Children’s literature, the home, and the debate on public versus private education,c.1760–1845

Abstract

Note on Contributor: M. O. Grenby is Professor of Eighteenth-Century Studies in the School of English at Newcastle University. He is the author of books on children's literature, eighteenth-century novels, and premodern child readers. Abstract:In Britain in the period 1760-1845 the debate on the relative merits of public (school) versus private (home) education remained unresolved and was vigorously debated in many media. It was in this same period that children's literature began to flourish: a much wider variety of books were published in much greater numbers. The new children's literature generally took domestic life for its subject; its authors often claimed that their books had emerged from domestic practice; and the books were often marketed as being for domestic use. It can seem, therefore, that the new children's literature was, in essence, a materialisation in print of domestic pedagogy, a product developed to supply a growing demand for didactic materials to use in the home. This essay will test the hypothesis, considering some real-life pedagogical practices and examining a wide range of later eighteenth-and early nineteenth-century children's texts (both print and manuscript). This evidence will show in fact that the boundaries between private and public education were blurred. Moreover, some children's books were themselves interventions into the debate on private versus public schooling. They presented a utopian, if still practical, vision of how the advantages of both models could be combined.

Youthful minds and hands: Learning practical knowledge in early modern Europe

“…Literary historians are accustomed to analyzing discourses and representations of knowledge rather than actual practices. They mainly focus on the transmission of pedagogical ideas through a range of media such as youth literature and pedagogical tracts (Lerer 2008;Bekkering 1989;Klemann 2011;Grenby 2015). Sociologists and anthropologists have done important work on craft apprenticeship and practical and embodied knowledge, which deserves to be recognized in the history of science (Marchand 2008;O'Çonnor 2007;Ingold 2013).…”

Observation, experiment or autonomy in the domestic sphere? Women's familiar science writing in Britain, 1790–1830

“…A mother's education, including scientific education, of her children was integral to good domestic management in those many middle-class homes which accepted the advantages of teaching at home rather than in an institution. 2 Writers also recommended education on scientific topics as a way of enhancing women's abilities in the domestic sphere. Mary Wollstonecraft argued that middle-and upper-class young women should replace the novels, music, poetry and gallantry that made them slaves to their senses and, instead, exercise more properly their understanding, pursue fine literature, gardening-and experimental philosophy.…”