CD130 Fall 19 Journal 3 "How Institutional Are You? Due Oct 1 Take a few quiet moments to read and then reflect on the article, "How Institutional Are YOU?" After you have reflected on the article, please type your responses to these questions: 1) What is your reaction to the word "institutionalize", and why is that such a hard word for those who work with young children? 2) Reflect on places that you have worked at, or are currently working at, and how they are similar to the following typical characteristics of total institutions. Really think about the rules and policies your center has and how they fit into this institutionalization of child care. a. Room b. Time c. Privacy d. Personal Property e. Meaning and Responsibility f. Exuberance and Spontaneity g. Security, Safety and Order h. Significant Others in the Outside World i. Staff j. Individuality k. Dignity and Respect All journal assignments must be typed. Thank you! How INSTITUTIONAL ARE YOU? into a single rational plan purportedly designed to fulfill the official aims to the next. (Goffman, 1961) T the notion that we are insti- tutionalizing children in child care is not one that we like to hear. After all, we child care professionals are the good guys. We love children, childhood, primary colors, and cookies. And yet there is not another appropriate term for what we are doing. A child care center or home is an insti- tution -- a formal, established organi- zation. It is the con- notation we find hard to take institu- tionalize conjures up, well, institutions, particularly those that sociologists call total institutions (asylums, hospitals, prisons, some schools) - places where uniformity, order, and rules are the primary values. In total institutions, there are inher- ent tendencies that work in concert to dehumanize all the members, including staff. Child care centers have many of the defining character- istics of total institutions. That isn't bad, it's just the nature of the beast. But total institutions can be bad, very bad; and those inherent tendencies are present in child care. To avoid becoming the sort of institution that we find far removed from a good place for a childhood, it is helpful to consider some of the typical charac- teristics of total institutions: ROOM Total institutions rarely allow much space per individual, justified by cost. Large group life is thus predom- inant, and comes to be considered acceptable. In child care, 35 square feet per child (25 in some states) and limited outdoor space has become standard, without many objections. TIME Sociologist Erving Goffman studied institutions and noted that while every institution captures something of the time, space, and interests of its members, some are far more encompassing or total than others as to their control and impact on the lives of their members. In total institutions: (eating, sleep, play, work, social life, etc.). Second, each phase of the member's daily activity is carried on in the immediate company of others, all of whom are treated alike and required to do the same thing together. Third, all phases of the day's activities are tightly scheduled, with one activity leading at a pre- arranged time into the next, the whole sequence of activities being imposed from above. ... Finally, the various enforced activities are brought together Institutions always control time and parcel it out in time blocks based on institutional needs, creating an institutional rhythm that renders the rhythm of the individual or the task irrelevant. There is hospital time - change the sheets at 6:00 AM; school time bells and buzzers mark lunch at 11:00; recess at 2:00 before a departure at 3:00; and child care time All aspects of life are conducted in the same place and under the same authority PLACES FOR CHILDHOODS 21 OF SQUARE PEGS AND ROUND HOLES Kyle was the epicenter of chaos. His enthusiasms worked on him like tectonic plates, grinding and shifting until the air around him was vibrating in a state of anticipation. He could no more portion out his interests and passions into 19 and 42 minute time slots than use his four year old body to drive a truck. He could, however, be a truck, a dog, . an airplane, or his pièce de résistance - a dinosaur And when he was taken over by his dinosauritis, he didn't want to put down the dinosaurs and read about them at story time like the teacher suggested; he wanted to continue his play because at that moment he WAS a dinosaur. He needed to sound like one, move like one, eat like one. Watching him try to sit with the group and involve himself in the teacher's words that hazily floated toward him and focus on the small two-dimensional images of dinosaurs on the pages between the heads of the other children, you could see the very thin veneer of civilization slipping away from his four year old body as he began reverting to the dinosaur he truly was only minutes ago. And, of course, his devolution carried Julian and Katie along with him. "TIME OUT, KYLE!," again. The pressure to shape up and fly right was not occasional, but continual, and often led to frustration. The tragedy was that it was Kyle's wonderful qualities that brought down the institutional wrath His enthusiasm, his charisma, his attention span, and his devotion to HIS task created problems, whether the task was dinosaurology or being engrossed in a book or building a fort. In the institutional context, it was hard for the staff not to see Kyle as a disruptive troublemaker, which he was, but only because of the context over which he had no control. Trouble was not badness but enthusiasm. Staff rarely saw the person in Kyle, the person who is present now and will emerge in various incarnations as the nine year old, the teenager, the adult. Looking at Kyle that way, one sees an inquisitive person with a huge appetite for experience and an ability to focus on the experience. His inability to apportion his appetite to the child care context at four years old is unfortunate for the staff, but hardly a signal of future socio- pathic behavior. diapering at 9:30, outdoor play from 11:00 to 11:30, nap from 1:00 to 3:00 ("I don't want to tell you again, back on your cot!"). shared expectations, socialized chil- dren, and adults who are aware about what is happening without needing to become omniscient wardens. dent bathroom access, portioned-out food, sleep and wake up when told, and no responsibilities for the tasks of daily life. PRIVACY PERSONAL PROPERTY EXUBERANCE AND SPONTANEITY Institutions allow little privacy, justi- fied by the lack of space and the need for order and security to protect members from themselves and each other. There is a very small personal zone, the area surrounding an indi- vidual, that the individual can claim ("get outta my face"). There is often no way to own time or space, except perhaps during punishment. Institutions limit personal property, for the protection of the property and maintenance of order. In a child care context, this means little security for the child's art or treasures and restrictions: "Park your blankee at the door, buster." Institutions rarely tolerate exuber- ance or spontaneity. These qualities are usually viewed as impulsive or immature. They disrupt routines and raise the terrifying specter of chaos. Institutions do not suffer gladly life-enhancing individuals — those characters whose "joie de vivre" leads to exuberance and spontaneity. MEANING AND RESPONSIBILITY The child care equivalent is limited, secluded, or cozy areas. There is now an unfortunate, near universal, sim- plistic tendency to confuse supervi- sion with surveillance; the children must be under the observation of adults every second - thus large open spaces and no seclusion. This replaces the more sophisticated con- cept that supervision also includes a safe, planned "yes" environment, In institutions, there is little activity that has much meaning outside the institution. There is a tendency to be insulated from the outside world. Occupants have little responsibility for anything meaningful, including meeting their own needs for care. You are usually dependent on others for meeting basic needs, either for permission, or timing, or access. The child care equivalent is no indepen- These troublemakers make magic and stir things up. We may love them in literature and film - McMurphy in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," Robin Williams' characters in "Good Morning Vietnam" and "The Dead Poet's Society," Pippi Longstocking, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan but supervis- ing them or working with them is another story. 22 GREENMAN ACTUARIALLY CORRECT institutions are preoccupied with phere , c'est la vie (or le mort). SIGNIFICANT OTHERS IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD institution during work, and SACURITY, SAFETY, AND ORDER lack of professional respect place them only a notch above their charges. There is a school of thought that argues safets security, and order, usually we should teach children the right way justified for the good of the inmates. INDIVIDUALITY to go down the slide - erect, with hand in doubt restrict. If the overall on railing, body poised for a safe land- text is a contained, lifeless atmos- Individuality is a casualty of ing- and a right way to swing all the other dimensions. The again, the chain fully grasped on each -- erect reality is that the important side, eyes straight ahead. There are also defining characteristics are licensing requirements in some states not individual, but relative to that require children to have shoes on at the group and context. The all times, in spite of the well-established Institutions take pains to limit the whole person within is rarely primal need of a toddler to have one power and influence of others, considered. For child care shoe on and one lost. No one is in favor specifically family (e.g. parents). and schools, it is age. The of playground injuries or harm to feet or There is rarely an accommodation to more age-graded the situa- foot-borne disease; but a world of erect, the context of others to allow them to tion, and the more parents shod children is hardly the stuff of participate or have influence on the are kept at an arm's length, childhood dreams. institution. In schools and some child the less the individual child care, closed classroom doors, profes- is recognized sional assertions of expertise and jar- gon, and PTAs channel parents away DIGNITY AND RESPECT concentrate on the means. Order from raising questions and influenc- takes precedence over mental health ing their children's experience. Institutions rarely leave much room in asylums, education in schools, (literally) for dignity and respect. rehabilitation in prisons, and child- STAFF hood in those child care centers that Simple kindness is not enough to overcome the loss of individuality, fit the description. Institutions are hard on the staff, who often feel the only power they privacy, and responsibility. Total institutions are not places where Childhood depends on some pre- have is ruling over the inhabitants. life is to be lived in all of its joy and cious formula of freedom and mess. Low salaries, limited autonomy, drama. Joy and drama are too Until institutionalized through child virtual confinement within the unwieldy. It is easier to turn care, children in the most structured day-to-day life into mostly homes could usually break through pageant-ritual doings and the concrete web of good intentions MY BABY observations. Drama has and find the cracks, alive with POS- fire, the hint of chaos, sibilities for movement, exploration, Caitlin came with a raft of accessories sensuality, intense moments and discovery - in the room, under every day: a photograph, a cookie, a of concentration, and the the bed, in the backyard, on the necklace, and a stuffed animal. It was a intricate mini-plays of social stoop, alone or with friends. These struggle to enforce the policy of discour- life. It is engagement with were times when adult sanctions aging toys from home. Her first day life. Thomas Merton com- were weakened, allowing explo- back from vacation she appeared with a mented once that civilization ration of forbidden words with new baby doll. Despite gently being told was heading toward lives of delicious hard consonant syllables she already had her authorized "lovey" low definition with little to and intriguing substances. These at the center, she demanded admittance decide, an apt description of were times when space opened up for her new baby, "Ashley." "Babies do institutional living. rather than contained; and jumps, not belong at home alone," she sniffed. "MY BABY will not be home alone," she shouts, and giggles pierced the air. Total institutions arise not More centers can have the same feel bellowed with her maternal instinct because of evil or ignorance, by being alert to the dehumanizing aflame. Quick-witted, the teacher (to the dismay of some of the staff) admitted but out of legitimate concerns tendencies that are ever-present. for order, smooth standard Ashley and began a baby doll day care. There was never a more ferociously pro- operations, and the well- REFERENCE tective being of the inhabitants as a of mothers than those four group year olds looking out for the interests of group. They become mind- Goffman, Erving. ASYLUMS: Essays their babies. less as they lose sight of the on the Social Situation of Mental individual and the real Patients and Other Inmates. New York: goals, the end goals, as they Anchor Books, 1961.
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