of six mixed freely and equally. Thenschools diat existed in die Middle Agesnenrolled 40-year-olds and 10-year-oldsnalike. Young people had access to allnforms of cultural behavior. Playing withnthe privy parts of children and exposingnyoung people to bawdy language weren”normal” practices. Emotional commitmentnto one’s natural children was correspondinglynlow; infant and child mortalitynwas appallingly high.nThe concept of a “child,” Postman explains,nreemerged during the intellectualnturmoil of the Renaissance and Reformation.nThe adult-child distinction, hennotes, rests on the concept of a “secret”nadult knowledge, wherein human sexualitynand aspects of the “dark side” ofnhuman existence, such as death or illness,nare hidden from small children. Anwell-developed sense of shame. Postmannemphasizes, is fundamental to this ideanof childhood. In the generally nonliterate,n”oralistic” medieval world, suchnsecrets could not be kept. Once thenyoung had command of speech, theynwere accepted as full participants in thensocial order. Reflecting this orientation,nmedieval portraits tend to portray childrennas miniature adults. However, Postmannmaintains, the invention of thenprinting press in the mid-15th centurynmade childhood again possible. For thenprinting technology rapidly created anfresh symbolic world that radicallynreshaped human consciousness to parallelnthis new structure of communication.nThe distinction between those who couldnread and those who could not becamenWestern culture’s great divide. “LiteratenMan” stood apart from the child. Henceforth,n”the young would have to ^ecow^nadults, and they would have to do it bynlearning to read, by entering the world ofntypography.”nIhe paraphernalia of childhoodnbegan to blossom in the I6th century,nwith a strong linkage to the aspirationsnand successful rise of the modern middlenclass. Erasmus’s Colloquies became thenfirst modern tract stressing the concept ofn”shame.” Portraits began to focus onnhome interiors, family ties, and the tendernessnof children. Schools emergednthat were designed for children alone,nand the latter became subject to a rigorousndiscipline. The books they read werencensored for their contents; only slowlynwere the young to be made aware ofnadult secrets. Special children’s clothingnand a distinct child’s literature emergednduring the mid-18th century. Laws werenrecast to treat children as qualitativelyndifferent from adults, enjoying a preferred,nprotected status. Modernnthinkers, from Locke and Rousseau tonFreud and Dewey, crystallized this paradigmnof the child as one whose individualitynmust be preserved by nurturing,nwhose capacity for self-control, deferredngratification, and logical thought mustnbe extended, and whose knowledge ofnlife must be carefully controlled.nThe progress of this image in the Westnwas uneven. Seven-year-olds were stillnhung in 1780 England for petty theft. Asnlate as 1890, American high schoolsnenrolled only seven percent of the 14- ton17-year-old population. Yet betweenn1850 and 1950, Postman shows, thenWestern concept of childhood reachednits zenith. Children were taken out of thenfactories and placed in schools. Theynwere given their own clothing, games,nfurniture, style of life, and social world.nAbove all, they were protected fromnadult emotions, adult lust, and adultnviolence.nWhat then went wrong? Postman,nechoing Marshall McLuhan, turns againnto communications technology as thenprime engine of change. The telegraph,nhe argues, planted the seeds of our currentndiscontents, for it broke the historicnconnection between transportation andnhuman communication and eventuallynmade information uncontrollable. Thenearly 20th century also witnessed whatnPostman calls “the graphic revolution,”nthe emergence of a new symbolic worldnof pictures, cartoons, posters, and advertisementsnwhich introduced a strong elementnof the irrational into politics andncommerce.nThese two revolutions—the electronicnnnand the graphic—culminated andnmerged in the television of the 1950’s,nand the world of literacy, adult secrets,nand childhood began to collapse. Therenare no skills in watching television.nPostman notes; it makes no demands onnthe mind or behavior nor does it intrinsicallynsegregate its audience. Anyone overnthe age of two can absorb its images morenor less as an equal. Indeed, nearly threenmillion children, ages 2-11, watch televisionnevery night of the year between thenhours of 11 and 12 P.M. Television cannotnwhisper. Its pictures are concrete andnself-explanatory. And as children learnnthe old adult secrets, “shame”—thatnemotion that gave authority to adulthood—becomesnmeaningless. Mannersndecline. Children see no reason to defernto adults, who in most emotional and intellectualnrespects are their equals.nAdults no longer see reasons to hidenwords or actions from youthful ears andneyes. The once-cultivated curiosity ofnchildren is replaced by cynicism, then arrogance.nWithout hidden knowledgenand a complex symbolic logic to reveal,nschools and educators lose their ownnsense of purpose.nMoreover, even the grown-up disappears.nInplaceof “theadult” understoodnto be a reasoned, self-restrained, thinkingn, and historically aware individual, wenhave in growing numbers the “adultchild.”nPostman defines this old/newntype “as a grown-up whose intellectualnand emotional capacities are unrealizednand, in particular, not significantly differentnfrom those associated with children.”nThe “adult-child” does not nurturenchildren, has no politics, practicesnno religion, represents no traditions, hasnno extended conversations, holds nonserious plans. His prototypes are thencharacters found in the standard televisionnsitcoms or the human subjects portrayednon such video spectacles as RednPeople and That’s Incredible.nOut what does all this matter?” thenlibertarian might ask. As Postman acknowledges,nchildhood is but a recentncreation. Life has endured and will con-nH ^ S 5nApril 1983n