Competency vs. Dependency American teachers’ beliefs and curricula were traditionally built around the idea that young children depend on adults to know what is best for them (Hill, Stremmel, & Fu, 2005). Certainly the younger the child, the more adults need to be directly involved in his or her physical care for the sake of […]
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Children as Property Prisma / SuperStock Until 1938, American children routinely worked in factories, fields, and domestic service. This photo from 1911 shows three young girls who worked as oyster shuckers for the Maggioni Canning Company in Port Royal, South Carolina. Before the late nineteenth century, white American children were largely considered the property of
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Childhood and Conflicting Ideas about Innocence By the mid-eighteenth century, philosophers such as John Locke (16321704), Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121778), and Johann Friedrich Pestalozzi (17461827) had introduced a new, romanticized vision of childhood as a period of natural innocence (Figure 3.1c). Painters and book illustrators of the nineteenth-century Victorian period often depicted children in rural or
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Historical Images of Children The way societies view children is often reflected in artwork from the period. As you may notice in these four paintings the small boy (a) is represented as a miniature adult, the group of boys (b) are depicted as ruffians, and the girls are painted from idealized (c) and realistic (d)
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Children as Miniature Adults Until the mid-eighteenth-century Enlightenment period, childhood as the distinct period we know today did not exist. Rather, children were considered miniature adults. They wore the same style of clothing as adults (Figure 3.1a) and, like adults, their clothes reflected their social 3or economic class. They were expected to behave and carry
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Do you see any evidence of cultural stereotypes or historical prejudices? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things that influence
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How do they appear to interact with adults or other children? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things that influence
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From the activities represented, can you infer how children were expected to behave? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things
From the activities represented, can you infer how children were expected to behave? Read More »
Do you see signs of their assigned gender roles? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us understand the things that influence the way
Do you see signs of their assigned gender roles? Read More »
Can you tell anything about their economic or class status from the way children are dressed? Our ideas about childhood and what it means to be a child today have changed over time and will continue to be shaped by many factors. Examining how our view of children in America has evolved can help us