Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Monday, 19 October 2009
Wednesday, 7 October 2009
This week’s top plain English tips:
Don’t hide behind abstract terms or use them to avoid confronting difficult topics. If you have to use them, explain them or give the context in which you’re using them – even if this takes an extra sentence or two.
Don’t use terms like citizens, local people, residents, the public, interchangeably. Choose one and stick to it all the way through your document.
Avoid underlined and italic text. It is harder to read, especially for people with visual impairment.
To make sure your reader understands what you are saying always use acronyms and abbreviations properly and sparingly. Always give acronyms and abbreviations in full. If you’re going to repeat it in the same document, put it in full at first followed by the abbreviation in brackets.
Don’t use terms like citizens, local people, residents, the public, interchangeably. Choose one and stick to it all the way through your document.
Avoid underlined and italic text. It is harder to read, especially for people with visual impairment.
To make sure your reader understands what you are saying always use acronyms and abbreviations properly and sparingly. Always give acronyms and abbreviations in full. If you’re going to repeat it in the same document, put it in full at first followed by the abbreviation in brackets.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Embedding the UN Convention on the Rights of The Child (1989)
The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child is the overarching framework for the rights of children and young people to participation, protection and provision of services to fulfil their potential. Government and the services it is responsible for are answerable for progress under the Convention to make sure that all children and young people in the UK gain the best
possible start in life given the resources available. CWDC has adopted the Convention and upholds its importance in ensuring the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
1. General principles
Article 3 All organisations concerned with children and young people should work towards what is best for them.
Article 41 If the laws of a particular country protect children and young people better than the articles of the Convention, then those laws should stay.
2. Inclusion principles:
Article 1 Everyone under 18 years of age has all the rights in this Convention.
Article 2 The Convention applies to everyone under 18 whatever their race, religion, abilities, whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from.
Article 22 Children and young people who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children and young people born in that country.
Article 23 Children and young people who have any kind of disability should have special care and support so that they can lead full and independent lives.
3. Principles of family life
Article 5 Governments should respect the rights and responsibilities of families to direct and guide their children so that, as they grow, they learn to use their rights properly.
Article 7 All children and young people have the right to a legally registered name, the right to a nationality and their right to know and, as far as possible, to be cared for by their parents.
Article 8 Governments should respect children and young people’s right to a name,
a nationality and family ties.
Article 10 Families who live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children and young people can stay in contact or get back together as a family.
Article 11 Governments should take steps to stop children and young people being taken out of their own country illegally.
Article 18 Both parents share responsibility for bringing up their children and should always consider what is best for each child. Governments should help parents by providing services to support them, especially if both parents work.
4. Participation principles:
Article 12 Children and young people have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them and to have their opinions taken into account.
Article13 Children and young people have the right to get and to share information as long as the information is not damaging to them or to others.
Article 14 Children and young people have the right to think and believe what they want and to practice their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Parents should guide their children on these matters.
Article 15 Children and young people have the right to meet together and to join groups and organisations, as long as this does not stop other people from enjoying their rights.
Article 16 Children and young people have a right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name, their families and their homes.
Article 17 Children and young people have the right to reliable information from the mass media. Television, radio and newspapers should provide information that children and young people can understand and should not promote materials that could harm them.
5. Protection principles
Article 9 Children and young people should not be separated from their parents unless it is for their own good, for example if a parent is mistreating or neglecting a child. Children and young people whose parents have separated have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.
Article 19 Governments should ensure that children and young people are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.
Article 20 Children and young people who cannot be looked after by their own family must be looked after properly, by people who respect their religion, culture and language.
Article 21 When children and young people are adopted the first concern must be what
is best for them. The same rules should apply whether the children and young people are adopted in the country where they were born or taken to live in another country.
Article 22 Children and young people who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children and young people born in that country.
Article 25 Children and young people who are looked after by their local authority rather than their parents should have their situation reviewed regularly.
6. Provision principles
Article 26 The Government should provide extra money for the children and young people of families in need.
Article 27 Children and young people have a right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs. The Government should help families who cannot afford to provide this.
Article 28 Children and young people have a right to an education. Discipline in schools
should respect children and young people’s human dignity. Primary education should be free.
Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this.
Article 29 Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children and young people to respect their parents and their own and other cultures.
Article 30 Children and young people have a right to learn and use the language and customs of their families, whether these are shared by the majority of people in the country or not.
Article 31 All children and young people have a right to relax and play and to join in a wide range of activities.
possible start in life given the resources available. CWDC has adopted the Convention and upholds its importance in ensuring the best possible outcomes for children and young people.
1. General principles
Article 3 All organisations concerned with children and young people should work towards what is best for them.
Article 41 If the laws of a particular country protect children and young people better than the articles of the Convention, then those laws should stay.
2. Inclusion principles:
Article 1 Everyone under 18 years of age has all the rights in this Convention.
Article 2 The Convention applies to everyone under 18 whatever their race, religion, abilities, whatever they think or say, whatever type of family they come from.
Article 22 Children and young people who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children and young people born in that country.
Article 23 Children and young people who have any kind of disability should have special care and support so that they can lead full and independent lives.
3. Principles of family life
Article 5 Governments should respect the rights and responsibilities of families to direct and guide their children so that, as they grow, they learn to use their rights properly.
Article 7 All children and young people have the right to a legally registered name, the right to a nationality and their right to know and, as far as possible, to be cared for by their parents.
Article 8 Governments should respect children and young people’s right to a name,
a nationality and family ties.
Article 10 Families who live in different countries should be allowed to move between those countries so that parents and children and young people can stay in contact or get back together as a family.
Article 11 Governments should take steps to stop children and young people being taken out of their own country illegally.
Article 18 Both parents share responsibility for bringing up their children and should always consider what is best for each child. Governments should help parents by providing services to support them, especially if both parents work.
4. Participation principles:
Article 12 Children and young people have the right to say what they think should happen, when adults are making decisions that affect them and to have their opinions taken into account.
Article13 Children and young people have the right to get and to share information as long as the information is not damaging to them or to others.
Article 14 Children and young people have the right to think and believe what they want and to practice their religion, as long as they are not stopping other people from enjoying their rights. Parents should guide their children on these matters.
Article 15 Children and young people have the right to meet together and to join groups and organisations, as long as this does not stop other people from enjoying their rights.
Article 16 Children and young people have a right to privacy. The law should protect them from attacks against their way of life, their good name, their families and their homes.
Article 17 Children and young people have the right to reliable information from the mass media. Television, radio and newspapers should provide information that children and young people can understand and should not promote materials that could harm them.
5. Protection principles
Article 9 Children and young people should not be separated from their parents unless it is for their own good, for example if a parent is mistreating or neglecting a child. Children and young people whose parents have separated have the right to stay in contact with both parents, unless this might hurt the child.
Article 19 Governments should ensure that children and young people are properly cared for and protect them from violence, abuse and neglect by their parents or anyone else who looks after them.
Article 20 Children and young people who cannot be looked after by their own family must be looked after properly, by people who respect their religion, culture and language.
Article 21 When children and young people are adopted the first concern must be what
is best for them. The same rules should apply whether the children and young people are adopted in the country where they were born or taken to live in another country.
Article 22 Children and young people who come into a country as refugees should have the same rights as children and young people born in that country.
Article 25 Children and young people who are looked after by their local authority rather than their parents should have their situation reviewed regularly.
6. Provision principles
Article 26 The Government should provide extra money for the children and young people of families in need.
Article 27 Children and young people have a right to a standard of living that is good enough to meet their physical and mental needs. The Government should help families who cannot afford to provide this.
Article 28 Children and young people have a right to an education. Discipline in schools
should respect children and young people’s human dignity. Primary education should be free.
Wealthy countries should help poorer countries achieve this.
Article 29 Education should develop each child’s personality and talents to the full. It should encourage children and young people to respect their parents and their own and other cultures.
Article 30 Children and young people have a right to learn and use the language and customs of their families, whether these are shared by the majority of people in the country or not.
Article 31 All children and young people have a right to relax and play and to join in a wide range of activities.
Wednesday, 30 September 2009
Childhood Development Lecture 2
Nuerologically and physically children have not changed much in thousands of years.
but their environent has changed. The cultural context.
kung bushmen
close
different from adults
tolerated
Agrarian communities- what can the child contribute? cooperation is key. Children given high leels of responsibility. Children thought of as 'adults'
technologicalcommunities return back to nuclear family. However, children are not valued as 'contributors' but valued 'in themselves' as having 'potential'.This is where schools developed.The term adolescent was developed in this time.
Pre-Industrial Europe - a time of flux andmess
6 phases of Childhood.
1. lack of concern for children
2. Children are evil and need redemption
3. The pre-empirical philosophy phase (eg Locke and Rousseau)
4. Observattional research
5. Grand phase of theoretical science
6. Contemporary diversity. (many Theories)
1. lack of concern for children
Parents 'ignored' and disregarded children.
High Infant mortality 1 in 4 chance past 6yrs of age.
Deplorable living conditions
1750 Paris 33% of births left in foundling homes/doorsteps.
A Modest Proposal By Jonathan Swift (1729) (English satiriist)
For Preventing The Children of Poor People in Ireland
From Being Aburden to Their Parents or Country, and
For Making Them Beneficial to The Public
”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”
Full Text Follows
It is a melancholy object to those who walk through this great town or travel in the country, when they see the streets, the roads, and cabin doors, crowded with beggars of the female sex, followed by three, four, or six children, all in rags and importuning every passenger for an alms. These mothers, instead of being able to work for their honest livelihood, are forced to employ all their time in strolling to beg sustenance for their helpless infants: who as they grow up either turn thieves for want of work, or leave their dear native country to fight for the Pretender in Spain, or sell themselves to the Barbadoes.
I think it is agreed by all parties that this prodigious number of children in the arms, or on the backs, or at the heels of their mothers, and frequently of their fathers, is in the present deplorable state of the kingdom a very great additional grievance; and, therefore, whoever could find out a fair, cheap, and easy method of making these children sound, useful members of the commonwealth, would deserve so well of the public as to have his statue set up for a preserver of the nation.
But my intention is very far from being confined to provide only for the children of professed beggars; it is of a much greater extent, and shall take in the whole number of infants at a certain age who are born of parents in effect as little able to support them as those who demand our charity in the streets.
”I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled ...”
As to my own part, having turned my thoughts for many years upon this important subject, and maturely weighed the several schemes of other projectors, I have always found them grossly mistaken in the computation. It is true, a child just dropped from its dam may be supported by her milk for a solar year, with little other nourishment; at most not above the value of 2s., which the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old that I propose to provide for them in such a manner as instead of being a charge upon their parents or the parish, or wanting food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall on the contrary contribute to the feeding, and partly to the clothing, of many thousands.
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it will prevent those voluntary abortions, and that horrid practice of women murdering their bastard children, alas! too frequent among us! sacrificing the poor innocent babes I doubt more to avoid the expense than the shame, which would move tears and pity in the most savage and inhuman breast.
The number of souls in this kingdom being usually reckoned one million and a half, of these I calculate there may be about two hundred thousand couple whose wives are breeders; from which number I subtract thirty thousand couples who are able to maintain their own children, although I apprehend there cannot be so many, under the present distresses of the kingdom; but this being granted, there will remain an hundred and seventy thousand breeders. I again subtract fifty thousand for those women who miscarry, or whose children die by accident or disease within the year. There only remains one hundred and twenty thousand children of poor parents annually born. The question therefore is, how this number shall be reared and provided for, which, as I have already said, under the present situation of affairs, is utterly impossible by all the methods hitherto proposed. For we can neither employ them in handicraft or agriculture; we neither build houses (I mean in the country) nor cultivate land: they can very seldom pick up a livelihood by stealing, till they arrive at six years old, except where they are of towardly parts, although I confess they learn the rudiments much earlier, during which time, they can however be properly looked upon only as probationers, as I have been informed by a principal gentleman in the county of Cavan, who protested to me that he never knew above one or two instances under the age of six, even in a part of the kingdom so renowned for the quickest proficiency in that art.
I am assured by our merchants, that a boy or a girl before twelve years old is no salable commodity; and even when they come to this age they will not yield above three pounds, or three pounds and half-a-crown at most on the exchange; which cannot turn to account either to the parents or kingdom, the charge of nutriment and rags having been at least four times that value.
I shall now therefore humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection.
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed is at a year old a most delicious, nourishing, and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricassee or a ragout.
I do therefore humbly offer it to public consideration that of the hundred and twenty thousand children already computed, twenty thousand may be reserved for breed, whereof only one-fourth part to be males; which is more than we allow to sheep, black cattle or swine; and my reason is, that these children are seldom the fruits of marriage, a circumstance not much regarded by our savages, therefore one male will be sufficient to serve four females. That the remaining hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered in the sale to the persons of quality and fortune through the kingdom; always advising the mother to let them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to render them plump and fat for a good table. A child will make two dishes at an entertainment for friends; and when the family dines alone, the fore or hind quarter will make a reasonable dish, and seasoned with a little pepper or salt will be very good boiled on the fourth day, especially in winter.
I have reckoned upon a medium that a child just born will weigh 12 pounds, and in a solar year, if tolerably nursed, increaseth to 28 pounds.
I grant this food will be somewhat dear, and therefore very proper for landlords, who, as they have already devoured most of the parents, seem to have the best title to the children.
Infant's flesh will be in season throughout the year, but more plentiful in March, and a little before and after; for we are told by a grave author, an eminent French physician, that fish being a prolific diet, there are more children born in Roman Catholic countries about nine months after Lent than at any other season; therefore, reckoning a year after Lent, the markets will be more glutted than usual, because the number of popish infants is at least three to one in this kingdom: and therefore it will have one other collateral advantage, by lessening the number of papists among us.
I have already computed the charge of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farmers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags included; and I believe no gentleman would repine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good fat child, which, as I have said, will make four dishes of excellent nutritive meat, when he hath only some particular friend or his own family to dine with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants; the mother will have eight shillings net profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.
Those who are more thrifty (as I must confess the times require) may flay the carcass; the skin of which artificially dressed will make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer boots for fine gentlemen.
As to our city of Dublin, shambles may be appointed for this purpose in the most convenient parts of it, and butchers we may be assured will not be wanting; although I rather recommend buying the children alive, and dressing them hot from the knife, as we do roasting pigs.
A very worthy person, a true lover of his country, and whose virtues I highly esteem, was lately pleased in discoursing on this matter to offer a refinement upon my scheme. He said that many gentlemen of this kingdom, having of late destroyed their deer, he conceived that the want of venison might be well supplied by the bodies of young lads and maidens, not exceeding fourteen years of age nor under twelve; so great a number of both sexes in every country being now ready to starve for want of work and service; and these to be disposed of by their parents, if alive, or otherwise by their nearest relations. But with due deference to so excellent a friend and so deserving a patriot, I cannot be altogether in his sentiments; for as to the males, my American acquaintance assured me, from frequent experience, that their flesh was generally tough and lean, like that of our schoolboys by continual exercise, and their taste disagreeable; and to fatten them would not answer the charge. Then as to the females, it would, I think, with humble submission be a loss to the public, because they soon would become breeders themselves; and besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous people might be apt to censure such a practice (although indeed very unjustly), as a little bordering upon cruelty; which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any project, however so well intended.
But in order to justify my friend, he confessed that this expedient was put into his head by the famous Psalmanazar, a native of the island Formosa, who came from thence to London above twenty years ago, and in conversation told my friend, that in his country when any young person happened to be put to death, the executioner sold the carcass to persons of quality as a prime dainty; and that in his time the body of a plump girl of fifteen, who was crucified for an attempt to poison the emperor, was sold to his imperial majesty's prime minister of state, and other great mandarins of the court, in joints from the gibbet, at four hundred crowns. Neither indeed can I deny, that if the same use were made of several plump young girls in this town, who without one single groat to their fortunes cannot stir abroad without a chair, and appear at playhouse and assemblies in foreign fineries which they never will pay for, the kingdom would not be the worse.
Some persons of a desponding spirit are in great concern about that vast number of poor people, who are aged, diseased, or maimed, and I have been desired to employ my thoughts what course may be taken to ease the nation of so grievous an encumbrance. But I am not in the least pain upon that matter, because it is very well known that they are every day dying and rotting by cold and famine, and filth and vermin, as fast as can be reasonably expected. And as to the young laborers, they are now in as hopeful a condition; they cannot get work, and consequently pine away for want of nourishment, to a degree that if at any time they are accidentally hired to common labor, they have not strength to perform it; and thus the country and themselves are happily delivered from the evils to come.
I have too long digressed, and therefore shall return to my subject. I think the advantages by the proposal which I have made are obvious and many, as well as of the highest importance.
For first, as I have already observed, it would greatly lessen the number of papists, with whom we are yearly overrun, being the principal breeders of the nation as well as our most dangerous enemies; and who stay at home on purpose with a design to deliver the kingdom to the Pretender, hoping to take their advantage by the absence of so many good protestants, who have chosen rather to leave their country than stay at home and pay tithes against their conscience to an episcopal curate.
Secondly, The poorer tenants will have something valuable of their own, which by law may be made liable to distress and help to pay their landlord's rent, their corn and cattle being already seized, and money a thing unknown.
Thirdly, Whereas the maintenance of an hundred thousand children, from two years old and upward, cannot be computed at less than ten shillings a-piece per annum, the nation's stock will be thereby increased fifty thousand pounds per annum, beside the profit of a new dish introduced to the tables of all gentlemen of fortune in the kingdom who have any refinement in taste. And the money will circulate among ourselves, the goods being entirely of our own growth and manufacture.
Fourthly, The constant breeders, beside the gain of eight shillings sterling per annum by the sale of their children, will be rid of the charge of maintaining them after the first year.
Fifthly, This food would likewise bring great custom to taverns; where the vintners will certainly be so prudent as to procure the best receipts for dressing it to perfection, and consequently have their houses frequented by all the fine gentlemen, who justly value themselves upon their knowledge in good eating: and a skilful cook, who understands how to oblige his guests, will contrive to make it as expensive as they please.
Sixthly, This would be a great inducement to marriage, which all wise nations have either encouraged by rewards or enforced by laws and penalties. It would increase the care and tenderness of mothers toward their children, when they were sure of a settlement for life to the poor babes, provided in some sort by the public, to their annual profit instead of expense. We should see an honest emulation among the married women, which of them could bring the fattest child to the market. Men would become as fond of their wives during the time of their pregnancy as they are now of their mares in foal, their cows in calf, their sows when they are ready to farrow; nor offer to beat or kick them (as is too frequent a practice) for fear of a miscarriage.
Many other advantages might be enumerated. For instance, the addition of some thousand carcasses in our exportation of barreled beef, the propagation of swine's flesh, and improvement in the art of making good bacon, so much wanted among us by the great destruction of pigs, too frequent at our tables; which are no way comparable in taste or magnificence to a well-grown, fat, yearling child, which roasted whole will make a considerable figure at a lord mayor's feast or any other public entertainment. But this and many others I omit, being studious of brevity.
Supposing that one thousand families in this city, would be constant customers for infants flesh, besides others who might have it at merry meetings, particularly at weddings and christenings, I compute that Dublin would take off annually about twenty thousand carcasses; and the rest of the kingdom (where probably they will be sold somewhat cheaper) the remaining eighty thousand.
I can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. This I freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. I desire the reader will observe, that I calculate my remedy for this one individual Kingdom of Ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, I think, ever can be upon Earth. Therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: Of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: Of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: Of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: Of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: Of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: Of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from Laplanders, and the inhabitants of Topinamboo: Of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the Jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: Of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: Of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. Lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.
Therefore I repeat, let no man talk to me of these and the like expedients, 'till he hath at least some glympse of hope, that there will ever be some hearty and sincere attempt to put them into practice.
But, as to my self, having been wearied out for many years with offering vain, idle, visionary thoughts, and at length utterly despairing of success, I fortunately fell upon this proposal, which, as it is wholly new, so it hath something solid and real, of no expence and little trouble, full in our own power, and whereby we can incur no danger in disobliging England. For this kind of commodity will not bear exportation, and flesh being of too tender a consistence, to admit a long continuance in salt, although perhaps I could name a country, which would be glad to eat up our whole nation without it.
After all, I am not so violently bent upon my own opinion as to reject any offer proposed by wise men, which shall be found equally innocent, cheap, easy, and effectual. But before something of that kind shall be advanced in contradiction to my scheme, and offering a better, I desire the author or authors will be pleased maturely to consider two points. First, as things now stand, how they will be able to find food and raiment for an hundred thousand useless mouths and backs. And secondly, there being a round million of creatures in human figure throughout this kingdom, whose whole subsistence put into a common stock would leave them in debt two millions of pounds sterling, adding those who are beggars by profession to the bulk of farmers, cottagers, and laborers, with their wives and children who are beggars in effect: I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.
I profess, in the sincerity of my heart, that I have not the least personal interest in endeavoring to promote this necessary work, having no other motive than the public good of my country, by advancing our trade, providing for infants, relieving the poor, and giving some pleasure to the rich. I have no children by which I can propose to get a single penny; the youngest being nine years old, and my wife past child-bearing.
The End
In England during the same period children were sent to the mines 4-5 years of age.
What was the cause of this lack of concern - one account is that the emotional investment is too great (a risk) when infant mortality is high? (are there similarities to some parents relationship children with terminal illness in modern times?)
The art of the times, children are depicted in paintings as looking somewhat like adults. Which reflects that children were seen as 'mini-adults'.
phase 2. Growing (religious)concern for children.
Original sin. Self will had led Adam and Eve astray. Hence, the child's natural self will must be brought under control.
John Wesley the rise of methodism "Spare the rod and ruin the child". The rise of the Sunday School Movement.
C. Stephen Finley, who reminds us that John Wesley, one of the early promoters of Methodism, acted "as a conservative counterweight to the liberating influence of Rousseau," explains the relation between his evangelical convicton of corrupt human nature and his attitudes toward raising children:
Wesley believed that man was by his very nature a "mere atheist." Children were, foremost, afflicted by "natural atheism," an atheism chiefly inherent in their innate capacity to enjoy and to love nature. Thus, the "wise parent" was impelled to break their will because such will would lead them to two damning desires: the "desire of the flesh" and the "desire of the eyes." Children desired first to enjoy earthly happiness, to experience what gratified the outward senses, such as taste or touch. More inimical to their spiritual well-being was the complementary "desire of the eyes": the "propensity to seek happiness in what gratifies the internal sense, the imagination, either by things grand, or new, or beautiful." Both desires for Wesley were only incriminating evidence of a child's inclination to fatal error, that is, to be "a lover of the creature, instead of the Creator." Parents could only deepen and harden such error by ascribing "the works of creation to nature," or by praising the beauty of man or woman or the natural world. Hence children were to be brought up in extreme austerity of diet and dress and were to be taught repeatedly how they were "fallen spirits." Such instruction would help them to realize that they were "more ignorant, more foolish, and more wicked, than they could possibly conceive." From this method of education they would emerge with firmly held conviction that their natural propensities were akin on the one hand to "the devil" and on the other to "the beasts of the field."
Are these opinions reflected in Dicken's works (Yes!)
But in America of the same time, a more Utopian and positive view of children abounded. (America was known as the 'new Jerusalem'). Hower all things were not equal as families would trade children with their nieghbours if the parent thought that they were getting too close to their own children (and hence compromising their moral development).
Next time (lecture 3) Locke's Tabula rasa, and Rousseau 'children's nature is essentially good: if encouraged by society.
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