Childhood Ideology

The Ideology and Policy of Childhood

This essay will discuss Boyden’s chapter ‘Childhood and the Policy Makers: A Comparative Perspective on the Globalization of Childhood from Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood (1997). The essay will focus on how Boyden describes societal context as shaping the needs and rights of children, it will contemplate how these two terms differ according to Boyden. The essay will then discuss how policy surrounding these needs and rights affects children globally. The essay will end by discussing how Boyden believes these policies can be understood and changed to better affect children both in the North and South.

The ideology of the South continually separates children from adults by a multitude of psychological

In the North the ideology has remained that children must be controlled by adults to follow moral behaviour, this is continually encouraged by the juvenile crime statistics presented to them (Boyden, J, 1997, p.194). Much of this changing perception of childhood coincides with the changing nature of ‘street life’. Especially in Northern Europe the streets became a place to be feared with families increasingly withdrawing from it and into a conception of private life as being within the home (Boyden, J, 1997, p.195). With this the home and school where perceived as the prime agents of socialization for children (Boyden, J, 1997, p.195). Following this development school attendance was deemed compulsory in many areas and with it non- attendance became a criminal offence (Boyden, J, 1997, p.196). This change in the concept of street life led to a change in public perception of street child they became judged as lacking moral and social values and often even understood as being mentally

Often children and young people must provide within families. At first human rights laws attempted to end child labour entirely, however a compromise had to be made when applying this to countries of the South. Instead these countries focused on making labour safer and making hours and wages fairer (Boyden, J, 1997, p.201) The importance of providing certain survival rights like health and with that, an attempt to reduce child mortality remains a focus of aid in the South. Groups like the World Health Organisation, UNICEF and OXFAM etc working together to provide mainly preventative medicine in the form of mass immunisation (Boyden, J, 1997, p.200) In the North the right and need of Education is of utmost importance to the success and well-being of children and young people however this has caused multiple issues when placed into the law of Southern countries. From the 1960’s UNESCO set timetables for achieving universal primary education with numeracy and literacy believed to be vital to both economic development and the general welfare of society by their application in everyday life for example birth spacing (Boyden, J, 1997, p.201). Boyden describes countries in the South where children are placed under immense pressure by the added expense of schooling as the need for books and uniforms increases the money