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The article is subjective and expresses the personal opinion of the author.
Discrimination can be inconspicuous. Once it seemed normal to discriminate against women, homosexuals, blacks, people with disabilities, serfs, Jews, slaves, representatives of lower races. Now everyone who can attribute themselves to any of these groups has the opportunity to at least claim their rights, and discrimination against people by age (ageism) still seems natural to us. Society continues to treat the elderly and children in a special way. Especially for children. Discrimination manifests itself in different ways, often without malicious intent or even with good intentions. Conventionally, it can be divided into ten levels from the simplest or most fundamental manifestations to violence.
1. We and they
Discrimination begins where we separate children into a separate group. When an adult who himself was a child says: “I know children. They are sensitive or keen, or greedy for knowledge. ” As a rule, it is not entirely clear why these qualities are attributed to all children and why precisely children, and not people in general. It’s important here that children are always “they”.
2. Theory of Ages
Ageism is manifested when we explain the actions, mood and reactions of a person not by personality traits or specific circumstances, but by his age. In pedagogy, the popular theory of personality development is Jean Piaget, which determines the age at which it is better to teach a child. Along with it, the people have the theory of ages, which allows us to interpret the thoughts and feelings of a person through the number of years he has lived. Behaves badly? He probably has a two-year crisis. Became unsure of yourself? Puberty is approaching. What is convincing about children does not work well when it comes to adults. Behaves badly? He is just 43 years old - a rather strange explanation. Piaget's theory is also focused on childhood: it breaks off at fifteen years, as if the personality does not develop further.
3. The animator in the playground
We create a special environment for children: kindergartens, schools, playgrounds. A space with narrow functionality that is not suitable for most people is a kind of reservation, a ghetto. The main reason for their creation seems to be good: the urban environment is poorly adapted to the interests of the child. Rebuilding a city based on the characteristics of small people is more difficult than rebuilding it, for example, for people with disabilities.
Creating special spaces seems to be the best solution, because on the playgrounds children are interested
Out of the desire to interest the child, products of a certain style are also created. For example, cartoons in which the characters expressively intonate, the music is simple and positive, the colors are bright. A special way of communicating with children is being developed, which animators practice and which you will not turn to a passerby on the street. But when the child finds himself in an environment that provides him with many opportunities, it quickly becomes clear that it is not necessary to create special children's zones and speak with the children in a special way, like with deaf or foreigners. It turns out that children find classes for themselves and understand a simple language.
4. The purpose of childhood
Discrimination is firmly grounded in the myth that childhood has a purpose. We call a person under the age of 18 a minor. The term itself emphasizes the imperfection of his age in comparison with the age of those who were fortunate enough to celebrate their eighteenth birthday. While a person is in imperfect years, the main goal of his existence is to grow up, to become a person in the full sense of the word. It is as if the child lives and does everything for the future and with an eye to the future. What is this future that comes at 18? Who will say?
5. Limitations
A child lives among a huge number of restrictions that are imposed on him by tradition, society and the law. He can’t work - or can work only under certain conditions, can’t move freely, vote, smoke or drink alcohol, draw up documents on his own, play the phone as he wants, do not go to school by his own decision, and so on. Limitations arise at the simplest level: he must wear a hat or eat soup and not eat sweets. We can mark certain actions as good and bad. More importantly, a person does not have the ability (or legal opportunity) to make decisions independently and bear responsibility for them. That is, in reality, he may not go to school, not eat soup or play all day on the phone, but, as a rule, he does not decide it.
6. Lawlessness in everyday life
A family in which parents consult with their children, deciding to go somewhere, buy a house or order sushi for dinner, is considered a liberal family or maybe a good family. A parent who hears the opinion of the child is very democratic. Building relationships with children, listening to their opinion, is more difficult: it takes a lot of time and effort, because it is always easier to agree on two than four or six. Inequality in everyday life, non-participation or weak participation of children in family decisions is another sign of discrimination.
7. Depreciation
Each of us at least once said or heard in his address: “You are still small for this. What do you understand about this? What do you know about love / work / responsibility / friendship / life? Who inspired you with these thoughts? ”Depreciation occurs at different levels. This may be the depreciation of thoughts or feelings, or specific deeds, or interests.
When a child likes to draw comics, and an adult believes that comics are not serious, and sends him to school to learn real literature. Or when an adult simply does not notice what is important for the child. The child brought an article made of plasticine, rejoices, proud, and an adult at best says “yep”, because this article is not worth his attention, he has more important things to do.
Depreciation occurs when an adult does not understand how, in principle, you can spend time on Minecraft, anime, Fortnight, and do not recognize the value of such activities
The goals are depreciating: “I won’t allow you to go historical, you go to IT because you have to feed your family” or “Playing the violin in the garage / kicking the ball in the yard, you won’t become a person / you won’t make money”.
8. Substitution of interests
A traditional school (and most alternative schools) is built on the substitution of the interests of the child with the interests of parents, teachers, the state, and society. We have an idea of what the child should do and what not, what matters are more important for him and which are less. At school, this idea is manifested very clearly: from the infinite number of classes available to a person, 10–15 stand out, those that are called subjects and lessons. Among these subjects there are major and minor. Their development takes place in strict sequence. The topics covered in the study are also strictly defined.
Accustomed to such a coordinate system, we impose on the child those interests and deeds that seem correct to us. “You should not ride a bicycle, but you must study Russian. If you have a weak Russian, do more with a tutor. ” It is very difficult for parents to get rid of imposing their goals or those dictated by tradition. Even those who believe that the child, like any person, has the right to determine the scope of his activities himself, from time to time are faced with the temptation to replace, enclose, impose.
9. Bringing to self-discrimination
The pressure of society leads to the fact that the child begins to believe: he lives for the future, cannot control himself, make decisions independently, he is still too small. The child gets used to asking permission from adults for any reason:
- Can I go to the toilet? / Can I get a pair of scissors? / Can I cut a gopher? / Can the gopher be striped?
- Why are you asking me this?
- Well, you're an adult.
Society in every way convinces the child of his inferiority, for example, that being obedient is a virtue. In such circumstances, it is difficult for a person to avoid self-discrimination and to recognize himself as a person, not an object.
10. Humiliation and violence
Emotional and physical violence based on the principle of “strong rights”, bullying of all kinds is probably a slightly different topic, but it closely intersects with discrimination, when the age of a person becomes the basis for violence: “I humiliate you because you are a child and I’m an adult, it’s easy for me, so I feel better. ” Even worse, when the violence is justified by pseudo-pedagogical goals: the child must be beaten in childhood, so that later it is easier for him to live.
In conclusion, it is important to note that there is a thin line between caring for a close (or non-close) person and his objectification. Between a person’s support, when he needs support, and attempts to decide for him, belittle the significance of his actions. Between the ability to be an interesting conversationalist and the desire to entertain.
A child on a runbike wants to drive between two parked cars. Mom says: “No, you see: it’s narrow here,” and they pass elsewhere. Although he would have gone, it was not narrow.
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