Many children worked before education became a national duty.
Industrialisation meant many children worked in factories, mines, mills, farms and homes. Education competed with poverty, labour demands and survival.
The idea that childhood should include schooling grew slowly and unevenly.
Modern education law partly grew from a fight over what childhood was for: work, citizenship, morality, development or rights.
Awareverse sees education as more than training for work. Education should protect development, curiosity and dignity.
A common mistake is treating education history as only schools and laws. It is also about poverty, labour and power.
Who had power here, who was left outside, and what would have changed if the human being was seen first?
These deep dives open out from this part of the timeline.