ABSTRACT
Preformationism, which depicts children as little adults, was dominant throughout much of Western history. For example, medieval paintings routinely portrayed children as pint-sized grownups.
Socially, too, medieval children were treated as adults, at least after the age of 6 or 7. They frequently were sent to live in the homes of others, where they served apprenticeships, learning crafts and trades alongside others who were often adults. The children wore the same clothes and played the same games as the grownups.
Preformationism began to give way in Europe after 1500. New opportunities arose for merchants, lawyers, and bankers—occupations that required reading, writing, and math. A rising middle class no longer sent their children into adult society at the age of 7; they wanted their children to go to school first. The child was seen as less as a little adult and more as a future adult.
A pioneering writer on education was John Locke (1632–1704). Locke proposed that children are like blank slates whose characteristics are formed by their social environments. He observed how adults influence children’s behavior through rewards and punishments, models, and the principle of progressing in small steps. He warned against the use of physical punishment, noting its undesirable side effects. Locke’s ideas have become cornerstones of one or more major contemporary learning theories.
In the view of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), children are not blank slates but have their own ways of thinking and feeling. This is because they develop according to Nature’s plan for healthy development. Nature is like an inner tutor, prompting children to develop different capacities at different stages.
Rousseau argued that we must give Nature a chance to do her work. Unlike Locke, he had no faith in the guidance of the social environment. Well-socialized adults, he thought, are far too dependent on the opinions of others. They have forgotten how to think with their own minds and feel with their own hearts. Rousseau described how he would tutor an imaginary pupil, Emil, to grow as an independent person.
