Discourses about Childhood: Enlightenment's Separation of Children from Adults

This essay discusses regarding how the Enlightenment discourse distinguished children to be a separate species as compared to that of the adults. It also elaborates whether the evidence pertaining to this kind of separation can be found in the spatiality of contemporary childhood institution.

Running head: DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
Discourses about Childhood
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
Introduction
Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that emphasized on reason
along with individualism as compared to that of tradition. The philosophical movement acted
as a departure from the traditional social doctrines and brought about a new kind of thinking
in the society. Discourse from the point of view of the social constructionist is not merely
about language but rather about the cultural practice that is encoded in the language (Francis
et al., 2017). Discourse is indicative of the social practices that exist apart from that of
language. Discourse plays a dominant role in the construction of the individuals and it
consists of meaning and symbols that help in the constructing a view pertaining to the
incidents. The enlightenment started to perceive children in a different light and childhood
was made a unique category with the help of this movement. This essay discusses regarding
how the Enlightenment discourse distinguished children to be a separate species as compared
to that of the adults. It also elaborates whether the evidence pertaining to this kind of
separation can be found in the spatiality of contemporary childhood institution.
Discussion
Questions pertaining to childhood have bothered the historians in the recent years and
there are debates around the fact whether the idea in relation to childhood is a phenomena
that is recent. This kind of view has been put forward by French Author Philippe Aries, the
French historian. Aries has the notion that modern world has seen a transition pertaining to
people’s lives regarding childhood. In the medieval society, the young people who were
around seven years old had to move out of the protection of family into that of the broader
adult society. They had to act as smaller versions of that of the adults who were around them.
In contrast to this in the modern age after the period of enlightenment, seven marked a move
from that of infancy to childhood (Carpenter 2016). It was considered to be a special state

2DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
pertaining to transition and the structure of family revolved around this. The Enlightenment
discourse considers childhood to be an isolated family unit that revolved around needs of the
child. It has been argued by Aries that this is a modern change and schooling helps in
bringing about a phase that is called “ childhood”. According to Aries, the conception in
relation to childhood was non-existent in case of medieval society. He studied the medieval
painting on the basis of which it could be said that in the medieval era the children acted as
the small version pertaining to the adults. The paintings of Jesus show him having ‘grown-
up’ features and his body is shown to be elongated. This helps in bringing forth the idea that
the medieval artist used to view children like that of ‘reduced’ version of the adult. The
clothing pertaining to medieval children was the small version as compared to that of the
adults. The infants used to wear baby clothes that was the same for both the boys and girls
and at about the age of seven these children started wearing the smaller version of that of the
adult outfit (Habermas 2018). The medieval times saw children as having less amount of
emotional loading or importance for their parents. There are children who involve themselves
in the act of killing and they carry out evil acts like shooting and strangling. Murder is an
extreme crime and it is perpetrated both by the adults along with the children in the society.
The teenagers like the adults have their own motives and they indulge themselves in the act
of killing so that they can appease their inner selves.
From that of the seventeenth century or in the age of Enlightenment conception
pertaining to children began to evolve. This was illustrated with the help of art in which the
ordinary children were provided with a different kind of importance and the dead children
were often portrayed. This can be considered to be an important point in relation to history of
the feeling. The change pertaining to sentiment took up two forms: one in which the children
took up central role within that of the family when the parents started to derive pleasure after
watching the antics of children (Beier 2015). The moralists along with the writers of the age

3DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
started to conceive of children as being fragile beings who wanted to be safeguarded. The
Enlightenment was witness to the changing conception of the children. Schooling played an
important role in attributing a separate identity to that of the children. The opportunity of
schooling was initially opened to that of the male children belonging to the aristocracy but
later on in the modern period all the children got this opportunity irrespective of their social
origins (Williams 2017). “Schooling” acted as the quarantine period pertaining to children
between that of infancy and that of the adult life. The gradual extension of these concepts in
Enlightenment provided the basis of a new idea pertaining to childhood.
The Enlightenment was witness to the rising discussion about the social problems
pertaining to children. Children were thought of to be a separate entity and it was suggested
that they can act as a hope in searching for the solutions of the problems of the society. The
Enlightenment saw the embracing the civil rights along with that of sexual liberation
movement. It contributed in viewing childhood as separate species from the adults and laid
great amount of stress on the aspect of childhood. Immaturity in relation to childhood was
held to be a biological fact but this immaturity was given a different light from that of the
seventeenth century (Crane 2015). Society started to conceive of this aspect of immaturity in
a different manner and this aspect of immaturity was made meaningful within culture. The
Enlightenment thus started to view childhood like that of a social institution that was separate
from the adults. A social constructionist view developed pertaining to childhood in which the
children played an active role and they acted as the constructor pertaining to their lives.
Childhood was constructed in a different manner and the societal changes helped in providing
a new identity to the children. Children was conceived of to be an agentic social actor and
they were active in constructing their circumstances instead of being subject to them (Tustin
2018). There were different kinds of opportunities that helped in examining the lives of the
children by taking recourse to social fabric. Childhood was thought of to be socially

4DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
constructed and the lives of the children were understood with the help of research methods
that was on the basis of ethnography. Gidden’s concept in relation to ‘double hermeneutic’
created debate around the meaning of childhood and regarding the materiality of the lives of
the children (Glenn 2016).
Society helps in creating spaces within the institutions that can be read as a sign of
discourse. The spatial boundaries of the society helped in asserting influence on that of the
self-understanding of individuals. The Enlightenment saw the emergence of the playground
area and schools that helped in attributing a separate identity to the children. The
Enlightenment thinkers regarded the new form of knowledge as a means that can help in
liberating the individuals from that of wayward impulse. According to Foucault,
imprisonment evolved as the norm that acted as an illustrative to the contemporary society
(Foucault 2017). Imprisonment helped in improving the criminal by the adoption of
techniques like observation and judgement. The process of schooling can help in curing the
ignorance in relation to the children. The allocation of separate spaces that was attributed to
each individual helped in creating a distinct personality (Ervin-Tripp 2014). The
enlightenment discourse thus helped in forging a new identity for children as distinguished
from the adults. Foucault talks about the discursive positioning in relation to the child subject
and the work of social psychologist Valerie Walkerdine throws light on this aspect.
Walkerdine has said that the regulation of child subject in the early years of schooling can be
said to be sociological in tone (Studdert and Walkerdine 2016). Walkerline has talked about
the discourse in relation to developmental psychology sand the practice of child-centred
teaching point forward to the separate identity attribute to the children. The child was held to
be a developmental learning subject that was conceptualized to be ‘regime of truth’ (Zhao
and Hauver 2017).

5DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
‘Minority group child’ is thought of to be an embodiment of politicized version of that
of the social structural child. Children are thought of to be the right claimers and they have
the same rights like the adults within the society. Children are perceived to be structurally
differentiated within the society and their rights are fulfilled based on paternalistic ideologies.
The child also acts as a universal child who belong to that of exploited minority group within
the discriminating society. They can then be said to be at par with ethnic minority. Children
are perceived to be active beings having a consciousness that is awaiting mobilization. The
child in terms of socially constructed child cannot be said to be a universal child that has a
fixed place within that of the social structure (Chau, Samsudin and Yahaya 2018). The social
construction of childhood points forward to diversity because they have been constituted on
the basis of their social along with the cultural setting. Understanding everyday lives
pertaining to the children will necessitate contextualization relevant to their particular aspect.
The social constructionists disapprove of any kind of essential reality. The reality can be of
multiple kinds and research should be able to reveal ‘taken for granted’ in relation to a
particular childhood that has been constructed on the basis of a particular context. Social
constructivism can be said to be committed to that of radical relativism (Warming and
Fahnøe 2017). Relativism helps in making revelation of ‘naturalness’ pertaining to a
phenomenon possible and it can help in providing reasons as to why social construction
pertaining to childhood can be dominant at a particular point of time.
According to Anthony Giddens, space should be considered in relation to its
involvement with that of system of interaction (Giddens 2014). Space acts like an active
contributor that can help in the construction of social life of the individuals. Space is not an
arena within which the social relations are taking place but space is constantly being created
and recreated. Teather has talked about the body that acts as a vehicle that can help in
traversing space and it responds to the stimuli of the world. Teather has stressed on the aspect

6DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
of space and they have said that space cannot act like a single thread pertaining to
understanding but rather about complex actors. The lives pertaining to the children become
full with rite of the passage when they face the aspect of schooling. Playgroups can be
understood by reference to time. This is the tool that is made use of for communication and
the body and the individual self are always intertwined with each other. The children do not
play within the woods any longer and they have become estranged from that of the wild. The
contact with nature can pave the path for healthy development of the children in the domains
of cognitive, social and the emotional (Hackett, Procter and Kummerfeld 2018). According to
Rousseau, educator has to take care of the fact that any kind of untoward influence does not
disturb the development of the children. The human beings should become closely connected
with nature and the teachers should take the classes out of the doors that can help in bringing
the child close to that of nature. The open air nursery along with outdoor play helped in
creating a separate identity for the children (Finn 2018). There is a relationship between that
of children and that of the natural world and this concept has become entrenched in the
popular imagination along with institutional practices. Children are viewed to be closer to
nature and they are held to be more instinctual as compared to the adults. The photographs of
Ansell Adams has portrayed an appealing construction in relation to pure nature (Jayne and
Valentine 2015). The images of nature in these photographs are devoid of the people and the
calendars has portrayed nature as being pure and distant. They are separated from that of
human presence and they are not affected by that of human activity. With the help of these
images, one can see an evolving of the concept of nature and man. The romantic sublime has
also endowed wilderness with a kind of spiritual status. It is held to be a virginal space and
this resonates with Rousseau’s concept of the uncontaminated child. The indigenous
Australian scholar Marcia Langton has pointed out that on the other hand that land has never
been un-peopled. Langton has pointed out that the same country that the white

7DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
environmentalists referred to as unpeopled possesses a rich cultural history. It is not possible
to separate the relationship between that of indigenous people along with that of the country.
Childhood can be considered to be a social construction and it helps in providing an
interpretive frame that can help in the contextualization of early years pertaining to human
life. Childhood is conceived to be different from that of biological immaturity and it is a
specific cultural component within the societies. Childhood acts as a variable in relation to
social analysis but it cannot be divorced from that of other variables like class and gender.
Cross-cultural analysis has helped in projecting different kinds of childhood as compared to
that of a universal phenomenon. Childhood can hence be perceived to be a discursive space
and the meaning of childhood is constructed by taking recourse to different discourses
pertaining to childhood. I the similar strain, nature along with natural world can be held to be
discursively constructed space.
Conclusion:
Discourse pertaining to Enlightenment used to consider child as being a separate
family unit. This can be said to be a modern change and schooling can help in bringing about
a distinct family unit called “childhood”. Conception pertaining to childhood was not present
within medieval society. The medieval artists used to think of children to be like reduced
version of that of the adults. The Seventeenth century witnessed the evolving of the concepts
related to children. This was evident in the sphere of art where the children were provided
with a different significance and dead children were often portrayed. This helped in creating a
distinct identity of the children that was different from adults. Spatial boundaries within the
society had an impact on the process of self-understanding of the individuals. The playground
area along with schools that evolved in the age of Enlightenment helped in attributing a
different identity for the children. Space can act in the form of active contributor that plays an

8DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
important role in constructing social life pertaining to the individuals. Space is undergoing a
process of constant re-creation and social relations are taking place within it. The practice of
child-centred teaching that came up in the Age of Enlightenment helped in forging separate
identity for children. The Enlightenment saw children being thought of as a developmental
learning subject and he was held to be ‘regime of truth’. The educator has to be careful
regarding the fact that untoward influence does not hamper the process of developing of the
children. It is necessary for the human beings to stay in constant connection with nature and
the teachers taking classes outdoors can help in building a strong relationship between nature
and that of the children. The air nursery along with outdoor play can create distinct identity
pertaining to the children. Cross-cultural analysis has highlighted the different types of
childhood rather than being a universal phenomenon. Childhood can hence be said to be a
discursive space and the construction of the meaning of childhood can be done on the basis of
different discourses in relation to childhood.

9DISCOURSES ABOUT CHILDHOOD
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