The Century of the Rights of Children Ellen Key's Legacy towards a New Childhood Culture

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the most interesting insights expressed by Ellen Key in her famous work Barnets Arhundrade [The Century of the Child] . Here she anticipates and fosters some of the principles concerning the new, twentieth-century concept of the Rights of Children. Thus, this paper will suggest that Key’s text, far from being a naive and optimistic manifesto, can be instead defined as a clear and keen work, which shows the way to the development of a new childhood culture, focused on the full recognition of the child and of his/her rights. The paper will focus on the main elements of the theoretical framework supporting the pedagogical perspective Key shows in The Century of the Child . Then, attention will be drawn to the meaning and the relevance of her position on children’s rights: central to the discussion will be those principles that turn out to be more influential in the current debate on the rights of the child: the right to be loved, to choose his/her parents, to be naughty.