While scrolling through Facebook recently, I came across this clip from a British TV show called The Secret Life of 4, 5, and 6 Year Olds. Essentially, the show follows some kids in their preschool. As the kids interact, hidden cameras are catching what they say. Then, a group of developmental psychologists tunes in to the footage, commenting on the significance of the kids’ actions.
This show is somehow both the most wholesome thing I’ve ever seen and also incredibly spooky. The kids are funny and cute and also so influenced by the adult world and ridiculous social constructs. How dystopian is it that these random developmental psychologists are constantly monitoring these schoolchildren? And that then the kids are exploited and used as entertainment so that a huge TV network can make mad cash and get good ratings? And that all the while the psychologists are pathologizing these kids and playing into weird gender binarism and heteronormativity? Yikes.
Either way, check out this clip (my favorite):
this one:
this one:
and also this one:
for your daily reminder that kids are precious and also absolutely ridiculous. Then ponder the ethical dilemmas of the show, as I’ve been doing in Olin for the past half hour.