Chapter 1

History of Early Childhood

Education
An evolving society brings
changes and challenges for the
education of the young child.

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Why Look Back and Not Forward?
• Sense of support that comes from knowing
its philosophical roots
• New ideas blend with traditional
experiences
• The past guides our sense of mission and
purpose as professionals
• Mistakes made can be learning
opportunities

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Early Childhood Education Defined
• Developmental changes in children from
birth to age eight.
• Building block years from crying to
crawling and walking, talking, and thinking
• Group settings for infants through primary
years of elementary school
• Formal and informal group settings
• Children in develop in various areas

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 When Did Early Childhood
Education Begin?
• In ancient times of Greece and Rome
– Considered an adult by age seven
– Education began by age six or seven for upper-class
males
– First known instance of education in “schools”
– Church controlled and the child viewed as basically
evil
– The value of education was for the afterlife
– Charlemagne’s proclamation for an educated nobility

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Renaissance and the Reformation
13th–16th Centuries

• Children were seen as individuals and

therefore worthy of education
• Humanistic education for all children,
including the poor and girls
• Universal education and literacy
• Concern for the common man and social and
economic reform
• German schools began for all children

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 Important Names
from the Past
• Comenius • Rousseau
– Observation and – Emile
natural order – Active learning
– Readiness – Child’s view is different
– Phases of
• Locke development
– Scientific method • Pestalozzi
– Mind and learning – Development of the
– Tabula rasa senses
– Individual difference – Integrated curriculum
– Sensory approach

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 …More Names from the Past

• Steiner
• Froebel – Waldorf school
– Teacher training – “Will, heart, and head
– Kindergarten “children’s periods”
garden” – Environment planned
– Play is constructive and – Nurture the child
formative
• Montessori
– Open air preschool
– Sensitive periods
– Sequential steps in learning
– Tactile and self-correcting

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 Nontraditional Perspectives

China and Japan Africa (and African-

• Influenced by Confucius’s Americans)
writings • Strong kinship networks
• Stressed harmony • People bond together and pool
• Children seen as good and resources for the common good
worthy of respect Latin-Americans/Hispanics
Native-Americans • Value children highly
• Showed close ties and • Emphasize the importance of
interconnectedness cooperation and a sensitivity to
• Taught children about authority figures
relationships and Pacific Islands
interconnectedness
• Stress connections to family
• Importance of respecting one’s
elders
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 American Influences
from the Past
• Colonial period
– Puritan influences
– Bible study for boys
– Harsh discipline and economic tools
– Southern plantations educate boys from the
upper class
– Free common school system after the
Revolutionary War

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 Embarrassments from the Past
• Enslavement
– African-Americans up north were freed after the
Revolutionary War but were not educated
– Southern plantations forbade education of slaves
– After the Civil War, private and public education for
young children
– Separate and not equal
– Hampton Institute and other laboratory schools for
African-Americans

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 Progressive Movement
John Dewey
• Children are valuable
and childhood is
important
• Nature of the child
• Child-centered
• Enriching experiences
• Social skills through
modeling
• Projects
• Emergent curriculum
• Integrated curriculum
• Experiential learning

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 The Birth of Kindergarten in
America
• M. Schurz’s home for German children
• E. Peabody begins class in Boston
• S. Blow class associated with public
schools
• Kindergartens became a place for
socialization and developing a social
conscience as opposed to the joys of
nature

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 More Name Dropping…

• P. Smith Hill inspired the National Association

for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC)
– Curricula and programs on the nature and needs of
children in kindergarten
• L. S. Mitchell
– Bank Street College of Education
– Laboratory schools
• A. Eliot
– Nursery schools
– Pacific Oaks College

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Economic Crisis and War Diverted Attention
from Nurseries and Kindergartens

• Kaiser Child Care Centers

– 24-hour child care
• African American children separate but “equal”
– Desegregation beginning in the 1950s
• A.S. Neil with Summerhill “Free School movement of
self-government and education”
• Head Start Movement for economically
disadvantaged children
– Compensatory education for at-risk children
– Parent involvement
– Community control

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 Early Child Care Today

A second child care revolution

• More types of families and more working parents
• Greater need for child care and early childhood
education
• Lack of properly funded centers and family child
care homes for very small children
• Need to consider the relationship between early
child care and children’s development

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 Discipline Influences in Early
Childhood
• Medicine’s impact on child growth
– M. Montessori and the impact of disease
– S. Freud early experiences impact personality
– A. Gesell norms for growth, “maturation theory”
– B. Spock’s “how to” common-sense approach to child
rearing
– T. Brazelton’s Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale

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 Education as a Discipline

• McMillan theory of nurture and good

health at an early age, nursery schools
• Susan Isaacs emphasizes the child’s point
of view and play as the child’s work

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 Other Educational Influences

• Child study movement

– Universities and research centers
• British infant schools
– Vertical grouping
– Integrated day
– Thinking over facts
• Reggio Emilia
– “Amiable school”
– Competence and creativity

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 Discipline of Psychology

• Developmental • Attachment
psychologists • Personality
• Changes in
behavior

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 Themes in Early Childhood
Emerge from a Review of History
• Ethics of social reform
– Schooling and caring for children can improve the
world
• Importance of childhood
– Foundation for future learning and success
– Holistic approach
– Taking the child in context
– Believing that childhood is a special time of life

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 Themes (cont.)

• Transmitting values
– Self-worth and acceptance of diversity in a democratic
society
• Professionalism
– Sense of identity
– Purpose to engage in developmentally appropriate
practices
– Commitment to ethical teaching and child advocacy
– Participating in the work as a legitimate livelihood

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