Childhood

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This article is about the phase of human development known as childhood. For the Michael Jackson song, see Childhood (song).

Childhood is a broad term usually applied to the phase of development in humans between infancy and adulthood.

1 History
2 Childhood today
3 See also
4 Footnotes

History

Philippe Ariès, an important French medievalist and historian, published a study in 1961 of paintings, gravestones, furniture, an school records. He found that before the seventeenth cetnury, children were represented as mini-adults. Since then historians have increasingly begun to research childhood in past times.

Before Aries, George Boas had published The Cult of Childhood.

Several historical events and period are discussed as relevant to the history of childhood in the West. One such event is the life of Jesus Christ^[1] Christ taught that children were to be loved and revered, a departure from the ancients' attitude to children which was to be propagated in the Roman Empire during the next 400 years with the introduction of Christianity.^{[citation needed]}

During the Renaissance, artistic depictions of children increased dramatically in Europe. This did not impact the social attitude to children much, however -- see the article on child labour.

The Victorian Era has been described as a source of the modern institution of childhood. Ironically, the Industrial Revolution during this era led to an increase in child labour, but due to the campaigning of the Evangelicals, and efforts of author Charles Dickens and others, child labour was gradually reduced and halted in England via the Factory Acts of 1802-1878. The Victorians concomitantly emphasized the role of the family and the sanctity of the child, and broadly speaking, this attitude has remained dominant in Western societies since then.

Childhood today

For the last 100-150 years, childhood in the Western world has been viewed very positively, as one of the happiest phases during a person's existence.