Summary
Contents
This book has already proved itself as a course adoption leader in Childhood Studies. All of the strengths of the First Edition have been retained. The book is comprehensive and judged with the needs of students in mind. It is a model of clarity and precision and has been acknowledged as such in reviews and course feedback. The new edition thoroughly revises old entries and adds new ones. The book is the most accessible, relevant student introduction to this expanding, interdisciplinary field. It is an indispensable teaching text and an ideal prompt for researchers.
Disappearance or Loss of Childhood
Disappearance or Loss of Childhood
The idea that the differences between children and adults are becoming less pronounced and that this is creating problems for children.
It was Neil Postman (1982) who first suggested that childhood was disappearing, and in his analysis of the changing nature of childhood, he argued that technology was the key culprit. He suggested that it was through the development of printing that literacy was able to flourish, and that the need for schooling, to enable children to become literate, was a key factor in the separation of children from the adult world. Not only did childhood develop as a separate phase of the life-course because children had to go to school to learn to read, since they ...
