Essay about Children and Childhood

Submitted By Sasha31
Words: 1590
Pages: 7
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Since the Victorian ages many things have changed as well as progressed. Throughout many centuries the attitude and beliefs of what children are expected to do and what children’s experience of childhood is are possibly two different things and these three images are able to tell a story of three different eras.

Image 1 is set in Victorian mills picturing two piercers. From the picture the assumption can be made that the two boys are of the ages 8 to 9. The young boy in the back of the image looks to be the older of the two. Due to this, he looks to be supervising the younger boy; this may be because he’s worked there longer, because he’s been ordered to do so or because he’s looking out for him. Both the boys are dressed like men, this could be because they feel and look more grown up and think that they fit in better. The working conditions as seen from this image looks neither safe nor good for them as the younger boy has a tear in his trousers. In textile mills children were ordered to make sure that the machines were clean whilst they were still running, due to this there were many accidents. Many children lost their fingers and some were killed, crushed by the running machines. They do not have any safety equipment or any guards on the machines and as can be seen the youngest of the boys is not wearing any shoes, there could be many a reasons for this such as not being able to afford any or another reason could be that he finds it easier to work with no shoes or even he is not allowed.

Referring back to the original question of ‘what do they tell us about children’s experience of childhood and adult’s expectations for children’ this image does not show much of a happy and fulfilled childhood. Both children look like they have their own independence and are expected to act like adults, many of the children who would misbehave or do something wrong would be punished in some quite severe ways. In many cases the children were cruelly beaten and the parents did nothing, they cared more about the money than the welfare of their children; according to the Factories Inquiry Commission (1833) ‘the other night a little girl came home cruelly beaten; wished to go before a magistrate, but was advised not to.’ Many children would have to either willingly or unwillingly go to work in such environments as the family would need to the money in order to pay bills and to afford food and possibly some other luxuries. In one report (Factories Inquiry Commission, 1833) it states that children as young as toddlers were expected to work; ‘she was a child too little to put on her ain claithes....’ Barrow (2010) wrote that in 1833, the Factory Act was made into a law and it meant that it was illegal for children under the age of 9 to be employed in textile factories. According to Cunningham(2005) when in the late eighteenth century industrialisation began to shift the location of the textile industries from home to factory, it was natural to look to children as a key component of the workforce.

Image two is of a 1950’s Health Education poster of ‘The Red Cross’. In this poster the children are wearing what was seen as formal clothing in those times. The clothing is also practical, for example, the clothes on both the girl and boy stop before the knee as children would often worn clothes out. Girls stopped wearing dresses and skirts when pedal pushers came out as long dresses or long skirts would make it difficult to play in especially if to ride a bike as the fabric would get caught on the pedals. Pedal pushers were trousers that ended just below the knee. They also have bear arms and legs this could be due to the much needed sun on the skin as from the sun the skin gets vitamin D, if Vitamin D isn’t attained then they are at risk of getting rickets. Even as little as just 20 minutes in the sun can prevent such an illness (NHS Local, 2012). It is obvious that the people in this image are of children, from their youngish faces to
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