CHILD LABOUR CHIRP : STUDENTS GLOBAL ESSAY

SADLY : WELL - INTO THE 20th century, small angelic children/students worked in factories, mines and every, and all other dangerous environments. It was the worst of times.

'' It is to their sacrifices, sufferings and their life that this Master Essay is dedicated.''

In the second season of Severance, there's an unexpected character : a child's supervisor named Miss Huang, who matter-of-factly explains she's a child '' because of when I was born.''

Miss Huang's deadpan response is more than just a clever quip. Like so much in the Apple TV's series,  which has broken viewership records for the streaming service, I think it reveals a devastating truth about the role work in 21st century.

As a scholar of childhood studies, I also see historical echoes : what constitutes a '' child '' - and whether one gets to claim childhood at all - has always depended on when and where a person is born.

AN AGE OF MARVEL : MANKIND is deeply invested in the idea of childhood as a time of  innocence, with kids protected by doting adults from the harsh realities of working and making ends meet.

However, French historian, Philippe Aries famously argued that childhood, as many understand it today, simply did not exist in the past. Using medieval art as one resource, Aries pointed out that children were often portrayed as miniature adults, without special attributes, such as plump or silly behaviors, that might mark them as fundamentally different from their older counterparts.

Looking at baptism records, Aries also discovered that many parents gave siblings the same name, and he explained this phenomenon by suggesting that devastatingly high child mortality rates prevented parents from investing the sort of love and affection in their children that's now considered a core component of parenthood.

While historians have debated many of Aries specific claims, his central insight remains powerful : Our modern understanding of childhood as a distinct life stage characterised by play, protection and freedom adult responsibilities is a relatively recent historical development.

Aries argued that children didn't emerge as a focus of unconditional love until the 17th century.

Little Angels at Work : The belief that a child deserves a life free from the stress of the workplace came along still later.

After all, if Miss Huang had been born in the 19th century, few people would question her presence in the workplace.

The Industrial Revolution yielded accounts of children / students working 16-hour days and accorded no special protection because of their tender age and emotional vulnerability.

Well into the 20th century, children younger than Miss Huang routinely worked in factories, mines and other dangerous environments. 

This Master Essay Publishing will continue, forever.  The World Students Society honours and thanks PROFESSOR Anna Mae Duane, who teaches English at the University of Connecticut in the US.