One Day the Soldiers Came Read Online Free PDF

were not already part of that world. Childhood sexuality was not taboo. It was, in fact, a source of great amusement to all levels of society, as Ariès notes with a particularly graphic account from the life of young Louis XIII. Looking at paintings of peasant life in Holland by Pieter Brueghel, one can see children fully engaged with the adult world, in feasts and drinking and even in the march with Christ to Calvary.
    The idea of children inhabiting a privileged sphere of society from adults only emerged in the seventeenth century, and even then it took root only in the middle and upper classes. As literacy attained value in Europe, children needed to acquire the necessary skills to become literate, which led to greater interest in schools than ever before. Educational standards became necessary and schools became the place to instill the standards. Schools were separate from the world of adults, and pupils were expected to study and learn, rather than to work. They were to learn to become adults, to gain access to knowledge that would make them able to participate and succeed in the adult world, which had become a world filled with information thanks to the printing press. School was a place for children, the world beyond a place for adults.
    Of course, in order to send one’s children to school, before free public education was commonplace, one had to be able to afford it. One had to remove potential contributors to the household economy from the equation while taking on an extra expense. Among the lower classes in Europe, this did not happen. Childhood took much longer to trickle down to them, and the young remained fully immersed in the world of adults, with no distinction, as it had been for centuries. The idea of childhood was a luxury for the wealthy and the safe. During the industrial revolution it was the elites who protected the notion of childhood, even as the children of lower classes worked in deplorable conditions for obscene hours and low wages. The idea of childhood was nearly lost in Europe. The elites led the drive for policy changes that protected children, and the elites consumed the goods—clothing, books, games—created for children. It was a long struggle to create a culture in which the idea of childhood could be taken for granted by all levels of society.
    Today, these conditions are not universal. Economic, cultural, and political factors clash with the imported idea of childhood on a regular basis. Economically, it is clear why, in very poor countries, children would be compelled to work—tending the flocks or farming or making carpets or begging to help support the family.
    Even with access to schooling, in areas of extreme poverty, the Western ideal of childhood is not secure. In Senegal, it is a common practice for young boys to be sent away to religious schools, called daara , where they are sent out during the day to beg for their teacher. If they come back empty-handed, they are beaten. As one boy, Ibrahim Sow, a sixteen-year-old in Senegal, told the IRIN news service:
    At the daara I used to get up at six a.m. and go out to beg for my breakfast as there was no food there. At nine o’clock I’d return to learn the Koran until one p.m., when I’d go back out to beg for my midday meal. I’d return to the daara at three p.m. and stay in class until five. It was at five p.m. every day that I had to turn over all the cash begged that day. There was no amount set, but when we came back empty-handed we were beaten. They only let us buy food if we brought back a lot of money. Otherwise we didn’t eat. The toughest times were when the marabout teacher was away, because then the oldest talibes were left in charge. There were only five or six of them, but they didn’t treat us well. That’s why I ran away from the daara .
    After running off, I lived on the streets for two or three months. Sleeping rough wasn’t easy, but I was never scared.
    I used to sleep under trucks or buses at bus