Cornelius N. Grove, Ed.D., Independent Ethnologist of Education, USA

In this meditation on children’s learning from prehistoric times until today, Grove contrasts traditional child-rearing with child-rearing in our modern world. In the former, parents are not responsible for the rearing and learning of their children, who are cared for by an older sibling. Youngsters learn everything they need to know by observation and imitation of adults. How did humans get from that to modern education and technology? Grove imagines a prehistoric scene in which a child queries an aunt who had devised a way of recordkeeping. She had begun to think using abstractions. If the child’s going to learn that, his aunt must instruct him. A scene like this was how our highly technological world, the product of abstract and symbolic thought, got its start. Too cerebral to be learned by observation and imitation, abstractions must be learned via instruction. Without instruction – schools – technologically advanced societies would not exist.

Children’s learning, Applied anthropology of education, Child-rearing practices, Ethnology, Cultural history