Margaret Mcmillan Childhood

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“There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children” (Nelson Mandela). These words of wisdom spoken by Nelson Mandela depicts, how much the outlook of society has been changed with regard to the way in which society defines childhood. Prior to the 20th century childhood was not recognized and treated with emphasis as we do today. Children were they important to families? Of course they were, but not in the same way as today. Children were often being looked at as economic commodities and were subjected to authoritarian child rearing.
But by 1900, conscious efforts were taken to improve and reinvent childhood. “Child” slowly began to emerge as a central figure to both the family and nation. The …show more content…

This was established in the 20th century from the southern state compliances, where farming and textile industries created special demand on child labour and the bold steps taken by them to tackle the problems, steps taken by activists to free children from appalling working conditions. (citation). Efforts taken by Margaret Mcmillan (1860-1931) a committed socialist, who identified young people especially poor ones, as “a constituency in need of rescue” created an awareness among north American and British authorities to initiate the development of numerous agencies to target the other aspects of child welfare, from educating parents o hygiene and child rearing to raising the age of compulsory schooling, developing school nutrition programs and giving due emphasis to child’s rights. …show more content…

This work revealed a vivid picture about the vulnerability of children in the adult work since it was based on a thorough analysis of Heroard’s Diary pm the childhood of Louis XIII, which offered a more concrete and detailed view about a child’s world. Aries described in his book that “In a non-literate world child’s learning through face to face social learning apprenticeship and service. (citation). Aries took the words of historian Francois de Dainville “Everything was permitted in their presence; course language scabrous actions and situations; they had heard everything and seen everything”. (citation). Then our questions are when did the change occur, what made the changes and what was the aftermath of the