THE MODERN CHILD AS VIEWED IN 1898

[摘要] The editorial1 below, written in 1898, might well have been written today, although we would have to add the influence of television on the modern child of 1977.To the student of sociology, one of the most notable features of the past few decades is the growing attention bestowed upon children. The thought now devoted to them would amaze our ancestors of three generations ago. Child-study has become one of great importance. Thousands of men and women are being trained in scores of normal schools for the one purpose of instructing young, for the work of a teacher is now believed to be one demanding extensive and peculiar education. Volumes are written annually for children and of children, while journals and magazines of the same character have increased a hundred-fold. The children are apparently considered a far more important factor in every household than they were fifty years ago. It is at least a fact that they receive more attention and are brought into much greater prominence. The average child of to-day has a score of toys where his grandfather had one. Many children are overburdened with them, and are less happy than they would be with a smaller number. The most contented and quiet children that the physician sees in his rounds are certainly not those with the most playthings.We are far from criticising the general tendency to bestow more attention upon children and more thought upon their education and training, but it cannot be denied that the matter in many families is carried to a very injudicious extreme.

[学科分类] 儿科学