Lesson plan:

Childhood

The resolution of this episode, Bronson finding that he doesn't have the resources to care for a baby, seems inevitable to modern audiences. Its inevitability is, however, a function of the way childhood is constructed in modern society. In many cultures it was natural for even fairly young children to play a major role in caring for their younger siblings. The Cabbage Patch Fib thus offers an interesting opportunity to explore the way in which childhood, like all social roles, is in fact constructed according to particular economic and social circumstances.

As a whole class

View the whole episode of The Cabbage Patch Fib.

Class discussion

After viewing discuss the ending and why Bronson returned the baby. Discuss students' responses to the ending: Did it make sense to them? Do they think he did the right thing?

List on the board the reasons why Bronson returned the baby and the impediments to him keeping it.

Point out that in many other cultures young children have played a major role in caring for younger siblings. Discuss the social and economic circumstances that would make this possible. A major one is the fact that modern children are institutionalised by having to spend time in school as a major part of their socialisation.

Discuss the reasons for the development of institutional schooling as a form of socialisation. Point out that it is in fact relatively new and is strongly connected with the industrial revolution and the disappearance of the family as a cottage-style self-contained economic unit.

Discuss other forms of socialisation for children such as:

• having a child brought up in another household as occurred in the upper classes in the middle ages
• passing on responsibility to another significant adult, such as an uncle, as occurs in some indigenous societies
• sending children away to school as in the upper class English tradition.
  

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each

Discuss the social and economic circumstance which would make it not just possible, but necessary for children to play a major role in caring for younger siblings.

It is often said that the period of childhood has become extended in modern society - discuss the changes which may have contributed to this. One argument is that because modern society is more complex children need a longer period of socialisation. Another argument is that the lengthening of childhood is a way of keeping young people out of the workforce.

Individual research

Suggestions for research: patterns of child-rearing and socialisation in other cultures.