Was having a conversation with a friend today and he mentioned that the concept of childhood (as in, people at that age ought to be nurtured, need an education etc) was a relatively new concept that only came about in the last ~200 years. I think he might have heard about that from Dan Carlin's podcast. I am wondering if this idea has any validity to it. Thanks!
that the concept of childhood (as in, people at that age ought to be nurtured, need an education etc) was a relatively new concept that only came about in the last ~200 years
[laughs in Middle Ages]
More can always be said on the matter, of course, but we turn to the most inestimable u/sunagainstgold on this matter:
So, this is a somewhat complex question. The idea that " the concept of childhood (as in, people at that age ought to be nurtured, need an education etc) was a relatively new concept" is far too simple. It's certainly not the case that people prior to the "modern" period as we define it had no concept of childhood or thought of children only as "little adults." However, the meaning of childhood (like the meaning of gender and gender roles) has varied considerably through time and space among human societies.
A good academic overview can be found in a recent AHR piece from Oct 2020 (apologies for potential gatekeeping/wall): https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/125/4/1286/5933547?redirectedFrom=fulltext
On the other hand, there is something to the idea of insulating children from the pressures of the outside world as a relatively modern idea. One might consider the phenomenon of child labor in the United States. Certainly no one would have believed that children and adults should have the same jobs, but children were often called upon to perform tasks that people today would consider grossly inappropriate for their age. The idea that the State has a compelling interest in protecting children--from industry, and even from their parents--solidified considerably in the first few decades of the 1900s. It wouldn't be accurate to say this interest never existed before, but it expanded considerably during and after the Progressive Era. One very basic overview can be found here: https://www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor . For a more thorough academic work, I'd refer you to this book review: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25144406?seq=1
Finally, I should mention that the definition of childhood and the appropriate scope of activity for children has often been defined as much by social class within a culture than it has by cultural norms alone. Unsurprisingly, children born to wealthy families were often much more insulated from the world than their poor counterparts. Hence in some parts of ancient Greece, for example, it wouldn't be considered out of the ordinary for an aristocratic 10 year old boy to have tutors and a personal slave to attend to his needs, while a poor orphaned boy might be sold into sex work at the same age, and not have it be seen as scandalous by society at large.