Since the early 1980s, there has been a steady stream of books decrying the state of childhood in the modern world. Psychologist David Elkind kicked things off with the publication of his enormously influential The Hurried Child: Growing Up Too Fast Too Soon in 1981, followed a couple of years later by Marie Winn’s Children Without Childhood and The Disappearance of Childhood by the esteemed social critic Neil Postman. Although these authors had some significant differences in philosophy and emphasis, the titles of their books neatly sum up the fundamental points they all share: childhood ain’t what it used to be, today’s children—robbed of the sheltered, protected sphere that should be their birthright—are thrust into the adult world long before they are ready. In short, childhood is dead, killed off in large part by the mass media, particularly television, which exposes them to sex, violence, images of war and disaster—what...
Kathleen McDonnell has been writing for and about young people for more than two decades. She is the author of more than a dozen plays and five novels, including the well-regarded fantasy trilogy The Notherland Journeys and Emily Included, a true story about a disabled girl who fought for the right to be educated in a regular classroom. Her non-fiction includes Honey, We Lost the Kids: Re-thinking Childhood in the Multimedia Age, published by Second Story Press (revised edition, 2005).
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