Microsoft Word final-current Developments at the Intersection of British Children-online-version doc

1.4.1.1
“Children” 
However woolly this category might appear to be, there is one absolute certainty. 
Independent of the further specifications of the spectrum of this term, the category “children” 
comprises both male and female members. The applicable age range poses more of a 
challenge. From which point or age onwards can we speak of “children”? Where does the 
term have its limits? When is a child classed no longer as a child but as a “young adult” or 
teenager?

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First and foremost, a “child” is defined in biological terms. Commonly, it is classed as 
being “a young person from birth to the age of full physical development […]”.
1
Collins 
introduces the key word “puberty” in its definition of “child”: “A boy or girl between birth 
and puberty”.
2
Generally, puberty is seen as a decisive stage and widely believed to mark the 
end of childhood on both the physical and psychological level. As body and mind develop, 
the young person undergoes visible changes in this phase of gradual transition from childhood 
to adulthood. During this phase, the state of relative psychological innocence and naivety 
ascribed to childhood is slowly replaced by a self-conscious state of experience, yet to be 
refined in the years leading up to adulthood. A key feature of the term “child” is 
“development”. A child is entangled
in the process of formation, characterised by “trial and 
error.”
3
Desiderata at the end of the period of childhood are maturation, independence and 
responsibility. In essence, a “child” is described as lacking these essential “adult” qualities, 
since it has not yet reached the state of mental and emotional maturity characteristic of its 
elders. Portrayed as incomplete, a “child” is subjected to a pedagogical forming process, 
namely education. In Western society, an aim of education is “remedying” the mentioned 
moral and intellectual deficits.
This definition ex negativo can be countered with a positive observation: Immaturity, 
flexibility and openness are not necessarily bad or reprehensible. On the contrary: Instead of 
stifling dormant potential and room for development as fast as possible by filling it with 
prefabricated content, it can also be treasured and carefully tended. Undreamt-of possibilities 
for creative development hold an enormous wealth. It is no exaggeration to say that the period 
of orientation in both childhood and adolescence forms the most important and crucial stage 
for all future development of a person. For this reason, cultivating an individual’s potential 
should be regarded as a valuable chance, always bearing in mind that children need guidance, 
not patronage. Immaturity can be regarded as an asset, as only “immature” people can 
develop. Adults, in comparison, often portray themselves as stagnant, inflexible in their ways 
and fixed opinions.
In modern society, however, the distinction between children, young adults and adults 
becomes increasingly difficult, as biological markers are rejected,
shifted or extended. In 
1
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995,
5
p. 192.
2
Collins English Dictionary. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers, 1998,
4
p. 280.
3
See Henry Maurice Saxby. Books in the Life of a Child: Bridges to Literature and Learning. Melbourne: 
Macmillan Education Australia PTY LTD, 1997, p. 6. 

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some cases, “child” and “being young” have become a condition, a lifestyle or an attitude 
rather than a developmental stage.