education

Gender Roles A third important socially constructed concept is our image of gender roles (Kohlberg, 1966) and the ways boys and girls are represented in media, curricula, and instructional materials. This is important because gender identification and roles are acquired during the early childhood years. The fact that each child is unique and complex should […]

Applying Labels to Children Applying Labels to Children Label as the Whole Child Person-First Language Susie is autistic. Susie has autism. Susie is hearing-impaired. Susie has a hearing impairment. Susie is learning-disabled. Susie has a learning disability. Applying Labels to Children Label as the Whole Child Person-First Language Susie is autistic. Susie has autism. Susie

At Risk vs. Promising In American society, the vision of children as the promise of our future is a cherished ideal. But the language used to describe efforts to provide equal opportunities for all children and a solid foundation for success is changing. Closely related to the dialogue about competency vs. dependency was criticism of

Competency vs. Dependency American teachers’ beliefs and curricula were traditionally built around the idea that young children depend on adults to know what is best for them (Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2005). Certainly the younger the child, the more adults need to be directly involved in his or her physical care for the sake of

Children as Property Prisma / SuperStock Until 1938, American children routinely worked in factories, fields, and domestic service. This photo from 1911 shows three young girls who worked as oyster shuckers for the Maggioni Canning Company in Port Royal, South Carolina. Before the late nineteenth century, white American children were largely considered the property of

Childhood and Conflicting Ideas about Innocence By the mid-eighteenth century, philosophers such as John Locke (16321704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121778), and Johann Friedrich Pestalozzi (17461827) had introduced a new, romanticized vision of childhood as a period of natural innocence (Figure 3.1c). Painters and book illustrators of the nineteenth-century Victorian period often depicted children in rural or

Historical Images of Children The way societies view children is often reflected in artwork from the period. As you may notice in these four paintings the small boy (a) is represented as a miniature adult, the group of boys (b) are depicted as ruffians, and the girls are painted from idealized (c) and realistic (d)

Children as Miniature Adults Until the mid-eighteenth-century Enlightenment period, childhood as the distinct period we know today did not exist. Rather, children were considered miniature adults. They wore the same style of clothing as adults (Figure 3.1a) and, like adults, their clothes reflected their social 3or economic class. They were expected to behave and carry

Do you see any evidence of cultural stereotypes or historical prejudices? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things that influence

How do they appear to interact with adults or other children? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things that influence