Department of Childhood Development

The **Department of Childhood Development** was established in 1944. In 1949, the position of "Secretary of Education", which had been held by Edith Marshall since 1945, was renamed to "Secretary of the Department of Childhood Development."

The first draft of the Age Ten Laws was presented to the Societal Council by Gustav Morgan in 1947 and were eventually passed 1948. The Laws stipulated that children would be raised by the state and have their memories erased at age ten. The Laws also included a grace period for children at the time of their passing, saying that no family separation would be legally required until 1960. Initially, it was only parents and children who were forbidden to have contact with each other, but in 1961, Donatella Griffin proposed an amendment to the Age Ten Laws which would forbid siblings and other close relatives from contacting their families after age ten.

The Gateway School for Wayward Youth in St. Louis was originally a school, converted into an orphanage during the Great Reckoning and its aftermath. Dr. Miriam Gregory arrived in about 1941, before it became Gateway Childhood Centre. After several months working with the children using conventional therapy, she felt it was time to try and tackle the immense trauma they were dealing with using the Watercolor Quiet, starting with a selectively mute thirteen-year-old girl called Florence. Though Dr. Gregory only ever took a single apprentice at a time and was very careful who she taught it to, the technique spread and was adapted and developed by many other researchers into the process that would eventually become the Age Ten Protocols used by the Society.

One of the first collective homes constructed for children under ten was in Kota Tua. By 1953, at least four childhood centres overseen by North American Director of Trade Michael Witten had been constructed in the North American Region, and a fifth was in progress, managed by Dr. Sima Choudary. Witten was initially worried about the plans Choudary had submitted, finding they were too academic and not homey enough, needing more playground equipment and personal space. Witten emphasised the importance of an appropriate playground, and mentioned that a childhood centre near Lake Michigan had a sensory deprivation pool that was not used for its intended purpose. With his guidance, Choudary was able to plan a more appropriate centre. The caretakers who ran these facilities were not allowed to touch the children, as it was thought this would create a parental bond which was deemed undesirable for a society free of conflict.

Infants were kept in nursuries, but transferred to childhood centres quite quickly, well before the age of three. Siblings such as Oleta and Nell were deliberately kept together in childhood centres because it was thought to be helpful in early development for the children to have that kind of attachment, but restrictive after age ten. However, this strong attachment often caused a backslide in memories, such as Hester recalling talking to Oleta about their older siblings being taken away to go through the protocols, and Nell recalling how Oleta used to sneak into her bed at night when they were children.

After their time at the under-10s centre was over, children would be removed to a programming centre where they would have their childhood erased and they would begin their formal education. Staff at childhood centres referred to this process as "The Formational Protocols" or commonly the "Age Ten Protocols" although the children would simply call it "school" at the time they went through the process according to the Yuriatin Press. Hester Wells, who went through the process in 1968 and later worked at the Institute, referred to this process as the "10-Year Sessions" and "Pharmaceutical Regimen."

In these centres of around 30 teenagers, they would practice relaxation, have classes, eat meals, and exercise, as well as spend time in "isolation rooms" and go through tactile retraining. Siblings were always seperated during this portion of their development. By the 1980s but probably before, after "observation, psychological profiling, aptitude tests and [their] own expressions of interest" adolescents would be recommended a career path by the centre. Students were free to disagree and choose their own career if they wished (although doing so may have flagged Indra for closer scutiny from the IID).

There was a collective home close to Atieno's Cornwall house, and part of her body was discovered there. The child who found it, an eight year old girl, was sent to the Institute afterwards according to Roimata Mangakāhia.

## References

1. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.185
2. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.149
3. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.158
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.161
5. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.282
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.135-36
7. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.217
8. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.144
9. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #3: El Museo de Arte Comtemporaneo (1974)
10. ↑ Season 3, Reel #1: July 3, 1953
11. ↑ Season 3, Reel #9: September 13, 1954
12. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #5: Focus, Nose
13. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.270
14. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #2: Anxiety, Stomach
15. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #10: Horopito
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Season 2, Cassette #5: Van Gogh Museum (1977)
17. ↑ You Feel It Just Below the Ribs, p.166
18. ↑ Season 1, Cassette #6: for Oleta
19. ↑ Season 2, Cassette #8: Ohara Museum of Art (1980)