I chose the scholar David Lewkowich in the article “Detours of Growth”.  This article is about viewpoints on the education system and things that need attention.  Lewkowich talks about the normalization in society and those impacts on child development.  The normalization within child development is social control.  The article also talks about if children are outside of the social control that is deemed ‘normal’ to the public these children need to be cured and corrected, or they are viewed as defective or deficient.  There is this expectation that children get from adults at a young age, and this is unfair for the children that want to explore their own identities and childhood their own way, rather than from socially constructed. 

David Lewkowich talks about a book within his article, this book is by “Farley, Lisa. Childhood beyond Pathology: A Psychoanalytic Study of Development and Diagnosis.”  Within Lewkowich’s article Farley has five chapters/considerations about “childhood beyond pathology.” (Lewkowich, 2020).  The social norms upon childhood are unfair, and perhaps people are scared of the “…uncertain knowledge.”  Briefly, Chapter. 1 talked about children “…as [being] both a historical artifact and lived experience.” (Lewkowich, 2020).  Chapter. 2 talked about working with autistic children and the challenges that come with this.  In Chapter. 3, this chapter is about how black youth are viewed as threats towards the white children in North America.  Chapter 4 is about “…showing how expectations of innocence often serve to protect certain groups of young people at the expense of others.” (Lewkowich, 2020).  And lastly, Chapter. 5 talked briefly about the “…child’s embodiment of gender identity…” (Lewkowich, 2020).  

This article talked about any struggles that come from socially constructed viewpoints on child development.  For my Assignment.1, I may explore that inequality and the expectations in education.  After reading this article I feel that there is pressure on youth to hit a certain expectation at a given age, and perhaps this is harmful for their development psychologically.

Lewkowich, David. “Detours of Growth.” Jeunesse, Young People, Texts, Cultures 12, no. 1 (2020): 199-207.