Difference between revisions of "426--Week 2 Questions/Comments--Tuesday"
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The decline in parental permission in marriage and overall parental authority that emerged during the early eighteenth century seemed to stem largely from the shift in the New World's economy and rising industrialization. As children became less reliant on their parents' income when new industrious opportunities came to light, the notion of true class mobility progressively became a reality. Although Mintz and Kellog explain the weakening of parental authority as due to economic changes, I wonder what additional cultural changes contributed to this shift in the family structure. | The decline in parental permission in marriage and overall parental authority that emerged during the early eighteenth century seemed to stem largely from the shift in the New World's economy and rising industrialization. As children became less reliant on their parents' income when new industrious opportunities came to light, the notion of true class mobility progressively became a reality. Although Mintz and Kellog explain the weakening of parental authority as due to economic changes, I wonder what additional cultural changes contributed to this shift in the family structure. | ||
| + | Augusta C. | ||
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| + | I think that it's interesting to note the marked change in the influence of traditional Puritan values on the treatment of children during the mid-eighteenth century. The liberal values expressed by driving influences of the Enlightenment, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau (pg. 20) uprooted the Puritan's notion of children as innately sinful and in need of correction, extending to coercive measures in order to instill virtuous qualities into the young members of society. Did this sweeping notion of the child as a malleable creature who should be encouraged to develop his or her distinctive and natural abilities affect colonies outside of New England in the same way? Certainly the innovative concepts of the individual and his or her potentialities directly impacted not only the notion of parents' role in supporting and educating their children, but also the way in which young members of society interacted in the grand scale, increasingly capitalistic economy. | ||
Augusta C. | Augusta C. | ||
