HISTORY 300

POST 3: INTEREST PART III

In my readings I have found the following issues to be interesting in the History of Childhood:

1. The lives of young Women in comparison to the lives of boys of the same age.
2. The use of children as laborers in the industrial revolution.
3. The role of parents raising their children: past and present.
4. The roles of nannies in raising children.
5. The world of unruly boys.
6. Children and their favorite toys: the emotional attachments.
7. The Wonderful World of Barbie.
8. Emancipated Children
9. The vocabulary of children: words children use to communicate.
10. Literary works of children.

My time period with be the early part of the 1900s on most of the issues. Others will be a development through out time and will describe the changes taking place for that specific issue. None of the topics above are closely related to my issue of interest for my paper. I have focused my paper on the transitional life of Filipino – American children in the United States.

However, out of the ten issues listed above the one that appears most doable are the numbers:

2. The use of children as laborers in the industrial revolution.
7. The Wonderful World of Barbie
6. Children and their favorite toys: the emotional attachments.

These three topics will mostly have an abundance of resources and information available for research during the time period of the 1900s. I believe that all three are doable within the semester for any student.

The use of children as laborers in the industrial revolution was a great issue that span for about twenty years. Its peak was the industrial era. There were many children used especially by the big men of industry. The great coal mines that supplied heat for this era used children in mines to dig and do miscellaneous jobs that the older, more experienced men are physically unable to do. One of the reasons why children, specifically young boys, were used in coal mines was because of their size and agility. When coals were stuck inside the big machines that process them, their tiny hands and body were able to crawl into the small space and reach in to take out whatever was causing the machine to stop working. Some of these boys replaced their fathers to do a man’s job. The change was common in those days.

The Wonderful World of Barbie goes back about a hundred years. From vintage Barbie to the modern beach Barbie and many variations, there are many resources about this popular doll. Anyone can do a paper on it and still have plenty of time left in the semester. Below is an address of a Barbie website where one can find some information on Barbie and her friends.

http://barbie.everythinggirl.com/

Children, their toys and the emotional attachments that go with it have many Psychological avenues a researcher can take on pursuing this topic. Many children associate their toys with certain sentimental values. Dolls for example suggest femininity and woman hood. Some may or may not agree with this concept but the idea of the doll is popular world wide among little girls. It also draws a boundary between little girls and little boys. Most little boys do not play with dolls. Most little girls do unless prevented or has been exposed with a different perception by the parents.

Overall, the history of childhood is still in development today. There are many different issues of living as a child and they are in need of documenting for the researchers of time. As students researching information on topics of childhood, we are contributing our own experiences and ideas to this collection.

POST 2:INTERESTS PART II

In the book Childhood in America, Part 2 there was a few interesting facts and information that caught my attention. However, for the sake of not being too drawn out in my writing I will choose only those issues of which will be potential to my final paper. The issue of sexuality is an intriguing one to discuss since even in these times it is still taboo to associate children with the act of sex or "sexual ness". Is there such a thing as a young child's sexual life? In Freud's discussion of "The Sexual Life of a Child", Freud speaks of sexual desires of children. However, the subject seems more like an oxymoron than an actual issue to write about. Contrary to the age of a young child, Freud believes that children do have sexual lives, although inactive and can only be acted out on or against their parents. In the case of boys, Freud states that there exists the unavoidable Oedipus complex which idolizes the mother. In the girl's case, Karen Horney points out that due to penis envy little girls are envious of their male counterparts and are turned off by their mother for not providing her with one. In turn the little girl's attention is focused on the father, so as to be closer to thing she does not have. This is very intriguing to me because even when I was younger, sex was not an issue of discussion in my family. It is one issue that most parents even when their children have grown become squeamish when the topic is brought up, unless there are health issues involved, like if a female has problems conceiving. Communication and the passage of information on the issue is one aspect that none of the writers mentioned. The act of sex did not become a conversation piece until I was what my parent's believed to be the appropriate age to hear of such talk. I am sure it still is in many families who value their principles and morals. In fact, I believe most children learn much of their "sexual ness" from their peers outside the family environment, without the watchful eye of their parents. It is not to say that in these modern times that the mother and father of a moral abiding family do not speak to their children. However, the information given to children by their parents is not adequate or lacking of the fundamentals of dealing with their sexual desires. That is to say that even parents in these times need to arm their children with information not only useful to their knowledge but also information that will allow them to make good choices about their sexual partners. Let us face it; children will do what they will in their own environment. This modern idea of communication from parent to child is much more up front from the chaste and godly way of communicating to children back in the mid 1700s (except for Louis XIII). Most moral supporters in those days would probably see this way of communication as vulgar and improper.

Another issue that I came a way with from the reading is on the issue of Karin Calvert's "Children in the House" in "The Children's Culture Reader". This of course was prior to children being commercialized. We can still ponder on whether or not parents are truly taking care of their children without a third party issue blurring the argument. At least, parents at this time cannot say that their children are working due to economic instability of the family. She states that there will always be "loving parents, neglectful parents and abusive parents" (Calvert, 74) but "the concept of childhood has changed dramatically over time" (Calvert, 74). In this she means that material belongings of children constantly change as the fads in raising children change but how the emotional bondage is created with your child will make a lasting impression. Expanding on this thought can we also say that a child no matter what state in their childhood (including a grown child) takes a part of the parent, that is the emotional part, and whether good or bad, apply what they learned to daily living situations. Is it safe to say then that we are constantly learning from our parents and their past? If so, how would you explain a situation where an impoverished mother has done her best at childrearing and passing down what she has learned to her children but in turn, her grown children become a nuisance to society and even worse murderers or thieves? Karin states that the differences and the economical status of a family is largely the cause of this conflict of childrearing. Does the material environment of the child guide the direction of its growth or is the humble teachings of the parents the controlling factor? We can only guess the true answers to these questions for as Karin informs us that there is a lack of information collected on impoverished children.

If I had to choose on a topic at the moment, I would choose the latter issue. However, I think the topic is a little broad for the amount of time we have for a research paper. I would narrow it to a subtopic like children living on farms in the west coast during the Post Revolutionary War period. My research will probably take a lot of enquiry on old farm land documentation of some kind to see how many children lived on the farm, were these children part of the farmer's immediate household or were they children of the farm helpers? Were these children workers of the farm or helpers of the home? These types of questions will be answered accordingly when my topic is chosen.

In short, both readings are an eclectic mix of how the child came to be. To the simple non existent life of a child in the mid seventeen hundreds to the working child of the industrial era to the Home Alone child of postmodern childhood, the concept has developed moderately and in the best interest of children. Although, it has been a tough road for many, the fight for the idea of childhood has developed into what is now a legally and morally protected life for the young. Through the changes of dress for each gender to the changing of furniture due to changing beliefs on how to raise children to what kinds of literature is available for the child and the most important the fight for child protective laws, all are summed up as the past of a growing genre called the development of children.

POST 1: INTERESTS PART I

Through the reading, the two subject areas that caught my attention are:

1.Conflict: Children live adult like lives for most of the day only to come home and live a subordinate role to their parents. Working children experience this kind of transition after coming home from a hard day’s work. I agree with the author when he states that this particular arrangement at any point in a child's life is confusing. A child in this situation may feel superior in one aspect of their lives while feeling inferior in another. This age gap and relations may be the cause of some conflict within the family structure. Barriers may be put in place for the child to protect its familiar environment from the parents. The child might also feel threatened and overwhelmed by the presence of an authority after living a life of an adult outside the home even if it is only for hours at a time. The experiences the child goes through while working outside the home may also influence the way a child behaves once in the home. The child will either rebel against the parents or handle the situation in such a way that the child would handle it in a working environment. This is the difference between a mature child and one who is still growing up.

Parents also may not recognize this type of simultaneous feeling in their child. To parents, a working child learns responsibility. Being able to carry a job while attending other activities such as school and athletic events is also seen a form of development in shaping the child to be and more willful to achieve in their life’s goals. To the rest of the family, the child provides an example to siblings and to the other younger members of the family.

2.Discrimination: The other interesting subject I found in the reading was that much of the historical documentation of American childhood focuses only on the middle-class Anglo-Saxon males. While the young female population, the impoverished working class and racial minorities have minimal or no coverage on their adolescent journeys. Much of this type of segregated history is due to fault on the fact that much of America’s youth came from the favored race of Anglo-Saxon families.

The latter subject will most likely be the basis of my research. I am curious to find out if there are any existing records to be found on other minorities, specifically Filipino American minorities in the early 1900’s. I am interested in knowing how these minorities dealt with the issues of being raised as a child in a time ruled by higher society.

In pursuing this issue, I will need to look at immigration data to find out what kind of children immigrated and why their parents did so. I will also need to consult with an expert on Asian migration in the early 1900’s to find out how minority children lived through the cultural and physical changes of the transition from one country to another.