THE CHILDREN'S CULTURE READER

SEAN P. CORCORAN
HIS 300 – INTRODUCTION TO HISTORICAL METHOD
SEPTEMBER 13, 2004

TYPEPAD POST #2

QUESTION:

Of the readings in Childhood in America (Part II) and in The Children’s Culture Reader (Part I), which three interested you the most? Of your interests, which one do you think might furnish the basis for your research paper? Why? What would you have to do or find to carry out the research for your paper?

I really enjoyed the readings in The Children’s Culture Reader, especially the following chapters in Part I:

· Chapter 6 of The Children’s Culture Reader, Seducing the Innocent: Childhood and Television in Postwar America (written by Lynn Spigel)

· Chapter 8 of The Children’s Culture Reader, The New Childhood: Home Alone As a Way of Life (written by Joe L. Kinchloe)

· Chapter 9 of The Children’s Culture Reader, Child Abuse and the Unconscious in America Popular Culture (written by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Howard F. Stein)

In The Children’s Culture Reader, Part I, each chapter deals with a different social issue such as child abuse, child labor, racism and social influences. Each of the chapters I have highlighted above has provided me with a better understanding of some of the current childhood issues affecting our society today. I plan on writing my research paper on how the childhood of “military brats” (military dependents) has been affected by the plight of the military family living abroad, both in the past and present. I plan on trying to cover such information as family life, personal relationships and friendships, adapting to different cultures, education (both formal education and personal education), assistance by peer groups (both civilian and military support groups) and re-adjustment upon returning stateside. These chapters have provided me with a lot of useful insight into how a child can be affected by the society that they live in, which will be very helpful to me in searching for the right information to support my research paper.

In reading Chapter 6 of The Children’s Culture Reader, Seducing the Innocent: Childhood and Television in Postwar America (written by Lynn Spigel), I found it very interesting that the rapid integration of different forms of mass media into our culture (over the past sixty years) is a major reason for the seduction of our children’s innocence. In looking at the past, “It was the adult’s responsibility to generate moral values in the young by guarding the gates of knowledge. By doling out adult secrets only at the proper stages in child development, parents could ensure that children would carry the torch or progress for future generations (114).” The advancements made in mass media over the past sixty years have broken down the barriers that once protected our children from world.

In the past, our parents (as children living in the late 1940’s and 1950’s) did not have access to the world as we do today. During their childhoods, the television (and twenty-four hour programming) was just beginning to introduce itself into a majority of American households. At the time, the television was seen as an entertainment device (comedy and drama), not as a source of up-to-the minute news, or as an information tool. Newspapers and magazines concentrated on obtaining subscribers by providing the right amount of news and entertainment. Instead of highlighting the wrongs and rights of our society (and of the world) as they do today, the newspaper and magazine were seen as a source of nationalistic propaganda as we struggled with the Cold War.

Today, children have complete access to all of the raw aspects in our society. They can explore the Internet at will with hardly any safeguards to protect them from harmful content. Gambling, pornography, and fanatical websites allow our children to experience the “naked” world and its vices before they are able to comprehend them. Chat rooms allow our children to talk with strangers, which allows our children to become victims of abuse and crime because they are unaware of the harm that could come to them. They are influenced by cable television, as news channels strive to bring people closer to the action and as television shows (as well as movies) try to portray the real world. I am all for “freedom of the press” but I think our society has gone a bit far. Death, destruction, sex, violent crimes and offensive dialogues are just a few of the issues our children have to deal with in regards to what is portrayed and shown on television shows and in the movies.

No matter what form it comes in, “…mass media has been seen as a threatening force that circulates forbidden secrets to children, and that does so in so ways that parents and even the state cannot fully control (114).” The question is – Where do we draw the line? Somewhere in the process of change, we have forgotten that our children are influenced by the society that they live in. We have forgotten that by allowing the world into their homes, we are pushing our children to grow-up faster and for them to cope with experiences that in the past they would have been protected from experiencing until they were old enough to fully comprehend the situation in its entirety.

In reading Chapter 8 of The Children’s Culture Reader, The New Childhood: Home Alone As a Way of Life (written by Joe L. Kinchloe), I was very interested in how parents today are not involved in their children’s lives enough to see what is taking place around them. In my opinion, this statement provides an excellent point of view of the relationship between parents and their children today – “Americans don’t understand their children or the dynamics of children’s culture. Kids understand that adults just don’t get it, as they listen and watch adults express and act on their misunderstandings of the differences between generational experiences and mind-sets (163).” Parents just don’t get. They are blind to the influences that surround their children the moment they walk out the door. Parents see a world they used to live in that was full of respect, honesty, and trust. What they don’t see is a changed society that can damage their children’s growth and force them to experience the world before they can truly comprehend and define what is taking place.

Stated perfectly - “Children now know what only adults used to know: postmodern children are sexually knowledgeable and often sexually experienced; they understand and many have experimented with drugs and alcohol; and new studies show they often experience the same pressures (as adults)…, as they strive to manage the stresses of school, work at home, and interpersonal family dynamics (171).” The key word in this statement is “experience”. Being left home alone provides a perfect environment for children to experiment and experience all aspects of the culture that surrounds them. With little or no parental supervision, children grow up quickly and experience things at a much younger age. Left to fend for themselves for eight to ten hours a day, while their parents are at work, who can blame them for experiencing whatever may cross their path. And who can blame them when their parents (sometimes unknowingly) provide them the means to do so by giving them cars, cell phones, large allowances, credit cards, and their very own homes to do as they please with while they are not around.

In today’s society, parents are not involved in their children’s lives enough to see what is taking place. They realize that there is a very delicate boundary between their devotion to their work and to their family, but can’t (and in some cases won’t) do anything about it. Our parents are stuck between the need to work in order to provide their family with the means to exist comfortably or spending more time with their children in order to provide them with the necessary guidance and support that they need to cope with a constantly changing (and very influential) society. In the end, it’s the children that pay the price with the increased cost to survive in today’s world. Innocence is lost, as experience is gained - but is it worth it?

In reading Chapter 9 of The Children’s Culture Reader, Child Abuse and the Unconscious in America Popular Culture (written by Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Howard F. Stein), I was very interested that child abuse is seen as a result of the change our society has been witnessing over the past decade rather than a recent social issue that needs to be addressed to protect our children from harm. As seen in this statement, “…the anxiety about child abuse is, in part, the displaced expression of anxiety about the many changes our society has undergone with respect to sex roles, sexuality, and family life. There is a growing tendency to question the wisdom of these changes and to attribute social problems to them. There is a fear that we, as a nation, have moved to far and too fast in refashioning the family, and that the ‘epidemics’ of child abuse and incest are the unfortunate, but somewhat predictable, consequences (182)”, we often ignore the consequences that change may bring. We forget to look at the big picture and what the effect of change will be on all parts of our society.

For example, child abuse has only recently (and only in particular countries and cultures) come to be seen as a major social problem and a main cause of many people's suffering and personal problems (in their adulthood). Throughout history, there is evidence that children have been abused, but what we must remember is that child abuse as we see it today (by creating legal definitions and by creating government agencies to protect our children from harm and to conduct research studies on the effects child abuse) is a product of change – or how our society has evolved and changed through time. For the first time in history, we are beginning to face the true prevalence and significance of child abuse and the effects it has on our society.

What I found the most interesting about this section though, is how we define child abuse. In today’s society, we use the term loosely and most of the time, we do not protect our children from harm unless the abuse is violent or criminal (such as molestation or physical abuse). As the text states, “…there is a moral subtlety or ambiguity, and a wish for decisive action, a simple definition of the problem, and clean solutions (186)”. We solve the problem by sweeping it under the rug. By being quick and decisive in our actions, we do nothing to find a solution to the problem expect punish the offender and console the victim. But what about other forms of child abuse, such as neglect and emotional abuse that can sometimes remain undetected to society - Are they not equally important to take action against? In combating neglect and emotional abuse, it seems that we struggle to see the symptoms until it’s too late to help the child, but the result is the same. A child is scarred for life. Their innocence is lost and their lives will be changed forever.

As discussed above, we can clearly see from the readings from The Children’s Culture Reader, that children today are the result of the society they live in. Children are shaped by what surrounds them on a daily basis. They are influenced and affected by what they see, what they hear, and by what they experience. Today, our children have a free ticket to experience the world as fast as they can without worrying about the harm it may cause them or that they might not fully understand what is taking place. There lies the problem, without much of a solution. This is what interests me the most about childhood.

In looking at the last fifty years when our military presence and our diplomatic relationships in the world have intensified and has become more important, military families (as well as missionary, diplomatic, and business families) have been serving and living abroad in great numbers. Most move from country to country, from base to base, every few years, and many live abroad for over ten years without returning stateside. What interests me is the affect this has on the military dependents (children) as they move from place to place throughout their childhood. As a former State Department “brat” who traveled the world and lived overseas (in eleven different countries over eighteen years) through out my childhood, I plan on writing my research paper on how the childhood of “military brats” (military dependents) has been affected by the plight of the military family living abroad, both in the past and present.

To answer the question - “What would you have to do or find to carry out the research for your paper?” - I plan on trying to cover such information as:

· Family life – How the military family is affect by living abroad. The relationships between parents and their children. Military parenting. Childhood experiences – seeing the world.
· Personal relationships and friendships – Building childhood friendships and relationships. The affects of moving from country to country every couple of years and leaving friends behind. Starting over and fitting in. New people, new places. Changing one’s identity. Long distance friendships. Long-term affects.
· Adapting to different cultures – A new way of life – either more restrictive or more lenient attitudes (each country is different). Different cultures bring different challenges – such as language barriers, cultural differences, religious beliefs, and social structures. Adapting to new surroundings.
· Education (both formal education and personal education) – Different school systems brings different learning styles and expectations. More or less opportunity. Advantages and disadvantages. Language and cultural education. “Street” knowledge such as survival, interaction, and adjustment.
· Assistance by peer groups (both civilian and military support groups) – Support groups from the different military and government departments. Adjustment assistance to new surroundings upon arrival by peers. Child Services. Websites to cope with change. Discussion groups and field trips. Activities and social gatherings.
· Re-adjustment upon returning stateside - Different cultures bring different challenges – returning to the United States is not always easy. American fashion. American culture. American education. Public transportation and accessibility. Starting over and fitting in. New people, new places.
· Adulthood – Where are you now? Traveler or Homebody? Pros and Cons of experiences. Affects on life.

Comments

[god]

hello?!
we,children today r livin a much better life than u children of yesteryears.
We are just going through a change which was brought onto us by your own generation.
Changes happen. At least we, "so-called-kidz"are mature enough to accept changes.
So, wake up! And accept reality for how it is.