from history therefore we would not want history to repeat. Things like child labour are things that we would not want to repeat.

Shyness

This was the blog post that I did for Edcuational Psychology on the same film. I feel that the ideas i discussed then, apply in this class also.

We watched another video in class today. It was about shyness. The narrator of the film had the students fill out a survey. From the survey they found out which students were most popular. They also found out the least popular ones. There were three; these were considered the shy kids. They were researched on and had to go to a therapist. The therapist figured that the one boy was not shy but was just happier doing things on his own, he liked the quiet. The other boy had a disorder therefore it was not his fault that he was the way he was. The little was considered to have shyness. She always walked with her head down, would not speak in front of the class, and never said anything at all unless she really had to. The researcher consulted her mother, and talked to the girl to try and find out what the reason may be. They concluded that the reason the little girl was shy was because her mother was always pushing her to be perfect and never told her when she was doing something right, only told her about all the things she was doing wrong. They told the mother that they believe this was the problem and she changed the way she treated her daughter. Also the teachers encouraged her, and by the end of the movie the little girl stands up and speaks in front of the class. I related to this video because I was a shy girl myself. Coming from Holland and not knowing how to communicate with my peers was hard. They did not try talking to me either.  I was different and that was that. I was the misfit. I went to school in a small town I had about 20 kids in my class. And the same 20 kids from kindergarten to grade eight.  Then I went to school in red deer and I was excited because maybe I could make friends there. No one knew me there and I would be able to speak the same language as them. Once I got there though I realized I might want to make new friends but I had no social skills, therefore once again I felt alone.  During high school is when I started to develop my social skill. Now I think I am good to go.  This is why I believe it is a good thing that the people in the video took action and did something about the problem the child was having right away. It was a life changing thing for the little girl.

My summer

There is a story that I would like to tell to start off this blog.
This summer I volunteered one week of my summer to be a camp counsellor at camp Alexo. It was literally one of the best experiences of my life. the kids at camp Alexo are amazing and they all have a great future ahead of them. Some of the kids at camp come from foster homes or are in a lot of trouble in their lives, these kids are brought to camp to get a break from their busy and stressful lives. Many of the kids that come to camp as foster kids have loved the experience so much because they are free from their everyday drama. Also many of them come back for years to follow and go on to becoming C.I.T.'s (counsellors in training) and then go one to be counsellors. I find that a summer camp is a very important thing for kids to go to when they are young because it teaches them to interact with other kids their age outside of the school setting. Also the week that I volunteered at the camp I broke up with my long term boyfriend the day before. I had it in my head that I was not going to go to camp anymore because I would just give the kids a bad experience at camp. My sister talked to me and made me realize that I made the commitment and that it would help me keep my mind of what had happened. The kids at camp never knew what had happened and my sister was right they were all so happy and enthusiastic to be at camp and they all looked up to me. This kind of attitude from a group of kids made me realize that is does not matter what I am going through back at home right now I am here with these kids to make them have a fun week and that is what I did. I got many thank you, crying hugs, and a job offer at the end of the week and when I got home I did not even think about what had happened to me before the week because it did not matter anymore because I had just had an awesome week with all these kids.