Kindergarten and the Concept of Regimented Time: An Analysis of Going to Kindergarten and Lucy & Tom: At School
Abstract
Childhood is a social construct as much as it is a biological reality. Children are understood primarily in relation to adults and are subjected to processes of socialisation. Such processes, especially those associated with schooling, are largely linked to a modus operandi of disciplining. However, there exists a different modus operandi that is often overlooked, which acts through everyday activities and introduces the child to the concept of regimented time. This article focuses on instances of the latter mode in literary space through an analysis of the books Going to Kindergarten (1974), and Lucy & Tom: At School (1973). Though the texts were contemporaneous in origin, they were informed by ideologies that were polar opposites. While Going to Kindergarten belonged to the corpus of Soviet children’s literature, Lucy & Tom: At School belonged to the body of Anglophone children’s literature from the capitalist West. But, that said, the child rearing practises that children are subjected to in both texts are essentially the same, despite the differences in socio-cultural milieu that informed their production, and are founded on ideologies of constraint and control.