18th Century Children

How were children regarded, treated and educated within the liberal ideas from the 17th-18th Century? Were these children well cared for and did they experience an easy life? Were families able to provide emotional support and was education a priority viewed in this earlier lifetime?

Children were important to families, but not in the same way they are in today society. In the past, children were classed or seen as small adults. Newborns were constrained to the practice of being swaddled which prevented not to have free movement for the majority of an infant’s life whereas Philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau would disagree as he believed “infants were to be unswaddled and allowed freedom of movement, in terms of clothing and space, to explore
However, to survive in the lowest level of poverty all family members needed to work and child labour become brutally disciplined where children were expected to work under the heavy machinery for stretched amount of hours to earn a dollar.
The working children had no time to play, they were forced to go without education, so as for these children there were no opportunities to expand, no freedom to explore, nor hope or confidence and not showing an enlightened outlook and for that reason something needed to change, their needed to be a time for new ideas. John Amos Comenius philosopher on education believed education was for everyone and that everyone deserved the opportunity to be educated that being male, female rich or poor. Children were to be provided with play rather than restrained
Children were to be given personal freedom and rights, be able to discover and express your own opinions. Equal opportunity for all, it shouldn’t matter who you are or where you’ve come from as everyone should be given individual opportunity. Education was a tool to cater to all needs of children and allowing for them to create their imagination, knowledge and dreams. However, it also controlled people’s life which were very challenging because they were of religious and political rights to do with the Churches and the Monarch of France.
Some changes begun in the 18th century and we started to see a connection with New Zealand that explored the measures of enlightenment. Enlightenment was about discovery and notion of progress. Therefore, harvesting children’s interest, curiosity and the idea of reading because to be civilised and enlightened you had to be able to read and at this period of time most children couldn’t read and if a child was to take on society they needed to know and learn the new