Americans are people obsessed with child-rearing. In their books, magazines, talk shows, parent training courses, White House conferences, and chats over the back fence, they endlessly debate the best ways to raise children. Moreover, Americans do more than debate their theories; they translate them into action. They erect playgrounds for the youngster’s pleasure, equip large schools for their education, and train skilled specialists for their welfare. Whole industries in America are devoted to making children happy, healthy and wise.
But this interest in childhood is relatively new. In fact, until very recently people considered childhood just a brief, unimportant prelude to adulthood and the real business of living. By and large, they either ignored children, beat them, or fondled them carelessly, much as we would amuse ourselves with a lot of puppies. When they gave serious thought to children at all, people either conceived of them as miniature adults or as peculiar, unformed animals.
Down through the ages the experiences of childhood have been as varied as its duration. Actions that would have provoked a beating in one era elicit extra loving care in another. Babies who have been nurtured exclusively by their mothers in one epoch are left with day-care workers in another. In some places children have been trained to straddle unsteady canoes, negotiate treacherous mountain passes, and carry heavy bundles on their heads. In other places they have been taught complicated piano concerti and long multiplication tables.
But diverse as it has been, childhood has one common experience at its core and that is the social aspect of nurture. All children need adults to bring them up. Because human young take so long to become independent, we think that civilization may have grown up around the need to feed and protect them. Certainly, from the earliest days of man, adults have made provision for the children in their midst.
1.The present day American obsession with child-rearing has（ ）.
2.Children in the past were ill-treated or petted because they were（ ）.
3.How have childhood experiences varied?（ ）
4.According to the author, children（ ）.
5.What is the author’s attitude to developments in the perception of childhood?（ ）
