text: i have to write an essay on ender's game, i have to write about childhood and if it's needed for a normal life i have to write an essay for my english class on ender's game.  i have to write about childhood and if it's needed for a normal life, if ender could ever have a normal life, if childhood is a "right" or "privilage" and stuff like that.  i am completely out of ideas... please help.  (i need quotes from the book, and credible sources) the concept of "childhood" as being a relatively carefree, unencumbered period of life is a modern invention.  throughout history, children have been seen as additional sources of labor, as pawns in the furthering of generational schemings, or as miniature adults.  it is only in the past 50-75 years or so that we've let childhood be something other than just a period of waiting until the child could contribute to the household.  whether childhood is a right or a privilege, however, is not a central question of the story.  the real question is to what extent is a society's actions justifiable in the overall context?  in ender's game, the earth was facing extinction.  to prevent its destruction, the governments of earth banded together against a common enemy and set up battle school.  while the stresses and rigors of battle school had a dramatic impact on the children in the system, in the overall context of species survival, the actions could be justified.  the youth of war-torn countries in africa can be compared to the battle school children.  studies have shown that boys who are inured to the extremes of combat are more vicious and brutal than teens or young adults who undergo the same stresses.  so a possible path to approach the paper is not to ask if childhood is a privilege vs. a right but to explore whether a normal life is possible and use references to the situation in africa to justify your point.