Issues of Childhood

There are so many topics to consider posting in the area of human development that it’s difficult to narrow the field. However, at the moment we’re covering middle childhood in the mini-mester, and several issues have generated classroom discussion: childhood obesity, bullying, and homeschooling. All of these topics affect elementary and secondary school children, and our discussions spotlighted these questions and more:

1. Why is obesity such an issue? In other words, why are there so many obese children? One person even mentioned the term globesity, a term that she picked up from www.urbandictionary.com that refers to obesity around the globe (more specifically in the Western world, however). What can be done to help children and their parents with this problem?
2. What is bullying, and why does it exist? Why can’t teachers always spot it? What can be done to help the bullied children? I read recently that one of the reasons more school psychologists will be needed in the coming years (according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics) is because of the increase in bullying. Evidently it’s not just the “big bad boys” who torment others.
3. Why do parents homeschool their children? Is it effective? Are there drawbacks as well as advantages? Are parents who homeschool different somehow from those who don’t?

Choose one or all of the above and toss in your two cents’ worth.

Earliest Recollection

This week in my human development classes, we talked about memory, and one topic was infantile amnesia. For some reason, most people don’t remember anything that happened before they were 2 or 3 years old. Why we don’t know. It could be that the hippocampus, a brain structure instrumental in episodic memories, isn’t developed until then. Then again, the fact that infants aren’t yet proficient in language could be a factor.  

Some psychologists feel that the first memory is significant in telling us something about ourselves and our current relationships, lifestyle, and perhaps even self image. Who was in your first memory? Perhaps more importantly, who was not? What was your role? Were you the center of attention, the pampered baby, the caretaker, or what? And how did you feel? Were you mad, glad, scared, or sad? Of all the things that happened to you in infancy and early childhood, why do you think this one memory stands out? Do you think it has significance for you life today?

Here’s my first memory. I was probably around 3 years old, and I was sitting in the back seat of a car listening to my mother and her mother exchange small talk as my mother parked the car. She said something to my grandmother and then got out of the car. I’m not sure where she was going, but I wasn’t alarmed because I knew she’d be back. My brother Mike, however, became extremely distressed. He began to cry as if his little heart was broken, and I reached over and put my arm around his shoulder, whispering that everything would be fine…that our sweet mama would be right back. My grandmother was a great gal, but she didn’t seem to be involved (in my memory at least) in comforting Mike.

Even today, if he’s upset, I’m upset. I’m also protective. If one of my own children were to say something like, “I saw Uncle Mike wearing yellow polka dot running shorts and an orange hat,” I’d say, “So? What’s wrong with that?” Oh, and about our grandmother. She was cool lady, always loving but never cloying, intrusive, smothering, or demanding.

First memory. Mine’s of my brother, and it has significance to my life today. What’s yours? Come on and share. Maybe we can figure out what it means.