19世纪英国工人阶级子女童年生活转型原因探析

Origins of the Transformation of Working Class Childhood in 19^(th) Century England

在19世纪,英国工人阶级子女的童年生活,逐渐由参加劳动转变为接受教育。这种转型根源于当时的社会、政治、经济生活所发生的深刻变化。思想文化界看待童年的观念变迁影响着人们对待儿童的态度。工业社会对劳动者的素质提出了新要求,改变了人们对待儿童的劳动和教育问题的传统态度;国家出于社会控制以及对民族未来的考虑,也在下层儿童的教育和劳动立法问题上采取越来越主动的态度;工人阶级家庭对于子女的教育和劳动问题的态度,也因为时代和社会的变化以及生活水平的提高而发生着改变。正是在这些因素的作用下,工人阶级儿童的生活重心逐渐由劳动转移到教育,这种转变不仅改变了几个世纪以来英国普通儿童的命运,也使得现代意义的童年生活初具模型。

Childhood of English working class children was transformed from labouring in early 19^th century to education at the end of that century. It resulted in social, political and economical changes which affected English society., the de veloping industrial society put forward different demands to labourers, especially intellectual cireles, state got involved in affairs coneerning working class children more and more enthusiastically, and working elass parents got more and more concerned in their offsprings＇s education and future developments. Under the co-operation of all these factors, English working class childhood transformed gradually from work to education, which changed the destinies of English ordinary children as well as constructed a modernized childhood model.