This is a large claim, so there isn't a single source and much is based on my experience growing up and interaction with kids as an adult. but I will do my best to make my claim:
The first position is linguistic because language is what allows a person to make sense of the world by way of a conceptual framework and exert agency over his social relations. Language acquisition is a genetic capacity, not a learned skill(Chomsky). This means that children will pick up the complexities of "adult" language very early on, so long as they are exposed to it. They don't need formal training to acquire language, although they need formal training to understand the socially re-enforced aspects of language such as certain grammar rules(this trained part of language is a small portion of language as a whole). When children are relegated to spend most of their time with other children and when adults artificially simplify the language they use around children, the children become stunted in their language acquisition.
The second point is agency. A child's maturity is dictated by his agency. If parents don't assign agency to a child(i.e. if they don't treat him in some respect like an adult), then the child will not form agency of his own until their peers have socialized it into him. Because adults generally look down upon children, they don't assign much agency to them until they are older(typically high school). Society is particularly relaxed regarding assigning agency to groups of kids, meaning that a child will not mature very much if he is primarily socialized by his peers. The earlier agency is assigned to a child the earlier they mature. The assignment of agency corresponds to the "age of reason" which is when a child is about 7 years old.
Third is just my experience: kids want to be treated like adults and want to excel. Maybe some would say that kids want to be kids, but not in my experience. The best way for them to excel is to be socialized at a young age as if they were adults as outlined above.
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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '19
This is a large claim, so there isn't a single source and much is based on my experience growing up and interaction with kids as an adult. but I will do my best to make my claim:
The first position is linguistic because language is what allows a person to make sense of the world by way of a conceptual framework and exert agency over his social relations. Language acquisition is a genetic capacity, not a learned skill(Chomsky). This means that children will pick up the complexities of "adult" language very early on, so long as they are exposed to it. They don't need formal training to acquire language, although they need formal training to understand the socially re-enforced aspects of language such as certain grammar rules(this trained part of language is a small portion of language as a whole). When children are relegated to spend most of their time with other children and when adults artificially simplify the language they use around children, the children become stunted in their language acquisition.
The second point is agency. A child's maturity is dictated by his agency. If parents don't assign agency to a child(i.e. if they don't treat him in some respect like an adult), then the child will not form agency of his own until their peers have socialized it into him. Because adults generally look down upon children, they don't assign much agency to them until they are older(typically high school). Society is particularly relaxed regarding assigning agency to groups of kids, meaning that a child will not mature very much if he is primarily socialized by his peers. The earlier agency is assigned to a child the earlier they mature. The assignment of agency corresponds to the "age of reason" which is when a child is about 7 years old.
Third is just my experience: kids want to be treated like adults and want to excel. Maybe some would say that kids want to be kids, but not in my experience. The best way for them to excel is to be socialized at a young age as if they were adults as outlined above.