Grown Ups Want to Be Kids Again
Every parent knows that sometimes your child says something that stops y'all in your tracks. Such a moment came for one of united states, Emma Maynard, when her son Oscar was budgeted his twelvemonth 6 SATS tests at the end of primary school. Despite the schoolhouse's best efforts to play downwardly the magnitude of the tests, he was feeling the pressure.
The tempo in school had changed, and he was tuning into some high expectations. Ahead lay secondary school, a melee of teenagers and a whole host of new social pressures. With steely blue eyes set determined, he shot mum a look and said, "Grown ups don't always become information technology right, you lot know".
This was the start of a conversation in which Oscar had a lot to say near adult decisions, and the place of schoolhouse in his life. The conclusion was that other friends may experience the same, or have a unlike view birthday, and that it would be interesting to discover out.
As academics, we decided that this could be the basis of an bodily research project. Working with our colleague Kayliegh Rivett, nosotros started scoping it out as a child-led inquiry project – with children designing and delivering their own research, analysing their information and reporting their findings in a research paper. Two years later, the newspaper has finally been published in the Journal of Qualitative Inquiry in Psychology.
Child researchers
The first step in the projection was to gather a group of nine children, already known to Maynard and each other. We did this to ensure that the children had a comfortable and safe surroundings in which to work. We sent them and their parents a video explaining the project, with child-friendly information and consent forms, and equipped each child with clipboards, pens, voice recorders, drinks and snacks.
We felt strongly that the nature of what Oscar had said reflected the importance of children's voices in an adult-dominated world. We therefore started with a focus group in which the children idea about the words "grown-ups don't always get it right". We did non clarify meaning or context, leaving the children to translate this themselves, and asked them to observe farther questions to hash out.
Our showtime lesson in this venture was to realise how strongly children relate to a classroom – despite being in their friends' dwelling house with Oscar'south mum, they immediately stepped into course style. Nosotros noticed they appeared desperate to give a "correct" answer. Excited hands shot up to answer the question, frantically waving, with kids fighting to remain seated. A gush of ideas came forrard, with united states of america trying to record every last idea.
Somewhen they agreed on five interview questions. These included "What have adults done to make you feel happy/upset?" and "Is at that place anything that you think adults get incorrect and why?". The nine children and then interviewed each other in groups of three, and we stood well back while they chewed the cud on the adults in their lives.
Oscar and Will undertook the assay with us, and became named authors in the periodical paper – the boys could explain the significance of what their peers had said in ways we are certain would take passed u.s. past. We sat, doodled, listened to sound, munched on cookies. Nosotros moved back and forth through written and audio recordings, comparing and pondering.
Results
The results show that children believe that adults think they should know everything. But kids know that they don't – and they are OK with that. This related to big-picture things – keeping children safe, and agreement the world, but also, how to practice maths.
"Adults … just need to realise they might have forgotten" said Ben. "Adults tin't think they're just the best because they've already been through their childhood …" noted Jamie. Harry pointed out that "merely considering they're older and they've already been to school, information technology doesn't mean they've paid attention in schoolhouse". And every bit Eve said: " … they say that they were one time a child likewise but because we're different I think nosotros should be allowed to have our own opinions sometimes".
They also explained why their childhood is different. It is filled with social media, which the adults mutter about - yet it was the adults who invented it and put it into children'due south hands, and who reinforce its use every day.
The children also reported feeling that information technology was hugely important that adults recognise their achievements – explaining why they were so keen to requite us the "right" answers. They felt frustrated when teachers picked other students to reply a question, and didn't requite them a chance to evidence they had a correct response.
The messages conveyed are stiff - they are nigh perfection. Children feel surrounded by perfect bodies, sharp minds, excellent results in school and flawless friendships. Between an overly assessed babyhood and such social scrutiny, the pressures on children today are enormous.
Then next time we adults gyre our eyes at the snowflake generation who need constant reassurance on social media and across, perhaps we should exist more curious, and enquire why.
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Source: https://theconversation.com/children-reveal-what-they-really-think-of-adults-in-their-own-research-paper-144025
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