Photo by 和 平 on Unsplash

Photo by Antonio Gabola on Unsplash

Our first class and lecture was to define childhood and education respectively. However, there happened to be more than one defining characteristic within each category.

Childhood was defined as:
– The period after Infancy when a person develops self awareness
– Pre-adolescent period full of experimentation that shapes, values, thoughts, personality and beliefs
– Time when development is fast paced
– A unique and valuable place in development
– From a biological perspective – pre adulthood and before the development of the brain and sexual maturity

Education was defined as:
– Teaching/learning a certain subject and content dictated by government and culture
– Structured way of knowledge to be taught
– Process of acquiring knowledge including experiences
– Can happen through observation
– Education is fluid
– Society dictates education needed by its citizens

Despite the variety in responses, each word has a recurring theme. For childhood, the recurring theme is a definitive time period. For education, it is structure, and that education is defined as the what we express the need to know. Childhood and Education go hand in hand, but they are also individual. Without education you still have childhood, but there is always the possibility that without education there is no childhood, as many In the 19th century were treated as mini adults, used for manual labour rather than being allowed to explore.