Early Modern Children Dbq

Early Modern Europe Children

In early modern Europe, children were often raised with different child-rearing practices and throughout early modern Europe the practices changed over time. The assumptions that were taken upon parents throughout the 1500’s and 1700’s were to raise children with kindness, abuse, or rationalization; each assumption had a different effect with child-rearing practices by children learning grace and virtue, a good education or to learn from their mistakes.
The documents that interpret the first assumption of parents raising their kids with kindness effect child-rearing practices with the child learning grace and virtues before the mid- 1550’s. In Document 1, Christoph Scheurl states “My dear son Georg Scheurl will by the grace of God be six years old on April 19. He is now growing up so fast that he has become completely awkward. He likes to learn, delights in it. He is now learning the Donat and can already cite it from memory. He says grace at the table and keeps his hands clasped so that he is not looked on as a child.” This document shows how kind Christoph is toward his son Georg. Georg “[L]ikes to learn… He says grace at the table and keeps his hands clasped so that he is not looked on as a child. In Christoph’s point of view he wants to teach his son the importance of God by not only treating his son with kindness but also having his son learn the Donat and say grace at the table. In Document 2, Martin Luther says “The force of our natural love is so great that we are unable to refrain from crying and grieving in our hearts and experiencing death ourselves. The features, the words, and the movements of our living and dying daughter, who was very obedient and respectful, remain engraved I our hearts.” This document shows the love and grief Martin Luther is going through after the death of his daughter Magdalene and shows how much he really did care for her. Before Magdalene died, the effect of how Martin Luther raised her she...