Announcing the HES special for this fall, which is now online (the
spring and summer specials, about 1930s educational optimism and
1900s aversity to fairy tales, will of course remain available).
The new special is "How children suffer from the faults of their parents",
a 1780 text from C.G. Salzmann's _Manual for an Unwise Education of
Children_ (aka Krebsbuchlein). For the online address, see below.
>From the introduction:
The selected source text has Salzmann comparing the social position of
children with that of the suppressed population in colonized countries: at
first glance, this may give the impression of a present-day children's
rights advocate, denouncing child abuse. Soon however it becomes clear
that for this 1780 author, the essence of abuse was not the punishment
itself, but the unjustice of most punishments: children ought not be
punished for their faults, if such faults were caused by the parents
themselves - which according to Salzmann, was usually the case.
Interesting elements in this text are not just several details such
as the notion that children of busy parents are entitled to (to put this
anachronistically) "quality time" instead of being left to themselves and
to bad influences (an argument often to be repeated in the Victorian era)
but more in general, the severe and all-pervading criticism of most
parents' behaviour. Apart from the fact that much of such criticism may
have been right, one cannot help wondering whether this criticizing of
ordinary parents (that would remain a recognizable aspect in many 19th and
20th century educational publications as well) may also have served as a
means to profile the rising new elite of professional educators against
the amateur ones.
Dr. Henk van Setten -
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Associate-Professor, History of Education and Childhood.
Editor, The History of Education Site:
http://www.socsci.kun.nl/ped/whp/histeduc/
Website email: [log in to unmask]
Personal email: [log in to unmask]
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University Nijmegen,
dept. Algemene Pedagogiek,
PO Box 9104,
6500 HE Nijmegen,
Netherlands
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