ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the role of literacy in children's upbringing in southern Finland from the premodern era to modern times. It sheds light on a previously neglected region and a frequently ignored period of the history of childhood in rural Finland before the modernization. The chapter focuses on how rural Finnish children were brought up and how the function of literacy in their curriculum changed over time. It utilizes a variety of sources to follow the subtle shift from practical training and alphabet teaching motivated by religious views to a more formal schooling until the time of the Elementary School Law. People in Finland tend to think today that literacy and education are a self-evident task allotted to institutions. Strict catechetical teachings were giving way to a wider understanding of education, the initiative moved from the clergy to the enlightened aristocracy, and this time Erkyla village was the forerunner.
