“Criss-Cross Applesauce”

This chapter analyzes how the discourse of emotional intelligence intersects with national curriculum efforts such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core, as well as how these discourses play out in an actual kindergarten classroom. Emotional management dovetails with physical regulation to teach young children how to manage themselves for their own success; the chapter shows how this involves the expression rather than suppression of emotions and thus intersects with neoliberal notions of self-management. This chapter lays the groundwork for the later argument about educational media, showing how kids’ television programming prepares kids for a successful school experience.

“I Hate You, Dunel Trump”

This chapter analyzes the discourse of civility—which goes under the name of “niceness” in elementary schools—as it appears in kids’ letters to Trump during the campaign and immediately following the election. In this version of the emotional intelligence paradigm, teachers and parents advocate writing letters as an exercise to help kids process and name their emotions in a manner that makes them feel like they can do something within the system. These “proper” modes of expression inevitably involve conforming to standards and rules and bodily comportment. The chapter then turns to examples of kids’ artwork from three locations in which teachers gave kids the opportunity to say and especially draw whatever they wanted; in these cultural productions, there is a much greater affective range, illustrating feelings of anger, fear, and hatred in a manner that does not adhere to the discourse of niceness.

Minecraft’s Affective World Building

The internet and gaming offer considerable potential for kids’ affective expression, a realm that has been largely ignored in the valorization of digital literacy and its focus on technological skills. In this chapter, I argue that the popular game Minecraft exhibits a Deleuzian kind of becoming, in which subjects are constantly maneuvering and experimenting as they construct their own worlds as well as collaborative spaces. Because the game has sprawled across technologies and led to the creation of so many spin-off products, it provides a unique space for seeing how children construct themselves through their relationship to this broadly defined “text.” In addition to the games and their products, I rely on commentary by children: my son Ezra, his friends, and YouTube users, all of whom contribute to the construction of an “archive of feelings” that is largely unregulated by adult efforts to name and govern. This archive is also part of the construction of a community of kids who, although often not physically in the same space, form social relationships.

Introduction

The introduction provides an overview of the book’s key arguments and situates it within the fields of childhood studies, media studies, and cultural studies. It describes the concept of emotional intelligence and how it has been applied in public schools as a way of managing kids’ emotions. Alternate notions of growing up come from the fields of disability studies, where nonnormative forms of expression such as music and drawing are valorized. These forms lead to a more capacious realm of expression than storytelling in its normative, linear mode.

Conclusion

On April 4, 2017, Bana al-Abed, the seven-year-old Syrian girl I discussed in part I, posted several graphic pictures of dead children and tweeted the following: “Dear world, today these children were murdered with chemical in Idlib. Shame on you killers, shame on you. Shame on you, shame on you.”...

TV’s Narratives for Emotional Management

This chapter argues that much programming for younger children on Nick Jr., Disney Jr., and PBS encourages them to manage their emotions and limit their affective, bodily responses through a focus on problem solving. These shows also advocate empathy and tolerance, teaching kids how to recognize and respond to others’ feelings. Many shows segue from emotional management to an appreciation of difference, thus contributing to the wider discourse of diversity management. In a stark shift from the years when television was seen as harming children’s development, many therapists now urge parents to use television to help their children learn prosocial behavior. However, television cannot be homogenized; a genre of “sideways growth” programming encourages kids to defy proper behavior, to revel in their bodies, and to occupy spaces of intensely affective pleasure. These shows interrupt the linear narratives that characterize problem-solving approaches and thus introduce the idea of alternative modes of communication.

The Production of Fear

This chapter analyzes the situation of Central American children seeking refuge in the U.S.; for them, the gap between adult impositions and their own experiences means that their emotions—namely, their fears of bodily harm—are not taken seriously as they proceed through the immigration system seeking relief from deportation to dangerous homelands. I present as well an exhibit of drawings by children just released from detention to illustrate an alternative range of feelings.

From Memes to Logos

This chapter analyzes the popular game Roblox, which also serves as the basis for community building. However, in the Roblox world, kids’ movements through the various game spaces are frequently interrupted by images of the consumer world, such as fast-food signs and branded logos. While the movement is somewhat similar to the Minecraft world, consumerism shapes a different kind of space for kids’ expressions.

The Steven Universe, Where You Are an Experience

This chapter analyzes the Cartoon Network series Steven Universe, demonstrating that it is possible for television programming to valorize neurodiversity. The show and its fandom speak to the creativity of kids who occupy precarious positions in the contemporary U.S.—mixed-race, mixed-legal-status, gender-nonconforming, and blended families. The show’s hero is a young boy whose superpowers are explicitly linked to his ability to express (rather than control) his emotions. Kids also say they love the show because it allows them to process mixed-identity categories in complex ways, especially through the show’s notion of “fusion,” in which characters who are emotionally in accord with each other fuse into a hybrid identity. This fusion is illustrated in numerous examples of fanart, especially on the Tumblr platform, which markets itself as a safe space for young people who are struggling with depression and loneliness.

Affective Intensity and Children’s Embodiment

This chapter establishes the theoretical framework, using Brian Massumi’s theory of affect to elaborate the differences between emotions and affect. This chapter also reviews some of the media studies literature on children to show how my argument is both indebted to and departs from this scholarship. It argues for attending to children’s physiological differences from adults, while at the same time not positing an essentialized category of children.