Children in Conflict by Morris Fraser Term Paper

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Children in Conflict by Morris Fraser

Morris Fraser, a child psychiatrist in Belfast, describes the effects of the 'troubles' on children growing up in Northern Ireland in Children in Conflict. While the book offers valuable insights for the behavioral sciences of psychology and sociology as a whole, it also succeeds in establishing the manner in which society can, consciously and unconsciously, end up perpetuating an existing social problem. In particular, Fraser shows the role played by educational, religious and familial and peer group structure in fostering enmity through future generations, all in the name of ideology and culture in Children in Conflict.

The importance of Foster's work must be understood in the context of the fact that the conflict in Ireland is not recent but dates back to 300 years. Viewed from that perspective, the role of social structural forces such as family, peer group, educational and religious institutions begin to assume even higher significance, in so much that Children in Conflict implies that the effects as well as the course of the civil conflict or absence thereof may have been largely determined by the social and psychological conditioning of generation after generation of young children. One such institutional influence that Fraser opines played a decisive role in helping to form belief systems that ended up fuelling the Ireland conflict is the educational system in Northern Ireland.

One outcome of the fact that it was Protestant England that conquered Northern Ireland was the division of population and education on religious lines. With 98% of Ulster's children attending segregated schools, it was inevitable that school children were made highly conscious of sectarianism between Protestants and Catholics, both on political and religious lines just by sheer virtue of their separation.

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Further, such an educational system in a land rife with political and religious conflict was bound to result in both an overt as well as covert reinforcement of ideologies that strengthened instead of diffusing the conflict.

As Fraser points out, in Northern Ireland, Catholic schools taught their students to be loyal to Ireland and thereby the cause of Irish nationalism while the Protestant schools asked their student body to pledge their loyalty to the British Queen as citizens of the United Kingdom. Even holidays celebrated reveal the sharp lines drawn between warring factions. For instance, several Catholic schools in the Belfast area stayed open on the Queen's birthday in 1972.

As a result, the system of segregated schooling strongly influenced the perpetuation of the conflict in Ireland. It is leading from the aforesaid analysis that one solution offered by Fraser was the integration of the educational system, as it would then result in a more objective curriculum and more contact between the different groups. An integrated educational system would, Fraser hoped; result in neutralizing at least one perpetrator of an age-old conflict (Fraser, 128-142).

Fraser also delves into the role played by family and peer group structures in the social outlook and psychological conditioning of young children. To start with, the children grow up hearing stories of the conflict within the family, which when reinforced by the subtle sectarianism….....

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