What Is A Child?

What is a Child?

What is a child? This is as good a place as any to begin a blog discussing all things children. The answer may seem obvious and, therefore, not worth asking. But it may surprise you that everyone has their own idea of what a child is and what their purpose should be. I wish to take this discussion beyond the official UN definition of a child being any individual below the age of 18, and begin to discuss individual and social conceptualisations of children. We need to address this right off the bat, because how you conceptualise (think of) a child will inevitably influence how you think about them and their actions. Ultimately, it affects how you treat and speak to them. Clarifying my idea of the child also brings understanding about the approach I take to discussing them throughout this blog series.

Different Ideas of a child

Believe it or not, the concept of the child and their purpose has changed significantly over the years, with cultural matters, changing social norms and values, and world events having had a massive impact on this. However, beyond the broader, cultural changes, I seek to question how the individual sees the child, because it is possible that we all see them differently - that’s just the reality we need to confront.

To one, children exist to serve them. They have children when looking for someone to help around the house, bear the load of responsibility, or take care of them when they're older. Like an insurance. To another, a child is an inconvenience, an extra weight on their shoulders, whom they have the misfortune of having to care of until they’re old enough to look after themselves. Some see them as a mistake even which can be easily cast away at any stage of their life. To others, a child is a blank slate (a tabula rasa) which they can shape and mould as they please, for good or bad. To others still, a child is a tiny person waiting for adulthood, who has to go through the inconvenience of childhood as they wait for the more exciting part of life. To even more others, the child is cheap labour or even to be used to get sympathy from others. To some, the child is the luckiest out there, living for free, getting to enjoy life and not worry about the things that keep grown-ups awake at night - what a time! To one the child might be the most terrifying, annoying and unpredictable kind of human there is, whereas to another, they radiate beauty!

This list is not nearly mutually exclusive nor exhaustive, it just shows that there are MANY thoughts out there about children. All these thoughts are rooted in something, informing how we understand, think of, and behave toward children. I can only begin to introduce us to thinking about these things. But as we launch on this journey, these are questions I encourage you to grapple with, even as you consider the children in your own life.

So, I put forth the question to you, the reader, of what the child is to prompt you to begin to think of how you conceptualise (think about) children. What is the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of children? What are the consequent feelings that follow those thoughts? Where do you think those feelings (whether good or bad or somewhere in-between) have come from? How did you feel about your own childhood and self when you were a child, and what do you think influenced that?

I, as a developmental scientist, am quite biased in my own opinions of the child and their childhood. To me, and this is important to know because it guides the direction of Ntsakoblog, beyond being a person below age 18, a child is a complex individual with their own way of thinking about, and experiencing, the world. Their life starts long before they’re born. They have their own personality and temperament and are constantly in a state of learning, exploring, and making their mark on the world. The child is precious and unique and easily influenced. They are extremely vulnerable in many ways and need to be protected and guided in that vulnerability. The child has intrinsic value and a purpose and their now and future should always be protected. The child can teach us important life lessons we have forgotten and help us to grow as individuals. The child and their childhood are beautiful, an amazing illustration of the joy and beauty of life, and need to be valued and protected as such.

How we’re going to tackle this

This Issue, in its four parts, deliberately discusses how the child exists in relation to their environment and how it shapes them, the history of children/childhood, and where we are now. It provides the launching point for a rich conversation around childhood, theories of childhood and all its many different aspects, while calling for us to appreciate and respect childhood for what it is. We will discuss how ideas of the child and childhood have changed drastically over the years (a brief history of childhood, so to speak) with an emphasis on societal and ideological influences which are ever present. We also discuss a theory on how a child is a person-in-context, ultimately a product (most of the time) of their environment. It further explores how they relate to the environment, and it to them, and how we can leverage the influence of the environment in our intervention efforts. Finally, we discuss the current state of the child through looking at child rights - what they are, and why they exist.

Concluding thoughts

All in all, the concept of what a child is can (and has) become very philosophical, and even contested and challenged. Once we come to an understanding of what a child is, we come to the reality of confronting how they should be treated. Any point of clarity requires a response. We also begin to confront matters of identity, protection, parenting, discipline, rights, and so much more. I don’t pretend to have all those answers and really cannot discuss all those questions in depth, but I want us to open the thought process.

So, let’s explore it together!

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