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Authors
Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
What does the bankruptcy of a major multinational toy store have to do with the existence of a qualitatively different childhood from those who used to play in the streets, squares, and gardens until very recently? Perhaps it has a lot to do with it. The lack of demand for playable games (hands on) and a variety of three-dimensional toys in favour of digital-based electronic devices, such as smartphones and tablets, may have partly dictated the crisis experienced, rapidly losing a significant portion of the children’s toy market from ages 5 to 14. If we were to ask any child in this age group today what they want for their birthday or as a Christmas gift, the answer is invariably the same: a smartphone. Preferably a top-of-the-line one. The iconic toy store Toys “R” Us, founded in 1948, which once had 1700 stores worldwide, and which just a year earlier had generated an astronomical gross revenue of 9.59 billion euros, declared bankruptcy in 2017. It seems to be gearing up for a comeback, but almost certainly with profound changes in its sales strategy, considering that childhood and its playful needs, influenced by an extremely powerful and seductive media and digital culture, are experiencing profound changes in the ways of playing and being a child in contemporary times. Economically, there is an entire market of products and services geared towards it, with their own brands, ranging from clothing to a variety of products (including cosmetics and beauty) that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Gyms and sports clubs, extracurricular tutoring centers, private courses of all kinds, are frequented (sometimes with waiting lists) by a multitude of children whose parents want them to be natural competitors to face a world where supposedly only the strongest will succeed. We know that childhood is increasingly assuming greater importance in social life. It is also true that there is a disparity in its presence between urban and rural worlds, which are significantly different. Its rarity is observed in the interior of Portugal, a country marked by an inexorable demographic disaster that is announced and already felt. In the interior, and faced with unresolved socio-economic asymmetries, “not all children have childhoods,” as Portuguese writer Gonçalo Tavares says in the preface of a book by Professor Carlos Neto (2020).
Description
Keywords
Visual Art Education Childhood Visual Culture Iconosphere
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Charréu, L. (2024). Towards a qualitatively different childhood: Rethinking the objectives of children visual art education. In Ferreira, A. et al., Livro verde da educação de infância/Green Book for Early Childhood Education (pp. 24-32). Observatório para o Futuro da Educação de Infância/Escola Superior de Educação Paula Frassinetti.
Publisher
Observatório para o Futuro da Educação de Infância/Escola Superior de Educação Paula Frassinetti