ABSTRACT
This chapter begins by investigating classical and biblical advice regarding the raising of children. These sources demanded that children be educated and disciplined by their parents in order to ensure that they grew up to become moral adults. This stance could be used to argue that immoral adults had been poorly raised and that parents were, therefore, liable for their children’s misdeeds. This quintessentially humanist view ultimately received the support of the Tudor state and was popularised and disseminated by its propaganda machine. The power of the state to disseminate the message that children must be educated to avoid falling into sin ensured that it soon became hegemonic, a view simply accepted as fact. The chapter concludes by considering the sheer weight of material that promoted this view, from Crown edicts and church sermons to broadsheet ballads and literature of all kinds, and argues that this consistency demonstrates the dominant nature of the paradigm in contemporary society.
