Changes and key stages relating to history of literacy

throughout the Greek & Roman Era, children were treated as creatures to be trained for adult life. lliad, the odyssey and Aesops Fables where what children borrowed as very few books were created specifically for children.

Middle Ages: 500's-1500's edit - delete
throughout the middle ages, children, compared to current standards, were not valued. Poor children spent most of their day working, therefore limited time was left in the day for literature / reading books. Books within this Era were extremely rare and precious. Children often only listened to Adult work from the likes of Beowolf's stories Son of Ronald, El Cid, Kind Arthur and Robin Hood. Children and adults enjoyed folk tales therefore the literature rich with fantasy and imagination. Myths were the way they made sense of the world during this time.

Middle Ages: 500's-1500's edit - delete
throughout the middle ages, children, compared to current standards, were not valued. Poor children spent most of their day working, therefore limited time was left in the day for literature / reading books. Books within this Era were extremely rare and precious. Children often only listened to Adult work from the likes of Beowolf's stories Son of Ronald, El Cid, Kind Arthur and Robin Hood. Children and adults enjoyed folk tales therefore the literature rich with fantasy and imagination. Myths were the way they made sense of the world during this time.

The 17th Century emphasis's on one's own salvation became evident, even children needed to read to understand the bible. Children were identified as young souls to be saved.
The Puritons directed lots of literature at children in the hope of preparing them for death and rescue them from the fire of hell.
Children's literature was extremely directive and dictated towards children during this time.
"Good Godly" Books a story about children facing death and hell by James Janeway, Abraham Chear and John Bunyan.
America's first published book for children was John Cotton's 'spiritual milk for Boston' in 1641.
in 1693 John Locke published some new thoughts concerning education which shifted philosophies, changing children's literature forever.

In the 1740's English novels and children's books were born.
Children's literature, created specifically for children was finally created.
Newberries 'pretty pocket book' in 1744 was published which was the first commercial, missed-media text containing pictures, rhymes and games.

Throughout the golden age, children's books became more respectful in regards to the child and imagination and much less diidactic.
The BIGGEST change as the literature became more empathetic rather than the more directive literature usually produced. Books such as Treasure Island in 1883 by Robert Louis Stevenson and Huckleberry Fin in 1884 by Mark Twains who both broke the rules for children's writing.
Children's literature during this time varied somewhat between various geographical and gender differences.
There seemed to be a huge amount of gender bias throughout the literature as depicted: 'A mans place was to win wars, build nations and create wealth' whereas 'a woman's job was to stay at home, remain poise, sexually submissive and domesticated. This was evident throughout the literature given to children throughout this time.

20th & 21st Century.
Throughout this time and still to date, there has been a huge increase in diversity throughout children's literature. Along with a mass amount of variety including but not limited to: Picture books, flap books, online multimedia etc.
in the early 1900's our children became 'protected' explicit unpleasantness was re-directed and changed into creative fantasy.
in the 1960's fantasy continued to dominate throughout the 1970's and 80's however children's literature began to become more materialistic and realistic.
during the late 1980's the re-creation of traditional folk tales were published 'snow white in New York' was a huge seller along with many others like it.
Multi-Media began opening exciting possibilities where books began their attempt to compete with the world of multi-media.
Now we have a mixture of written text and online text, e-books, text books and so forth.
Feeling are that children's writing skills may be modified through extended use of the internet and multi-media devises.