The Discovery of Childhood

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Philippe Ari?s? book, "L?Enfant et la Vie Familiale sous L?Ancien R?gime", or "Centuries of Childhood" in translation, which was published over four decades ago, is still regarded by many as the ultimate study in the development of childhood over the centuries. It looks at how although there have been numerous works published over these past forty years that contradict Ari?s? hypothesis and that contain very convincing and diverse data and statistics to back up their claims, the majority of the critics hold fast to the idea that the relationship between parent and child changed from cold and distant in the seventeenth century, to loving and affectionate by the end of the eighteenth. This paper dismisses that thesis and proposes that childhood was certainly a notion that was accepted before eighteenth century sensibilities and it was, in fact, only the idea of how children should be treated that truly changed.

From the Paper:

"Much of the evidence to support the idea that children were regarded at best indifferently, and at worst disdainfully, is found in the ideals of religion, and specifically in Christianity, of the times. A thirteenth-century hagiographical book entitled Golden Legend was very popular and influential into the seventeenth century, and throughout the tales the emphasis that the saints acted like adults even as small children was very pronounced. There were also popular biographies of actual children like Edward VI and Lady Jane Grey that portrayed them more adult-like than child-like even in their extreme youth, for they were grave, sage, and were masters in many disciplines by an extraordinarily young age."

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