8 - The Scientific Approach to Childhood

Summary

Chapter 8 returns to the conceptualisation of childhood, discussed earlier in chapters 1 and 4. It begins by noting the association of childhood with schooling during the twentieth century, and in particular the influence of the school system's age-grading of classes. As in the past, though, the boundaries of childhood remain elusive, with schools, the legal system and stages of growth providing different answers. The second section emphasises the growing influence of scientists and social scientists on understandings of the nature of the child. It considers the Child Study Movement of the period 1890–1914, and the subsequent emergence of developmental psychology during the twentieth century.This section also assesses the 'death of childhood' thesis, associated with Neil Postman. Finally, the chapter documents the growing significance of childhood during the twentieth century, under the influence of such authorities as Ellen Key, Sigmund Freud and John Bowlby. There is also a survey of the children's rights movement, from its origins in the social legislation of the late nineteenth century to the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.