The Image of the Curious Child (1991)

The Image of the Curious Child The image of children as projected in the literature for and about them has changed frequently over the years. The early images are somewhat vague. In the middle ages English-speaking children were expected to be God-fearing and obedient. Good manners required that they be silent and still (Lynd 16-18). During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, religious concern with original sin painted a bleak picture of children. Even if they were pious, sober, and industrious as expected, innocence and ultimate salvation were beyond their reach. The "best" children were harmless, helpless, and preferably dead (Schorsch 32). The Age of Reason introduced respectability and refinement; keeping children busy preparing for adulthood or learning a skill became a primary goal. As Mary Jackson put it, "otherworldly piety" was replaced by "social propriety" (56). The desired traits for a child were "dutiful submissiveness, refined virtue, and appropriate sensitivity." Only bad children acted independently (Jackson 131). The beginning of the nineteenth century brought a concern for maintaining social order. Children's books presented the blessings of poverty and hard work on the one hand and displayed the goodness and generosity of the elite on the other. The main themes were obedience, submissiveness, and satisfaction with one's place in life. Along with these strictures to obey and submit, early nineteenth-century children's books began to offer a lighter picture of life for children. Fantasy brought some relief from didacticism, and even the didactic works assumed a lighter tone, advocating a less repressive view of childrearing. Youngsters finally began to appear as living, breathing individuals, and we find curiosity emerging. It does not displace obedience, submissiveness, selflessness, or any of the various virtues valued in children. But it does take its place as part of the image of children presented in the literature. As Anne Scott MacLeod points out, many authors depicted children as they wanted them to be, not the way they were (148-51). The selfless, obedient, docile child existed primarily on the pages of books. Thus it is instructive to look at one of the more minor themes like curiosity. As the nineteenth century opened, the reforms suggested by Rousseau and the reformers who followed him opened the way for natural, spontaneous learning through experience, creating a place for curiosity. Children were given sanction to think and reflect about the choices they faced in life. No longer was education merely the acquisition and repetition of facts. In The Mother's Book (1831), Lydia Maria Child asserted: Employ what teachers we may, the influences at home will have the mightiest influences in education. Schoolmasters may cultivate the intellect: but the things said and done at home are busy agents in forming the affections: and the latter have infinitely more important consequences than the former. (146) Child saw children as ready to learn: "The mind of a child is not like that of a grown person, too full and too busy to observe everything; it is a vessel empty and pure~always ready to receive, and always receiving" (9). And curiosity was key: "A very active mind, full of 188 curiosity, does not need to be excited; but a feeble, sluggish character should be aroused, as much as possible, by external means" (34). Child goes on to say that it was especially important for a mother to devote her time and energy to arousing the interests of the less forward child. Mothers are advised to instill in their children "habits of attention and activity of mind." (18) to "arouse a spirit of inquiry." Too much cannot be said on the importance of giving children early habits of observation. This must be done by teaching them to pay attention to surrounding objects, and to inquire the why and wherefore of everything. . . . What if you cannot always answer them? You do them an immense deal of good by giving their minds active habits. If a spirit of inquiry is once aroused, it will, sooner or later, find means to satisfy itself; and thus the inquisitive boy will become an energetic, capable man. (10-11) Lest one should think this spirit of inquiry is appropriate only for boys...