That children should do chores might seem so obvious as to be unworthy of mention. I considered the question in a recent Boston Globe article. No suspense: I do think children should do chores. But revisiting an important book about the Reformation, of all things, strengthened that conviction.
Considering “The Religious Beliefs of Teenagers” in a chapter of his book, Protestants, The Birth of a Revolution, Steven Ozment observes that the “adolescents of the Reformation grew up in a world far more culturally unified that that of their modern counterparts.” Many features of early modern life might appear forbidding in contrast to ways of middle-class Americans. But youth centuries ago may have been more receptive to some important realities:
[Y]outh too recognized that conformity and obedience best served their prospects for success and happiness….By age fourteen or fifteen, the youth of early modern Europe had many useful and productive skills; by comparison with their counterparts today, they were mature….The early acquisition of true vocational skills rather worked to stabilize the young and to engender patience and cooperation, steadfastness and persistence, on the part of children and parents alike. In early modern Europe the young knew their talents as well as their place….Whereas the early modern parent believed that emotional happiness followed vocational competence (hence, early service and apprenticeship for children), the modern parent has become convinced that emotional maturity must precede vocational success, that a child must first ‘find’ himself before he can ‘define’ himself. Today a parent is more likely to recommend a therapist than a shovel to a teenager.







