Their Status
Many schools have rules against secret clubs, and some jurisdictions even have laws prohibiting secret or invitation-only societies in public elementary or secondary schools.
The fact that interest in these clubs tends to be a passing phase at a certain age What age? may result from the stages of children's cognitive development. After growing out of the "egocentric", or "preoperational" stage, reaching the "age of reason", one is able to understand other people's intentions. The next step is the ability to understand groups and the desire to belong to a club.
Written material about these secret clubs, such as the external links listed below, cites eight- and nine-year-olds most often. While slightly older children may also participate in secret clubs, they would be less expected to use fantasy elements in their activities.
Juvenile comics and literature often feature such clubs as a plot device, often with spy or detective themes, and often far more organized than their real-life counterparts. A more realistic depiction is found in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's novel The Egypt Game, in which six children gather in an abandoned storage yard to enact fantasy adventures and recreate actual ceremonies based on and adapted from their knowledge of ancient Egypt.
Movies have featured such clubs, notably the early Ealing comedy-thriller Hue & Cry. There are also juvenile non-fiction books that serve as "how-to's" for code-making and surveillance, most notably the Usborne Good Spy Guide series.
Read more about this topic: Childhood Secret Club
Famous quotes containing the word status:
“Knowing how beleaguered working mothers truly are—knowing because I am one of them—I am still amazed at how one need only say “I work” to be forgiven all expectation, to be assigned almost a handicapped status that no decent human being would burden further with demands. “I work” has become the universally accepted excuse, invoked as an all-purpose explanation for bowing out, not participating, letting others down, or otherwise behaving inexcusably.”
—Melinda M. Marshall (20th century)
“What is clear is that Christianity directed increased attention to childhood. For the first time in history it seemed important to decide what the moral status of children was. In the midst of this sometimes excessive concern, a new sympathy for children was promoted. Sometimes this meant criticizing adults. . . . So far as parents were put on the defensive in this way, the beginning of the Christian era marks a revolution in the child’s status.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)