Phillip Adams - version of childhood

The version of childhood that is constructed by Philip Adams is largely negative. Childhood is portrayed as a generally unpleasant time where children are suppressed by ‘indignities and injustices’ inflicted upon them by authoritarian figures. To exaggerate his harsh opposition against childhood, Adams draws upon cultural knowledge via political allusions to support the negativity he associates with being a child, ‘what were assemblies but miniature Nuremburg rallies where pompous, petty officials could indulge their egos?’ In many more instances throughout the chapter, he makes references to the source of injustice not only as school but home as well, ‘it was just as bad as home...Don’t ask silly questions. Just do what your told. Don’t answer back’. Adams gives the impression that children are products of the ‘totalitarian regime’ they experience growing up through his statement, ‘we’d pick on those post-war unfortunates, the migrant kids’. He also makes one small and brief acknowledgement that there are in fact positives in childhood and therefore silences a large part of enjoyable childhood experiences. He also fails to acknowledge that the version of childhood he discusses is very much fixed in time. Through these gaps, silences and assumptions is childhood categorized as unjust and a generally restricting time causing children to want to, ‘shake of the yoke of youth’.