Many adult voices advocated the need for a good moral upbringing as part of a rigorous education for children during the later Ming and Qing dynasties, an aspect seen in the primers that were repeatedly published during this period. Yet other realms… [more]

The famous Three-Character Classic, a children's primer attributed to Wang Yin-lin (1223-1296) whose text consists of rhymed verse developed to help children increase their vocabulary in Chinese characters, provides a valuable introduction to the… [more]

In early 19th-century Argentina, political leaders considered schools to be one of the nation's most important institutions of social control and politicization. The following is an 1817 handwriting assignment from a public elementary school in the… [more]

Shifting boundaries of parental roles and expectations, young people's behaviors, and social status in early to mid-19th century Argentina are examined through a variety of primary sources, helping students to understand the reasons for underdevelopment, authoritarianism, and political instability in Argentina past and shedding light on such continuing problems in Latin America today.