END OF CHILDHOOD
End of Childhood
Modernism and the resultant techno-scientific culture have permeated every domain of human life. The paradigm of modernity that drives our existence is blind to toxic side effects of this culture of greed, exhibitionism and superfluous existence.
Childhood, a phase traditionally associated with innocence, leisure and freedom, is increasingly becoming a victim to this culture of capital aggrandizement, greed, over consumption and competition.
In the pre-modern and traditional communities in India, children were and are envisioned as the images of archetypal Krishna and Radha. The community culture of sharing and caring perceived children as innocent gods whose innocence was meant to be celebrated.
Modernity is characterized by the rule of capital and a culture of cut throat competition. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is being played out literary in the socio-economic sphere of the homo sapiens. This trend to earn more and spend more and this centrality of comfort and capital has changed the concept of leisure.
The ‘end of leisure’ is conspicuously phenomenal in childhood. Leisure for urban children often means staying glued to laptops, TV screens, tablets and other modern gadgets. These devices simulate the real world and are poor substitutes for human interaction or human interaction with the natural world. The advocates of ‘technology driven childhood’ and techno-savvy childhood education are often ignorant of the multiple ways in which technology is stifling childhood and the growth of the child. The world of touchpads and touchscreens created around the child often misses the soft human touch. Moreover, the techno-savvy, capital intensive world created for the child is an unnatural world. It is a veneer; a camouflage for something real; something natural. The real is the natural, relation centric, community centric world which has been deeply fractured by the rise of concrete jungles. As the ‘where’ decides the ‘is’, the entropy of metropolitan systems negatively affects the child. Also, growing up in claustrophobic surroundings in the increasing metropolitan sprawl, the children are never ‘free’ and childhood is bereft of any autonomy. The self of the child becomes too individualistic, narcissistic and selfish disconnected as the childhood is from the natural world of symbiosis and co- existence.
The globalization of western values and paradigm of linear progress have standardized childhood. Childhood is constantly subjected to gaze of “performance driven” adults. The children are constantly surveyed, analyzed, scrutinized and judged by the demanding parents. The child becomes a meek robot; married to the transistorized routine set by the demanding parents. In trying to realize the unlimited, human potential of the child the educated, potent parents all over the world unwittingly perceive their children to be superhuman machines. They are expected to perform as machines and every act is a “performance” enacted by the child. Parents all over the world, of all classes and cultures, love their children but in various ways end up misusing their power and monopolizing the lives of their progeny.
Another glaring feature of present, mechanical upbringing of the child is the end of conviviality among children. Children being brought up in urban landscapes increasingly are made aware of their “class positionality”. The boundaries of personal space and social space are again constructed, demarcated, entrenched by the adults without any voice, freedom and choice of the ‘hegemonized child’. It is highly interesting to note that a serious disconnection with the natural world and popular culture of the immediate locale has constricted and restricted a child’s conception of space. Thus, the ‘exotic utopias’ to which children are often taken by the urban parents to make up for the lack of leisure cannot and do not suffice for the lack of imaginative familiarity with the native cultural geography. The gerontocracy of certain traditional societies has been increasingly replaced by the rule of young, debonair, bold and sexy young (or young looking) people. This norm emanating from America has been so much universalized in the modern age that the naivety or innocuous innocence of an adult is often marked as ‘childish.’ Childishness, thus, is to be abhorred. Thus, childhood is conceived of as a stage that has to be grown of by a child and avoided; “silenced” by the adults. Children in this Americanized paradigm are conceived as “mini-adults”. It is really hilarious that how childhood is being standardized in this age of globalized modernity where children in far flung, nondescript towns also play with Ninja, Barbie and Hana Montana toys and dress up like them. Another strange phenomenon, though highly dislocated, being witnessed is the parents lapping up and trying to implement guidelines given and laid down by American (self-styled) experts on childhood in the third world countries. The standardization of childhood and the universalizing of norms of child rearing is a serious problem in the contemporary age. Another problematic with the current conception of childhood is the conception of child as “mini-adults”. The adult subjectivity often bounds the children in a monotonous order imposed on them. The life of children growing up in urban landscape stands imprisoned in the routines, daily charts and time tables. Bereft of a link with the natural world and community, the children of the metropolitan sprawl find their relationship with the world around monopolized by the parents.
The disconnection with the natural world is substituted by a materialistic world involved in pursuit of comfort. The “nature deficit” leads to an increasing class of children wedded to a paradigm of comfort, class, competition and career. In India, we are experiencing an increasing loss of traditional values of adjustment and sacrifice (tyag), reverence for elderly and tradition ( shraddha) , community culture of caring or sharing and loss of rapport with nature (prakriti) resulting in over consumption and rising pollution. It is really strange that the western impetus, on self and self enhancement and western paradigm of progress and success, guides adults and goads children in the globalized local places in India and other third world countries.
The end of childhood is a postmodern phenomenon and it is accompanied by an ‘end of laughter’ in the childhood phase. The laughter of the children in the streets is heard no more; the participation of community in child rearing and upbringing is no more. Parents and teachers are a part of the environment in which children are born and deemed to grow. Therefore, it is a bit unjustified to solely blame parents and teachers for the end of childhood. It is socio-cultural problem and should be tackled accordingly. In the context of globalized Americanization and pandemic anglophilia, the uprooted, urban dwellers need to revisit the text of their lives and make it context- sensitive. The ‘nature deficit syndrome’ that afflicts children in the metropolitan sprawls can be made up by making children more socially, culturally orientated. The standardization of a child’s upbringing should be localized. Childhood is in need of resurrection and it can only be done by reconnecting with the natural cultural world.
Modernism and the resultant techno-scientific culture have permeated every domain of human life. The paradigm of modernity that drives our existence is blind to toxic side effects of this culture of greed, exhibitionism and superfluous existence.
Childhood, a phase traditionally associated with innocence, leisure and freedom, is increasingly becoming a victim to this culture of capital aggrandizement, greed, over consumption and competition.
In the pre-modern and traditional communities in India, children were and are envisioned as the images of archetypal Krishna and Radha. The community culture of sharing and caring perceived children as innocent gods whose innocence was meant to be celebrated.
Modernity is characterized by the rule of capital and a culture of cut throat competition. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is being played out literary in the socio-economic sphere of the homo sapiens. This trend to earn more and spend more and this centrality of comfort and capital has changed the concept of leisure.
The ‘end of leisure’ is conspicuously phenomenal in childhood. Leisure for urban children often means staying glued to laptops, TV screens, tablets and other modern gadgets. These devices simulate the real world and are poor substitutes for human interaction or human interaction with the natural world. The advocates of ‘technology driven childhood’ and techno-savvy childhood education are often ignorant of the multiple ways in which technology is stifling childhood and the growth of the child. The world of touchpads and touchscreens created around the child often misses the soft human touch. Moreover, the techno-savvy, capital intensive world created for the child is an unnatural world. It is a veneer; a camouflage for something real; something natural. The real is the natural, relation centric, community centric world which has been deeply fractured by the rise of concrete jungles. As the ‘where’ decides the ‘is’, the entropy of metropolitan systems negatively affects the child. Also, growing up in claustrophobic surroundings in the increasing metropolitan sprawl, the children are never ‘free’ and childhood is bereft of any autonomy. The self of the child becomes too individualistic, narcissistic and selfish disconnected as the childhood is from the natural world of symbiosis and co- existence.
The globalization of western values and paradigm of linear progress have standardized childhood. Childhood is constantly subjected to gaze of “performance driven” adults. The children are constantly surveyed, analyzed, scrutinized and judged by the demanding parents. The child becomes a meek robot; married to the transistorized routine set by the demanding parents. In trying to realize the unlimited, human potential of the child the educated, potent parents all over the world unwittingly perceive their children to be superhuman machines. They are expected to perform as machines and every act is a “performance” enacted by the child. Parents all over the world, of all classes and cultures, love their children but in various ways end up misusing their power and monopolizing the lives of their progeny.
Another glaring feature of present, mechanical upbringing of the child is the end of conviviality among children. Children being brought up in urban landscapes increasingly are made aware of their “class positionality”. The boundaries of personal space and social space are again constructed, demarcated, entrenched by the adults without any voice, freedom and choice of the ‘hegemonized child’. It is highly interesting to note that a serious disconnection with the natural world and popular culture of the immediate locale has constricted and restricted a child’s conception of space. Thus, the ‘exotic utopias’ to which children are often taken by the urban parents to make up for the lack of leisure cannot and do not suffice for the lack of imaginative familiarity with the native cultural geography. The gerontocracy of certain traditional societies has been increasingly replaced by the rule of young, debonair, bold and sexy young (or young looking) people. This norm emanating from America has been so much universalized in the modern age that the naivety or innocuous innocence of an adult is often marked as ‘childish.’ Childishness, thus, is to be abhorred. Thus, childhood is conceived of as a stage that has to be grown of by a child and avoided; “silenced” by the adults. Children in this Americanized paradigm are conceived as “mini-adults”. It is really hilarious that how childhood is being standardized in this age of globalized modernity where children in far flung, nondescript towns also play with Ninja, Barbie and Hana Montana toys and dress up like them. Another strange phenomenon, though highly dislocated, being witnessed is the parents lapping up and trying to implement guidelines given and laid down by American (self-styled) experts on childhood in the third world countries. The standardization of childhood and the universalizing of norms of child rearing is a serious problem in the contemporary age. Another problematic with the current conception of childhood is the conception of child as “mini-adults”. The adult subjectivity often bounds the children in a monotonous order imposed on them. The life of children growing up in urban landscape stands imprisoned in the routines, daily charts and time tables. Bereft of a link with the natural world and community, the children of the metropolitan sprawl find their relationship with the world around monopolized by the parents.
The disconnection with the natural world is substituted by a materialistic world involved in pursuit of comfort. The “nature deficit” leads to an increasing class of children wedded to a paradigm of comfort, class, competition and career. In India, we are experiencing an increasing loss of traditional values of adjustment and sacrifice (tyag), reverence for elderly and tradition ( shraddha) , community culture of caring or sharing and loss of rapport with nature (prakriti) resulting in over consumption and rising pollution. It is really strange that the western impetus, on self and self enhancement and western paradigm of progress and success, guides adults and goads children in the globalized local places in India and other third world countries.
The end of childhood is a postmodern phenomenon and it is accompanied by an ‘end of laughter’ in the childhood phase. The laughter of the children in the streets is heard no more; the participation of community in child rearing and upbringing is no more. Parents and teachers are a part of the environment in which children are born and deemed to grow. Therefore, it is a bit unjustified to solely blame parents and teachers for the end of childhood. It is socio-cultural problem and should be tackled accordingly. In the context of globalized Americanization and pandemic anglophilia, the uprooted, urban dwellers need to revisit the text of their lives and make it context- sensitive. The ‘nature deficit syndrome’ that afflicts children in the metropolitan sprawls can be made up by making children more socially, culturally orientated. The standardization of a child’s upbringing should be localized. Childhood is in need of resurrection and it can only be done by reconnecting with the natural cultural world.
