The Evolution of Childhood in Europe and America Somewhere around the beginning of the seventeenth century, the perception of the nature of childhood -- its duration, its perceived purpose, its requirements, its quality -- changed rather significantly in the Eurocentric world, a period Valerie Suransky identifies as a watershed for the modern notion of childhood (1982, p. 6). Actually, two things seemed to have happened: first, the idea of childhood as a separate developmental stage began to arise; second, the idea of who was deserving of childhood also began to broaden. The pattern was similar in Europe and America, with some minor variations which resulted from geography, religion, etc., but the differences are inconsequential. Generally speaking, the factors which influenced this change are the view of the nature of humankind, the development of industry, urbanization, parents themselves, and the women's movement. According to Sharar (1990), childhood in Europe during the Middle Ages was a concept pretty much limited to members of the upper-class. Children of the lower-classes generally had a rather extended infancy period -- to about age seven -- but were then, essentially, tossed into the adult world. With the advent of Calvinism, and protestantism in general, in the late 1500s, the focus shifted, perhaps because of the rise of a middle class, perhaps because of the new religion's focus on the individual. In the Protestant view, in which humans were viewed as innately evil, soiled by original sin, children were also considered moral agents, and therefore in need of shaping. Given this idea, it was reasonable to stifle children's natural impulses by physically punishing those impulses, to set them in... ... middle of paper ... ...973). Tools for conviviality. NY: Harper and Row. Platt, Anthony. (1982). The rise of the child-saving movement. In Chris Jenks (Ed.) The sociology of childhood: Essential readings (pp. 151-169). London: Batsfords Academic and Educational Ltd. Rose, Lionel. (1991). The Erosion of childhood. NY: Routledge. Sharar, Shulamith. (1990). Childhood in the middle ages. London: Routledge. Strickland, Charles. (1984). The Rise and fall of modern American childhood: Reflections on the history of childhood in the twentieth century. Atlanta, GA: Emory University, Department of History. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED248977) Suransky, Valerie. (1982). The erosion of childhood. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Welter, Barbara. (1966). The cult of true womanhood: 1820-1860. The American Quarterly, 18. 151-174.
Children were strong and ambitious. They were the money makers of the family. This paper will argue how the mindset of a child has advanced in Canada, through the 1800s to the present era, in representing a different perspective of how a child evaluates the perception of how they approach life. Canada holds many histories of the past. The differences with children from to the past to the present are that children worked and produced a lot of labor, to keep the families from starving through the 1800s, present children rarely need to work. The educational system of the past has differed a great deal from the system they have created thought out the times that have developed. Children would use their imagination to create games and play, until the generation of television came into effect. Times have changed and children are one of the many. The social construction of childhood from the 1800s is a whole lot different from the construction of childhood from the 1970s. The agenda of children have changed and adults are not concerned with children working because the standard of living in families has developed a whole new concept, for how families should live life.
Garbarino, J. (1992). Children and families in the social environment, New York, NY: Walter De Gruyter Inc.
Devor’s essay informs Messner and Montez de Oca’s essay in the way that Devor describes the early stages of development while Messner and Montez de Oca describe the effect and development of earlier gender socialization. Devor simply states a well known fact that all males are first boys and then men, while all females are first girls and then women (141). Society has an expectation of appropriate behavior for each stage of life that Devor depicts. Children learn what these expectations are at an early a...
Child- rearing practices in the 1500’s and 1600’s were very different from modern times. During the 1500’s and 1600’s, children were raised in various ways due to conditions such as mortality rates. There was a shorter life expectancy during these times, due to illnesses caused by rodents hygiene, and the disposal systems for waste products, which gave parents a precise reason to make their children grow up quicker than normal. The goal for most parents when raising their children during these times was to raise their young adolescents into mature adults with the help of harsh punishment and religion to get their children to decipher right from wrong.
Maybin, J. &Woodhead, M. (2003). Childhoods in context. Southern Gate, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Hedges, Helen. ""You Don't Leave Babies on Their Own": Children's Interests in Early Childhood Education." Early Education. Ed. Janet B. Mottely and Anne R. Randall. New York: Nova Science, 2009. N. pag. Print.
The first theme present in the horrific and heart wrenching story is the subordinate position of women within marriage. “The Yellow Wallpaper” begins with the narrator’s wish that her house were haunted like those in which “frightened heroines suffer Gothic horrors” (DeLamotte 5). However, this wish is in essence to empower herself. The narrator is already afraid of her husband and is suffering mentally and emotionally. She desperately wishes for an escape “through fantasy, into a symbolic version of her own plight: a version in which she would have a measure of distance and control” (DeLamotte 6). Throughout the text, Gilman reveals to the reader that during the time in which the story was written, men acquired the working role while women were accustomed to working within the boundaries of their “woman sphere”. This gender division meritoriously kept women in a childlike state of obliviousness and prevented them from reaching any scholastic or professional goals. John, the narrator’s husband, establishes a treatment for his wife through the assumption of his own superior wisdom and maturity. This narrow minded thinking leads him to patronize and control his wife, all in the name of “helping her”. The narrator soon begins to feel suffocated as she is “physically and emotionally trapped by her husband” (Korb). The narrator has zero control in the smallest details of her life and is consequently forced to retreat into her fantasies...
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” resembles her life and some of the struggles she endured: her trouble childhood after her parents divorced, leaving her mother trying to provide for her children, due to an absent father that rarely had a relationship with his children. Her marriage, in which conflict made an early appearance, and depression she suffered after the birth of her daughter mistreated by an acclaimed doctor, were also real life events. These aspects can be found in one way or another throughout this short story.
Childhood was also thought to begin at age seven and end at age fourteen. Children under seven years of age were still considered infants and were under the complete care of women. ("Encyclopedia" 417) In some cases, children under fourteen were able to commit adult crimes. On the other side of the legal system, however, some young men were forced to bear arms as young as nine years old.
A Calvinist minister describes them as this, but and Anglican minister from about the same time describes children as knowing no evil. This shows how different religions caused by the Protestant Reformation gave people to have very contrast views on the affects of original sin on children. It is the role of the parent to have their children educated so that they may become good. Without the guiding hand of a parent the inherent evil of man will “rage over and burn down the whole house” (Document 1). This parenting trend is continued into the eighteenth century where they believed that a child’s mind “may be moulded into any form” (Document 14). Sir Philip Francis also says in Document 14 that his “object in view is to make [his] son an English gentleman.” This reinforces the idea that parents, throughout the sixteenth and eighteenth century, were focused upon forming and making their children into who they wanted them to be whether it be English Gentlemen, a heir to the throne, or wise. Parents throughout these periods stressed the importance of education of their children. In Document 14 Sir Philip Francis is writing to his son’s tutor. The fact that he would hire a tutor shows that he cares about his son’s
Compared to people in the twenty-first century, with all their modern conveniences and technological advances, the life of any early-American seems difficult. However, the lives of children were among the most arduous. Linda Pollock states in her book Forgotten Children that between 1660 and 1800 families -and society in general- became more affectionate, child-oriented, and permissive of uniqueness and unstructured time (67). Although this may be true, many other sources depict the lives of children as taxing and oppressive at best. Children of the time were either forced to abandon education for their family contributions, or had to balance school with a full day's work ("Education"). Even when they were not in school or doing manual labor, their day-to-day lives were uncomfortable and harsh (Kids). Social status, as is expected, was a key factor in determining how hard a child's life would be (Murray 9). Although many children at the time had it easier than others they were all asked at an early age to take on adult responsibilities. The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity.
“The yellow wallpaper” was published in 1892 as part of Charlotte Perkins Gilman work. Its prominence is great because of its theme which sought to liberate women who at the time were dominated by their male counterparts. In the 1800’s women never enjoyed the privileges they do in the contemporary world but were greatly dominated by the patriarch society. By late 1800’s women had slowly and determinedly started to fight for their position, this was through literature and seeking positions that were previously looked at as a man’s privilege. It is their purposeful strive that has led to the current gains enjoyed by the modern woman. In this particular work “The yellow paper” Gilman explores gender roles in marriage and family, the difference in woman vs. children and insubordination.
While all societies acknowledge that children are different from adults, how they are different, changes, both generationally and across cultures. “The essence of childhood studies is that childhood is a social and cultural phenomenon” (James, 1998). Evident that there are in fact multiple childhoods, a unifying theme of childhood studies is that childhood is a social construction and aims to explore the major implications on future outcomes and adulthood. Recognizing childhood as a social construction guides exploration through themes to a better understanding of multiple childhoods, particularly differences influencing individual perception and experience of childhood. Childhood is socially constructed according to parenting style by parents’ ability to create a secure parent-child relationship, embrace love in attitudes towards the child through acceptance in a prepared environment, fostering healthy development which results in evidence based, major impacts on the experience of childhood as well as for the child’s resiliency and ability to overcome any adversity in the environment to reach positive future outcomes and succeed.
The one theme that I pulled out of The Yellow Wallpaper only cracks the surface of understanding this story. The wallpaper was used by Gilman as a medium to expose the constraints that were placed upon women in the 19th century. The same constraints that she utterly despised and tried so hard to get rid of them. The narrator's overexposure to the wallpaper was just like Gilman's overexposure to societal roles. They both needed to get out in order to keep their minds intact. Eventually they both did, but it took a long time and a big toll on their mental health and psyche.
Palmer, S. (2006). Toxic Childhood: how the modern world is damaging our children and what we can do about it . London: Orion Books Ltd.