DBQ ESSAY essays

DBQ ESSAY essays Children in society today, as many centuries ago, are shaped by the opinions thrust forth upon them by the adults they live alongside. Experiences of most children in the 16th through 18th centuries were shaped by the differing and continuous views of the adults they were living with in their certain time periods. Adult views and their subsequent effects on children were all changing in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. In the sixteenth century adults had a pessimistic view of children, and therefore treated them harshly, while expecting many things out of them. Robert Clever, a Calvinist, whom was influenced by his religon concerning how children should be treated, points out that children are born with a wrong doing heart and are drawn towards evil (1). This man, of the upper class points out the lack of trust between the adult and the child, and how children need to be shown to be good via education, but that until then the child is evil. Lady Jane Grey recalls upon her experiences in the 1530s as having to be perfect around adults and having to do things to the utmost standards, or else she would have physical punishment inflicted upon her. This shows all that was expected of children and the consequences of their failure to achieve this ideal set forth by the adults. Lastly, in the sixteenth centuries, the pessimistic view of children resulted in their harsh treatment because, as Bartholo mew Batty pointed out in 1581 how parents beat their children, inflicting discipline in violent ways, which shows the violent and harsh disciplinary actions put forth on the children during this time. Because of the negative thought towards children in the sixteenth century, they were treated violently and punished harshly. In the seventeenth century, more positive adult views towards children at the time emerged, and less seemed to be expected of children, as they were given more room for error ...