The Medieval Child, Part 5

Childbirth, Childhood and Adolescence in the Middle Ages

More of Part 5 • Page 1: The Learning Years • Page 2: Schooling • Page 3: University • Page 4: Apprenticeship     Related Resources • Medieval Children • The Medieval Child: Table of Contents • Daily Life    From Other Guides • Girls' Clothing in the Time of Henry I • Hidden Children • Homeschooling Ancient History • Parenting Adolescents • Special Education    Elsewhere on the Web • A History of Education and Childhood

The Learning Years

In Part 4 of our series, we looked at the playful years of childhood. In this segment we'll examine the phase of life between childhood and adulthood, beginning with education.

The physical manifestations of biological puberty are difficult to ignore, and it is hard to believe that such obvious indications as the onset of menses in girls or the growth of facial hair in boys were not acknowledged as part of a transition into another phase of life. If nothing else, the bodily changes of adolescence made it clear that childhood would soon be over.

It has been argued that adolescence was not recognized by medieval society as a stage of life separate from adulthood, but this is not at all a certainty. To be sure, teenagers were known to take on some of the work of full-fledged adults. But at the same time, such privileges as inheritance and land ownership were witheld in some cultures until the age of 21. This disparity between rights and responsibilities will be familiar to those who remember a time when the U.S. voting age was 21 and the military draft age was 18.

If a child was to leave home before reaching full maturity, the teen years were the most likely time for him to do so. But this did not mean he was "on his own." The move from the parents' household was almost always into another household, where the adolescent would be under the supervision of an adult who fed and clothed the teenager and to whose discipline the teen was subject. Even as youths left their families behind and took on increasingly more difficult tasks, there was still a social structure to keep them protected and, to some extent, under control.

The teen years were also the time to concentrate more intensely on learning in preparation for adulthood. Not all adolescents had schooling options, and serious scholarship could last a lifetime, but in some ways education was the archetypal experience of adolescence.

 

Next Page > Schooling > Page 1, 2, 3, 4

If you missed our earlier features, please visit Part 1 of our series or the Medieval Child Table of Contents.

 

 

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