Document Type
Article
Department (Manual Entry)
Feinstein School of Education and Human Development
Abstract
This paper shows that emergence of modern childhood can be explained by a need to secure unpaid labor of school-aged children by means of extra-economic coercion. The pre-modern Europe needed to compel a growing segment of population to participate in unpaid work of schooling. The task was accomplished by creating a group with limited rights, and by convincing everyone that the labor of schooling is actually a kind of service provided to children. Ultimately, the modern conception of childhood was born of power relations formed by economic necessity. To support the claim, I rely mainly on Philippe Aries's account. Michel Foucault and Karl Marx provided ways of thinking about mechanics of power.
Citation
Sidorkin, A. M. (2006). Enslavement of children, or Chrysalization of Class. Philosophy Of Education Yearbook, 417-425.