Dbq Essay-European History-Assumptions on Children

During early modern Europe, children were viewed in many different ways which changed how parents chose to raise their children. During the 1500’s, the mortality rates for children were high, therefore children were viewed as if they were adults and very precious if they survived, many people believed that they needed to treat children harshly to make them strong. In the 1600’s, children were raised tenderly as they were rational beings that could use reason. Children were viewed in many ways during early modern Europe to be rational, precious, and in need of guidance where these views determined the parents’ choice in child rearing to behaving harshly to kind guidance.
Society sought for guidance for their children in a very caring way. In a letter Martin Luther, a leader of the Protestant Reformation in the 1500’s, it is written that his thirteen year old daughter had just died and that he is very disheartened by the loss. He loves his respectful daughter. As a father and leader of the protestant reformation, Luther is disheartened at his daughter’s loss, but he loves and respects God taking her away (Doc 2). A common stereotype about women is their personalities and perceptions toward children. Traditionally, the female stereotypic role is to marry and have children. She is also to put her family's welfare before her own; be loving, compassionate, caring, nurturing, and sympathetic. Margaret Cavendish, a duchess, a scientist, and a philosopher expresses her sincerity and is apprehensive of how society should treat children to help them reach their potential (Doc 9). Through the knowledge of a philosophe, Jean-Jacques Rousseau thought that it would be best if you let children make their own decisions, because they will be stubborn if you try to stop them (Doc 12). Children’s Games, by Pieter Brueghel, displays the children absorbed in their games with the seriousness displayed by adults in their apparently more important pursuits (Doc 5).
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