Introduction
Many scholars argue that there was no clear distinction between childhood and adulthood in the medieval period. Scholars such as Van der Berg and Aries held this view and made an extensive research to prove their arguments (Cieslik & Simpson 2013, p. 5). However, research has contested this argument. For example, recent studies show that there has always been a clear boundary between childhood and adulthood.
In the medieval period, adults considered their children as mini-adults. Therefore, they left them to take care of themselves. Children worked for their survival for a long time. The advent of industrialization led to the employment of many young people. They often worked for many hours, but no one had ever complained.
The nature of childhood and youth has been changing over time. Many acts and human rights have been developed with the purpose of defending young people against the violation of their rights. Many governments included a number of children’s rights in their constitutions. The changes resulted from various drivers. Among the drivers of change were education, technology, colonization, economy, political decisions and modernity. These factors have been very critical in the transformation of childhood and youth. This paper looks into dynamic nature of childhood and youth from the medieval period to the post-modern period. It delves into the impacts of each of the factors on childhood and youth.
The History of Childhood and Youth
Definitions of youth and adolescence had never existed before the 17th century. As it has already been mentioned, many scholars argue that people considered children as small adults. In the pre-modern era, youth and childhood did not exist as categories. However, there were clear boundaries between age groups. Children also participated in provision of food and other family needs through working in industries and farms. However, the tasks they performed were very different from those which adults were engaged into. In most cases, children performed such tasks with the purpose of getting accommodation and food. Nevertheless, this form of payment could not hinder them from contributing towards the maintenance of their homes.
Most communities distributed responsibilities among the youths based on their sex. Apprenticeship and other jobs that this paper is going to discuss were for the boys. The girls went through trainings meant to make them better wives. They learned how to perform domestic chores under the tutelage of their mothers or grandmothers. Their male counterparts went through trainings meant to help them take up masculine occupations. Men also dominated leadership and administrative roles, both in church and government.
The aristocracy and the bourgeoisies took their children to schools as part of the transition into adulthood. They took their children through all the steps of schooling. Members of the low class did not consider schooling important. However, gender discrimination existed among the high and middle classes. The education system designed for girls was directed on preparing them for marriage, they were taught to sew, prepare food, etc.
In that era, parents, administrators and the church were very keen on their children’s behaviour. Their biggest worry was their children’s involvement in delinquent activities. They believed that boys and girls who had no attachments to trainers were the most likely to commit crimes. The other thing that raised alarm among adults was when their children did not want to get married. Such situations were very serious, and leaders and elderly members of the family would intervene.
Local communities had their ways of controlling the behaviour of the youths, as there were no governments. Church leaders and magistrates formulated rules that forbade the youths to participate in “immoral” activities such as visiting pubs, attending cock feasts, playing poker and many other things. Employed youths belonged to guilds that set codes of conduct for their members. Such groups often punished members who deviated from their standards. Young people also set rules that guided all the youths in their communities. Such institutions included charivari, which was a custom that helped reprimand members who failed to conform to the expectations of their communities. Youths publicly insulted individuals who strayed from their communities’ social values.
Enlightenment Period
The modern view of childhood developed during the enlightenment period. This view mainly originated from the philosophies of Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke. They viewed childhood as a period in the development of a human being when an individual is clean and untainted by the troubles of the world. They described the child’s mind as a tabula rasa, a blank slate. This term described the innocence of childhood (Kjorholt 2007, p. 30). They put the beginning to the difference in the way people viewed childhood during the medieval period and the modern period. The new image of childhood was that of individuals who are different from adults. Many artists began using children as symbols of innocence. During this period, many families adopted education with the purpose of making future leaders for the state and church. Children from poor families attended schools that rich philanthropists built, while children from affluent families went to grammar schools and good universities.
Early modernity
Modernity dates back to the 18th century. This period witnessed the development of industrialization, the establishment of capitalism as the main economic and political philosophy, the formation of nations and nationalism, and the invention of surveillance systems. Surveillance included all aspects of behaviour monitoring and coordination.
Modernity had radical impacts on families, communities and national relationships. It separated people who were previously close to each other. With the development of capitalism, people adopted individualism, as opposed to the communalism that existed in the medieval period. Modernity had a great impact on the interpretation and significance of youth. The existence of youth as a social and developmental group came up during this period.
The mistreatment of children who worked as labourers in industries prompted rich philanthropists, led by Lord Shaftsbury to advocate the rights of children. Many people made legal interventions in cases where children had faced mistreatments. Consequently, the law prohibited industries from forcing children to work for more than sixty hours a week. In the 20th century, the law raised the age which allowed a child to look for employment from 9 years to 12 years.
Towards the end of the 19th century, a new attitude to children and youths developed in Europe. There was a large emphasis on the innocence of a child. This attitude still exists among many people around the world. Parents still think that their responsibility is to bring up responsible youths. This notion has led to the rise in the number of children books and the inclusion of humour in many literature books. During the same historical period, many governments introduced compulsory education, and children stopped working to join schools. Consequently, the number of trained teachers and public schools rose drastically.
The Impact of Modernity Childhood and Youth
Modernity started at the age of enlightenment. During this period, scholars challenged conventional views of the world. The period came with extensive political unrest, which eventually led to the formulation of radical ideas. Governments introduced political ideologies and individual rights and freedoms that still exist today. Human beings discovered their position as the most rational creatures. They began to use science in order to control all other creatures (France 2011, p. 12). Therefore, youths and children in modern times have legal protection from mistreatment and exploitation.
Industrialization and urbanization also characterised the age of modernity. Many industries developed in many parts of Europe and America, leading to a more massive movement of youths from rural to urban areas. Most of the youths did not get employment in urban areas, and, therefore, resorted to joining to gangs. This situation formed precedence to a youth culture that exists up to today. The rate of youth involvement in crime rose drastically in comparison to the previous century.
The Impact of Laws/policy/politics on Childhood and Youth
The first and the second world wars had very negative implications on the concept of childhood and youth. First, children that grew up between these periods faced a myriad of problems. They were malnourished and lacked parental attention as governments had drafted many adults into the wars. Many youths who fought in the wars lost their lives. This condition prompted many governments to come up with reconstruction programmes that concentrated on rebuilding their countries. They used young people as the main participants in the reformation process (Ruddick 2003, p. 352).
In Britain, the Labour Party got a victory in the general elections held in 1945. The party came up with a reform agenda that emphasized the provision of education, creation of work places, improvement of the national economy and the provision of justice to all citizens. Consequently, the government’s dedication to inclusiveness, the improvement of the standards of life and the degree of intervention rose greatly. Young people were at the centre of government policies and plans, which let to a new understanding of youth.
The new reforms capitalized on the notion that juvenile delinquency resulted from weaknesses in social values. The reformists argued that poverty eradication schemes could help solve such problems better than previous juvenile justice systems. This notion paved the way for the Children and Young People’s Act of 1969. According to the reformists, previous systems did not consider the welfare needs of juvenile delinquents.
The British government also noticed an increase in the rate of delinquency among idle youth. Therefore, it came up with a youth service programme to reduce the number of idle young people. This programme complemented the services that scouts’ movements were already providing. However, young people from the low class complained that the programme only considered youths from rich families. This programme also marginalised female youths. Eventually, it failed due to many complaints.
The Impact of Education on Youth and Childhood
Education was very critical in changing youth and childhood concepts. In the medieval period, different communities had different forms of education. Most of them had informal education programmes as forms of training for their children and youths. Later, religious education replaced the latter. Young people went to school to learn about God. Parents, church leaders and administrators had the responsibility of ensuring that all the youths attended classes and lived according to the teachings of their religion.
During the renaissance period, the content of formal education changed its focus. The new form of education focused on science and reason. It aimed at using empirical concepts in solving the problems that the society faced. Young people were educated, and each government considered them the main pillars of their economies.
The 20th-century education system concentrated on creating more opportunities for youngsters. The British government showed its commitment to achieving this goal by reducing the age of leaving school to 16, eliminating the eleven-plus exam and creating more educational opportunities for the working population. Critics argued that higher education was beneficial to the bourgeoisies alone. Therefore, the youth in this period focused more on improving their economic status and excelling in their academic endeavours.
Key Drivers for Change
Over the past 100 years or so, there has been a significant level of progress involving the well being of a child. This can be seen in the changing nature of how children are being treated at the present as compared to how they were treated during the mid 1800s or the 1920s for instance. As detailed by Fernandez & Atwool, children during the industrial revolution in England were often required by their families to work in factories were they were often subjected to horrendous working conditions which adversely affected their health. The same can be said for children that were forced to work in coal mines which resulted in them developing an assortment of respiratory conditions at an early age (Fernandez & Atwool 2013). However, the general consensus at the present within the developed and developing world is that such treatment of children is heinous and can be considered criminal whereas in the past it was thought of as normal and even necessary given the nature of poverty and the need to maximise family incomes (Tilbury & Mazerolle 2008). It is based on this that this section of the paper will delve into two key drivers for change that have helped in influencing the general consensus regarding “childhood” and “youth” and the types of treatment and behaviour that should be accorded to them. Presently, it is believed that the “youthful innocence” of children must be preserved from either physical or psychological damage with acts that bring about such adverse effects being labelled as heinous and illegal by present day society.
Political Leadership
One of the drivers of change behind the changing nature of “childhood” and “youth” has been strong political leadership that has focused on instituting policy initiatives and laws that focus on the protection and proper treatment of children. Some manifestations of these protective measures can be seen in the implementation of child protection services, child labour laws, child custody policies as well as an assortment of other similar policies that focus on evaluating the welfare of a child and determining what sort of punishment or protective measure should be implemented. Political leadership has thus been one of the driving forces behind the changes in attitudes when it comes to children. Given the unlawful nature of child abuse (i.e. psychological or physical) and neglect, people have become less likely to do such actions. It should also be noted that the idea behind “youthful innocence” attributed to children and the need to protect it is also a manifestation of political leadership (Humphreys, Holzer, Scott, Arney, Bromfield, Higgins & Lewig 2010). For instance, it was only during the Congressional hearings in 1973 within the U.S. that child sexual abuse was actually criminalised as a form of child maltreatment. This subsequently manifested into the present day notions involving the “age of consent” for sexual relations which falls under the concept of “youth”. Under the notion of the age of consent, individuals below 18 years of age are thus considered as minors and, as such, are classified as not being able to give consent in a legal matter.
This means that despite a minor consenting to sex with an adult (i.e. the adult in question being over the age of 18) the act is still classified as being illegal (Mcgarry & Buckley 2013). The reasoning behind this is related to the supposed necessary protections for the “youth” due to the “corrupting” nature of sexual activity. Once more, this particular notion came about through political leadership and the implementation of laws barring sexual conduct with minors. Do note that since the age of consent is based on laws implemented through political leadership, this means that, depending on the country in question, the age of consent can vary due to the different types of politics involved (Bessell & Gal 2009). One example of this difference can be seen in the age of consent in the UK which is set at 16 as compared to the US wherein the age of consent is 18. Other manifestations of political leadership as a driver for change involving the concepts of childhood and youth can be seen in the establishment of legal drinking and smoking ages within the country. Normally set at 21 years of age, this act of political leadership is also a form of “protection against corrupting influences” due to the ongoing theme that can be seen so far in this section involving the protection of children and “the youth” until such a time that they can be responsible.
Implementation of Local Programmes
Aside from political leadership, it is important to note that the implementation of local programmes has been an equally great driver for change when it comes to the concepts of “childhood and youth” (Appleton 2012). Initiatives such as child social services, feeding programs, free educational services as well as the establishment of youth groups for supervising the development of at risk teenagers have all been implemented as a means of ensuring the health and psychological well-being of children (Appleton 2012). These programmes have particularly been effective in low income neighbourhoods where they have been crucial in preventing children from turning towards petty crime as a means of survival.
Conclusion
The concepts of youth and childhood have changed drastically between the medieval period and the modern period. Youths dropped and picked behaviours depending on the circumstances in every period. The main factors that facilitated their change included education, politics, technology and colonialism. All these factors were very effective in shaping childhood and youth.
Reference List
Appleton, JV 2012, ‘Delivering safeguarding children services in primary care: responding to national child protection policy’, Primary Health Care Research & Development (Cambridge University Press / UK), vol. 13, no. 1, pp. 60-71
Bessell, S, & Gal, T 2009, ‘Forming Partnerships: The Human Rights of Children in Need of Care and Protection’, International Journal Of Children’s Rights, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 283-298
Cieslik, M & Simpson, D 2013, Key concepts in youth studies, London, Sage.
Fernandez, E, & Atwool, N 2013, ‘Child protection and out of home care: Policy, practice, and research connections Australia and New Zealand’, Psychosocial Intervention / Intervencion Psicosocial, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 175-184
France, A 2011, Understanding youth in late modernity, 2nd edn, Maidenhead, McGraw Hill.
Humphreys, C, Holzer, P, Scott, D, Arney, F, Bromfield, L, Higgins, D, & Lewig, K 2010, ‘The Planets Aligned: Is Child Protection Policy Reform Good Luck or Good Management?’, Australian Social Work, vol. 63, no. 2, pp. 145-163,
Kjorholt, A 2007, ‘Childhood as a symbolic space: searching for authentic voices in the era of globalisation’, Children’s Geographies, vol. 5, no. 1-2, pp. 29-42.
Mcgarry, K, & Buckley, H 2013, ‘Lessons on Child Protection: A Survey of Newly Qualified Primary-Level Teachers in Ireland’, Child Abuse Review, vol. 22, no. 2, pp. 80-92
Ruddick, S 2003, ‘The Politics of Aging: Globalisation and the Restructuring of Youth and Childhood’, Antipode, vol. 35, no. 2, pp. 334-362.
Tilbury, C, & Mazerolle, P 2008, ‘Making Child Protection Policy: The Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Foster Care in Queensland’, Australian Journal Of Public Administration, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 283-293