The Knowing Child vs. The Innocent Child
Cara Dore’s Entry:
In literature, popular media, and film, we see iterations of the Knowing Child and the Innocent Child. According to Anne Higonnet in her book Knowing Childhood, “Unlike Romantic children who are arranged and presented as a delightful spectacle to be enjoyed, Knowing children are neither available or controllable” (Higonnet, A., 1998). As a function of Western societies’ conception of children as “innocent” dating back to the Romantic era, the Knowing Child can be viewed as unnatural, or naughty.
One film which features a light-hearted example of the Knowing Child vs. the Innocent Child is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Ferris, a high school boy in the 1980’s, uses the myth of innocence to his advantage in order to trick his parents that he is sick so that he can escape from school for the day. Comically, the principal spends the entire day trying to catch Ferris and expose him as a liar. Much to the principal’s dismay, Ferris evades him all day. He is not controllable. While breaking the fourth wall and looking directly at the camera (perhaps a move reminiscent of Manet’s Olympia), Ferris famously asserts his belief, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around every once in a while, you could miss it.”
Another iteration of the Knowing Child from popular media would be the characters in the Peanuts series by Charles Schulz. The characters are all supposedly children, however, we almost never see an adult figure in the cartoons or movies. The children seem to take care of themselves in adultlike ways, even to the extent of Lucy offering psychiatric advice to Charlie Brown. Anne Higonnet states, “Knowing children have bodies and passions of their own. They are also often aware of adult bodies and passions, whether as mimics or only witnesses.” In the Peanuts, the characters seem to mimic adult roles and responsibilities. In the context of a cartoon, it is amusing to adults and children alike. The appeal to a wide age range reminds one of what Maurice Sendak said in his interview with Stephen Colbert – “I don’t write for children. I write — and somebody says, ‘That’s for children!’” (Popova, M.).
Lilyanna Plascencia’s Entry:
Another film that features an example of the Knowing Child vs. The Innocent Child is the holiday classic, Home Alone (1990). Kevin, the main character, is only merely a child and appears anything but intimidating, however, that assumption would be a mistake. Kevin finds himself home alone on Christmas Eve and two burglars are aware of this as well. The two burglars, Harry and Marv, design a plan to break into the house while Kevin is home. Kevin becomes aware of this plan and runs home to set up a display along with booby traps. Although Kevin appears as innocent as a small child he is a perfect example of being a knowing character. He should not be overlooked or misjudged and unfortunately for Harry and Marv, they were quick to take Kevin’s innocence as his only nature. Due to Kevin’s knowing tendencies, he comes across as brave and resourceful, as well as demonstrates courage and perseverance during a challenging situation. At the end of the movie, Kevin doesn’t even tell his parents about the break-in attempt, continuing to keep his parents very much in the dark and adding to his growing knowledge as a knowing child.
Antonina Tozzi’s Entry:
The Knowing Child versus the Innocent Child is a concept that includes ideas of stripping the innocence away from a child. This can be seen in many ways, from abuse to taking on adult roles while still considered a child. In Anne Higonnet’s book, Knowing Childhood, she states, “Only one form of innocence is needed to justify adult society’s protection of children – innocence of adult society. We can be absolutely sure of one thing: children are not responsible for the society into which they are born. Just because children whine and grump and throw themselves on the ground does not mean that adults are justified in doing the same” (Higonnet 1998). This suggests that the roles are not to be reversed or interchanged. In today’s media, one can find many examples of this very concept where children and adult roles become a “gray area”.
One example of children taking on adult roles is the movie Cheaper by the Dozen. In this short clip, starting at twenty-four seconds in, it is pictured all of the children taking on a role in preparing breakfast. No matter what age the child is, they are all still an active participant. This is an example of taking away the innocence of a child because making breakfasts and lunches would typically not be the job of a certain age of children.
Another example seen in the media is ignoring the voice of an adult or making fun of an adult figure. In the following example, the popular television show, Wizards of Waverly Place used to air on Disney Channel. This short clip is one example of many times the children/teenage characters would make fun of or mock the adult figures. This connects to the stripping of innocence in the way that the roles are confused or reversed. This implies the child is in the position of being “all knowing” and the adult is the figure that needs to learn and mature more.
Deanna Bergdorf’s Entry:
“Who said parenting or childhood was easy?”, Higonnet asks in her 1998 text. The parent/child body switch movie, a recurring film theme across the decades, presents a familiar sequence of events for seeing the knowing child as the savior of the parent and the family. Only through an exchange of their lived physical experience is the parent able to reconnect with the perspectives of the knowing child. The priorities, desires, and insights of the knowing child are shown to be critical to the parent’s/adult’s ultimate decision to realign their life priorities in more balanced ways.
The five films highlighted below are just a few of the many movies following the same predictable format of parental and child dissatisfaction followed by a magical event, then, the shock of differences in embodied experiences leads to radical awakenings, and finally, a return to their original roles with new insights. In all of these films, the errors of the adults’ ways are illuminated by the inputs from the knowing child’s day to day experiences. While this genre embraces, rather than rebukes, the perspectives of the knowing child, this format serves to further the notion that there is a sense of purity in childhood that is lost to the demands of adult life, and that adults can only be saved by reconnecting to the unspoiled outlook of childhood and adolescence.
Works Cited
Higonnet, A. (1998). Knowing Childhood. Pictures of Innocence. Thames and Hudson. doi: 0500280487. pp. 193-225.
Popova, M. (2014, September 9). Maurice sendak’s darkest, most controversial yet most hopeful children’s book. The Marginalian. https://www.themarginalian.org/2014/09/09/maurice-sendak-we-are-all-in-the-dumps-with-jack-and-guy/
While we may live in the mindset of protecting the child and covering their ears and eyes, some of our popular media in pop culture suggest otherwise. I love the connections that were presented above further challenging the idea that children are ignorant of the world around them. They are very knowledgeable of their surroundings and their world. As shown above in “Charlie Brown Christmas”, the characters are depicted as children physically, but their conversation suggests otherwise. They discuss depression, having particular phobias, facing and pinpointing fears, and the need to be more involved socially to feel better. This doesn’t sound like a child’s conversation because we don’t talk to children about these things in this manner. I think each of these videos further the realization that while parents may encourage the innocent child, the media may contradict that.
I really enjoyed this side exhibit because it showed children in various roles, to include: a child playing an innocent role to get what he wants, a child who looks innocent but can plot to deceive adults, children re-enacting adult situations, and children taking on adult roles. However, I do think there is a difference between childhood innocence and children taking on what we perceive as adult tasks. I’m sure children in the 1940s were perceived as innocent, but I guarantee they took on more household chores than kids typically take on today. My grandmother was born in the 1930s, and she put me on a pedestal growing up, but she stared teaching me how to cook and bake well before the age of ten because that’s what mothers/grandmothers did with their daughters. I don’t think that affected the innocence of the child. It’s interesting that we view children doing adult work as something that takes away from the carefree childhood experience. Do you think there was a shift in this thinking at some point? When do you think that happened? I’d guess after the 1980s, but I’m not really sure. I never really thought about it. Thank you for sharing!
Carrie
One television program I was thinking of as I read this week’s material is South Park. On that show, the children are lewd and often know things about the world that their parents don’t. That show resonates with my childhood specifically because I am from the same small town in Colorado that the creators are. It reminded me of Sendak’s quote “I knew terrible things… but I knew I mustn’t let adults know I knew… It would scare them.”
I really appreciate that you looked at the knowing child versus the innocent child in film for your exhibit. Our group also looked at film but focused on the production of children’s films for adults and innocent children. This way of looking at children in film feels very complimentary to what we did. I feel particularly drawn to what you said here about children taking on adult roles in film. We see this happen in children’s fiction books at times as well. Many authors say this increases appeal to child viewers which I always found interesting.
I really enjoyed reading this side exhibition! Within this exhibition, I really liked how you took childhood classics (at least for me they are childhood classics) and focused on the knowing child vs the innocent child. After looking at your exhibition, I started to think about other shows/movies that displayed this. The section about Cheaper By The Dozen was a great example of showing how the innocence of a child was taken away by having them assemble breakfasts/lunches.
One aspect of comedy is taking something and presenting it in an incongruent way. Several of these video clips do just this–presenting children in ways that are not how we normally think of children: Lucy and Charlie Brown speaking like adults and about typically adult topics (“offering psychiatric advice”), Kevin in Home Alone outwitting the burglars and protecting his house, and the switching of parent/child roles in Wizards of Waverly Place. Making the characters Knowing Children is what adds to the comedy of each of the situations. These are great examples of the Knowing Child. I do have to agree with Carrie above, that doing chores isn’t necessarily adult work, and doing those chores doesn’t take away from a child’s innocence. Did we start to think that children who help with work have lost some of their innocence when families were prosperous enough that they didn’t NEED the children to work?
This side exhibit on “The Knowing Child vs. The Innocent Child” is very interesting and reveals important messages about children. I observed through the different entries how children demonstrated their innocence, purity, and youthful personalities through the movies. They expressed how they need to be protected from this confused world and just enjoy their childhood. Through the movies, the audience can also view how children are creative, curious about knowledge, and asking to be a part of the culture. On the other hand, there are communications that explained the treatment and representation of the children. Moreover, the message portrays how children easily cope with diverse experiences as compared to adults.
Great exhibit!
I was in high school when Ferris Beuhler came out. I’m not as familiar with the other movies/shows you mention in this exhibition, so it was interesting to see what you referred to between that movie and today. I wondered what was behind Charles Schulz’ thinking when he started incorporating the psychiatrist booth in Charlie Brown comics. I did some research and found a link (below) that tracks the history of the idea. One of the most interesting statements it makes is – “The psychiatric booth is a prime example of the more adult-oriented humor that Schulz incorporated into his comic strip, making it accessible to people of all ages.” This fits nicely with the Knowing Child vs Adult humor we’ve been discussing. Nice job!
https://peanuts.fandom.com/wiki/Lucy%27s_psychiatry_booth
Diane, thanks for this resource! I especially enjoyed reading about the competition between Lucy and Snoopy.
Hi Cara, Lily, Antonina, and Deanna! I love your approach of writing entries to share your insights and artifacts for this core topic of the knowing child vs. the innocent child. Seeing these clips brings back memories! For the “Home Alone Kevin Tricks the Burglars,” I’ll confess I had a different view seeing it here in your exhibit so many years later from first watching the film. My immediate thought now is how much work would be involved in creating that “party”! Kevin really is resourceful.
I’m also struck by how much I notice the film music in these clips. (Full disclosure, my husband authored a film music course, so I’ve become very aware of how music evokes emotions.)
In looking at the pattern Deanna describes, it’s fascinating to consider how this predictable format echoes the home/away/home (or new home) pattern that often appears in children’s stories. In their book The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, authors Perry Nodelman and Mavis Reimer talk about this pattern in their chapter “Children’s Literature as Repertoire.”
Thanks for your thought-provoking exhibit!
Nodelman, Perry and Mavis Reimer. The Pleasures of Children’s Literature, 3rd Edition. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2003.
I really liked all the different examples of “the Knowing Child” in your exhibit! A common theme I found between the different movies/TV shows is the childrens’ dissatisfaction and knowing-better-than-the-adults attitude. I think what many of these classics touch on is the pretty universal feeling children/adolescents have which is that the adults in their lives don’t know anything, and that they know better than the adults. I think about the famous scene from The Breakfast Club in which the teacher is yelling at the student (paraphrasing here) “here’s another day of detention! and another! you can just be in detention the entire year!” That film really hits it on the nose because it showcases how removed adults are from childhood. Your exhibit, too, is a wonderful reminder for adults/teachers that a major rite of passage for childhood is the mindset that they know better than us, and will constantly challenge us! I think this peaks in Middle Schoolers, which is part of the reason why they’re so difficult to teach.
I love all the connections ot popular movies and tv shows!! Cheaper by the dozen was one of my favorite movies growing up. Agreed- the kids are so independent in that movie. There are so many of them – and they all are able to complete tasks on their own. I’d also say that a few of them are definitely mischevious- not innocent at all! The kids are plotting for much of the movie- which would definitely be characterized as “uncontrollable”
I also love this movie. Yes a few of them were not innocent they were definitely a knowing child.
I thought all of your additions to your exhibit were clever and spot-on! I liked how you discussed the role reversal in the five films. These movies definitely send the message that we should think of childhood as being “innocent” by contrasting childhood with all of the demands of adulthood. It is interesting that these films also portray the child-who-becomes-the-adult as “knowing.” They are able to use what they already know to function in the adult world. I liked your inclusion of the Peanuts films and how the characters are portrayed as adults with Lucy doling out psychiatric help. I remember watching those shows and thinking the characters seemed to act more like adults – they have problems, they fall in love, etc. Great job on your exhibit!
I love your use of pop culture with the inclusion of Charlie Brown and Ferris Bueller! Ferris is definitely one of my personal favorite examples of the knowing child trope.
I found the example from the movie Ferris Bueller’s day off to mesh well with the idea of innocence in regard to the romantic era. This perfectly highlights how innocence is a broad term. The idea that Ferris manipulates the concept of innocence to match his ulterior motives blends well the idea that some aspects of innocence are left to the choice of the individual.
I like the example of Home Alone. It clearly demonstrates a knowing child rather than what the burgles perceived him as an innocent child. In the movie, they even say that kids are dumb. Kevin uses his brain and what he is capable of and protects his home. He uses toys on the floor (my mom has stepped on lots of toys and hurt the bottom of her foot). He used glass bulbs (most of us has stepped on those). I could go on and on about this movie. I really enjoyed this reference.