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school and schooling Minimum 450 words
Using ideas from chapter 12 of the textbook, discuss the shortcomings of elementary and/or secondary education in the United States. What changes would you recommend in order to improve our education system?

Assignment 1: Does childhood ‘exist’ today?

A person’s childhood plays a crucial part in how and what they grow up to be.
Careers, life goals, ambitions all can be rooted to childhood dreams. However, has the actual course of childhood taken a turn for the better or worse? Are our children still living a childhood?
Granted, the idea of childhood tends to vary from culture to culture, nation to nation, however the fundamental root of children is evolving before us. Here in the US, children do not seem shy in abandoning their ‘veil of purity’ in order to be accepted by or blend in with their elders. The rite of passage to ‘adulthood’ has seemingly been sped and the candy-motivated children seem few and far apart. Technology has played an immense part in the accelerated childhood rate, children now have more tools allowing them to adapt and excel to the ‘adult world’. Handheld gadgets and automated-everythings has turned the youth of the nation into a ‘one-click’, instant and effortless experience.

Sexuality was always something children would stumble upon or come across inadvertently, however, today it seems accepted and almost excepted more than ever before. Clothing for children has become more ‘sexy’ and modeled after adult-styles and fashions, programming is now overall more PG, as opposed to just G. Technology has spurned competition amongst themselves much earlier, whether in who has the latest toy, electronic, most friends on an online site, or even who is dressed more with ‘the times’. Asking parents an uncomfortable question can now be easily avoided with a quick Google search, and instant communication among children is now a common occurrence rather then an allotted time and day.

Video games have replaced and restricted the child imagination by removing the toys and books from the living room, and replacing it with a wireless controller and endless hours in front of a gaming system. Video games, while ‘targeted’ for the older demographics, appeal to the younger crowd more now than ever, and the boundaries between what game is child-friendly are all but completely ignored (mainly by the parents). Today’s popular video games, movies and television shows are immunizing children to violence, blood, gore, inappropriate language, lewd acts and of course sex. Children television programs have been watered down with ignorance and the latest Disney-child artist. Children now watch children put into many scripted adult-situations and yearn to rid themselves of the ‘child-bubble’. Music on the radio and television is saturated with sexual innuendos, degradation of women, and of course with love towards inanimate possessions. And at the same time, the value of the dollar is lost with them.

Growing up in environments fueled by money and sex is nothing relatively new for a growing toddler, but the main culprit in corrupting today’s children in our society is the accessibility and availability of these ‘unknown’ evils. With different and new influences hitting there impressionable minds, it is easy for a child to make a mistake or follow the wrong path. The only foolproof deterrence the children have is, and has always been, there parents. With all the technological advances have come child-locks, child-proofs and parental codes, however, these tools are not always optimized or used allowing for children to experiment and ‘toy’ around with things not meant or designed for them.
Childhood hasn’t been yet lost, but perhaps the ‘young-person hood’ is something children now reach for faster than a piece of candy.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/yourview/1528716/The-downside-of-childhood-today.html
http://open.salon.com/blog/rwnutjob/2010/11/16/amazing_6_year_old_hiv_positive_chinese_kid
http://www.dailychilli.com/news/7638-the-life-of-a-six-year-old-boy