The Lost Art of Childhood: Hidden Behind Adult Walls

 "Children are not little adults."

(World Health Organization, 2008)

As WHO (2008) contend, until the Renaissance much of art represented children as miniature adults with an adult frame and adult features. WHO makes an argument for the movement away from treating children as 'little adults' and towards seeing children as having distinctly different developmental, learning and play needs. It is also suggested that children also have different ways of experiencing their environments with varying levels of vulnerability to exposure to difficult environments to adults in terms of power, physical stature and capabilities and life span. 

This differentiation can be seen in how children and young people's needs are met in health, education and the media.  However much of media is now aimed at both children and adults. The boundaries are blurred. There seems to be the desire in the production of children's media to also cater to the adults, whether in terms of an added revenue stream or to provide added value. It may be a profitable direction to go but is it in the best interests of the child?

Roher (2008) from the BBC, sees 'Shrek' as a turning point in 2001 where this aim came to the forefront (like other movies such as 'Toy Story' and 'Up'). Also mentioned in the article, as 'not really a children's story at all' is Spike Jonze's adaptation of the children's book 'Where the Wild Things Are'. Jonze was quoted as saying 'The main goal wasn't to make a children's movie. I wanted to make a movie about childhood.' Understandably, media wants to to appeal to a wide audience and such programming as Henson's Muppets and The Big Bang Theory have proven it can be successful. However we must remember who the primary audience is.

For instance 50 Paddington Bear statues, are part of a trail all round London, advertising the recent movie and will be used in fundraising for the NSPCC. There is one outside The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green. How appropriate, to have a Paddington Bear outside the Museum of Childhood. But it's not a bear - its a toggle! Although from the back it looks more like a bowling pin. But when you have a think and you work it out, you think 'Hey that's clever - it's a toggle from a duffel coat - the coat Paddington wears.' Then you think, 'Why the heck is there a toggle outside the Museum of Childhood when there were 49 other Paddingtons which were actually bear-shaped.

The organizers Visit London say of Benjamin Shine's rendition of Paddington that the statue called  'Toggle aims to reflect the innocence and playfulness of childhood.' Much, I would contend, like a toy bear does! 

In the words of Pink Floyd, from Another Brick in the Wall, I say 'leave them kids alone'...and leave the kids stuff alone. We have enough bricks in the wall that are all the same and just end up as barriers to children's development and learning. Let children experience the world, not as 'little adults' but as themselves. Compliance and conformity to adult world views may just as well be a production line of more bricks for more walls. Enough bricks and enough walls.

  
Shea, K. M. (2008) 'Children are Not Little Adults', Children's Health and Environment, WHO Training Package for the Health Sector, World Health Organization

Raised by Wolves - So much for keeping the wolf from the door!

The nature nurture debate continues, but does it matter if you have genes that give you a good start in life when you could end up being raised by wolves?

The fairy tales like Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book or earlier tales like that of Romulus and Remus all had happy endings. They didn't worry about the critical times for language acquisition or other such needs of a child. Real life Mowgli syndrome is an altogether more disturbing story, and one which doesn't even have to include four legged animals. In the case of Genie a ten year old girl brought up in isolation from human social contact, the animals who raised her were humans. There has been no happy ending there.

Of course we think this is an extreme case of horrific abuse and that most children who suffer abuse don't to that extent, that they have some measure of a quality of life. And we reckon it doesn't happen that often anyway.

However....

• 23% of people report being physically abused as children (WHO)

 And what about deprivation?

• 1 billion children in the world are living in poverty ...that is 1 in 2*
• 100 million children are stunted or under weight**
• 640 million children have no adequate shelter*
• 400 million children have no access to safe water*
• 270 million children have no health services*
• 120 million children have no education*

And because of this...

• 3.1 million children die a year because if poor nutrition**
• 1.4 million children die a year from a lack of safe water and sanitation*
• 2.2 million children die a year because they are not immunised*
• 18, 000 children die every day because of poverty (UNICEF)

Sources: *Poverty Facts and Stats by Anup Shah

** World Food Programme Hunger Stats

So much for keeping the wolf from the door!

So how about nearer home? In Tower Hamlets, the East End of London there is a child poverty rate of over 50%. How can this be ? How can a London borough book ended by the illustrious City and the financial district of Canary Wharf have children living in poverty, and so many ?

The government committed to ending child poverty by 2020, however, according to the Guardian (2014), the Institute for Fiscal Studies predicts that by 2020 it will increase by 39%.

So much for keeping the wolf from the door !

So what happens to the children in the world who avoid or survive the abuse and deprivation? Do they grow up to do better than the previous generation or is their behaviour conditioned by the wolves that raised them? Whether children experience the animal-like carnivorous greed for food or the capitalist 'Wolf of Wall Street' greed for money, they will be conditioned by the extended capitalist media family, this wolf in sheep's clothing.

'We best measure a society’s true worth by how it treats its youngest members ‑ the girls and boys who would one day become tomorrow’s parents, citizens and leaders.' 

Anthony Lake, Executive Director of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)

Will our children grow up to be wolves too? Are we committing to an ever spiralling vicious circle and widening gap between the rich and poor? Creating a more unequal society. And more and more children in the world dying from neglect?

When we discuss the nature/nurture debate we do so as if the nurturing is a given. However I would contend that the word 'nurture'  is a contradiction in terms when it comes to children being raised by wolves. And that, considering the way that children are treated by the human animal, at times it would be kinder to throw them to the wolves.

So much for keeping the wolf from the door!