infants to a blank slate (tabula rasa); therefore, their development is dependent on their parents' child raising practices and their environment. Instead of treating their children as evil creatures, the parents should serve as a caring and respectful teacher whose role is to inculcate positive values in their children. At the same time, he also believed in acknowledging the individuality of different children and cultivating their potential by allowing them freedom to discover their environment (Berk, 1994, pp. 8-9). In his work, Locke offered parents specific directions on how to raise their children. Apart from instructions such as providing their children with "plenty of open air, exercise and sleep," (qtd. in "Concept of Childhood in History," p. 1), Locke also advised parents to initiate their children gradually to the good and positive aspects of life and allow them to participate actively in their learning process (cited in "Concept of Childhood in History," p. 2).
Although Rousseau also rejected the notion of children as sinful beings, he believed that children possess a tremendous intuitive capacity of distinguishing between right and wrong. Therefore, parents should not intervene with the children's natural development and give them adequate freedom for them to realize their potential by regulating their own impulses and interacting with their environment (cited in "Concept of Childhood in History," p. 2).
From the 18th century till the mid-19th century, very little was documented about child rearing practices during era. Two primary reasons may have accounted for the time elapse in the child rearing discussions between the two different eras. The first possible reason is the eruption of political revolutions in the U.S. with the Americans' declaration of independence in 1776 and the subsequent war. In another part of the world, a revolution against King Louis XVI also occurred in France in 1789, as the Th...