Problematic Assumptions About Children

Problematic Assumptions about Children

There have been many assumptions made about children and childhood by older generations throughout the years. The stereotypes I am covering in this paper could theoretically be proven to be true when applied to certain cases. However, we need to be careful when relating these labels to all children because they can prove to be problematic in their development and the development of the nation.

One of the nation's assumptions of children is that they are naive. Because they are of a young age they must lack common sense that is assumed they have not fully developed yet. Adults believe that they are responsible for teaching the children everything because they think there is no way that they will figure it out on their own. The nation assumes children lack competence, it is often thought that their perspective would be a reflection of what their parents think and that they are not capable of independent thought. If we expect that children have something worth saying, it would surprise people how advanced their views can be without the influence of anyone. The problem with the nation assuming children's incompetence is that a child's intelligence is highly underestimated and their thoughts and ideas are not taken seriously because they are young and do not know better or their opinions have been influenced.

Because of this we are missing out on hearing a perfectly legitimate point of view.

Another misleading notion about children that has been made by society and the nation is that a child is easily corrupted. They will absorb the information and then transform into an undesirable final product as a violent adult or be inclined to commit awful acts. The fear that children will be influenced by aggressive stories, movies

and games causes parents to limit the children's choices and contain them in an attempt to keep hold of their innocence. The issues that have arisen from this assumption is

that children are sheltered and kept away from bad influences and realities which will

not prepare them for the future when reality is unavoidable. Sheltering the child will

only lead them to having misconceptions of what the nation is actually about. Instead of pretending bad things do not happen they should be acknowledging the troubles in the world and teaching ways of overcoming them. Sheltering children will most likely make things harder for them when they grow to be adults.

A third assumption is that children are vulnerable and should be protected from decision-making and all of the evils of the world. For example, it would be a heavy responsibility to put on a child if their parents were to separate and they were told to make the decisions about their living arrangements and therefore they are not always given the choice. Withdrawn from the watchful eyes of an adult, children would be able to take on more responsibility for themselves. This is problematic because the sensitivity shown to children cuts them off from making their own choices. Most of the time the serious choices are made for kids to avoid them getting hurt or making the wrong decisions. Adults subdue children's voices and they deny or inhibit children's right to be taken seriously and to participate meaningfully in important