The Progression of Childhood

OVER

100 years

I D S 3 0 2

J I R Y I S S H A H E E N

G R A P H I C N O V E L / 2 0 1 0

TICTOCK

TICTOCK

TICTOCK

I!m here to help YOU.

See, the thing is, history is , well, HUGE. And the best way to understand it is through kids.

So let me take you back in time, and then I!ll bring you back. We can chill, and check out the difference of

lifestyles children had from the late 1800!s to

modern day.

LETS GO 1800’S

I!ll show you children's work life, play life, family life, and school life. I hope you!re ready, cause traveling through

time is intense

I!m Eric

Oh, Hi.

I!m a pretty big deal.

I!m kinda like a spirit, but like, of

Time.

ANYWAY!

ZZWWAAPPZZWWAAPP The Development of the

Industrial United States

(1870-1900)

Work

Family School

Formal schooling was largely restricted to those who could afford to pay. So Suzie over here can!t go to school. Even if she did, she would be placed with children of different ages, placing her at a disadvantage*1

Families were often self-reliant, growing their own food, making their own clothing. Up until the rise of the machine. They lived a very busy lifestyle, Family life was uniform, Adults viewed children as little adults, placing high standards and pressure on children.*2

Once the century turned, machines

and factories began to employ children

into dangerous jobs. *5

Marbles, dice, Jacob!s ladder, tops, jump rope. These are the games these children played.

Poor kids, I don!t know how they lived without Halo.*1

WHOAI totally forgot how

different this time period was from modern day.

....ANYWAY................................

Play

children were supposed to go to school until the age of 16; however, most kids never finished the 8th grade. "They went to work in factories, farms and coal mines to help their families.*16

American public education suffered from the fact that more than twothirds of the nation's schools were rural, one-room schoolhouses

Schoolhouse teachers who usually had little formal education themselves

faced the daunting task of instructing students who

ranged in age from five to twenty years old.*1

TicTOC

TICTOC

The early 20th century

a time of uncertainty,

but kids had it better.

WORK PLAY

Well, looks like we!re here. Boy oh boy , what change in atmosphere. Vaguely transitioning from 1900 to 1950#s. This was the period of the world"wars. A time of"uncertainty"and"insecurity. A time when when traditional values were being questioned.*6, 15

Good news though, child labor laws came

into existence. Hurray! Now kids

could do chores, or go to school!! *18

1938, that Congress passed the Fair Labor Standard Act. It set the

minimum age at 14 for employment outside of school hours in non-manufacturing jobs, at 16 for

employment during school hours, and 18 for hazardous occupations.

*18

Technology and Pop Culture exploded beyond the scope of

anything anyone else had ever seen, making it possible for everyone in the country to listen to the same

show on the radio or watch the same stars in film. The toys, and games,

reflected the boom. *19

This left children more time to play with

new toys based on current culture. *19

FAMILY

SCHOOL

One or both parents left the home looking for work. With money being tight, and parents working to make

ends meet, children began to become not only physically

independent, buy psychologically deserted. *19

schools went through hard times in the 1930s. The value of farm land plummeted, and that meant that property taxes that supported schools fell as well. During the Great Depression, some school districts couldn't pay their teachers. *18

Family structure and lifestyle changed drastically during this

period. Since so much constantly changed (the depression, the

wars, the culture) family structure was difficult to maintain.

However, families still found time to enjoy life. Playing games, and

passing time with neighbors

During the worst part of the early 20th century, school life for children was bleak. Not enough money was available to offer a strong education

The idea of traditional families begins to get fragmented for children. Divorce is on the rise, birthrates decline towards the 80!s, single parent households and stay at home dads come about. Unwed parents, gay parents and remarried parents complicate thefamily structure. Thesecomplexities impacted childhood life.*17

The late 20th century

an age of anxiety, searching

for meaning and unity *6Family Life

The classroomdramatically progressed in reconstruction from the 1950!s to the 1990!s. It shifted from being teacher-centered, using fragmented curriculum students working in isolation, and memorizing facts, to more alternativetechniques, in a real-life, relevant , project-based atmosphere. *21,*11

School Life

Here we go, now things are

picking up. 1950!s to 1990!s.

PLAY

Fold Laundry

Toysaway

Children's play life began to take on electronic form. The play atmosphere began to

shift from physical to mental. Children were now exposed

to a new world of gaming and fantasy. *3, *5

Mowgrass

vacuumwash

dishes

Work

By this time children!s worklife had been strictly

domesticated. Children would not be able

to work until 15 years of age. Therefore allowance was a good way to acquire money

to spend on luxuries. *12

$$ $

SCHOOL LIFE

The early 21st century

a culture of mixed mindsets,

a world of media. *6

Best time to be a kid. Get 50

bucks to mow a lawn. Get an

Ipod for X-mas. Have hundreds of friends by just

clicking a few buttons. The

90!s were neat, but this is the

life.

Students are digital learners – they literally

take in the world via the filter of computing

devices:! the cellular phones, handheld gaming

devices, PDAs, and laptops home.

Schools in the 21st century are laced with a

project-based curriculum for life aimed at

engaging students in addressing real-world

problems, issues important to humanity, and

questions that matter.

Here is the curriculum:

- Media Literacy Skills

- The Global Classroom

- Green Education *11, *4

FAMILY LIFE

American Society has witnessed an evolution in family structure. Single parenthood, adoptive households, step-parenting, stay-at-home fathers, grandparents raising children, homosexual parents, teen mothers, and blended families make up the majority of American structure. Families are having fewer children than ever, but children are often staying home longer. There has been an incline in divorces and a decline in marriages. *17

Yet, with all the dramatic positives and luxuries, it looks like kids are beginning to feel the negatives of reality. Pressures of new environments, expectations, and responsibilities. Families are leaving kids feeling alone and vulnerable.

PLAY LIFE

Play life is now completely entangled with entertainment. Pop culture/ media pushed the toy industry and they both make loads of money on kids buying Twilight Scene It dvd games. The fantasy mindset of gaming in the 90!s carried through and evolved into a virtual life mindset. Now kids can live two lives, one real, the other digital.*4

WORK LIFE

Even though there are laws regulating under age work, technology has made it possible to make a buck. Kids are able to obtain online data entry jobs, start blogs, make money on youtube, and much more. The internet sets up securities for such things, but with the changing times, children find ways around them. *4, 18

Kids have transcended into a position of control. It is what they buy, what they watch, and what they like/ dislike, that effects the economy.

But can kids handle this type of role? Has the course of history and society placed children in a position of social suicide? Less human contact. Emphasis on self gratification. Options beyond their wildest dreams.

Looking back on the progression of childhood over the past 100 years, we

see dramatic changes in the topics of work life, school life, play life, and

family life. Our interdisciplinary understanding of these topics has allowed

us to take away both positives and negatives of each period of time.

However, one thing is for certain. Children are continually progressing in

their effect on culture, as well as being effected by culture. *17,18,19

Well, it was good while it lasted. I!m

Eric. And now I!m off to observe, and take on the spirit form of

time.

POUND IT. laterz

REFERENCESREFERENCE

11) Kellner, Douglas; New Media and New Literacies: Reconstructing Education for the New Millennium12) Grant, Jodi, Director of the After School Alliance; Fourteen Million Kids, Unsupervised13) McLeod, Scott, Dangerously Irrelevant14) Time, Learning and Afterschool Task Force, A New Day for Learning15) Belasco, James A., Teaching the Elephant to Dance, 199116) "Labor Days" Centenarians. ed. Bernard Edelman. New York: Farrar, 1999.17) Douglas, Ann. The Feminization of American Culture. 1976. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1998.18) Strickland, Charles. (1984). The Rise and fall of modern American childhood: Reflections on the history of

childhood in the twentieth century. Atlanta, GA: Emory University, Department of History.19) Suransky, Valerie. (1982). The erosion of childhood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.20) Calhoun, Arthur W. (1945) A social history of the american family: The colonial period (Vol. 1). New York:

Barnes and Noble.21) Popenoe, David. 1988. Disturbing the Nest: Family Change and Decline in Modern Societies. New York: A. de

Gruter.

1)MacLeod, Anne Scott. American Childhood: Essays on Children's Literature of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1994.

http://www.enotes.com/american-history-literature/childhood

2) Sealander, Judith. The Failed Century of the Child: Governing America's Young in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University, 2003.

http://chnm.gmu.edu/cyh/case-studies/122

3) Strickland, Charles. (1984). The Rise and fall of modern American childhood: Reflections on the history of childhood in the twentieth century. Atlanta, GA: Emory University, Department of History. http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/mitc/vandergr/201%20Web%20site/History%20of%20Childhood.htm

4) Tapscott, Don (2008). Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World. McGraw-Hill. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_Z

5) class lectures

6) Humanities

7) FFFFound.com

8) http://www.dccomics.com/sites/essential30/

9) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller_%28comics%29

10) http://bookshelf.diamondcomics.com/graphicnovelnotebook/?p= 58