Children Of The Century: The Social History Of Family Life "significance In The History Of Education Research

Philippe Aries(1914-1984), French cultural historian and sociologist. He has made research on the concept of child based on European paintings, private diaries, biographies, private letters and so on. He has claimed that"there is no childhood in Middle Ages"and researched the evolution of family pattern and the development of education in Europe and put forward new views about history. Thus, he has become the pioneer of the study of the history of childhood and family. Aries was very concerned about the evolution of family pattern in Europe, and from it, he has investigated people's attitude towards children and education. In this thesis, we investigate the new ideas, unique research perspectives and methods and the significance of the book named centuries of childhood: a social history of family life in the study of the history of education.Aries's veiws about childhood is based on the study of the history of family pattern. This thesis summarizes the book from childhood, family pattern and school education, discusses Aries's views about childhood and family and sums up his new research methods and perspectives in order to inspire the study of the history of education in our country. In the course of writing this thesis, I refer to a large number of historical documents, mainly use the methods of literature analysis and historical research. This thesis is divided into three parts. The first part is about Aries's life, learning, place in Annales school and the influence on his research of his experience. The second part is the interpretation of the main details of the book from childhood, family and school education. The third part is to explore the inspiration of the research methods and perspectives in the book which Aries has used to the study of the history of education in China. From Aries's view, there is no concept of childhood in the Middle Ages, which doesn't mean there is no childhood, but the lack of the awareness of unique nature of childhood. In addition, he has explored the evolution of family from the Middle Ages to modern times. He thinks the family is getting smaller and smaller, less social, and more private. The evolution of the concept of the family and childhood are closely linked.The views about childhood and family of Aries have great impact on the history of childhood and family in West countries. His methods of selecting European arts, using the ways of psychology, sociology and other disciplines and utilizing images to prove history exert an influence on the study of history. Moreover, he examines the changes of people's views about childhood and school education by the evolution of family pattern, which supplies a gap of the research the impact of family pattern to the function of education in the study of the history of education in China.There has been a tidal wave of investigating the history of childhood and family in West countries since 1960s, which makes a great impact on Western concepts of childhood, family and education, forms professional curriculum in university and affects extensively the study of the history of education. In China, some historians mention it, but it is rarely involved in the field of educational history. With the development of research on culture and social issues in educational history, research in this field in China will be opened up. This thesis is a try in the starting course of it.