Children as Equal Family Members - Essay Example

It is only in the past 150 years or so that children have been valued as family members and the particular nature of childhood recognised. There are many different views on this idea, but the general consensus would appear to be that while children were valued members of the family, particularly male children, but the concept of childhood would appear to be completely unknown two centuries ago. There has been an increased study of children and childhood through the ages by many different groups of people. This increase in awareness has allowed many comparisons to be made between the lives that were experienced by children these days and children that lived many years or even centuries ago. In wealthy families children were valued for completely different reasons. Male children had value because it helped to ensure the succession while girl children could be married to suitable men to either create an alliance or because the husband was wealthy and additional money could be made available to the family. This was overwhelming during medieval times and there are many items that still bear witness to this attitude. They were not personally valued for the humans that they were since there was a very high death rate among children and as such very few parents were willing to invest time and emotion in someone that had a very high likelihood of dying within a short period of time. They were included in every aspect of life that adults indulged in and as such they were not prevented from seeing any truths about life and this contributed to the swift maturing of children into adults. Conversely, the children were not valued as equals of the adults within the family situation and as such their thoughts and opinions were not valued as much as they would be today. They were a part of the family group, but they were supposed to be "seen and not heard" and their view points on any matters were discarded out of hand by parents prior to the last two centuries. Children were physically separated from adults for the majority of the time and had to behave miniature adults when allowed into contact with adults, apart from the servants that waited on the children of the wealthy. "Education did not exist to liberate minds but to preserve the gender and status distinctions of society."2 was a statement made by Linda Pollock of what she had learnt about education in previous centuries during the course of her intensive studies of it. It was Jean Jacques Rousseau who first stated that he believed that children should be encouraged to develop as befitted them the best and that they should learn what they had aptitude to learn. He stated that "We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education."1 His ideas were that children should be lead along a path where they could learn and acquire knowledge in a manner that appealed to them. He also believed that children should be allowed to learn things that came naturally to them and they found easy to understand instead of being forced to learn about things that they did not want to know. These ideas influenced the thought of many philosophers and educators who came after him and it is believed that many of the institutions that are still viewed as progressive in this modern day gain their original inspiration from a man who was never properly schooled himself. The fact that he was not schooled and yet still came to be viewed as one of the greatest and most original philosophers of his day is a testament to his theory since he taught himself everything he knew and as such he would have followed his aptitude. Children were seen in the same light from the moment they began to talk until the time that they emerged as a true adult. There were no perceptions that at a certain point in their lives they thought and felt differently to their parents and other adults. There was no realization that they had different needs at different ages and as such these needs were left unfulfilled. This lead to a great many different problems later in their lives, both for themselves and for their parents since this neglect caused a wide variety of psychological effects within the children. Philippe Aries attested that childhood itself existed, but there were still seen to be few differences in the abilities of children when compared to the abilities of adults apart from thought and comprehension up until between 150 and 200 years ago. This is obvious in a translation of his work which states "The idea of childhood is not to be confused with affection for children: it is an awareness of the particular nature which distinguishes the child from the adult, even the young adult. In medieval society this awareness was lacking." Gradually education began to play greater role in the development of children and began to permeate throughout society and this development helped to alter the perception of children by adults. It began to stop being available to children of wealthy parents only and gradually all children began to be granted access to learning. The exact education of children has altered greatly in the last few hundred years as the philosophy that rules education has altered. The gradual acceptance of the many differences between children and adults as well as the concept of childhood gradually occurred as society itself evolved. These two evolutions mirrored one another for as society altered to become closer to what we know today so too did the perceptions of children. It began to be recognized that there was a period of time in every person's life where they naturally behaved differently to the adults that surround them. They need different support, emotional and physical, to the support required by an adult. I believe that children were not valued within the family for the same reasons that they are valued today and therefore their treatment has altered. There was also no recognition of the period of life that has been termed childhood or of the needs that accompany this period. Having considered all the information I think that the argument that was posed as the subject of this piece is true. Works cited: 1) (Translated.) Rousseau, J., (1781)(translation 1953) The Confessions. London: Penguin 2) Brown, M. (2002) Picturing Children: Constructions of Childhood Between Rousseau and Freud. Foreword: Pollock, L. 3) (Translated ) Aries, P., (1960). L'enfant et la Vie Familiale sous l'Ancien Regime. Translation: Robert Baldick References: Aries, P., (1973). Centuries of Childhood. Harmondsworth: Penguin Bunge, M. J., (2001). The child in Christian thought. Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdans Publishing Corsaro, W. A., (2005). The sociology of childhood. California: Sage Cunningham, H., (1995). Children and Childhood in Western Society Since 1500, London: Longman Damrosch, L., (2005). Jean-Jacque Rousseau: Restless Genius. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company Darling, J., (1994). Child-Centred Education and its Critics, London: Chapman Dobinson, C.H., (1969). Jean-Jacques Rousseau: His Thought and its Relevance Today. London: Methuen Rousseau, J., (1781)(translation 1953) The Confessions. London: Penguin Shorter, E., (1977). The Making of the Modern Family. Fontana/Collins Read More