Some Sociological Principles Underlying Child Development

Abstract

A LTHOUGH a discussion of sociological principles underlying child development might well imply the application of sociological principles to the care and training of the child, the process has here been reversed, and the attempt has been made to formulate some sociological principles on the basis of methods and procedure observed in child care, especially at Hastings-on-Hudson. Our institution, occupying forty acres of land overlooking the Hudson River, is constructed and operated on what is known as the cottage plan. Its ten cottages surround a common playground, and each is a complete unit, with its own kitchen, dining room, refrigerator, and, in fact, all of the equipment of the ordinary family home. Following the family pattern, we have no age grouping in these ten homes, but assign children from little tots to those of high school size to each cottage. In addition to the cottages, we have a school, a greenhouse, a poultry yard, an orchard, and a garden. We are, in fact, a community of two hundred fifty persons, and we pay our respects to normal family and community life by copying them as closely as we can. Moreover, so far as types of children are concerned, including intelligence levels, behavior norms, and cultural backgrounds, we approximate a cross section of the average neighborhood. To these physical and human factors add certain ideals, organizations, and policies, and you have our set-up for child development. This set-up is our attempt to arrange a community-a situation where the child may function and develop in such a way as to satisfy the fundamental requirements of the social world in which he is to live, and where his inner urges or wishes may be directed into profitable channels. The social world expects him, among other things, to be honest and law abiding; to be able to cooperate with his fellows; to be possessed of a fair degree of initiative; to be able to maintain a balance between his individual wishes and his socialization; and to have attained to an emotional independence. As I have already indicated, our model is the good family home in a wholesome community, which we assume is the nearest we can come to an effective situation for child development. We do not offer our set-up as a rival of the family home, but only as a substitute in the case of children for whom, because of some good reason, family life is not available. As a part of our family-community situation we have the cottage homes, the playground, scout organizations, as well as various societies and clubs; and we supplement these usual activities with a system of self-government, as many outside contacts as possible, and a plan whereby the children earn and spend their own money. We use self government as a means to an end, the end being the development of initiative, responsibility, a capacity for teamwork and a sense of fair play. It is interesting to watch. Each cottage group is a council which meets weekly, and it elects its own representatives to a general council which meets once a month. The cottage council is a working body, while the general council is a discussion group which formulates policies. Some interesting cases