Why Did Americans Block Young Children From Learning, and Have We Stopped?

• In Event: 53.035 - Problematizing Early Childhood Education Since the 19th Century

Abstract

How and what young children should learn and be taught are contextual and historically contingent concepts. Throughout the nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, American adults repeatedly stopped young children from learning. While they yearned for children to learn new ideas, they also declared that learning to read and write were detrimental to the overall development of young children (Beatty, 1995; Kaestle & Vinovskis, 1980; Winterer, 1992). Adults have also tried to prevent children from accessing and reading dangerous books too early. This paper answers two questions: Why did American adults become a barrier to the educational processes of young children? To what extent does this remain an ongoing pattern?

Author

• Kathryn P. Chapman, Arizona State University - Tempe