What is now known as the “new paradigm” of the sociology of childhood grew out of a rejection of traditional sociological and psychological theories of childhood. Children in earlier sociological accounts were subsumed into accounts of the family or the school – in other words, into the major sites of socialization. Children were, therefore, most visible when they were being socialized. Socialization, which is sociology's explanation for how children become members of society, parallels developmental psychology, in that children progress from incompetent to competent adulthood through the process of acculturation or socialization. In both socialization theory and developmental psychology there was no view of children as active social agents; rather, children were seen (if they were seen at all) as passive recipients of socialization. In addition, both socialization theory and developmental psychology fail to see the child as existing in the present – instead, the focus is on what children become. It has been said that socialization theory ignores children's role in socializing both themselves and others. In fact, it fails to take account of the child as a competent social actor. What was missing from sociology, then, was an account of the socially constructed nature of childhood which focused on children as social actors rather than passive “becomings.”