Perspectives on School at Seven Years Old

This volume looks at the social and intellectual forces which the child encounters in class-room and playground from the parent#xE2;#xAC;"s point of view. School and home are seen as the separate yet overlapping worlds of childhood #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; for some children more uncompromisingly separated than for others. In the social development of the child, school functions as a link between the kinds of demands (and immunities) which are characteristic of family life, and those which the child will discover in the wider society of adulthood. The authors provide a meeting-point for developmental psychology, sociology & education, to the illumination of all three. There is a concern with the daily life of #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;ordinary#xE2;#xAC;"children in #xE2;#xAC;#xDC;ordinary#xE2;#xAC;" families. School reluctance #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; rather than the more clinical school phobia or truancy #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; is delicately probed. The back-up that parents provide at home, directly or indirectly, is objectively evaluated, yet with empathy for parents#xE2;#xAC;" and teachers#xE2;#xAC;" anxieties about their roles.