Variations in the Image of the Child at the Turn of the Millennium

Abstract

The setting of educational goals within scientific paradigms and practical pedagogical trends is powerfully influenced by the concept of the child held by a given historical era and culture. Defining the aim of education is a function not only of the human ideal as the goal to be achieved but also of the image of the child that represents the initial state. At the abstract level, mental representations of the child formed by a specific era and culture emerge; while these do not necessarily constitute an unified system, certain tendencies and dominant images are clearly distinguishable. The focus of our study is to identify the characteristic features of the child-image embodied in the pages of primarily Anglo-American parenting manuals (advice literature) published from the second half of the twentieth century onwards. In our analysis, we proceed from the liberal educational perspective of Western European and American societies and review several seminal publications that predict the radical transformation, or indeed the disappearance of childhood. The analysis primarily scrutinizes the emblematic works of Marie Winn, Neil Postman, and David Elkind, but also devotes attention to the so-called “Kinderculture” movement emerging at the turn of the millennium. The objective of the latter is the scholarly examination of the image of the child – radically influenced by powerful Western media empires – and the resulting dysfunctional parenting, as well as the search for a solution to this troubling situation. Finally, our presentation addresses the importance of taking conscious steps to counter the educational deficits and pedagogical dysfunctions arising from hollowed-out and distorted images of the child.