Childhood development and psychological perspectives

¶ … Childhood: A Social History of Family Life (Vintage Books, 1962), Philippe Aries presents a historical analysis of the many ways that the concepts of childhood and family life changed from medieval times and through the Renaissance period to evolve into their recognizable forms today. In principle, the greatest difference between medieval Western societies and post-Renaissance Western societies in this regard is the profoundly different approach to the very concept of childhood.

The Idea of Childhood

The author outlines the historical change in the way that childhood and children were regarded prior to the modern age, particularly during the Middle Ages. Today, Western societies treat children as precious, innocent, and vulnerable; and their social rules, formal laws, and mores reflect that perspective on every level. By contrast, prior to the Renaissance, children were largely ignored in previous historical eras and were often regarded as nuisances and treated more like pets than as precious individuals requiring nurturance and protection. Within the upper classes whose families could afford domestic help, parents were largely uninvolved in child care and merely entertained visits by their children after they had been bathed and dressed by their governesses or their professional nannies.

Similarly, whereas contemporary Western societies recognize adolescence as a crucially important developmental period of life, in prior eras, there was little if any recognition of this transitional time period as children were considered to become adults as early as the age of twelve or thirteen, particularly in the case of girls. According to the author, the increasing depiction of children (and the contexts in which they appear) in artistic work of the time parallel these observations. In addition to their ancillary appearance in artistic works, children were typically dressed as miniature versions of adults; the style of dressing children differently only evolved much later. Most interestingly, this analysis was written in 1962, long before the introduction of strict protective standards such as mandatory car seats and age restrictions in movie theaters in the U.S.

Finally, with respect to childhood, the author details the degree to which children in prior eras were routinely subjected to sexualized language and teasing, both of which would be considered criminally abusive in the contemporary U.S. Meanwhile, the same children who were exposed to such early sexualization were then expected to conform to much stricter moral codes about sexuality as soon as they became old enough to be considered adults. Given that they were considered adults at an age that we now consider them to be adolescents with immature psychosocial judgment, that combination seems even more controversial.

Part II -- Scholastic Life

Academic education prior to the Renaissance was, as might be expected, tremendously different from contemporary public primary and secondary education. The author explains that most children were never taught to read and that those who were typically learned to read only Latin and mainly in connection with religious education furnished by entities affiliated with the church authorities. Generally, those children who did receive an education were those of the upper classes; their less privileged counterparts received only trade-related training as apprentices in their future occupations. Likewise, prior to the 18th century, girls rarely received the same type of education as boys; instead, they learned to perform wifely chores and were often expected to be married by the age of twelve or thirteen.

In fact, the author explains that the accessibility of education was deliberately controlled by the upper and middle classes and withheld from the lower classes because it was feared that an educated underclass would lose interest in the occupations they had traditionally held and whose services in that regard were still in great demand by their more fortunate counterparts in society. According to the author, this was of particular consequence as a contributing factor in the class conflict that led to revolution in the late 18th century. Apparently, reading itself was not held in as high regard as it is today and was seen as a crutch, much the way that contemporary mathematics teachers regard calculators. At that time, it was believed that genuinely educated people did not need to rely on writing to remember what they learned.

Part III -- The Family

The author also describes the extent to which the notions of both family and home differed tremendously from those concepts today. In contemporary Western societies, children are considered the most important core of the family and much of the family's resources and efforts revolve around meeting their needs and their desires. In medieval families, children typically left the family before the age of ten and were sent to work or to become apprentices; in many cases, they were sold off.

The medieval home was significantly different from the modern home and afforded almost no privacy for inhabitants, even (perhaps especially) for the wealthier classes by virtue of their reliance on servants in the home. The family was only very rarely alone in the home and even the physical layout and architecture of homes contributed to the comparative lack of privacy at home. Generally, rooms were not designated, let alone restricted for specific purposes or for the use of some family members rather than others. Even basic features hardly even considered as conveniences today, such as hallways, were largely nonexistent in medieval homes, requiring one to walk through rooms to get from one area of the home to another. Naturally, privacy was in extremely short supply within medieval family homes and this also contradicted some of the most basic psychological needs of children that are recognized today.

Conclusion