Historical roles of children in families and society Lesson 1

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Historical roles of children in families and
societyLesson 1
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What is childhood

• Childhood is a universal term
• It is a time or period between infancy and
  adolescence
• It is characterized by rapid growth, rapid
  learning and mastery of skills becessary for
  survival and everyday life
• At this time children discover their roots
  (family, community, countries)

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Question

• Describe your families roots
• Is your family new to Canada?
• When did they arrive and from where?
• Is your family always been in Canada?
• How far back can you trace your roots?
• Originally where did they come from?
• Do you know the origins of your last name?

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Childhood

• Historically not always thought of as a separate
  or distinctive life stage.
• Canadas concept of childhood is drwn from two
  main groups
• Aboriginal populations
• European populations

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Aboriginals Prior to European Settlement

• Before Europeans arrived, Aboriginal people lived
  in areas from the Arctic Circle to South America.
• They lived in kin (family) groups with separate
  identities and different languages.
• Many were hunters and gatherers that moved to
  follow the migration patterns and seasons.
  Survival was their main goal. Men and women had
  distinct roles to play.
• Men did hunting, fishing, trapping, and made
  weapons. Women prepared the food and gathered
  nuts and berries, and dried the meat for winter
  survival.
• Daughters were taught to bring up other kids.
  When they got older, they would help the other
  women to care give. The boys would go help the
  men in hunting.

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Aboriginals Prior to European Settlement

• The child was treated as an equal in the
  community. The children were treated with
  respect. Families were close.
• The birth of a child connected them to ancestors.
  Children were not a burden because everybody
  shared in raising them.
• Everybody in the community helped to raise the
  children.
• The elderly played a role in sharing wisdom and
  guiding them through their culture and rituals.
• Wraps for babies.
• Short childhood. Would grow up fast, joining the
  adult community. They learn independence at an
  early age.

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Aboriginals Prior to European Settlement

• Even as children grew up, the gender roles were
  clear. There was a smooth transition from child
  to adult, and the roles stayed the same.
• Boys achieved adult status when they completed a
  big achievement, like killing a moose. Girls
  became adults at menstruation.
• Many groups celebrated this adulthood through a
  rite of passage.
• Marriage would be the next step after puberty.
  The elders choose the partner, and a bride price
  or dowry was given. It was given to the groom by
  the brides family.
• They were typically married at 14 to 16 years of
  age, and then were considered full adults.

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Europeans 1200-1500

• There are many paintings from this time period
  that show children as mini-adults.
• Kids dressed and acted like adults. The role of
  children was not separate from that of adults.
  They participated in all aspects of life.
• They didnt have school.
• They worked and attended functions like adults.
• Didnt get the same love, because children often
  died early of illness and disease. They were
  viewed as easily replaceable. Parents therefore
  tried not to get too attached to them.

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Europeans 1200-1500

• Kids were property of their fathers (called
  chattels).
• Could be sold, traded into slavery and killed.
• They would be beaten for doing something wrong.
• Treated more like resources.
• They were present at births, deaths, sick beds
  and festivals.
• They did not receive formal education, but would
  learn the family trade or worked in kitchens or
  stables.

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Europeans 1500-1800

• Christianity spreads.
• A new view children have souls so they should be
  protected and taught.
• People are supposed to teach their children the
  right ways.
• Paintings from this period show children as
  looking like cherubs and angels. They were often
  painted in the arms of their mothers.
• Children got more school, especially religious
  training.
• Seen as more innocent and more pure. They played
  and had fun.

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Europeans 1800-1900

• In the 1800s there was a huge gap between the
  rich and the poor.
• Rich children
• Attended school, private training, religious
  training.
• Poor children
• No formal education.
• Worked along with adults.
• Many became factory workers as Europe became
  industrialized.
• Kids valued for their size. Could fit into
  smaller areas, do unsafe work. For example, they
  would do work like setting up weaving machines,
  cleaning oil fittings, carpet making and chimney
  sweeping (especially orphans used in chimney
  sweeping).
• Child labour was predominant, and accidents were
  common.
• A lot of kids in the streets.
• In the late 1800s, mechanization meant that
  children were not needed in factories. Without
  jobs, idle children became a problem on the
  streets.
• Churches were the first to provide education to
  lower class children.
• By the end of the 1800s, most children in
  Britain and Europe attended school. Compulsory
  education was promoted in many countries.

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French Settlers 1600-1700

• By the late 1600s, French settlers had settled
  in small communities in Quebec, where man vastly
  outnumbered women.
• To help generate a new population, the King of
  France Louis XIV, offered transportation and a
  dowry to any woman who came to the New World to
  find a husband.
• Starting in 1663, seven hundred women came from
  France to become wives and daughters. They were
  known as the the Kings daughters. Some were
  as young as 13 or 14 and from orphanages in
  France.
• Penalized bachelorhood. Many French Canadians
  can trace their roots to these weddings.

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English Settlers 1600-1700

• Settlers from Britian also started to arrive in
  North America in the 1600s. Their population
  grew quickly.
• Many came to escape religious persecution. They
  were shaped by strict Protestant values if you
  spare the rod, you spoil the child.
• Discipline and physical punishment, kids werent
  to speak until spoken to.
• They worked from sunrise to sundown idle hands
  invited the work on the devil.
• When Loyalists moved to Canada when the US became
  its own country, the new immigrants looked more
  towards the Aboriginal way of life. This meant
  more freedom and independence and less
  punishment.
• The girls would work on embroidery, boys in
  woodwork, etc.
• Looked to Aboriginal for ways to hunt, prepare
  food and take care of children. Girls helped
  mom, boys helped dads traditional gender roles.

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Pioneer Families 1700-1800

• Immigration started to grow in Canada.
• For families who came to Canada before the
  1900s, life expectancy was low and infant
  mortality was high.
• Midwives were sometimes not used because they
  couldnt afford it.
• Most births occurred on their own beds.
• Children who did survive usually worked on the
  farm or family business.
• In the 1800s, public schooling became more
  common in most provinces.
• Emphasis on learning to speak, read and write in
  English. Especially important for new immigrant
  children to bridge the language barrier with
  their parents.

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Early Canadians(1800-1900)

• By the mid to late 1800s, cities grew rapidly in
  Canada.
• Families left rural areas to go the cities, but
  found that life was not easier.
• More children, often boys, left school to work
  and support family. Jobs such as shoeshine boys,
  paperboys, and delivery boys.
• Most children lost parents to accidents, disease
  or illness. Those ended up on their own or in
  prison.
• Cities grew rapidly. People moved into the
  cities to find employment, but finding money was
  difficult.
• Relatives would sometimes take in kids street
  urchins. Seen as a menace to society. They
  didnt have education. In the winter, many died
  of exposure.
• High schools more common around 1900s, as an
  answer to youth unemployment.
• Reform schools and trade schools were common.
• Provinces made school mandatory up to 16 years to
  get them into school and off the streets.
• The term teenagers in first used on March 11, 1921

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Recent Canadians

• No longer work from dawn to dusk.
• Children spend more time playing than on chores.
  
• By law, expected to attend school regularly from
  4 to 18.
• Expected to complete high school and complete
  higher levels of education.
• Achieve adult status and marry later.
• Laws in place regarding child labour.
• Spend more time with peers than adults.
• Health system today ensures healthy and longer
  lives.
• Children are not isolated from adult society.
• Exposed to adult world from early years because
  of TV, media, internet.
• Higher stress levels than kids did 20 or 30 years
  ago (regarding family, education, friends).
  Continue to face the same challenges that kids
  did years ago.

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New terms

• Mortality rates
• Dowry
• Midwife
• Bride Price
• Chattels

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Your Task!

• Using this information, the Blue Textbook
  Parenting in Canada Nelson (p.29-41), and
  other information that you find on the internet,
  do a visual timeline, using pictures and words,
  of the history of childhood.
• Add your own childhood and key dates in your own
  life at the end of the timeline.
• You may do this electronically or on paper. It
  is your responsibility to let me know what
  resources you need.
• Remember to cite any outside sources (including
  pictures).