consider how the categories of “youth” and “childhood” vary over time and across cultures. To do this, you will answer a series of questions regarding photos you select of the “jobs” of young people in three different contexts: (1) 19th and early 20th-century America; (2) Present day America; and (3) Present Day India, Nigeria, or Brazil (select one). In present day United States culture, childhood is a nurturing time of carefree exploration and personal development, where a child’s main job is to go to school. However, this was not always the way we understood youth and childhood in the U.S., and it is not how it is understood across all countries. In fact, the concept of childhood is linked closely to social class identities. In other words, in societies (or families) that have more socioeconomic resources, childhood is a time period set aside for parental nurturing, carefree exploration, and personal development. On the other hand, in contexts of severe economic hardships, childhood is a luxury that many families cannot afford. Instead, children enter the labor force at a much younger age as a necessity of family survival (Barone 2015). Explore the ways that the social identity of “youth” and the category of “childhood” vary across the three social contexts mentioned above by incorporating photos of the expected jobs of young people in each context. In your description of each photo, be sure to: Describe how the photo helps you understand the expectations and value of “youth” and “childhood” in that society. In other words, what clues does the photo give you to determine how the identity of youth is constructed in that society? In the remaining three slides, address the following questions: Explain how the identity of “youth” and the time period of “childhood” is socially constructed and how it varies over time and across countries. Explain how social class impacts the social construction of “youth” and “childhood.” Discuss how comparing the different photos across your three social contexts help you understand the ways in which these categories are socially constructed.
