Please read the instructions carefully and answer all of the questions. Minimum of 200 word count. No plagiarism.
Part A:
You are not required to read all of Janeway’s A Token For Children since the stories do become repetitive. We will be focusing on the first part of the book. You are, then, required to read the following sections:
- “To Parents, School-Masters, and School-Mistresses” (pages iii-vii) — A Preface where Janeway directly addresses the adults who have some power in these children’s lives.
- “Directions for Children” (pages ix – xix) — Another Preface in which Janeway exhorts the children who read the book to question their own motives.
- Then select two of the examples to read out of the first seven examples of children. The seven examples are about “Sarah Howley,” “A Little Child,” “Mary A,” “A Little Girl,” “Charles Bridgman,” “A Very Poor Child,” and “A Notorious Wicked Child.” Each story is simply labeled as “example” and starts on page 22.
Not to give anything away, but the central child will die in all the stories because everybody dies.
Reading link: http://books.google.com/books?id=qihMAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false
Part B:
- After reading selections from A Token For Children, I would like you to consider the definition and expectations of the “child” — both positive and negative — according to James Janeway. No, he does not explicitly state “being a child means this,” but we can draw conclusions from his writing as to how a child or even childhood was defined in the 1600s.
- How does Janeway balance the didacticism in his novel with entertainment as told through individual stories?
- How beneficial to a young audience is the way that Janeway communicated theology and other religious truths?
