But in any case, what's the point of this (false) statement? Postman contends that in the middle ages, children entered into adulthood at about the age of 9, because they had by then, being generally illiterate like their parents, been through all that adults could teach. It is certainly the case that children as young as 9 were hanged for theft in the middle ages. Is that your preferred model of child rearing, raising, and education?
That's not actually true. See "The Disappearance of Childhood" by Neil Postman for a thorough discussion of the topic. He views childhood as having been invented sometime after the middle ages, when social, as opposed to craft literacy, emerged with the development of the printing press. It existed for a few centuries, but is now being destroyed by the destruction of print culture.
Adults should act like adults. Children should get to have childhoods. Blurring this distinction has been terrible for everyone.
Hard to do when you're dealing with 'progressive' parents who don't know the meaning of the word No. That's where this nonsense is coming from.
You are aware that for most of this country's history children were treated more as little adults than as a special category of person, right?
But in any case, what's the point of this (false) statement? Postman contends that in the middle ages, children entered into adulthood at about the age of 9, because they had by then, being generally illiterate like their parents, been through all that adults could teach. It is certainly the case that children as young as 9 were hanged for theft in the middle ages. Is that your preferred model of child rearing, raising, and education?
That's not actually true. See "The Disappearance of Childhood" by Neil Postman for a thorough discussion of the topic. He views childhood as having been invented sometime after the middle ages, when social, as opposed to craft literacy, emerged with the development of the printing press. It existed for a few centuries, but is now being destroyed by the destruction of print culture.