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5000 BCE
Classic Period (Egypt)
Children were considered as the fruit of the union of two bodies, from a marriage conception. Children were considered successors for the royalty inheritance (nobility). In this age, education depended of the social class of the parents, children that acquired social education and insertion to the society, were from nobility and mid class (sons of merchants) and in the case of the lower classes (peasants, artisans and slaves) are considered as reproducers of office. -
1800 BCE
Classic Period (Rome & Greece)
The child is considered as an adult project, lacking qualities to develop to be a virtuous citizen, has great deficiencies of character and virtue. Also in this era, the concept of "intellectual education" was born, children were educated since their early ages with knowledge about laws, morality and obligations. -
950 BCE
Classic Period (Rome & Greece)
Children were taught with the use of violence, and other savage methods like severe punishment. For example, in Sparta and some central regions of Rome (lower class), children were taught to be soldiers with extremely violent methods to abolish in them fear. -
350 BCE
Classic Period (Rome & Greece)
In Greece Philosophers like Plutarco began to think that childhood was a crucial stage for knowledge and education for the development of "human nature". Children began to appear in theater. Aristoteles's developed the thought of "free man formation". And at the same time in Rome they adapt another form to educate their children in oratory rather than sports. Ludus-gramatica-retorica. -
101
II Century (Infanticide)
This time was marked with Infanticide or infant homicide. Adults resolved their anxieties about caring for them by this activity. Children were thrown into rivers, flung into dung-heaps and secs trenches, “potted” in jars to starve to death, and exposed on every hill and roadside. And also, Infanticide was practiced profusely with: deformed children or with some physical defect; Illegitimate children or the product of adulterous relationships of women. -
401
Middle Age (V Century)
The idea of liberal education disappears altogether. It is no longer a question of forming "freethinkers" but rather the goal of education is to prepare the child to serve God, the Church and his representatives, with a complete subjection to the authority of the Church. Children is still considered as their parents possession, appears the thought of the child as a perverse, malicious and corrupted being that need to be socialized with discipline and punishment. -
787
Asylum for Abandoned Children
Dateo of Milan founded the first asylum solely for abandoned infants. Other countries followed much the same pattern of evolution. -
1201
Middle Age (XIII Century)
Child's conception as an homunculus: inferior status of a human that is in transition of being a superior status (adult). Education in arts and science was thought to be only for man (males). In this ages, children were moved to the crusades by the military and religious organizations. -
Renaissance (XVII Century)
Women began to be secularized with the central idea of Comenius. Recognition of the mother as the principal source of education for their children. Children as scholars, education now is adapted to the children. "Newborns are like an empty board, experience fills them with knowledge." Locke(1670). -
Jean Jacques Rousseau
Childhood as a period of innocence, before the child knew the dangers of society. Training from the senses, consciousness and intelligence. Children are able to learn. -
Children's charter
It was the first Act of Parliament for the prevention of cruelty to children. It enabled the state to intervene, for the first time, in relations between parents and children. Police could arrest anyone found ill-treating a child, and enter a home if a child was thought to be in danger. The act included guidelines on the employment of children and outlawed begging. -
Convention for the Rights of the Child
With the emergence of the Convention for the Rights of the Child in the 1950's, the child is seen as a social being with rights and duties. It establishes that society and the State must provide protection, education and care for the satisfaction of their basic needs and for the achievement of their integral welfare. A school ideal is clear, in which children develop skills, introduce the stages of cognitive development and the need for social and moral adaptation. -
Industrial Revolution
With the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the bourgeoisie drastically reduces the need for child labor and, therefore, many children stop having to go to work and have "too many hours of leisure" to occupy with some activity. Hence, the need to enroll them becomes a primary objective. On the other hand, changes in social life (the emergence of cities) and family life (home life and changes in distribution) promote closer contact between parents and children. -
Children's Rights
The United Nations approves the first International Convention in which it is accepted that children have rights like all human beings. It is oriented towards greater recognition of the child as a person and as a citizen, towards overcoming old patterns of domination, authoritarianism, maleness and paternalism, and towards greater recognition and social participation of children as a population group. -
Children rights (2001+)
Children's rights includes their right to association with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for physical protection, food, universal state-paid education, health care, and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child's civil rights, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child's race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability,color, ethnicity, or other characteristics -
XXI Century
Defined childhood as a separate space from adulthood and recognized that what is appropriate for adults may not be appropriate for children. Also, encouraged Governments to provide material assistance and support to families and to avoid separation of children and their families. And finally, recognized that boys and girls are holders of their own rights and therefore are not passive recipients of charity, but protagonists with the power to participate in their own development. -
How These Changes Are Closely Linked to the Social Moment We Live Now Days
We can note that the conception of childhood has been modified over time in order to foster an ideal growth environment with which the infant can develop their physical, intellectual and emotional capacities, in addition, thanks to the creation of children's rights Childhood has been recognized as the most vulnerable stage of growth, a fact that allows us to give it the importance that children deserve, which on the contrary was ignored.
