{"id":18866,"date":"2020-08-08T02:37:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-08T02:37:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/?p=18866"},"modified":"2020-08-08T02:52:17","modified_gmt":"2020-08-08T02:52:17","slug":"junior-republics-a-unique-concept-in-the-history-of-american-childhood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/junior-republics-a-unique-concept-in-the-history-of-american-childhood\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cJunior republics,\u201d a unique concept in the history of American childhood"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Peter Dizikes, MIT News<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Photo: M. Scott Brauer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CAMBRIDGE, Mass —\u00a0Around 1900, the famed Baedeker\u2019s travel guide began listing a new tourist sight in Freeville, New York: the \u201cGeorge Junior Republic,\u201d a miniature United States run by kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The invention of philanthropist William R. George, the \u201cjunior republic\u201d was mostly occupied by impoverished or immigrant teenagers from New York City, acting as politicians, judges, police officers, journalists, and other workers, in their own separate civic world. George thought this would instill American democratic values in Freeville\u2019s young residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis interesting experiment seems to work well, and a visit to Freeville rivals in sociological interest that to Ellis Island,\u201d the Baedeker\u2019s guide stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, \u201cGeorge\u2019s idea caught on like wildfire,\u201d says MIT Professor Jennifer Light. Soon junior republics were springing up around America, with modified versions introduced into schools, playgrounds, and settlements. In an era when popular entertainment included \u201cliving villages\u201d \u2014 reconstructions of settings from Cairo to Native American encampments, complete with their inhabitants \u2014 Americans were enchanted by the concept of a participatory virtual experience of adult life for kids.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the junior republic movement is the subject of a new book by Light, \u201cStates of Childhood: From the Junior Republic to the American Republic, 1895-1945<\/a>,\u201d published this month by the MIT Press. In it, Light \u2014 who is the head of MIT\u2019s Program in Science, Technology, and Society; the Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology; and a professor in MIT\u2019s Department of Urban Studies and Planning \u2014 illuminates the history of this influential but forgotten movement and reminds us that, long before the invention of computing, Americans were intrigued by the educational possibilities of virtual worlds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGeorge lived at a time when many kids were still part of the labor force, but reformers were pressing to send them to school and adult-supervised recreational activities instead,\u201d Light says. \u201cJunior republics offered a middle ground where they could role-play adult jobs inside child-only settings to prepare for their future lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Double life<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reform-minded businessman working in New York City, George founded a \u201cfresh air camp\u201d in Freeville in 1890. Five years later, he gathered 150 young people to start the full junior republic, with limited adult supervision. The participants passed laws, debated women\u2019s suffrage \u2014 George was ambivalent about the idea, but thought it was good for girls to anticipate it \u2014 and created an elaborate simulacrum of civic life that included a currency system and hotels like \u201cthe Waldorf,\u201d named after New York City establishments. George cultivated attention, receiving what Light calls \u201coverwhelmingly positive\u201d reviews from journalists and public officials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freeville soon generated imitation villages \u2014 and even more related programs in schools. A friend of George\u2019s named Wilson Gill developed \u201cschool republics\u201d in New York City classrooms. These patterned student governments after local governments \u2014 with mayors, police, and street cleaning departments \u2014 and emphasized that what mattered most for kids was the role-playing experience, not their environment. That meant junior republics did not all have to be built anew, and many programs focused on creating a \u201cdouble life\u201d for kids to enjoy adult-like experiences while being protected from actual adult life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This focus on role-playing also meshed with the ideas of some prominent thinkers. Psychologist G. Stanley Hall, an admirer of George, emphasized in his work how much children at play are imitative of adults; the famous educational theorist John Dewey, who advised Gill, was an advocate of \u201clearning by doing.\u201d All told, this constellation of views enhanced the popularity of the junior republic concept, in any physical form. If kids loved to pretend they were adults, the thinking went, why not turn their play into an educational experience?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a challenge to get independent republics going,\u201d Light observes, \u201cso after 1900 the main trend was for schools and youth-serving institutions to integrate republics into their programming. They were incredibly popular.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, the junior republic idea kept evolving. Public officials, seeing kids\u2019 efficacy as police, judges, and health inspectors inside child-only societies, subsequently organized junior police squads, junior juvenile courts, and junior sanitary inspectors \u2014 making city streets the settings for elaborate role-playing games in which kids arrested peers, adjudicated cases of juvenile delinquency, and kept their neighborhoods clean. During World War I, children in junior republics and related programs directed attention to the war effort, growing food, making hospital supplies, and sewing clothing for refugees. In the 1920s and 1930s, schools and police departments deployed children for traffic management near schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe conventionally understand the transformation of childhood to be a straightforward story of kids being removed from the labor force and public life,\u201d Light says. \u201cBut many of these programs assigned kids to keep order in public streets! And, there was tremendous economic value in role-playing of all kinds, even as people called it educational or recreational.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as women\u2019s work was (and is) often unpaid, Light notes, a similar dynamic unfolded with kids, well into the 20th century. \u201cThere are some interesting parallels to the digital economy as well. On platforms like Facebook it\u2019s users who generate economic value, but we call this having fun rather than work, and don\u2019t expect to get paid.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echoes today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The junior republic movement outlasted George (who died in 1936), but eventually lost momentum. As Light observes, the rise in material wealth in the U.S., a shift to consumer culture, and the expansion of mass media changed how children played.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFilm, radio, and television became increasingly central in kids\u2019 lives,\u201c Light says. \u201cEducators turned away from role-playing to adapt these newer technologies to their learning objectives.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Light says, \u201cNobody has heard of the junior republics.\u201d Still, she notes, their legacy has endured: \u201cStudent newspapers, teen courts, Model United Nations, and Boys and Girls State \u2014 all these things had ties to the republic movement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we still encounter discussions about simulation and learning that resemble those from a century ago, Light notes. Today those questions may surround things like online activities and the gamification of learning, but they are not new.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fascinating to discover a national conversation about the educational possibilities of role-playing and virtual worlds that\u2019s 125 years old,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 1900, the famed Baedeker\u2019s travel guide began listing a new tourist sight in Freeville, New York: the \u201cGeorge Junior Republic,\u201d a miniature United States run by kids.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light-200x200.jpg",200,200,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",600,400,false],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",600,400,false],"newspaper-x-single-post":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"newspaper-x-recent-post-big":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light-550x360.jpg",550,360,true],"newspaper-x-recent-post-list-image":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light-95x65.jpg",95,65,true],"web-stories-poster-portrait":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",639,426,false],"web-stories-publisher-logo":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",96,64,false],"web-stories-thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/MIT-States-Childhood-Light.jpg",150,100,false]},"author_info":{"info":["RevoScience"]},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.revoscience.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}