Will Society Succeed at Cancelling Childhood?

Before the invention of the mechanical clock, in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, people used sundials and water clocks to tell time. So, telling time has always been an important way to organize our lives, and we can assume that organizing our lives by dividing the day up somehow was an essential human preoccupation. In "The Disappearance of Childhood," Neil Postman writes that the invention of the printing press was the most impactful innovation since the invention of the mechanical clock. He even implies that making books readily accessible created the need for the invention of childhood. "The aim of this chapter is to show how the press created a new symbolic world that required, in its turn, a new conception of adulthood. The new adulthood, by definition, excluded children. And as children were expelled from the adult world it became necessary to find another world for them to inhabit. That other world came to be known as childhood." (Chapter 2, page 20). Before this time, Postman says, society had no conception of childhood. Children so often did not survive until adulthood, for one thing, and by the age of 7 or as soon as they had learned to speak, they were treated as adults. Of course, none of us were living at that time, so we only have their understanding of this to rely on. I am not sure that all of society really believed that children were no different than adults as soon as they could speak, but it makes perfect sense that everyone expected more of children in those days than they do now. I do not make a critique of this notion one way or the other. I just like to wonder about it. I haven't done the research, but, obviously, before the invention of books, we do understand that people relied more on the oral tradition. I can't really say more about that, I just find it fascinating, and I am on a Neil Postman trip right now. I read "Amusing Ourselves to Death" many years ago, and it changed my view of the entire world. Now I see the world of communication and media completely differently than I did before I read that book. He felt that visual technology, especially television, made all of communication more about entertainment than the exchange of serious ideas, and I couldn't agree with him more. Now, about the role of books in creating childhood I find fascinating as well, but I don't actually believe that it is eliminating childhood. He makes a lot of very convincing arguments for that notion, and I agree with most of them, but I still believe in childhood. I believe in childhood because I work with children all day long, five days a week during nine months out of the year (well, more like ten, really). I agree that clothing has become basically the same for children and adults. I first noticed that when they started making the low-cut jeans, the kind that shows people's rear ends whenever they bend over. Tattoos and crazy hair have become an event for all ages. All the colors of the rainbow we see on children now, as young as kindergarten. The youngest I was allowed to put color on my hair was in the eighth grade when my mother bleached her hair for a part in a play. I gave myself a streak in my bangs, which was pretty radical for that time. Today, they like to draw all over their arms and put stickers on that create temporary tattoos. I hope I don't see real tattoos on young children. I might have to agree with Postman then, that people are making childhood disappear. There are indications that culture is trying to cancel childhood, but I don't believe they will be able to make it disappear completely. However, I guess I will have to confess that this is only a matter of faith for me at the moment. And that is what I wanted to talk about tonight. This issue of childhood going away is not brand new. "The Hurried Child" (1981) by David Elkind addresses it as well. "The Disappearance of Childhood" was published in 1982. So, I am not sure if this subject is no longer in vogue, and what it means if this is the case. I will have to look into that. Meanwhile, I am going to call it a day. Just wanted to share this thought with you. Goodnight, friends.