Age Categories

AGE CATEGORIES. "From a biological point of view, there do not exist any sharply defined ages. Biology accepts life as a whole, as one continuous path of the most complex processes" (Chulitskaya). Therefore, age categories are all more or less artificial, and, depending on the researcher's approach, their classification is quite varied. Thus, Istrat distinguishes, following the course of growth in boys and girls, first childhood (up to 8 years) and second childhood (8-20 years), Vierordt - age of the infant (up to 8 months), childhood (up to 8 years) and youth (up to maturity). There are a number of divisions based on the course of mental development, in relation to the social environment. The latter forms the basis of the most common division into age categories: 1) infancy and preschool age, 2) preschool age, and 3) school age. The first category - infancy (0-1 year) and preschool (1-3 years) - is characterized by a very rapid transition from complete helplessness and unadaptability for life outside the mother's organism and biological dependence on the mother (breastfeeding) to establishing certain relationships with the external environment and acquiring numerous adaptations for this - namely: a complex range of skills, formed speech and other reactions to external stimuli. All this is connected with the rapid formation of organs and functions, the formation of brain pathways, and processes of assimilation and dissimilation of great intensity. As a result of all this, despite the fact that relationships with the external environment in this early age are relatively elementary, even minor disharmonies in the latter cause sharp pathological deviations in the course of the child's development, and if they do not lead to complete biological destruction, they leave a heavy imprint on the course of all subsequent development. It is not surprising, therefore, that infancy and preschool ages, in terms of educational guidance, to this day remain under the exclusive jurisdiction of physicians. A whole system of institutions pursuing the tasks of biological protection and social protection of this children's group concentrates the close attention of physicians of the appropriate specialty, which are under the jurisdiction of a special department of the People's Commissariat of Health (Department for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy) - consultations, "Drop of Milk", children's nurseries, various types of children's homes, child patronage, medical institutions (micropediatrics). An extensive scientific institute (Institute for the Protection of Motherhood and Infancy) develops the questions related to this, scientifically illuminating and generalizing them; there are extensive armies of physicians who have devoted themselves to this cause. The age period from 4 to 7 years - "preschool" - is distinguished by great emotionality and mobility. Despite the gradually increasing biological stability in relation to the influences of the external environment, the child in this age is subject to constant dangers in terms of violation of health, on the one hand, due to the small adaptability of the organism, on the other - because he comes into closer and closer contact with the everyday life of adults, is drawn into it and is subjected to its influences. Cases are not uncommon in family-domestic relations when, already in the second half of the preschool period, children are attracted to industrial labor and to harmful adult entertainments; this is the age of the beginning of childhood alcoholism, of unconscious first impressions from the sexual life of adults, of great susceptibility to acute childhood infections, to parasitic diseases and of great possibility (increased disposition) to fall ill with diseases and childhood injuries due to lack of experience, great curiosity, mobility and lack of supervision from adults. The collectivization of the education system through the mass involvement of children of this age in kindergarten is the next task of the time. - The number of these institutions is progressing, especially in cities and industrial centers (the village has not yet been touched by this movement). The search for compensatory artificial stimuli, instead of the missing natural ones, leads to the creation of a number of educational systems (Froebel, Montessori and others), which, however, have by no means received universal recognition and in many respects do not meet the tasks of socialist education. The question of developing a system of rational education in preschool age is in the period of finding real forms of connection between preschool institutions and life (nature, everyday life, production) and is closely connected with the tasks of sanitary protection from the harm associated with all this. The following age groups: first school age (8-12 years), most (almost exhaustively) involved in the sphere of public education (mass schools of the first level, pioneer organizations), age (13-16 years) of the second level school and the age of unformed specialization (17-18 years). In biological relation, besides the continuing growth and development of individual systems and organs (occurring, as in all other ages, under the regulating influence of endocrine glands changing their specific weight), the phenomena of sexual development stand out especially vividly, leaving their bright imprint on all external manifestations of child and adolescent life, which are associated with subjective experiences of very great complexity and tension. Relationships with the external world for the mass of children of these age periods are characterized by increasing complexity, complexity and diversity. The dominant factors are social relationships, determining connections with school, everyday life, industrial labor. In terms of reactions to disharmony of the external environment - a special type of morbidity takes the place of childhood infections, gradually weakening their specific weight in the pathology of these age periods - there appear diseases that have received not quite correct the name school diseases, social diseases (tuberculosis) and, finally, professional (in connection with entry into industrial labor). The category of school diseases, or rather, diseases of school age, - is only partially conditioned by the influence of the school as such and to a large extent depends on causes not directly connected with the school. The role of the school in the formation of pathology of this age is also very significant. The school concentrates on itself, for now, predominant attention from the point of view of health protection of this category of children; this is conditioned primarily by the fact that with the system of universal school education, which has already been achieved in most European countries (while with us it is a current issue), the mandatory passage of all children through the school, organized by the state, imposes on the latter responsibility not only for pedagogical results, but also for the sanitary consequences of such a measure. Meanwhile, the school as such has specific harmfulness, the nature of which has a certain similarity with the harmfulness of professional labor. The life and labor of children, proceeding at inappropriate conditions, leads to overwork and to various morphological and functional disorders in the organism. Overwork of children - a typical socio-pathological form of age in a complex symptom-complex of pathological manifestations: it is caused not only by a load disproportionate to the strength of the organism, but also by external conditions under which the children's labor processes proceed.

A. Moayuv. Conscription age, the age decreed by the highest state legislative bodies, at which citizens are called up for military service. One can speak of a conscription age only in countries where compulsory military service is established, as for example: in the USSR, Romania, Poland, France, and others. In countries where the army is staffed on the basis of volunteerism (England, U.S.A.), volunteers of several ages are accepted for military service (for example, in England from 18 to 25 years), because with such a method of staffing it is impossible to replenish the army from the contingent of only one age. When establishing the conscription age, a whole range of factors of both sanitary and socio-domestic character are taken into account, as well as the interests of national defense. From the point of view of public health, it would be desirable to accept for military service at an age when the human organism has fully completed its development. But calling up for military service at a more mature age, when a person has fully determined their position in the collective, has acquired a family, etc., would create a number of unfavorable social and moral moments, which are also not indifferent from the point of view of public health. Establishing a high conscription age is also undesirable in the interests of defense: people of younger years more easily submit to education in terms of military discipline and more successfully master military training. Moreover, calling up younger ages for military service increases the size of the trained reserve. Under the conditions of the USSR, it is also necessary to take into account the multinational nature of the population. Since it is necessary to replenish the army with youth of one age, when establishing the conscription age, one has to align with nationalities that complete their development later. Although the human organism reaches full development at the age of 24-25 years, and according to some authors even later, many years of observation by Russian and foreign researchers show that military training can be undertaken without harm to health already at the age of 20. Therefore, in most European countries the conscription age is set between 19 and 21 years. For those entering the Russian army before 1912, the age of 21 was required, but in connection with preparations for war, this age was set at 20 by law on June 23, 1912. For those entering the Red Army, the age was initially set at 20 years (decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee of September 28, 1922), but by the law of 1925 the conscription age was raised to 21 years. In fact, however, the conscription age in the USSR is even somewhat higher, since in the Red Army, citizens who have reached the age of 21 by January 1 of the conscription year are subject to conscription, while conscription itself takes place in September-October.