Constructions of Childhood or Youth

Constructions of Childhood or Youth Inform the Design of the School

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The design and structure of the school should be according to the prevailing climatic conditions in the area where the school is located.

Devotion to Nature

The design of the school plays significant role to cultivate the experiences of childhood and later these incidents become a part of daily life. The school landscape offers the breaks for discovery in childhood as well as youth. The curriculum may be interacted informally with the students through the good quality school landscape. The openness and the love for nature among the students can be created right from the childhood through the ideal school landscape including garden, animals, sand play and various traditional equipments of play. Great Britain Learning through Landscapes (LTL) organisation is working for the improvement of school landscapes since 1990 and funding schoolyard habitats. The nature helps in building the physical and emotional development during childhood and youth. The efforts of the children to prevent the nature inform the role of the schools.

Sports, Games and Technology

A passion for a sport or a game develops in the child from the childhood. A school design promoting the sports and games with the proper equipments leads to the lifelong journey for few interested students. The feeling of self-expression is reflected among students through the sports and play. The open spaces in the school help the children to involve in the physical activities. The open spaces comprises of school gardens, wide corridors, verandas and various other play yards. These facilities have grown up as compared with historical times and are responsible for the historical and social construction of childhood (unicef.org). The design activities with the toys help in the development of spatial skills. The mapping activities also help in boosting the spatial intelligence among children. The skills developed among the children include the visual discrimination, visual memory, perception of spatial relationships, the relationship establishment between two objects and eye-motor coordination. These skills help in understanding the spatial symbol systems.

Building Skill and Knowledge

The schools designed with good libraries have a key to the knowledge enhancement of the students. The knowledge is reflected from the behaviour of the child which is the base for acting socially (unicef.org).

Child Friendly Schools

These schools help in fulfilling need of every child and provide the safe and healthy environment design. The softening and calming effect is felt with the students of child friendly schools. In these schools, the classrooms are designed with the adequate resources (unicefusa.org). They help in the social construction of the childhood

Constructions of Childhood or Youth Inform the Practices and Values of the School

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Historical Construction

There was the concept of mass schooling in the eighteenth century. The time changed and the childhood schooling was questioned with the growth in the females in the society. The social movements in the twentieth century led to the equal rights of the childhood. And the concept of childhood construction gained the importance. The historical perspective had limited vision towards childhood which inculcated limited understandings in the child which reflected in the child or youth. But the numerous visions create multiple understandings among the children. The vision of the educator is followed by the students and the same is with the practices and the values of the school (EarlyChildhood).

There was the introduction of the Kindergarten Movement since 1837 where the figure of the child needs to be constructed in the early childhood policy. It assumed that the children are innocent and they take receive those values and practices which are provided by them in schools and through their adults. The policy facilitated the practices for training of the educators as well as adults for the construction of childhood and inculcating the values among children

Social Construction

The participation of children in the various activities in the school and encouraging them for the participation makes them involving socially. With times the schools have shown such practices involving the students in active roles which later shape their lives and also play an active role in community. It includes the involvement of children in various kinds of projects. And during their youth times, the children are seen helping in the decision-making process also in their communities (Smith).

The schools are giving a path to the social construction of childhood through the values addressing the social work involvement. The social work practices are followed by the schools to render help to the disadvantaged families, refugee youth and various other needy people. The association of students in the activities develop a sense of belongings of children and youth to the social work and the society. It helps the disadvantaged people to come out of sufferings and fabricate values in the childhood (Witkin, 2011).

Equal opportunity system is valued and followed in schools for all children. Also the equal opportunity system is followed for the students of diverse backgrounds with equal rights and values. This generates the social equality and fairness values among the children or youth and named as social construction of childhood (Atkin, 1996).

The practices are followed by the schools where opportunities are provided to the students where they can learn from each other. The tasks are provided to the students so that the students work in a team through group assignments and group tasks. Classrooms seating arrangements are made flexible to encourage both individual work and group work. The learning from collaborations is considered to be more useful and encouraging for the children. They tend to learn more in the groups.

The schools in modern era focussed on relationships and building mutual respect and trust. The personal relationships among teachers to students, students and parents, school and parents are encouraged for quality relationships. A sort of inspiration is noticed among the students with healthy relationships. Nowadays schools are also following the practices to develop a sense of achievement for all by setting achievable assignment for each student. Flexible curriculum structures are introduced for this purpose.

Spatial Construction

The spatial reasoning can be developed in a child in the long term only. And it is very difficult to develop the logical reasoning in short run. Hence, schools play a vital role in the development of the spatial intelligence. From 1930s, the range of aptitude test was developed on school-related tasks. The spatial construction among children includes the logical thinking, interpersonal skills, and linguistic, musical and other skills. Schools in current days are following the practices to indulge in activities that speed up the mathematical computations and word processing of children and youth. Spatial intelligence also includes the manipulation of information for using the same in society.

The schools follow the practices to involve students for making models, diagrams, and graphs which enhances the spatial ability among children. The schools adopted the practices to take the aptitude tests of the students on frequent basis to develop the spatial ability of the children. The educational power reflects the intelligence of an individual and the difference in educational institutions leads to the difference in intelligence.

The symbol system is introduced in the schools for the starting of optimal understanding of the particular subject. The careers of the children are built up by supporting their vocational pursuits. And the schools are the integral part to follow the practice and values which support this system. Every individual is supposed to have the core ability. The responsibility of the schools is to promote these abilities by following such exercises.

The spatial development during the childhood or youth is the development for the life-span. The children of such schools depict the high spatial ability. The various activities undertaken at schools like drawing the lay-out of school-buildings and the sketch of way from their home to the school are a part of spatial learning’s. Teachers play a key role for following the practices and beliefs of spatial intelligence which is initiated at early childhood.

Conclusion

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As compared to the historical times, the insight of upbringing a child has completely changed in recent era. Child development and construction reflects their learning across various institutions. There are differences in the children from different institutions because of difference in design, practices and values followed by these institutions. Educators also become inseparable part in the construction of childhood.