Blog Post #1

 Hello and Welcome to my Blog!

The purpose of this blog is to share my thoughts and reflections while studying in this course about the sociology of childhood. I am excited to post and share with you.

Blog Post #1

Conservation tasks build the foundation of the theory from Piaget’s constructivist thoughts about the nature and development of human intelligence. He theorized about developmental stages in a child’s life and discovered that children understand conservation tasks in this order; number, length, liquid, mass, area, weight, and volume. He used his work to determine which state children fell into and even what mental age the child was. Piaget and Constructivist believed that, “children do not transfer knowledge from the external world into their memories; rather they build personal interpretations of the world based on individual experiences and interactions” (Ertmer and Newby, 1993, p. 63). In a conservation of mass task, children are provided two balls of clay and then they are asked to determine if the balls are the same size. After this, the researcher squishes one ball and asks again if they are the same size. Piaget determined that the child’s response will follow their mental age and what stage of cognitive development they are in. 

At the end of chapter 1 in our textbook for the course, The Sociology of Childhood (2018), Corsaro introduces the reproductive nature of children’s evolving membership in our culture. This chapter details that most theories of child development are given with a linear view. Corsaro argues for a reproductive view of childhood development. He shares the Orb Web model. This view of childhood development really compliments my view. I believe that my childhood was influenced by my culture as a child and also by my parents' culture to a very great extent. I can draw an Orb Web model of my life and it would be intertwined with my parents. As a young child, my father started his own medical business. Since he was just beginning his work, we supported his business. Every weekend for 7 years, we went into his office to clean it for the next week. When I was very little, I helped alongside my mother, but as I grew, I had a section that I became in charge of. I hated doing this work each weekend. It was not fun, but it was what our family did. This work instilled in me the importance of sacrifice, teamwork as a family, hard work, and building a legacy for your family.

The institutionalization of childhood (Corsaro, 2018, p. 41) has been something I have been fighting against for my children. I grew up on two acres of land up a long dirt road. In my years from birth to age eight, we did not have extra money for anything like sports, classes, or dance. When we first moved to our home, my mom stayed home with us and my dad worked building his business and all family finances went into building his business. We didn’t go out to eat and my aunties bought our Christmas gifts. We had very few toys, sports equipment, or items. We had two acres outside to play with a pond, chicken coops, trees, a hill, and plants. We played all day outside. My mom had a bell on our porch and she rang it for meal time. It was the best way to grow up as a young child. It has been hard to replicate the free play outside that I did in my childhood with my two boys. I believe our society has changed so much since I was little. In the places we have lived, we have watchfully kept an eye on our kids, we set times to go outside with them. In order to be outside, I set up playdates at parks, participate in boy scouting, and plan camping trips. They do not spend time outdoors, without me organizing it.

Resources

Corsaro, W. A. (2018). The Sociology of Childhood. SAGE Publications, Inc. 

Ertmer, P. A., & Newby, T. J. (1993). Behaviorism, cognitivism, constructivism: Comparing critical features from an instructional design perspective. Performance Improvement Quarterly, 6(4), 50-72. 

A typical child on Piaget’s conservation tasks. YouTube. (2011, March 25). https://youtu.be/gnArvcWaH6I?si=Yvjeu1hsk18m2zSn