The once and future child

Abstract

The change in family structures throughout the modern world is examined together with the various pressures which now inhibit, inform or constrain modern child-rearing. The decline in the birth-rate throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Australasia and Japan (varying between about 1.2 to 2.0 children per family) and the accelerating divorce rate (approx 51% in South Australia, nearing 40% in UK and Canada) are also seen as part of this changing context.

Within these broad social changes comes the recent research on brain development during the early years of childhood. The extreme plasticity of the brain is discussed, as is the paradoxical and curiously archaic tendency for formal systems of education to invest in childhood AFTER much of the formative learning is over. Many longitudinal studies testify to the critical and social nature of early learning; and whilst there IS some conflict between experts, most neuro-scientists, criminologists and psychiatrists suggest that reliable predictors of long-term delinquency can be apparent as early as age three years. Moreover, recent detailed studies (Karoly, et al, 1998 and McCain & Mustard, 1999) are unequivocal in their emphasis on the worth-whileness of investment in good early childhood education and care. The power of the media is also briefly considered; the view being that it is now the media which act as major socialisation agencies for our children.

As part of the context of the changing nature of childhood, the education of teachers is also very briefly considered. The paper proposes that for a secure future we need educators of vision and compassion, yet articulate and well-read. It sees care and education as indivisible, but notes the current tendency to depict teachers as ‘operatives’ in an ‘education industry’ and emphasises that research exists which suggest that formal curricula and instrumental ‘delivery’ are not the best ways forward. The paper ends with a diagrammatic analysis that depicts constant policy tensions between indoctrination and education. The paper concludes that without effective, knowledgeable early years professionals and appropriate institutions for the very young, societies will increasingly lack cohesion.