ABSTRACT
Since ancient times children have been scrutinised by savants, philosophers and (later) scientists, and became one of Psychology’s most important subject-groups. Books on education and child-rearing began to appear in the sixteenth century and a modern ‘Psychological’ approach is discernible in John Locke’s Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693). During the latter 1700s a plethora of educational works appeared inspired by Rousseau’s Émile, ou de l’éducation (1762). In Britain Richard and Maria Edgeworth, Thomas Day, Elizabeth Hamilton, Erasmus Darwin, Joseph Priestley and Hannah More were among the most important writers, while in mainland Europe J.H. Pestalozzi and J.F. Herbart further developed Rousseau’s ideas. During the 1820s Friedrich Froebel, inventor of the ‘kindergarten’, developed an advanced system of primary education. By the mid-1800s ‘subnormal’ children were receiving attention from the French educationist Édouard Séguin, the Swiss J.J. Güggenbuhl and the American Gridley Howe. This topic may be dated to J.M.G. Itard’s efforts at educating the feral child Victor (see Chapter 2). Later in the century, as explained in Chapter 3, child study acquired a new significance in the light of the evolutionary idea of ‘recapitulation’.
