The Guardian of Education

Fearing the influence of French Revolutionary ideals, particularly those of philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Trimmer emphasized orthodox Anglicanism and encouraged the perpetuation of the contemporary social and political order.

Despite her conservatism, however, she agreed with Rousseau and other progressive educational reformers on many issues, such as the damaging effects of rote learning and the irrationalism of fairy tales.

She argued that there existed a vast conspiracy, organized by the atheistic and democratic revolutionaries of France, to undermine and overthrow the legitimate governments of Europe.

The issues did not always consist of the same sections; for example, beginning in 1804 Trimmer started including an "Essay on Christian Education" and in 1805 occasionally reviewed "School books".

[9] To do so, she evaluated the educational theories of Rousseau, John Locke, Mary Wollstonecraft, Hannah More, Madame de Genlis, Joseph Lancaster, and Andrew Bell, among others.

Trimmer is perhaps most famous now for her condemnation of fairy tales, such as the various translations of Charles Perrault's Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé (1697).

[22] Trimmer's view of fairy tales, although often ridiculed by modern critics, was widespread at the end of the eighteenth century, in part because most educators accepted John Locke's theory that the mind was a tabula rasa and therefore particularly sensitive to impressions early in life.

One of the reasons Trimmer believed fairy tales were dangerous was because they led child readers into a fantasy world where adults could not follow and control their exposure to harmful experiences.

[25] She was just as horrified by the graphic illustrations included with some fairy tale collections, complaining that "little children, whose minds are susceptible of every impression; and who from the liveliness of their imaginations are apt to convert into realities whatever forcibly strikes their fancy" should not be allowed to see such scenes as Blue Beard hacking his wife's head off.

[29] Trimmer's views of the French philosophes were shaped by Abbé Barruel's Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism (1797–98) (she extracted large sections from this text into the Guardian itself) but also by her fears of the ongoing wars between France and Britain during the 1790s.

Thus they repudiated the moralists' view that learning should exalt reason and work to the temporal happiness of the individual, which was governed by the best interests of society.

"[31] Trimmer and her allies contended that French pedagogical theories led to an immoral nation, specifically, "deism, infidelity and revolution".

[32] Although one previous attempt had been made to regularly review British children's books[33] it was not as comprehensive, did not last as long, and was not nearly as influential as Trimmer's Guardian.

[37] With its four hundred reviews, The Guardian of Education, as Grenby writes, "contributed to the establishment of children's literature as a secure, permanent and respectable literary genre".

Its landmark books, such as Sarah Fielding's The Governess (1749) and John Newbery's The History of Little Goody Two Shoes (1765), are still cited today by scholars as important in the development of children's literature.

Half-length seated portrait of an elderly woman in 18th-century dress with white lace cap. She is surrounded by books and papers and is holding a quill pen.
Sarah Trimmer, editor of The Guardian of Education , painted by Henry Howard in 1798
Half-length portrait of a man, wearing a short gray, curly wig, a mustard brown jacket and a white shirt with a collar that encompasses the neck.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau , author of Emile (1762), one of the most influential books of educational philosophy in the eighteenth century
Trimmer opposed graphic illustrations, such as this one of " Blue Beard " from the 1697 French edition of Perrault's tales.
Title reads "The Governess; or, Little Female Academy. Being The History of Mrs. Teachum, and Her Nine Girls. With Their Nine Days Amusement Calculated For the Entertainment and Instruction of Young Ladies in their Education. By the Author of David Simple."
Title page from Sarah Fielding's The Governess, or The Little Female Academy (1749), cited by Trimmer as a landmark in the history of children's literature