Children and Nationalism

Nationalism involves references to the national community, economy, history, symbols, traditions, habits and rituals, and feelings of attachment for land as well as pride in and maintenance of these. Childhood and children have particular roles to play in many of these. The emergence of modern childhood and the consolidation of the modern nation are closely intertwined. They occurred during the 19th century, when a modern conception of childhood emerged, associated with the ideas of a duty to learn and freedom from work and with the concept of the dependent child requiring careful tending as a human becoming.

Children’s development became central to the process of modernization, and consequently it had to be closely supervised and regulated by the state in accordance with the scientific child-rearing knowledge ...