sociology

Asses the view that childhood is not a fixed universal experience
People believe that childhood is a natural phase of life and that we all go through it at some point. It can be seen a biological state because of the physical and metal immaturity of children. However some people may argue with this and say it is not a biological state; they believe it is more of a social construction where it is a social role that is learnt through socialization. Different children experience different types of childhood depending on their background. So there are different reasons why it may be fixed universal experience or not.
Marxists believe that working class children do not experience the same childhood as an upper class child. Working class children may not have enough money to gain benefits like the upper class. Such as the upper class can afford for their children to go to clubs and lessons such as piano lessons. So the working class may not have equal chances when it comes to their childhood because of how much money they have.
Item c agrees that some children may not have the same childhood as others as it says ‘childhood is tremendously varied……… childhood may involve the direct expression of oppression, abuse, exploitation, poor health and poverty’ this explains what the Marxist believe that childhood can be a different experience to different types of children based on their social background and those who experience social poverty are disadvantaged to those who don’t.
Your ethnic background can also decide what type of childhood you may have. Such as the Chinese children have an advantaged as their parents force them into known situations based on education. Chinese children may spend hours tutoring for their school or learning to play the piano compared to black Africans who spend most of their time working for low paid money.
Pilcher (1995) agrees that childhood is as social construction and believe that depending on your ethnic background can decide what type of childhood you may have. He identifies wide cultural variations in the role of children. Such as Samoan children are expected to take part in physical and dangerous work while in Tikopia children are not expected to obey adults.
Item A agrees that depending on where you come from in the world can depend on what your child hood will be. As it explains ‘there are many countries in the world today, in which young children are engaged in full time work, often physically and demanding circumstances’ this explain that where ever you come from in the world you will experience different types of childhood and that mainly if you are form another country childhood mainly consists of full time demanding work and not what childhood is like in our own country.
Overall we can see that childhood is not a fixed universal experience. As we can clearly see that everyone child experience a different type of childhood. Form what social background you are from all the way to your ethnic background and what country you are from you will experience a different type of childhood and that not everyone’s is the same.