Summary: The Culture Of Childhood

Words: 1298
Pages: 6

The culture of childhood has been altered; one responsibility of an adult has, ironically, been taken over by another group of human beings: children. Adults exaggerate their role in children's lives; they may be of less importance than they perceive. There is no question that adults play a vital role in the lives of children. They feed them, clothe them, shelter them, and comfort them; they give them an example of what being an adult looks like. However, regardless of this, Peter Gray Ph.D indicates that adults "don’t raise, socialize, or educate them" (para. 2). Instead of looking up to adults as role models, children turn to their peers, or other children, to set an example for them. With that being said, evidence stated by the author indicates …show more content…
For some, their main goal is to fit in with their friends; they want to do what they do and they want to know what they know. "Through most of human history, that’s how children became educated, and that’s still largely how children become educated today, despite our misguided attempts to stop it and turn the educating job over to adults" (para. 3). Anthropologists have observed two cultures: children culture and adult culture. In comparison to adults' culture, children's culture is based more on practicing what to do or how to act. Anthropologists noticed that children in traditional societies, or those who go to school and participate in other activities, spend the most time around other children instead of adults. The author states that the phrase: "it takes a village to raise a child" actually means that it takes a village because in a village there are always enough kids that can learn from one another. Therefore, instead of being designed to grow up in the surroundings of adult culture, children are biologically made to grow up in a culture of childhood which is where they try their best to fit …show more content…
Hunter-gatherer adults noticed and understand that children need to grow up in an environment around other children with minimum adult interference. However, this understanding seemed to decline with the rise of adult power, which made them higher their importance in children's lives. This kickstarted the introduction of modern schooling, which involves children all in the same environment, interacting with each other. However, the catch is that they are restricted from interacting without the pretense of adult supervision. August Hermann Francke, the father of modern schools, feels that if children are left alone, or in the absence of adults, they will participate in sinful behavior. Because of this, "parents have become convinced that it is dangerous and irresponsible to allow children to play with other children" (para. 27). According to Gray PhD, this is why we see record levels of anxiety, depression, suicide, and feelings of powerlessness among adolescents and young adults today. In spite of all of this, children have found a way to distance themselves from adult supervision, and that is from the most popular global communication network: the internet. This is one way adults have not completely crushed the culture of childhood. With the internet, children are able to interact with each other via games,