Attach importance to children's education and protection of children's rights, and talk about the development of western children's views.

With regard to children, romain rolland, a famous French writer and thinker, once said: "Whoever can see through children's lives can see the world buried in shadows and nebulae and the forming universe in the process of organization. A child's life is infinite, it is everything. " It expresses that in his mind, children are pure, free from secular pollution and have unlimited vitality.

However, in the west, children were not defined in this way at first, and the development of children's view also experienced a long-term evolution process. At first, children were regarded as parents' accessories, and no one cared what they thought. Everything has to be arranged by their parents, without any autonomy. Nowadays, people pay more and more attention to children's independence and their own thoughts, and their views on children are becoming more and more mature.

After World War II, Children's Day was specially set up to mourn the children who died in the war, and it was set on June 1 day every year, so children had their own festivals. More and more attention has been paid to the protection of children's rights and interests, and the requirements for children's education are constantly improving. They have become a group that cannot be ignored in society.

The concept of children has been in the process of constant change. Through research, we can get a glimpse of the change of human attitude towards children and the process of children changing from accessories to independent individuals. From the development of children's view, we can also see the continuous maturity and progress of human thought, so it is of great significance to study this issue.

0 1. What is the concept of children?

First, define a child. Children are relatively young minors. According to the definition of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, a child refers to anyone under the age of 18, and should not be treated differently because of color, race, sex, religion and language. Since 1989 was adopted by the United Nations, the Convention has been gradually recognized by most countries in the world.

Generally speaking, the concept of children refers to adults' views and opinions on children and the sum of all concepts related to children, involving a series of issues such as children's development characteristics and physical and mental health, children's rights and obligations, and children's education. The view of children is the view of human beings on their childhood and future development.

Influenced by different times and environments, people in different countries and regions have different views on this issue from ancient times to the present. These views collide with each other and promote the continuous development of children's views. Similarly, through the study of children's views in different times, we can also see the status and rights of children's life in that era, and see to what extent human self-awareness has developed.

02. Factors influencing the formation of children's view

As a social ideology, children's outlook is bound to be influenced by various social factors. Social factors in different times have created different views on children in different times, and it is precisely because of the interaction of various social factors that the formation and evolution of western views on children have been promoted.

Secondly, western society attaches great importance to the role of religion in social life, and religious concepts have also had a great influence on the formation and development of western children's views. Among them, Islam and Christianity have the deepest influence. Islamic classics warn parents to teach their children to be kind, while Christianity forbids infanticide, believing that children are pure and only children can enter the kingdom of God. Traces of religious influence can still be seen in the western view of children today.

In addition, scientific research will also have an impact on the formation of children's views. Biology, sociology, psychology and other studies will all involve the viewpoint of "people" to a greater or lesser extent, and "people" includes children. These social science studies have played a guiding and complementary role in the evolution of children's view. Scientific research achievements have been popularized in people's minds, forming a more scientific view of children.

In that era when civilization was not fully civilized, human beings had not fully understood themselves, so there was no concept of "children's view" at that time, but people's attitude towards children at that time was expressed. Although various theoretical systems have not been formed as they are today, children have been cultivated to some extent for the sake of the reproduction and continuation of future generations and the future development of the clan.

0 1. Views on children before the Middle Ages

In ancient times, due to low productivity, people's understanding of everything was simple and superstitious. According to the investigation of scientists, abandoned babies, infanticide and even abandoned babies have existed in ancient times, which seems very inhuman to us today. But at that time, because of the small land and large population in western countries, infanticide became the only way to control the population. Such behavior shows that children can be disposed of at will and have no human rights at all.

In ancient Greece and Rome, the western society still kept the tradition of abandoning babies and killing babies, and children could only obey the arrangement of their fathers or clan leaders from birth. However, some thinkers are still aware of the existence of children as individuals, while others are aware of the differences between each child. They all want to educate their children, which reflects that some people have begun to pay attention to their development at that time.

The medieval theology controlled by the church has a strong color, and religion occupies a central position in all aspects, which has influenced the medieval view of children.

At that time, the concept of children can be roughly divided into "original sin theory" and "pre-formation theory" The former thinks that children have original sin from birth, and their nature is evil, so they must be strictly disciplined; The latter thought that there was no special difference between children and adults, so people at that time did not recognize the existence of children's world, which ignored children's own needs.

02. The view of children after the Renaissance

/kloc-The Renaissance in the 0/4th century was the beginning of ideological emancipation in western society, which began to break the superstition and feudalism in the Middle Ages, gradually opened the trend of western modernization, and paved the way for the later religious reform and bourgeois reform movements. Ideological emancipation in this period will inevitably bring about changes in children's view and liberate children's view from medieval religious theology.

The Renaissance emphasized "man" itself, and humanism was its basic idea, which improved the status of "man", so the status of children also improved, and they became relatively free and independent from the previous subordinate relationship. However, at that time, there was still no clear opposition to obeying children as accessories, and the traditional view of children was not completely abandoned, but persisted.

In addition, the concept of children has also made some progress. At that time, the society recognized the possibility of children's own development, and they had certain freedom, but this freedom was class-oriented and did not spread to all classes at that time. Later, the development of the concept of children basically continued this view.

Great changes have taken place in the western concept of children since modern times, which is not only the result of the development of capitalism in modern society, but also the great progress of the overall consciousness of western society. The change of children's view directly affects the field of education. At that time, the famous thinkers and educators Rousseau and Locke all put forward their own opinions on this issue, and the popularization of children's education in turn promoted the progress of social children's view.

1. The view of children in the capitalist era

After the Enlightenment of the Renaissance, the Enlightenment of17-18th century brought more thorough ideological emancipation to the western world. Many thinkers advocate rationality and liberate people from the bondage of theology. Under this background, Britain in the17th century produced a new view of children, which was different from the previous view of children. It believes that children have no original sin, they are born pure and do not need corporal punishment education, so they should be affirmed and encouraged.

Locke, a British materialist philosopher, put forward the famous educational theory "Whiteboard Theory", which means that children's minds are like white paper without any trace on it, and emphasized the importance of acquired experience in children's development. So we pay more attention to the importance of education in children's development. This theory is an epoch-making educational theory, which has a far-reaching impact on the development of children's education in later generations.

Later, based on the enlightenment thought, Rousseau, an enlightenment thinker, discovered the "children" themselves and realized that children were a different group from adults, so he opposed treating children as adults. He also believes that children have their own growth laws, so they are divided into four stages. But in order not to hinder children's natural development, they should not be educated with reason and knowledge.

By the19th century, western countries began to attach importance to school education. The most famous educator in this period was Pestalozzi, and a group of people led by him advocated following the law of children's psychological development and adopting different educational methods at different psychological stages. This has formed a relatively perfect theoretical system of children's education, and since then the development of children's view has been scientifically supported.

02. Modern children's view

In the 20th century, the concept of children had a new development on the basis of the previous generation. The whole society pays more attention to the development of children as individuals and improves the education of children. There is also a trend of child-centered education in European and American countries, and children, as a group, occupy an increasingly important position in society.

Dewey, the representative of this child-centered education, opposes the concept of children's "ignorance" and "incompetence", demands attention to children's education, and also advocates taking children as the center of education. Childhood, which has not yet reached the mature stage, is a crucial period for people's future development. Developing children's potential through education is a major change in the field of education. In the second half of the 20th century, many schools of education came into being, and put forward different views on children's education, which reflected the society's emphasis on children's education and was a great progress in the modernization of children's views.

In addition, it attaches importance to the protection of children's rights. Western countries have passed laws prohibiting the employment of child labor and set up a series of relevant official institutions. Children's rights include the right to survival and development, the right to education, the right not to be discriminated against and the right to participate in social life, so the western view of children has become more mature and more guaranteed by the system.

References:

Historical evolution of western children's view

The Historical Evolution of Chinese and Western Views on Children and the Comparison of Their Educational Dimensions