Article 4: The Idea of Infancy and Nineteenth-Century American Education

Writing in 1962, Phillippe Ariès argued that an initial step in the movement to establish schools for children in Europe took place during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when moralists and artists began portraying children as different from adults. According to Ariès, the portrayal of childhood as a unique period enabled the family and the school to separate children from society. This gave moralists a means to reform the anarchy of medieval society. They recommended starting schools that could teach the children discipline. Ariès asserted that these suggestions inspired parents to send children to schools and helped teachers to treat the children in ways appropriate to their special status (1962, 128, 411-415).