Overview

Fundamental to educational thought and institutions in British America, New Netherland, New France, and the Spanish borderlands were the attitudes of parents toward child rearing. In general there was a trend through the colonial era from rather authoritarian and repressive styles of parenting toward more-indulgent and liberating methods. This shift from repressive to liberating child-rearing methods was most pronounced among the upper classes, though exceptions could be found even there as well.

Spanish Borderlands.

Despite the frontier circumstance of many settlers on the borderlands, their attitude toward child rearing reflected the strongly class-conscious, patriarchical family of Spain itself. Honor was at the heart of family relations. Children owed their parents honor and respect, and for children to disobey their parents was to dishonor the patriarch in particular and the family in general. Women were responsible for the religious education of children, especially catechetical...