The History

of Childhood

Paradigm Shifts in Western Childhood

Adapted from: http://faculty.csusb.edu/alafaye

Children in the Middle Ages: 500-1450 (Europe)

• Infancy is the only period of “childhood.”

• Once a child is able to eat, sleep, dress, and act independently, they are expected to enter adult society.

•Lower class children worked on the family property. Upper class children were apprentices/courtiers.

Children in the Middle Ages: 500-1450 (Europe)

• Young people take on the work of an adult as they are able.

• Children are acculturated, not educated.

• Children dressed and acted as adults.

Children in the Renaissance: 1400-1550 (Europe)

• Infancy is “childhood.”

• More and more noble children are tutored before they become courtiers.

• Children’s “games” are preparation for adulthood with serious consequences.

• Children are “workers” in all classes.

• Lower classes work at home. Upper class children are sent off.

• Children dressed and acted as adults with few exceptions.

• Apprenticeship Leagues begin.

Children in the Renaissance: 1400-1550 (Europe)

Children in the Reformation1500-1650 (Europe)

• Infancy is “childhood.”

• Age of Reason is established.

• Religious education is essential.

• Children are still seen as workers. Their role depends on their class.

• The work ethic is established.

• Children are still seen as little adults.

• Grammar schools begin.

Children in the Reformation1500-1650 (Europe)

Catherine of Aragon

Martin Luther

Children in the Enlightenment: 1650- 1790 (Europe)

• Children are seen as a blank slate (Locke 1690s).

• Children learn through experience.

• Proper experience equals education.

• Children still seen as workers in the lower class. Upper class children can still be apprenticed/courtiers.

• Noble children are pretty toys.

• Children dressed and acted as adults.

• Beginning of children’s literature for entertainment (1740s Newbery).

Children in the Enlightenment: 1650- 1790 (Europe)

Children in the Industrial Revolution: 1790-1850 ( US)

• Children are seen as a blank slate.

• Upper class children stay with their families.

• Children learn through experience.

• Massive urbanization and colonization.

• Children as laborers is essential to lower class families in farming and industry.

• National school systems begin.

• Growth of children’s literature occurs.

Children in the Industrial Revolution: 1790-1850 ( US)

• Immigration increases.

• Children are “innocent” (Pastoral).

• Children’s toys and clothing boom.

Children in the Industrial Revolution: 1790-1850 ( US)

Children in the Gilded Age: 1850 -1918 (United States)

• Education is mandatory.

• First children’s room appears in a library (1890).

• New laws protect children.

• This is the Golden Era of children’s literature (1860s-1930s).

• The middle class grows.

• Child services grow.

• Children are seen as “innocent.”

• Massive immigration/assimilation occurs.

• Adolescence is a separate stage.

Children in the Gilded Age: 1850 -1918 (United States)