TY  - GEN
AB  - A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and nations in which children played the roles of legislators, police officers, bankers, journalists, shopkeepers, and other adults. They performed real work--passing laws, growing food, and constructing buildings, among other tasks--inside virtual worlds. In this book, Jennifer Light examines the phenomena of junior republics and argues that they marked the transition to a new kind of sheltered childhood for American youth. Banished from the labor force and public life, children inhabited worlds that mirrored the one they had left.Light describes the invention of junior republics as independent institutions and how they were later established at schools, on playgrounds, in housing projects, and on city streets, as public officials discovered children's role playing helped their bottom line. The junior republic movement aligned with cutting-edge developmental psychology and educational philosophy, and complemented the era's fascination with models and miniatures, shaping educational and recreational programs across the nation. Light's account of how earlier generations distinguished "real life" from role playing reveals a hidden history of child labor in America and offers insights into the deep roots of such contemporary concepts as gamification, play labor, and virtuality.
AU  - Light, Jennifer S.,
CN  - HV876
ID  - 1386431
KW  - Junior republics
KW  - Child welfare
KW  - Youth
KW  - Youth
KW  - Youth
KW  - SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY/General
KW  - EDUCATION/Digital Media & Learning
KW  - ECONOMICS/Labor Studies
LK  - https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12077.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy
LK  - http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/forms/terms/vbrl-201703.pdf
N2  - A number of curious communities sprang up across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century: simulated cities, states, and nations in which children played the roles of legislators, police officers, bankers, journalists, shopkeepers, and other adults. They performed real work--passing laws, growing food, and constructing buildings, among other tasks--inside virtual worlds. In this book, Jennifer Light examines the phenomena of junior republics and argues that they marked the transition to a new kind of sheltered childhood for American youth. Banished from the labor force and public life, children inhabited worlds that mirrored the one they had left.Light describes the invention of junior republics as independent institutions and how they were later established at schools, on playgrounds, in housing projects, and on city streets, as public officials discovered children's role playing helped their bottom line. The junior republic movement aligned with cutting-edge developmental psychology and educational philosophy, and complemented the era's fascination with models and miniatures, shaping educational and recreational programs across the nation. Light's account of how earlier generations distinguished "real life" from role playing reveals a hidden history of child labor in America and offers insights into the deep roots of such contemporary concepts as gamification, play labor, and virtuality.
SN  - 0262358603
SN  - 9780262358606
T1  - States of childhood :from the junior republic to the American republic, 1895-1945 /
TI  - States of childhood :from the junior republic to the American republic, 1895-1945 /
UR  - https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/12077.001.0001?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - http://www.oclc.org/content/dam/oclc/forms/terms/vbrl-201703.pdf
ER  -