ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on early modern Europe, in particular on the most widespread institution in European education: the school. It explores the relevance of schools to the experience of childhood by discussing their impact on certain key concepts and phenomena which were central to intergenerational relations and the formation of identities—both communal and individual—in early modern Europe: gender, literacy, daily routines, social mobility and group building. The chapter discusses briefly the question of change towards the end of the period. The formation of a system of schools can, globally speaking, best be explained by the increase of specialization in society and the need for skills to be passed on from generation to generation to ensure the continuity of particular social groups. Changes in the way that education is conceptualized and implemented are revealing about deeper changes in the relationship between generations.
