Children in society today, as many centuries ago, are shaped by the opinions thrust forth upon them by the adults they live alongside. Experiences of most children in the 16th through 18th centuries were shaped by the differing and continuous views of the adults they were living with in their certain time periods. Adult views and their subsequent effects on children were all changing in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries.
In the sixteenth century adults had a pessimistic view of children, and therefore treated them harshly, while expecting many things out of them. Robert Clever, a Calvinist, whom was influenced by his religon concerning how children should be treated, points out that children are born with a “wrong doing heart” and are drawn towards evil (1). This man, of the upper class points out the lack of trust between the adult and the child, and how children need to be shown to be good via education, but that until then the child is evil. Lady Jane Grey recalls upon her experiences in the 1530’s as having to be perfect around adults and having to do things to the utmost standards, or else she would have physical punishment inflicted upon her. This shows all that was expected of children and the c
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Sir George Savile believes that children should get all that they want, and if they don’t that they should be let down in a slow and easy manner. The adults in the eighteenth century viewed children as good, but in need of guidance, and with that guidance, children are able to do many things. All of these documents show the trend of expectation with positiveness in eighteenth century Europe. This century combines the sixteenth century expectations from the children, with the seventeenth century optimism towards children. As Anglican minister John Earle says, concerning children, he thinks that children are a blank notebook and that as they live, things the child sees is added to that notebook, and he is saying how children are not born evil, as previously thought in the sixteenth century, but rather children do not know of evil, so they are therefore good before they know of anything that may happen to be evil. Along with the higher expectations of the children, in documents 6 and 7, mothers are called upon to breast-feed their children. He says that if love and kindness is shown towards the child, that he or she will in turn respect his or her elder. In 1721 an Anglican rector wrote about a child that the child is very happy and delightful to be around, and thus was given responsibilities. points out in document 9 that the previous swaddling of children thought to make them better in the sixteenth century, is bad for the children possibly damaging their organs. This view shows caring for the children and their need for their mothers and people around them. Discipline is still prevalent in the 18th century, though it is not of the violent sort. Mothers were also encouraged at this time to breast feed their children on their own, rather than hire a nurse to do their work for them, as described in the regrets of Elizabeth Clinton in 1622. As with the times, knowledge is growing in the eighteenth century as William Buchan M. Lastly, Sir George Savile emphasizes the need for love shown towards the children.
Approximate Word count =
836
Approximate Pages =
3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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