History of Childhood

1354 Words6 Pages
In this essay I shall consider the factors that have a major impact upon childhood. According to Madge (2006): “ … there is no single concept of childhood. All children are individuals and each is affected by a unique range of circumstances and situations; historical, social, cultural and temporal.” I will look at historical aspects of childhood from the Middle Ages to the Victorian Era. I will look at socio- economic and cultural factors affecting children, political factors and legislative changes that affected children and the role of media in children’s lives. Phillipe Aries states: “In medieval society the idea of childhood did not exist”. Aries came to his conclusions in the following ways: he looked at the portrayal of children in medieval art and ideas of how children should dress. His study of medieval painting suggested that in early medieval art children tended to be portrayed as if they were a small version of adults. Aries says that: “medieval art until the twelfth century did not know childhood or did not attempt to portray it”. Aries reinforced this view by the study of medieval children’s clothing, which was simply a smaller version of what was fashionable for adults. Between the 15th and the 19th centuries the importance of childhood was heightened and manifested itself in a variety of ways; people started to believe in the importance of early education and that childhood was the best time of life and they believed in ensuring the salvation of the child’s soul. Each of this can be linked to the movements in European and American history, the Renaissance, Reformation, Enlightenment and Romanticism. In the Renaissance children were generally miniatures of their parents, and were expected to dress, talk, and act as adults. The only
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