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I’ve disliked the idea of childhood since before I can remember (at least, if my mother is to be believed). I felt that people didn’t quite see me as a person — and I could never understand why everyone else was so okay with that.
John Holt’s book is about why this isn’t okay and what to do about it. I loved it for that—so much that I took notes on the entire book.
It's more of a vision of the world we'd like to see than an actual plan of action. Still, I think knowing exactly what we want is already very important.
It's a close, AI-assisted translation of my Russian summary. I've reviewed it, but I might have missed some wordplay or unnatural phrasing. The section headings follow Holt's chapter titles. I grouped the notes under them as seemed appropriate.
The Institution of Childhood1. Childhood is a particular social institution, a legal regime involving a severe deprivation of most of the rights that in other cases are considered basic and inalienable.
2. Some people are comfortable with the way of life that childhood entails. Some are not. And this can change over time. Often, it is precisely this point of transition that comes with a large number of conflicts and problems. Because of this, those who were happiest in childhood can become especially unhappy when they are forbidden to leave it.
Childhood in History3. The cultural idealisation of childhood largely serves to make everyone, or almost everyone, see it as a normal legal regime.
4. Childhood is a relatively recent invention, and it developed asymmetrically for the two sexes. Childhood for boys was invented earlier than childhood for girls.
[My addition: the tightening of the legal regime of childhood continues. Since the 1950s, children have, statistically speaking, been deprived of some of their freedom of movement.]
5. Mothers worked a lot. The modern ideal of motherhood is quite new.
[My addition: this is broadly true. A Nobel Prize in economics was recently awarded precisely for research in this a