Did you know that up until the 1960's teenagers didnt exist ... well .. they were around but the word teenager didnt come into existence until around the 1940's

"The in-between stage of youth did not always exist as it does today. Philippe Ariès (1962) has shown that in medieval Europe, the movement from child to adult was instantaneous. 'Once he had passed the age of five or seven, the child was immediately absorbed into the world of adults: this concept of a brief childhood lasted for a long time in the lower classes' (p. 329). In the seventeenth century, 'by the age of ten, girls were already little women: a precocity due in part to an upbringing which taught girls to behave very early in life like grown-ups' (p. 332). (Ackland, 1995, p. 26)"

Before the beginning of compulsary schooling ( a result of the Industrial Revolution by the way)  children went straight from childhood into adulthood. Around the age of 5 you were seen as capable of working and once you hit 12-13 you ready to get married and start your own family.  Once compulsary school came in children stopped having to go out to work and the rest is history...

But let's have a closer look at what life was like for the average child during the Industrial Revolution.

TASK FIVE : View the video and answer the following questions.

The Children who built Victorian Britain

0.00 - 5.00 Minutes

Why do you think there are no monuments for the children?
Why were they called 'the white slaves of England'?
What types of sources do we have? Why are these significant?

5.00 - 15.00 Minutes: Children in Factories 

What did children think work would be like?
What was work actually like? (at least 5 different facts needed)
What if children misbehaved? 

skip 15.00 - 18.00 (pt.2 0 - 3min)

18.00 - 27.00 Children in Agriculture (Farming)

Why were these children considered worse off than children who worked in factories? 
What was work like? (at least 3 different facts needed)
Why did children want to be workers? 

27.00 - 31.00 Chimney sweeps 

What was so horrific about being a chimney sweep?
Why was the invention of a new brush not helpful? 

31.00 - 35.00 Children in the war 

Should children have been fighting so young? Give reasons & evidence 

35.00 -38.00  Looking out for one another

Describe the good deeds one brother did for another:
Why where children so useful to the family?

40.00 - 44.00 Water Cress Girl

What were the different jobs that the young girl did?
Why does the video argue that children 'had their childhood taken away from them'?

44.00 - 45.00

What changes started to take place in parliament?  

https://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/The-Children-who-built-Victorian-Britain-6442796