Nothing makes you feel older than being surrounded by those younger than you. Thus being in my final school year suddenly almost everyone else is younger than me, causing me to feel ancient. I am almost an adult, and I constantly find myself observing children, not as an equal, but as a curious bystander. And if I have learnt anything from this, it is that childhood is not what it once was.
To me and many others, our childhood were years were even the most impossible of dreams were very possible realities. Remember when childhood meant going out and rolling about in the mud? Remember when childhood meant everyday was a new adventure. One day we were sailing the seas with swashbuckling pirates, the next exploring new worlds and then battling ferocious dragons with noble knights. We never wanted it to end, growing up was the last thing on our little minds.
But today childhood seems to have taken on a new meaning and children seem to be in an anxious rush to grow up. The moment I truly realized this was when I overheard a little girl no more than eleven years old groan ‘Eww Lion King is for kids! It’s so lame, how could you watch it?’ Coincidentally just the other day I had been watching the very same movie, bawling as a young Simba tried desperately to wake a dead Mufasa up, and singing along to hakuna matata. I found myself wondering why did this little girl deem herself too old for Lion king? What made her think that she wasn’t a little kid herself? At the young age of eleven did she actually think of herself as an adult, or adolescent?
The shocking truth is yes. According to a study by Netmums.com, childhood in the modern world ends at the tender age of twelve! But what is the cause behind this drastic decrease in the go...
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...ren? Remember this is an age when one must be carefree and oblivious to life’s obligations. After all there’s enough time all for that when you are older.
The threatened period of childhood is a serious issue, and one can point fingers and names as to the cause. However the damage is irreversible. Today a nine year old main concern would be how thin they are, or if they are macho enough. Increasing numbers of children are turning to drugs and alcohol. Girls would rather twerk and the boys are Googling grinding techniques. We are not raising responsible adults, we are raising hooligans.
For years we envisioned the future generation as our savior. They symbolized hope. The future generation was going to remedy all our errors and lead the world to greater heights. But as it turns out, the future generation has more ‘pressing concerns’ than the future of the world.
In our society, childhood has been experienced by everyone, whether it is through their upbringing, working with children, or being part of a society that values and places emphasis on childhood. Childhood is seen as a natural and inevitable phase that we all must go through before reaching adulthood and it can be defined as ‘children’s ‘natural’ biological incapacities’ (Wyness, 2012 pg. 9).
What defines an excellent childhood? Childhood is the precious time in which children should live free from fear, go to school, and have fun. My childhood memories mostly take place in New York because that is where I grew up and where the journey started. I didn’t move to California not until I was nine years old. I had a fun adventure going from state to state learning about their history and culture. I still remember on how I used to get up for school and how I came back from school. I still remember how I either played in snow if it was winter or ride my bike if it was summer. My favorite part was going to state fairs only because the state fairs had cotton candy. My childhood evolved mostly around my Nintendo 64 and my Polly Pockets (20+ of them). When I had come to California, I was really shy because I really didn’t know anyone here besides just one family. It was really awkward going to a new school and looking at these people you barely know. In a few months after we had arrived in California, my family and my mom’s family had gone to Disneyland together for the first time. This was my second longest car ride after traveling. It was so fun meeting Disney characters like Minnie mouse, Donald duck, Mickey mouse, and Clarabelle Cow. The scariest part of the trip was the Haunted House.
...’s play is, childhood is an endangered and fleeting phase of life for everyone around here.” –Christian Ezora
What is childhood? To some its the upbringing and quality of life given to the child within the first several years of the child's life. In its simplest form, childhood is classified as the age span which ranges from birth to adolescence. During those years of childhood, most children go through various different physical and cognitive changes. According to the famous cognitive developmental theorist Jean Piaget, in psychology, childhood consists of four separate stages of development. Those stages are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational stages. The sensorimotor stage extends from both to when the child first starts to grasp the concept of language. In the pre-operational stage is when the child starts
Life for Millennials is not as easy as it has been said to be. According to Taylor Tepper, an editor of Money Magazine, when the Great Recession peaked in 2010, the large mass of Millennials graduating college were more vulnerable being that the unemployment rate among young adults peaked at 14% (Tepper). A Pew Research Center survey came to the conclusion that “Millennials are the first in the modern era to have higher levels of debt, poverty and unemployment, and lower levels of wealth and personal income than their two immediate predecessor generations had at the same time” (Tepper). In addition, David Bass, a Millennial himself and author of “The Millennial Generation Lacks a Strong Work Ethic,” states that the current employment rate for young adults is 55.3%, “the lowest rate since the end of World War Two” (Bass). These numbers do not tell it all, rather “a generation’s greatness is not determined by data; it’s determined by how they react to the challenges that befall them,” challenges that this generation does not fall short of
The term “hurried child syndrome” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “a condition in which parents overschedule their children's lives, push them hard for academic success, and expect them to behave and react as miniature adults.” This fairly new issue was first proposed by child psychologist David Elkind in 2007. Elkind’s book “The Hurried Child” clearly shows his concern for the next generation and what the word “childhood” has become for them. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, “childhood” is defined as “the state or period of being a child.” And “child” is defined as “an unborn or recently born person.” Noticeably, the dictionary definition is completely objective. There is no implication of how childhood is, or what it involves. In the major advanced cultures around the world, childhood has always been mentioned with a positive connotation of innocence and joy. But the hurrying of children seems to be defying this way of thinking.
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
Good morning, listeners, and thanks for reading. Welcome to the Future Forum. I am Millie Shane. An exciting topic for us to discuss today is the challenges for the future. What concerns could our future generations confront?
Everyone’s childhood is sacred to them and something that everyone can recall upon and make them feel
In life there are many people, things, or places that we experience that have influenced our lives so unique and powerful there unlike any other. Some women experience such alteration with the birth of a new baby. While for another person this life alteration may be making partner at a law firm. Though everyone experiences life on a different level one thing is for certain, not everything in life is a good experience. Everything in life is balanced, and with every joy comes some form of heartache. For some people it takes an emotional toll so incoherent that it never fades. After World War I many men experienced the let down affiliated with the war, and discovered there fight for admiration and loyalty led to nothing more than a expulsion of lost values, thus leading to the “lost generation.”
Childhood is such a sweet innocent part of everyday life. Waking up for school in the morning sure seems a whole lot easier than waking up to go work a 12-hour shift. Being a child has all the perks an adult wishes they had once again. Having to wake up at 5 o’clock every morning to go to a job that isn’t very enjoyable can get tedious quick, as to where when children go to school they never anticipate the adventures that await them. When becoming an adult stress levels will tend to sky rocket. So instead of waking up to enjoy some morning cartoons, or even arts and craft at school as children normally would, adults
The generation that I was born into can sometimes be easily misunderstood by those in earlier generations. The individuals in my generation get thrown many different labels such as those that Rosie Evans (n.d.) listed in her article, “Millennials, Generation Y, the Lost Generation, boomerang kids, the Peter Pan generation…” and more. This can impact us as a whole because some will begin to live by the labels, in some cases that can be negative but in others it may be beneficial. Many people in this generation believe that they can’t reach their full potential due to labels and prejudgment, while there are others believe nothing can hold them back. When we get labeled all together that is also what may drive some to try to stand out from the
Childhood and adulthood are two different periods of one’s lifetime but equally important. Childhood is the time in everybody’s life when they are growing up to be an adult. This is when they are being considered babies because of their youthfulness and innocence. Adulthood is the period of time where everybody is considered “grown up,” usually they begin to grow up around the ages of eighteen or twenty-one years old but they do remain to develop during this time. However, in some different backgrounds, not everybody is not fully adults until they become independent with freedom, responsible for their own actions, and able to participate as an adult within society. Although childhood and adulthood are both beneficial to our lives, both periods share some attributes such as independence, responsibility, and innocence that play distinctive roles in our development.
To begin something new, you must sacrifice something old. To enter the real world, you must graduate from your childhood. Childhood is the delicate phase of every adolescent's life where they must mature into their own person, with their own responsibilities. Although every individual will eventually bloom with their own personality, morals, and perspectives, the education and values we learn and see along the way add to the fingers that mold. We begin when we are born, and are taken in by strangers.
Childhood is the most unforgettable period of my life. Everyone has childhood memories. My childhood memories took place in Eritrea. These memories that are happiest and saddest memories are still in my mind. Sometimes I remember things that have happened in my childhood period and they just make me laugh. Childhood memories can be bad or good, but we can’t forget them. For these reasons, childhood memories are the most important parts of my life. Specifically, also I have some good memories of childhood.