Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

Childhood has only existed for four hundred years. Discuss

In 1550, Thomas Becon asked what is a child, or to be a child? (Cunningham, H:
2006) Throughout history, debates about what childhood actually is have been
discussed and analysed. The social construction of what we would define as
childhood can differ depending on personal opinion, culture, social class and the
time and era, which is the main factor I will be focusing upon.
How we see childhood today is a concept that has been changed and adapted for
hundreds of years. Philippe Aries (1986) and Neil Postman (1994) both suggest
that childhood is a modern phenomenon that has only come into being in
relatively recent times. (McDowall Clark: 2010: 17) Aries and Postman both
researched into whether or not childhood as we know it today actually existed.
Postman coincided with Aries that children have only ever had a childhood for
the past four hundred years, though he says that the recognition of said
childhood began when the printing press was invented in 1450. (McDowall,
Clark: 2010) However, it is debated by different historians whether or not
childhood has always been recognised in some form. Cunningham, H (2006)
argues that it is through Christianity that we find parents emotional attachment to
children has always been evident, whereas Kincaid, J (1992) says that the child
was invented in the eighteenth century to socially separate the young and the old.
But what are the boundaries? So many historians can argue the invention of
childhood, but even today we struggle to identify when a child becomes an adult.
Religious views right from the thirteenth century were extremely influential on
how society was run and children were taught from birth about obedience and
discipline was very strict. According to Cunningham, H (2006), a lot of children
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Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

died before their first birthday and therefore baptism was essential as it was
important to ensure that if they died, they would go to heaven. He wrote: A child
in Scripture is a wicked man, as he that is ignorant and not exercised in
godliness. (Cunningham, H: 2006: 13) They saw children as evil beings that
needed to be rid of sin and learn about God. Man that is born of a woman is of
few days, and full of trouble. (Steward, J: 1995: 95) However, it was during this
time it was preached that children were actually innocent. (Cunningham: 2006)
In later years, from the 1500s, children were starting to be seen as the key to the
future of the state. (Cunningham, H: 1995) They are the new generation and
need to be educated and cared for. In the eighteenth century, children were
recognised as vulnerable and their needs were taken into consideration. Charities
were beginning to be set up, such as The Foundling Hospital in London, opened
in 1741. (Cunningham, H: 2006) They took in homeless, and usually orphaned,
children as they felt they were causing trouble in the streets and attempted to
structure them into some kind of charity schooling. Within charity schools like
these, their main aims were to preach Christianity and to prepare children for the
labouring world. (Cunningham, H: 2006) This, of course, did not stop all children
from living on the streets; even in the present day there is a small percentage of
runaway children in Britain.
In modern times, children are most likely to be at school or playing with their
friends; instead of doing manual labour as it is almost unheard of for children
under thirteen to work. This was not always the case in the past. Education and
learning was mainly for boys, and in the eighteenth century, schools seemed
extremely disorganised. Very young children and adolescents would be mixed
together and there seemed to be no differentiation between classes, age and
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Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

ability. (Kincaid, J: 1992) It wasnt until 1870 (well into the 19 th century) that state
education came about and even then many children didnt gain access to schools
as they were working to help support the family income. (Dufour, B & Curtis, W:
2011) Social class and gender were two of the many important factors that
decided whether or not children were going to go to school in the 1800s and
1900s.
Child labour was the norm in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as children
had to help provide for their parents. The Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries meant that there was a lot of factory work for children,
as they were cheap to employ. (McDowall Clark: 2010) The available work in
industrial towns and cities drew nuclear families away from extended families in
the countryside. At a time of substantial technological change and social
upheaval this sentimentalised image of childhood was imbued with a nostalgic
longing for a time of greater innocence and a simpler way of life. (McDowall
Clark: 2010: 24) Because children became the focus of the families, it became
more evident that they needed looking after and that they shouldnt be exposed
to dangerous environments.
In 1833, the Factory Act declared that children under nine could not work in
textile factories, and that children between the ages of nine and thirteen should
have a certain amount of hours they are allowed to work. (McDowall Clark: 2010)
Shortly after the act, it became law to register the birth of your child so that
parents could not lie about the age of their children before sending them off to
work. (McDowall Clark: 2010) It would be unheard of today for parents to send
their children to work. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNICEF),
published in 2003, states in article 32: the right of the child to be protected from
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Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be

hazardous or to interfere with the childs education or to be harmful to the childs
health or physical, spiritual, moral or social development. (Donnellan, C: 2005)
The modernised idea of the child has brought us to recognise that children are
vulnerable and that they have rights which probably werent acknowledged in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
During Victorian and pre-war times, gender was also a restriction to your
education. The image of the ideal middle-class daughter was that of a sheltered
flower, a creature whose role in the home was to adorn it and assist in its
maintenance. (Gorham, D: 1982: 11) Girls in this period were expected to do
housework and to look after their families, not go out to school and work. They
were deemed more innocent than the boys, who were loud, and rowdy, needing
school and work to keep them in order. (Humphries, S: 1981) It was in the later
1800s and early 1900s when it became more likely for girls to receive a better
form of education, although their main responsibilities did lie within the home.
(Gorham, D: 1982) The National Curriculum set in 1904 stated that all children,
girls and boys, should be educated in English, Maths and Science, with some
History, Geography, drawing and Physical Education. Girls were to study
housewifery and boys manual work. (Aldrich, R: 1996) This is extremely different
to the National Curriculum today, as neither housewifery nor manual work is
required to be taught within schools. As child labour became less common and
education became compulsory, the idea of childhood being a time of innocence
and learning became clearer, although this did not mean that all children had the
same education and that they didnt work at this time.

Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

The idea of children being evil from the medieval era still hadnt quite been
extinguished. During the First World War, reports of delinquent behaviour from
working-class children increased, and the publics sensitivity of law-breaking was
also extremely high at the time. (Humphries, S: 1981) Hitting children to discipline
them, both at home and at school, was acceptable. Punishments such as the
slipper or the whip are still spoken about in horror from grandparents in this
century, looking back at their time in school. In the present day, it is debatable
about whether or not hitting your children is a suitable punishment; any physical
abuse is illegal regardless of whether a child is misbehaving or not.
It was post-war when childrens expectations changed to adapt with the new and
fast-changing government. There was a huge decline in child labour and all
children were being put into schools to give them a chance at a good education
and a potential to a good career. (Cunningham, H: 2006) According to
Cunningham, H (2006), over half of advertisements showed children, promoting
that their happiness and future is assured after a horrible time of evacuations,
panic and distress of war.
The 20th century brought important changes to the idea of childhood. Before, it
was regarded as normal for children to work and earn money to help the family
income, whereas in the 1950s, teenagers working part-time became more
popular and child labour was abolished. (Cunningham, H: 2006) The Education
Act of 1944 ensured that all children attended full-time school and it became a lot
easier for working-class children to attend school alongside middle-class peers.
(Dufour, B & Curtis, W: 2011)

Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

Although we still question today when childhood ends and adulthood begins, it is
evident that society views children in a very different way today than in the past.
Four hundred years ago, children were just mini-adults, waiting for biology to
allow them to labour and produce their own offspring. Now, the difference is clear.
Childhood is viewed as a time to cherish and enjoy whilst you can, it is a time for
learning and exploring the world around you with no adult responsibilities.

References
Aldrich, R (1996) Education for the Nation. London: Cassell
Cunningham, H (2006), The Invention of Childhood. London: BBC Books
Cunningham, H (1995) Children & Childhood in Western Society Since 1500.
Essex: Pearson Education Ltd
Donnellan,C (2005), Exploited Children. Cambridge: Independence
Dufour, B and Curtis, W (2011), Studying Education, an Introduction to the Key
Disciplines in Education Studies. Berkshire: Open University Press
Gorham, D (1982), The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal. London: Croom
Helm Ltd
Humphries, S (1981), Hooligans or Rebels? An Oral History of Working-Class
Childhood and Youth 1889-1939. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Kincaid, J (1992), Child-Loving, The Erotic Child and Victorian Culture. London:
Routledge

Kirsty Saunders

Essay

EDUC 1112

McDowall Clark, R (2010), Childhood in Society, in Early Childhood Studies.

Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd
Steward, JC, (1995), The New Child, British Art and the Origins of Modern
Childhood. Berkeley, University Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive