To do nothing that diminishes the reputation of the program in which we work unless it is violating laws and regulations designed to protect children of the provisions of this Code.

Please refer to Figure 1-2 , An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education.

1-1Introduction

Early childhood education has a rich and exciting history. The stories of our field chronicle courageous people who took steps toward improving children’s lives. Critical events have had a hand in shaping the history of early childhood education and its teachers. As the conditions of childhood and early education have changed through the centuries, its educators have also adapted to those challenges.

While reading this chapter, imagine yourself as a time traveler. As you go back in time, you span the centuries and meet the people whose vision helped to shape our profession. You learn how Friedrich Froebel’s own unhappy childhood inspired a new way of teaching called kindergarten. You see the passion and struggle of Maria Montessori as she convinces the world that “slum children” can learn and succeed. You witness the dedication of the United States to create a program for preschoolers known as “Head Start.” You see early childhood teaching become a profession that includes infants and toddlers, kindergarten and early primary grades, and children with special needs.

There is more than one right way to educate young children. Every culture has the task of socializing and educating its young. The historical record may document several educational philosophies, but there is no single monopoly on ideas about children. People across the world have influenced our ideas about children and their education. Other disciplines (such as medicine, education, and psychology) inform early childhood teaching. Current issues always influence what is happening for young children and their teachers. What emerge are some consistent themes over time.

All professions have a canon of beliefs and practices. As you acquire this knowledge, you begin to develop your own philosophy of teaching (based, in part, on information gathered in this chapter). As you do, be sure to constantly rethink your practices. See the “ Teaching with Intention ” box to delve into why knowing the history of early childhood education is important.

Teaching with Intention

Why Does History Help?

Most early childhood education students and many educators know little about the origins of their chosen profession. To better build your philosophy of teaching, note the links between the past to your present:

· Support: Learning the works of others validates our ideas. The philosophies of Froebel, Montessori, and Dewey are part of the foundation of our educational practices. Traditional early childhood practices reflect European values and beliefs, and looking beyond the dominant culture to writings of Africa, Asia, and South America broadens your viewpoint.

· Inspiration: Knowing our deep roots helps develop professional expression. Ideas of past educators offer you more methods of teaching. An historical overview clarifies how children and learning are viewed based on the religious, political, and economic pressures.

· Identity and commitment: Accepting the mission of our field commits you to enhancing the education, development, and well-being of young children. Such identity brings with it an awareness of the diversity in cultural norms. Be cautious of theories or opinions claiming to be “universal.” For instance, history notes that schools of the past were overwhelmingly created for boys; this gender bias of past practices adds to the underdevelopment of girls and prevails today in parts of the world.

Add your voice to those crusaders for education as you create your personal philosophy of education.

Include an element of reform in making the work of teaching into a legitimate profession. Listen to their voices so that you can develop your own.

Think about This

1. If you didn’t know anything about the history of the field, what mistakes would you likely make in your first year of teaching?

2. Which historical figures interest you in developing a personal philosophy of teaching?

3. What are the strongest ideas that draw you to this work? Why would finding historical roots for your professional identity help you in your career?

All professionals should reexamine themselves on a regular basis because although understanding the past makes sense for professional identity, recognizing that historical records are a reflection of certain cultural norms is also crucial. For example, mainstream educational philosophy claims the following areas are “universal,” but cross-cultural research has shown them not to be:

· Early attainment of individuality and independence

· The necessity of early and free exploration

· The critical importance of the early stimulation of intellect and language

The first reflects a priority of many Western European cultures, but it is not a common practice in societies that promote group harmony and interdependence. As to the second, many indigenous groups hold their very young children close, carrying them along while they work; there is no data that indicate these children develop poorly. And as to the third, although American educational systems of the early 21st century are building on increasing academic and intellectual standards, there is no universal mandate for an exclusive focus on this developmental domain in the early years. Figure 1-1 offers other traditional educational practices, their historical context, and alternatives to consider as you create your own educational philosophy. Perhaps some of the mistakes of the past can be avoided if history is remembered.

Figure 1-1

As you develop a philosophy of teaching, be sure to examine common beliefs and practices of the profession.

Reflecting on Practices: Building Your Philosophy of Teaching

Educational Practice	Historical Context and ECE Trend/Practice	Think Again…
Same-age grouping	Since the 1850s, U.S. elementary schools have used target curriculum goals for primarily one-year groupings.	· Learning takes place with “guided collaboration,” which often occurs with an older “expert.”
Mixed-age grouping		· Children learn when challenged to accommodate to higher-level thinking, which is likely to occur with a mixed-age range. · Developing values of caring and responsibility happen best when children practice helping and protecting younger children. · Reduced family size indicates that multiage experiences should happen in schooling. · Diversity (gender, culture, exceptionality, etc.) makes strict target goals unrealistic.
Daily schedules	Routines are the framework for most Eastern and Western programs, offering security and predictability.	· Children’s sense of time is unlike that of adults, so rigid schedules do not correspond to their development.
Flexible scheduling		· Brain research indicates a need for stimulation, change, and challenge rather than the same structure constantly.
Curriculum is at the center of good programs.	Contemporary American education states that a plan for learning must be driven by specific outcomes in order to be assured that children are learning.	· Not following an adult-planned and driven curriculum worked well for geniuses such as Einstein, Erikson, and Bill Gates. · Educators as diverse as Dewey and Steiner promoted curricula based on children’s interests or innate spirit. · Children appear to learn well through a curriculum that emerges following their interests and timetable.

1-1aDefining the Terms

The term early childhood education refers to group settings deliberately intended to affect developmental changes in children from birth to 8 years of age. In school terms, it includes group settings for infants through the primary years of elementary school, kindergarten through third grade in the United States. In programmatic terms, the education of young children includes formal and informal group settings regardless of their initial purpose. For instance, after-school programs for elementary ages are included, as are their formal academic sessions.

Early childhood educators thus build bridges between a child’s two worlds: school (or group experience) and home. It is during these years that the foundation for future learning is set; these are the building block years , during which a child learns to walk, talk, establish an identity, print, and count. In later years, that same child builds on these skills to be able to climb mountains, speak a second language, learn to express and negotiate, write in cursive, and understand multiplication.

1-1bWorld Influences

When did early childhood education first begin? Refer to Figure 1-2 , An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education. Getting a visual sense of when and where things happened can help you make sense of the various threads in our tapestry of early childhood educational history.

Looking at the timeline lets you see how impressive the accomplishments really are. For instance, 2016 marks several milestones:

· Fifty years ago: The U.S. Congress passed bills that authorized both Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/Title 1.

· Thirty years ago: Accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for programs serving young children was launched.

· Two years ago: The first American Summit on Early Education was convened by President Barack Obama.

In addition, the timeline helps us see that it is impossible to pinpoint the origins of humankind. There are few records from millions of years ago. Some preparation for adult life was done informally, mostly through imitation. As language developed, communication occurred. Children learned dances, rituals, and ceremonies, and both boys and girls were taught skills for their respective roles in the tribe. Ancient historical documents seem to indicate that child-rearing practices were somewhat crude; DeMause (1974) even suggests that the further you go back in history, the more likely that you will find abandonment and brutality toward children.

Figure 1-2

An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education

Timeline: An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education

Authors’ Note: A debt of gratitude is owed to D. Keith Osborn for his outstanding historical research and to James L. Hymes, Jr., for his generous time and perspective.

· 5th–3rd centuries BC to AD 1400s

Few records exist concerning child-rearing practices; the development of cities gives rise to schooling on a larger scale.

· 1423 & 1439

The invention of printing and movable type allows knowledge to spread rapidly; ideas and techniques become available to large numbers of people; printing is credited with bringing about the end of the Middle Ages and the beginning of the Renaissance.

· 1657

1657 Orbis Pictus 1657 Orbis Pictus Orbis Pictus, by John Comenius Orbis Pictus, by Comenius, is the first children’s book with pictures.

· 1690

1690 John Locke 1690 John Locke Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-59655]John Locke published his essay, which postulated that children are born with a tabula rasa, or clean slate, on which all experiences are written.

· 1740–1860s

Sabbath schools and clandestine schools are established as facilities to educate African Americans in the United States.

· 1762

1762 Emile, by Rousseau 1762 Emile, by Rousseau iStockphoto.com/HultonArchive Emile, by Rousseau, proclaims the child’s natural goodness.

· 1777

The New England Primer is the first American textbook printed.

· 1801

1801 Johann H. Pestalozzi Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-10897] How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, by Pestalozzi, emphasizes home education.

· 1816

Robert Owen sets up an infant school in New Lanark, England, as an instrument of social reform for children of parent workers in his mills.

· 1826

Education of Man, by Froebel, describes the first system of kindergarten education as a “child’s garden,” with activities known as “gifts from God.”

· 1837

1837 Frederick Froebel Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-pga-00127]Froebel opens the first kindergarten in Blankenburg, Germany.

· 1856

Margarethe Schurz opens the first kindergarten in the United States.

· 1860

Elizabeth Peabody opens the first English-speaking kindergarten in Boston.

· 1871

The first public kindergarten in North America opens in Ontario, Canada. (First public American kindergarten: 1873.)

· 1873

1873 Hampton Institute The Butler School at the Hampton Institute is opened as a free school for black children, including kindergarten curriculum for five-year-olds.

· 1880

First teacher-training program for kindergartners, Oshkosh Normal School, Pennsylvania.

· 1892

International Kindergarten Union founded; becomes the Association for Childhood Education in 1930, increasing its scope to include elementary education.

· 1896

1896 John Dewey Lab School Reprinted with permission from Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleJohn Dewey establishes a laboratory school at the University of Chicago and develops a pragmatic approach to education, becoming the father of the Progressive movement in American education.

· 1897

My Pedagogic Creed is published, detailing the opposition to rote learning and the philosophy of educating “the whole child.”

· 1903

The Committee of Nineteen, a splinter group of the International Kindergarten Union, forms to report various philosophical concepts. Members include Patty Smith Hill, Lucy Wheelock, and Susan Blow.

· 1907

1907 Maria Montessori Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-hec-03471] Casa di Bambini (Children’s House) is opened by Maria Montessori in a slum district in Rome, Italy. She later develops an educational philosophy and program to guide children’s growth through the senses and practical life experiences.

· 1909

First White House Conference on Children is held by Theodore Roosevelt, leading to the establishment of the Children’s Bureau in 1912.

· 1911

Deptford School, an open-air school in the slums of London, is opened by Margaret McMillan. The school emphasizes health and play, coining the phrase “nursery school.”

· 1915

First U.S. Montessori school opens in New York City.

· 1916

1916 Bank Street College of Education PHOTOEDIT/PhotoEditThe Bureau of Educational Experiments, which becomes the Bank Street College of Education (and laboratory school) in 1922, is founded by L. S. Mitchell, who is a leading proponent of progressive education at the early childhood level.

· 1916

First Cooperative Nursery School opens at the University of Chicago.

· 1918

First public nursery schools are opened in England.

· 1921

1921 A. S. Neill Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CorbisA. S. Neill founds Summerhill School in England, which becomes a model for the “free school” movement (the book entitled Summerhill is published in 1960).

· 1922

Abigail Eliot opens the Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center.

· 1925–1926

The National Committee on Nursery Schools is founded by Patty Smith Hill; it becomes the National Association for Nursery Education (NANE) and eventually the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC).

· 1926

Arnold Gesell establishes the Clinic of Child Development at Yale University and studies norms of child growth and behavior.

· 1926–1927

Research facilities are founded at several American universities and colleges (e.g., Smith College, Vassar College, Yale University, and Mills College).

· 1927

Dorothy Howard establishes the first black nursery school in Washington, D.C., and operates it for over 50 years.

· 1929

Lois Meeks Stolz is named the first president of the National Association for Nursery Education (later to become NAEYC), and joins the Teachers College (Columbia University) faculty to start the laboratory school and Child Development Institute. Stolz later becomes the director of the Kaiser Child Service Centers during World War II.

· 1929

Susan Isaacs publishes The Nursery Years, which contradicts the more scientific psychological view of behavior shaping and emphasizes the child’s viewpoint and the value of play.

· 1929–1931

Hampton Institute, Spellman College, and Bennett College open black laboratory nursery schools, emphasizing child development principles as in other lab schools and serving as training centers.

· 1933

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) opens emergency nurseries for relief of unemployed teachers during the Great Depression.

· 1935

First toy lending library, Toy Loan, begins in Los Angeles.

· 1936

The first commercial telecast is shown in New York City, starring Felix the Cat.

· 1943–1945

The Kaiser Shipyard Child Care Center, run by Lois Meeks Stolz, James Hymes, and Edith Dowley, operates 24-hour care in Portland, Oregon.

· 1944

Young Children is first published by NAEYC.

· 1946

1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock Fred Stein Archive/Getty ImagesDr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care is published. It advocates a more permissive attitude toward children’s behavior and encourages exploratory behavior.

· 1946

Loris Malguzzi starts a school in Reggio Emilia, Italy, emphasizing the child’s individual creative expression.

· 1948

The United States National Committee of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (USNC OMEP) is founded to promote the education of children internationally; it begins to consult with UNICEF and UNESCO with the United Nations. It starts publishing a journal, the International Journal of Early Childhood, in 1969.

· 1948

Bloom’s taxonomy is published.

· 1954

U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that in public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.

· 1956

La Leche League is established to provide mothers with information on breastfeeding, childbirth, infants, and child care. The first meeting of the league is held at the home of Mary White, one of the seven founders.

· 1960

Katherine Whiteside Taylor founds the American Council of Parent Cooperatives, which later becomes the Parent Cooperative Preschools International.

· 1960

Nancy McCormick Rambusch founds the American Montessori movement.

· 1962

Perry Preschool Project, directed by David Weikart, opens in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and conducts a longitudinal study to measure the effects of preschool education on later school and life.

· 1964–1965

1964–1965 J. M. Sugarman, a Head Start founder The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 is passed by the 88th Congress, becoming the foundation of Head Start programs in the United States, as part of a federal “war on poverty.”

· 1966

The Bureau of Education for the Handicapped is established.

· 1966

NANE becomes NAEYC.

· 1969

1969 T. Berry Brazelton Alex Lentati/Evening Standard/Rex Features/Daily Mail/AlamyPediatrician T. Berry Brazelton publishes Infants and Mothers, along with several other books and numerous articles advocating a sensible and intimate relationship between parents and children.

· 1969

The Ford Foundation, Carnegie Corporation, and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare subsidize the Children’s Television Workshop, which develops the children’s TV program Sesame Street.

· 1971

Stride-Rite Corporation of Boston opens a children’s program on site, becoming a vanguard for employer-supported child care.

· 1972

The Child Development Associate Consortium is started by Edward Ziegler to develop a professional teacher training program (now known as Child Development Associates).

· 1975

PL 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children bill, is passed by Congress, mandating appropriate education for special needs children in the “least restrictive environment” possible, thus defining the concepts of “mainstreaming” and “full inclusion.”

· 1979

The United Nations declares the International Year of the Child.

· 1982

1982 Marion Wright Edelman Monica Schipper/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesMarion Wright Edelman establishes the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a Washington-based lobby on behalf of children, particularly children of poverty and color.

· 1983

A Nation at Risk, a report by the National Commission on Excellence in Education, is published, which concluded, “If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have viewed it as an act of war.”

· 1984

NAEYC publishes a report entitled Developmentally Appropriate Practices, which outlines what is meant by “quality” work with young children from infancy through age 8.

· 1985

NAEYC establishes a National Academy and a voluntary accreditation system for centers, in an effort to improve the quality of children’s lives, and confers its first accreditation the next year.

· 1986

U.S. Department of Education declares the Year of the Elementary School. PL. 99-457, amending PL 94-142, establishes a national policy on early intervention for children as young as infants.

· 1990

The Child Care Development Block Grant is established to improve the quality, availability, and affordability of child care programs.

· 1990

The U.N. Children’s World Summit includes the following goals to be reached by the year 2000:

· (1)

to reduce child mortality below age 5 by one third;

· (2)

to provide universal access to basic education; and

· (3)

to protect children in dangerous situations.

· 1990

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is passed by Congress, requiring programs of all sizes to care for and accommodate the needs of children with disabilities whenever they are reasonably able to do so.

· 1991

“Ready to Learn/America 2000,” part of the U.S. government’s educational strategy for reforming American public schools, is published.

· 1991

The first Worthy Wage Day, organized by the Child Care Employee Project, is held on April 9, drawing attention to the inadequate compensation of early childhood workers and how this affects the retention of a skilled and stable workforce.

· 1993

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passes, providing new parents with 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave.

· 1996

The first “Stand for Children” demonstration is held in Washington, DC, drawing 200,000 participants. Rethinking the Brain, published by the Family and Work Institute, summarizes the new research on children’s brain development.

· 1997

The Child Development Permit Matrix is adopted by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, introducing the career ladder concept into early childhood public education.

· 1998

The 100,000th CDA Credential is awarded by Carol Brunson Phillips, executive director of the Council for Early Childhood Professionals.

· 2002

In the United States, the Leave No Child Behind legislation is passed, reauthorizing federal programs to improve public school performance, requiring all public schools that receive federal funds to administer a statewide standardized test annually to all students, specifying an annual report card detailing progress, and calling for highly qualified teachers with minimum qualifications for all students.

· 2003

Universal preschool is considered as a next step in providing equal access to quality early educational experiences for all children under 5 years of age.

· 2007

2007 State-Funded Preschool AP Images/Greg Wahl-StephensState-funded preschools rise in per-child funding, expanded access, and moved toward higher quality standards.

· 2008

12 states in the United States still provide no state preschool for their children.

· 2009

A Joint Interagency Policy Board of Early Learning is established by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education in the United States.

· 2010

Common Core State Standards for grades K–12 in English language arts and mathematics are published.

· 2012

The U.S. government initiates a competitive grant process for the development of Early Learning Plans in the individual states (called “Race to the Top”).

· 2013

2013 Head Start Eric SwalwellHead Start completes its initial plan to raise teacher education requirements by requiring at least one teacher in each classroom to hold a bachelor’s degree.

· 2014

The first American Summit on Early Childhood Education is convened in Washington, D.C., by President Barack Obama.

· 2015

Deadline for NAEYC-accredited programs to have 50% of teachers holding a bachelor’s degree and the remainder to have at least an associate’s degree.

Professional Resource Download

1-1bWorld Influences

Looking at the timeline lets you see how impressive the accomplishments really are. For instance, 2016 marks several milestones:

· Fifty years ago: The U.S. Congress passed bills that authorized both Head Start and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act/Title 1.

· Thirty years ago: Accreditation by the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) for programs serving young children was launched.

· Two years ago: The first American Summit on Early Education was convened by President Barack Obama.

Figure 1-2

An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education

Timeline: An Abbreviated Timeline for Early Childhood Education

Authors’ Note: A debt of gratitude is owed to D. Keith Osborn for his outstanding historical research and to James L. Hymes, Jr., for his generous time and perspective.

· 5th–3rd centuries BC to AD 1400s

Few records exist concerning child-rearing practices; the development of cities gives rise to schooling on a larger scale.

· 1423 & 1439

· 1657

1657 Orbis Pictus 1657 Orbis Pictus Orbis Pictus, by John Comenius Orbis Pictus, by Comenius, is the first children’s book with pictures.

· 1690

· 1740–1860s

Sabbath schools and clandestine schools are established as facilities to educate African Americans in the United States.

· 1762

1762 Emile, by Rousseau 1762 Emile, by Rousseau iStockphoto.com /HultonArchive Emile, by Rousseau, proclaims the child’s natural goodness.

· 1777

The New England Primer is the first American textbook printed.

· 1801

1801 Johann H. Pestalozzi 1801 Johann H. Pestalozzi Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-10897] How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, by Pestalozzi, emphasizes home education.

· 1816

Robert Owen sets up an infant school in New Lanark, England, as an instrument of social reform for children of parent workers in his mills.

· 1826

Education of Man, by Froebel, describes the first system of kindergarten education as a “child’s garden,” with activities known as “gifts from God.”

· 1837

1837 Frederick Froebel 1837 Frederick Froebel Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-pga-00127]Froebel opens the first kindergarten in Blankenburg, Germany.

· 1856

Margarethe Schurz opens the first kindergarten in the United States.

· 1860

Elizabeth Peabody opens the first English-speaking kindergarten in Boston.

· 1871

The first public kindergarten in North America opens in Ontario, Canada. (First public American kindergarten: 1873.)

· 1873

1873 Hampton Institute 1873 Hampton Institute The Butler School at the Hampton Institute is opened as a free school for black children, including kindergarten curriculum for five-year-olds.

· 1880

First teacher-training program for kindergartners, Oshkosh Normal School, Pennsylvania.

· 1892

International Kindergarten Union founded; becomes the Association for Childhood Education in 1930, increasing its scope to include elementary education.

· 1896

1896 John Dewey Lab School 1896 John Dewey Lab School Reprinted with permission from Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleJohn Dewey establishes a laboratory school at the University of Chicago and develops a pragmatic approach to education, becoming the father of the Progressive movement in American education.

· 1897

My Pedagogic Creed is published, detailing the opposition to rote learning and the philosophy of educating “the whole child.”

· 1903

The Committee of Nineteen, a splinter group of the International Kindergarten Union, forms to report various philosophical concepts. Members include Patty Smith Hill, Lucy Wheelock, and Susan Blow.

· 1907

1907 Maria Montessori 1907 Maria Montessori Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division [LC-DIG-hec-03471] Casa di Bambini (Children’s House) is opened by Maria Montessori in a slum district in Rome, Italy. She later develops an educational philosophy and program to guide children’s growth through the senses and practical life experiences.

· 1909

First White House Conference on Children is held by Theodore Roosevelt, leading to the establishment of the Children’s Bureau in 1912.

· 1911

Deptford School, an open-air school in the slums of London, is opened by Margaret McMillan. The school emphasizes health and play, coining the phrase “nursery school.”

· 1915

First U.S. Montessori school opens in New York City.

· 1916

1916 Bank Street College of Education 1916 Bank Street College of Education PHOTOEDIT/PhotoEditThe Bureau of Educational Experiments, which becomes the Bank Street College of Education (and laboratory school) in 1922, is founded by L. S. Mitchell, who is a leading proponent of progressive education at the early childhood level.

· 1916

First Cooperative Nursery School opens at the University of Chicago.

· 1918

First public nursery schools are opened in England.

· 1921

1921 A. S. Neill 1921 A. S. Neill Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CorbisA. S. Neill founds Summerhill School in England, which becomes a model for the “free school” movement (the book entitled Summerhill is published in 1960).

· 1922

Abigail Eliot opens the Ruggles Street Nursery School and Training Center.

· 1925–1926

· 1926

Arnold Gesell establishes the Clinic of Child Development at Yale University and studies norms of child growth and behavior.

· 1926–1927

Research facilities are founded at several American universities and colleges (e.g., Smith College, Vassar College, Yale University, and Mills College).

· 1927

Dorothy Howard establishes the first black nursery school in Washington, D.C., and operates it for over 50 years.

· 1929

Susan Isaacs publishes The Nursery Years, which contradicts the more scientific psychological view of behavior shaping and emphasizes the child’s viewpoint and the value of play.

· 1929–1931

Hampton Institute, Spellman College, and Bennett College open black laboratory nursery schools, emphasizing child development principles as in other lab schools and serving as training centers.

· 1933

The Works Progress Administration (WPA) opens emergency nurseries for relief of unemployed teachers during the Great Depression.

· 1935

First toy lending library, Toy Loan, begins in Los Angeles.

· 1936

The first commercial telecast is shown in New York City, starring Felix the Cat.

· 1943–1945

The Kaiser Shipyard Child Care Center, run by Lois Meeks Stolz, James Hymes, and Edith Dowley, operates 24-hour care in Portland, Oregon.

· 1944

Young Children is first published by NAEYC.

· 1946

1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock 1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock Fred Stein Archive/Getty ImagesDr. Benjamin Spock’s Baby and Child Care is published. It advocates a more permissive attitude toward children’s behavior and encourages exploratory behavior.

· 1946

Loris Malguzzi starts a school in Reggio Emilia, Italy, emphasizing the child’s individual creative expression.

· 1948

Bloom’s taxonomy is published.

· 1954

U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that in public education, the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place.

· 1956

· 1960

Katherine Whiteside Taylor founds the American Council of Parent Cooperatives, which later becomes the Parent Cooperative Preschools International.

· 1960

Nancy McCormick Rambusch founds the American Montessori movement.

· 1962

Perry Preschool Project, directed by David Weikart, opens in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and conducts a longitudinal study to measure the effects of preschool education on later school and life.

· 1964–1965

1964–1965 J. M. Sugarman, a Head Start founder 1964–1965 J. M. Sugarman, a Head Start founder The Washington Post/Getty ImagesThe Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 is passed by the 88th Congress, becoming the foundation of Head Start programs in the United States, as part of a federal “war on poverty.”

· 1966

The Bureau of Education for the Handicapped is established.

· 1966

NANE becomes NAEYC.

· 1969

1969 T. Berry Brazelton 1969 T. Berry Brazelton Alex Lentati/Evening Standard/Rex Features/Daily Mail/AlamyPediatrician T. Berry Brazelton publishes Infants and Mothers, along with several other books and numerous articles advocating a sensible and intimate relationship between parents and children.

· 1969

· 1971

Stride-Rite Corporation of Boston opens a children’s program on site, becoming a vanguard for employer-supported child care.

· 1972

The Child Development Associate Consortium is started by Edward Ziegler to develop a professional teacher training program (now known as Child Development Associates).

· 1975

· 1979

The United Nations declares the International Year of the Child.

· 1982

1982 Marion Wright Edelman 1982 Marion Wright Edelman Monica Schipper/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesMarion Wright Edelman establishes the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a Washington-based lobby on behalf of children, particularly children of poverty and color.

· 1983

· 1984

NAEYC publishes a report entitled Developmentally Appropriate Practices, which outlines what is meant by “quality” work with young children from infancy through age 8.

· 1985

NAEYC establishes a National Academy and a voluntary accreditation system for centers, in an effort to improve the quality of children’s lives, and confers its first accreditation the next year.

· 1986

U.S. Department of Education declares the Year of the Elementary School. PL. 99-457, amending PL 94-142, establishes a national policy on early intervention for children as young as infants.

· 1990

The Child Care Development Block Grant is established to improve the quality, availability, and affordability of child care programs.

· 1990

The U.N. Children’s World Summit includes the following goals to be reached by the year 2000:

· (1)

to reduce child mortality below age 5 by one third;

· (2)

to provide universal access to basic education; and

· (3)

to protect children in dangerous situations.

· 1990

· 1991

“Ready to Learn/America 2000,” part of the U.S. government’s educational strategy for reforming American public schools, is published.

· 1991

· 1993

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passes, providing new parents with 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave.

· 1996

· 1997

The Child Development Permit Matrix is adopted by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing, introducing the career ladder concept into early childhood public education.

· 1998

The 100,000th CDA Credential is awarded by Carol Brunson Phillips, executive director of the Council for Early Childhood Professionals.

· 2002

· 2003

Universal preschool is considered as a next step in providing equal access to quality early educational experiences for all children under 5 years of age.

· 2007

2007 State-Funded Preschool 2007 State-Funded Preschool AP Images/Greg Wahl-StephensState-funded preschools rise in per-child funding, expanded access, and moved toward higher quality standards.

· 2008

12 states in the United States still provide no state preschool for their children.

· 2009

A Joint Interagency Policy Board of Early Learning is established by the Departments of Health and Human Services and Education in the United States.

· 2010

Common Core State Standards for grades K–12 in English language arts and mathematics are published.

· 2012

The U.S. government initiates a competitive grant process for the development of Early Learning Plans in the individual states (called “Race to the Top”).

· 2013

2013 Head Start 2013 Head Start Eric SwalwellHead Start completes its initial plan to raise teacher education requirements by requiring at least one teacher in each classroom to hold a bachelor’s degree.

· 2014

The first American Summit on Early Childhood Education is convened in Washington, D.C., by President Barack Obama.

· 2015

Deadline for NAEYC-accredited programs to have 50% of teachers holding a bachelor’s degree and the remainder to have at least an associate’s degree.

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1-1dBeyond European Perspectives

You can likely see how traditional early childhood educational practices reinforce European-American values and beliefs. Education is often built from the knowledge base of its teachers; curriculum usually draws from the system—cultural, economic, or political—that is most familiar. If teachers are trained on European writings and the ideas of university-educated Americans, then their own teachings would likely reflect those philosophies.

But there have always been other influences on educational practices, especially those of teachers’ personal upbringing or of the child-rearing traditions of the communities whose children and families we teach. We know that there is more than one “right way” to care for and educate children.

What nontraditional perspectives influenced early childhood education? As mentioned before, information about non-Western early childhood history is not easily accessible because of the dominance of European writings (see “Additional Resources” for a reading list). Gonzalez-Mena (2001) summarizes some of these perspectives:

· Attitudes toward childhood in China and Japan were influenced by the writings of Confucius (551–479 BC), which stressed harmony. Children were seen as good and worthy of respect; at the same time, children and women were expected to obey the elders, both the matriarch and the men.

· Native American writings show close ties and interconnectedness, not only among families and within tribes, but also between people and nature. Teaching children about relationships and interconnectedness are historical themes of early education among many indigenous peoples.

· Strong kinship networks are themes among both Africans and African Americans; people bond together and pool their resources for the common good. The mutual cooperation has ancient roots and historic significance from oppression, and is a sociopolitical class issue.

· Latin American and Hispanic cultures value children highly and emphasize the importance of cooperation and sensitivity to authority figures. Children are given affection and resources, and parents often put their children’s welfare ahead of their own.

· Families from the Pacific Islands stress the connection to family, as well as the importance of respecting one’s elders. Extended families work together for the benefit of a child chosen for particular talents.

· Indian and Middle Eastern families value education as an opportunity for upward mobility, and for bringing these additional resources back to the family to increase the prosperity of the family as a whole. Teachers are respected members of the community and are also sought as powerful agents of success for the children.

Early education practices have been influenced by many of these perspectives. For instance, understanding and accepting each child’s family and cultural perspectives includes a working knowledge of the variations in attitudes and child-rearing practices. Learning about nontraditional cultures and behaviors has become critical for professional teachers to honor diversity both in the classroom and in the larger societal context (see Chapters 3 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 and 15 ).

The question of whether an activity or program is developmentally suited to a particular age or individual was put into more modern context in the mid-1980s when specific descriptions were required to support NAEYC’s efforts to accredit early education programs. Defining what is appropriate now includes as much about the family and culture of a child as the age and even the individual characteristics. Developmentally Appropriate Practices (DAP) are defined and expanded in the next chapter. The dynamic nature of DAP allows for both basic principles and variation. This means that it can reflect the best, most current thinking of the field, and it requires periodic evaluation and revision. Personal application of nontraditional perspectives is part of your professional identity (see the “ Diversity ” box, “ Finding Your Place at the Table ”).

Diversity

Finding Your Place at the Table

“The field of Early Child Education eagerly awaits, with hopeful expectation, your special contribution. ‘What could I possibly have to offer?’ you ask. Your history, or life story, is your greatest asset. Tucked away in your early years are special experiences that can shape the lives of small children.” (Williams, 2011)

The challenges from your childhood can enhance your work with children as you add your own sensitivity and perspective. In that way, you set your place at the table of early childhood education, in whatever workplace it may be. Drawing on the stories and memories may require you to check with your family and others who knew you then. Again, Williams prompts you to consider the following questions:

1. What expectations does your culture have for young children? (Consider what messages society sends to families about the activities in which children should participate.)

2. In which activities did you participate as a child younger than 8 years old? (Remember the toys with which you played or activities your family said you liked.)

3. Did you participate in preschool? If so, what was the setting? Was it in your home, the home of others, a neighborhood child-care facility, or a larger group center? (You might consider how it was physically organized and the people who were involved.)

4. Were your contacts with others ethnically diverse or localized to one cultural group? (Cultural identity can be defined in many ways, such as geographical, religious, racial, and so forth. Many of our identities include many cultures; that is, they are multicultural.)

5. What did you gain from those early years that will help you as an early childhood educator? (Look for a way that this can be passed to others.)

6. Describe one way you would like to improve the early childhood education you received. (By rethinking what you did not receive, you can change this in the lives of those you are involved with.)

Finding your own personal diversity helps you find uniqueness within the diverse experiences of your life, which brings richness to your work and treasures to share with the children, families, and professionals that you serve.

1-1eAmerican Influences

Significant moments in American history have served as turning points in education in general, as well as for early childhood education in particular. As you will read, the American educational system has been dynamic, from its onset in colonial America to the DAP and Common Core standards of today.

Colonial Days

When thinking of colonial America, people often envision the one-room schoolhouse. Indeed, this was the mainstay of education in the New England colonies. Although home-teaching of the Bible was common, children of elementary age were sent to school primarily for religious reasons. Everyone needed to be able to read the Bible, the Puritan fathers reasoned. All children were sent to study, though historically boys were educated before girls. The Bible was not the only book used in school, however; new materials like the New England Primer and the Horn Book were also used.

Early life in the New England colonies was difficult, and estimates run as high as 60 percent to 70 percent of children younger than age 4 dying in colonial towns during the winter “starving season.” Discipline was harsh, and children were expected to obey immediately and without question. Parents may have loved their children, but Puritan families showed little overt affection. Children were important as economic tools, and they worked the land and were apprenticed into trades early.

In the South, it was a different story. Plantation owners imported tutors from England or opened small private schools to teach just their sons to read and write. Although the reasons were different from those in New England, the results were similar: a very high percentage of adult readers. From these came the leaders of the American Revolution and the new nation. History can provide us with reminders of the strides that have been made in U.S. history and that the challenge of overcoming bias and unequal access continues.

The Revolutionary War brought the establishment of both the Union and religious freedom. By affirming fundamental principles of democratic liberty, the founders paved the way for a system of free, common, public school, the first the world had ever seen (Cubberly, 1920). However, after the Revolutionary War, there were no significant advances in education until the late 1800s. Leaders such as Thomas Jefferson believed that knowledge ought to be available to all, but that opinion was not widely shared. Most of the postrevolutionary period focused on growing crops and pioneering the frontier, not teaching and educating children. Even by the 1820s, education for the common person was not readily available. Industrialization in both the North and South did little to encourage reading and writing skills. Manual labor and machine-operating skills were more important. Although public schools were accepted in principle, no tax basis was established to support them in reality.

The Horn Book was a common reading primer in colonial American schools.

The Horn Book was a common reading primer in colonial American schools.

Time Life Pictures./Contributor/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

Children in Enslavement

The first African Americans were not slaves but indentured servants, whose debts repaid by their labor would buy them their freedom. However, by 1620, Africans were brought to the New World as slaves. In many states, children of slaves were not valued as human beings but rather as property of the owner. During the Revolutionary War, many Americans turned against slavery because of the principles of the natural rights of the individual, as embodied in the Declaration of Independence and, later, in the U.S. Constitution. By the early 1800s, most Northern owners had freed their slaves, although living conditions for them were generally poor.

Because of the high economic value of children as future laborers, there was a certain level of care given to pregnant women and babies. Osborn (1991) tells of a nursery on a South Carolina plantation around 1850 in which

…infants and small children were left in a small cabin while the mothers worked in the fields nearby. An older woman was left in charge and assisted by several girls 8–10 years of age. The infants, for the most part, lay on the cabin floor or the porch—and once or twice daily, the mother would come in from the field to nurse the baby. Children of toddler age played on the porch or in the yard and, at times, the older girls might lead the group in singing and dancing.

Before the Civil War, education was severely limited for African Americans. Many Southern states prohibited literacy instruction for enslaved Africans, so female African American teachers helped establish clandestine schools known as midnight schools, because plantation owners banned teaching (Jones-Wilson, 1996). After the Civil War, most education came about through the establishment of Sabbath schools because literacy training was considered part of religious instruction. Because of its necessary secretive existence, few records are available, although it is reasonable to conclude that the curriculum was similar in both types of schools.

After the Civil War, private and public schools were opened for African Americans. Major colleges and universities were founded by the end of the 1800s. Booker T. Washington, born into slavery, founded the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama in 1881 and emphasized practical education and intercultural understanding between the two races as a path to liberation. Many former slaves and graduates established schools for younger children. Of integrated schools, Osborn (1991) reports:

Generally, however, if the schools accepted Blacks at all, it was on a strictly quota basis…. Blacks were often excluded from kindergartens. Thus as the early childhood education movement began to grow and expand in the years following the Civil War, it grew along separate color lines.

The Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia, established a laboratory kindergarten for African Americans in 1873, and by 1893, the institute offered a kindergarten training school and courses in child care. The graduates of Hampton Institute became the teachers at the laboratory school because, in the words of its principal, “[the] students know the children and the influences surrounding them.… Their people are proud to see them teaching. They furnish what has always been a missing link between me and the parents” (Pleasant, 1992). It would be worth investigating whether all laboratory schools for African Americans copied European models, as did those of most American universities, or if they reflected some African influences.

Progressive Education

By the end of the 1800s, however, a nationwide reform movement had begun. The Progressive movement of the late 1800s and first half of the 20th century changed the course of education in both elementary and nursery schools in the United States. Coinciding with the political progressivism in this country, this philosophy emphasized a child-centered approach that gained advocates from both the scientific viewpoint (John Dewey, G. Stanley Hall) and those of a psychoanalytic bent (Patty Smith Hill, Susan Isaacs). Some of the major features of the educational progressive philosophy were (Osborn, 1991):

· We must recognize individual needs and individual differences in children.

· Teachers must be more attentive to the needs of children than to academics alone.

· Children learn best when they are highly motivated and have a genuine interest in the material.

· Learning via rote memory is useless to children.

· The teacher should be aware of the child’s total development—social, physical, intellectual, and emotional.

· Children learn best when they have direct contact with the material.

Many graduates of Tuskegee and Hampton Institutes became teachers of African-American children of former slaves.

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C[LC-USZ62-26378]

These beliefs were instrumental in changing the old traditional schools from a strictly subject-based curriculum to one that centered on children’s interests as the foundation for curriculum development. Progressives wanted educators to work on “how a school could become a cooperative community while developing in individuals their own capacities and satisfying their own needs” (Dewey, 1916). Although Dewey and others did not reject the teaching of basic skills, the shift was away from such subject matter education.

John Dewey

John Dewey (1858–1952) was the first real American influence on American education. Raised in Vermont, he became a professor of philosophy at both the University of Chicago and Columbia University. In the years that followed, Dewey was responsible for one of the greatest impacts on American education of all time.

Dewey believed that children were valuable and that childhood was an important part of their lives. Like Froebel, he felt that education should be integrated with life and should provide a training ground for cooperative living. As did Pestalozzi and Rousseau, Dewey felt that schools should focus on the nature of the child. Until this time, children were considered of little consequence. Childhood was rushed. Children as young as 7 were a regular part of the workforce—on the farms, in the mines, and in the factories. Dewey’s beliefs about children and learning are summarized in Figure 1-5 .

Figure 1-5

John Dewey expressed his ideas about education in an important document entitled My Pedagogic Creed.

Dewey’s Pedagogic Creed

My Pedagogic Creed—John Dewey	What It Means Today
“ … I believe that only true education comes through the stimulation of the child’s powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.”	This says that children learn to manage themselves in groups, to make and share friendships, to solve problems, and to cooperate.
“ … The child’s own instinct and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education.”	We need to create a place that is child-centered, a place that values the skills and interests of each child and each group.
“ … I believe that education, therefore, is a process of living and not a preparation for future living.”	Prepare children for what is to come by enriching and interpreting the present for them. Find educational implications in everyday experiences.
“ … I believe that … the school life should grow gradually out of the home life … it is the business of the school to deepen and extend … the child’s sense of the values bound up in his home life.”	This sets the rationale for a relationship between teachers and parents. Values established and created in the home should be enhanced by teaching in the schools.
“ … I believe, finally, that the teacher is engaged, not simply in the training of individuals, but in the formation of a proper social life. I believe that every teacher should realize the dignity of his calling.”	This says that the work that teachers do is important and valuable. They teach more than academic content; they teach how to live.

Enlarge Table

( Washington, DC: The Progressive Education Association , 1897.)

Dewey’s ideas of schooling emerged from his own childhood and his family life as a parent. Jane Dewey, his sixth child, stated that “his own schooling had bored John; he’d disliked the rigid, passive way of learning forced on children by the pervasive lecture-recitation method of that time” (Walker, 1997). Furthermore, the Deweys’ parenting style caused a stir among friends and neighbors; the children were allowed to play actively in the same room as adult guests, to ignore wearing shoes and stockings, and even to “stand by during the birth [of brother Morris] while Mrs. Dewey explained the process” (Walker, 1997). His passionate belief in the innate goodness of children, in the principle of mind-body unity, and in the encouragement of experimentation shaped John Dewey’s ideals.

A new kind of school emerged from these ideals. Even the buildings began to take on a different look. Movable furniture replaced rows of benches. Children’s projects, some still under construction, were found everywhere. The curriculum of the school began to focus on all of the basics, not just on a few of the academics. If a group of 6-year-olds decided to make a woodworking table, they would first have to learn to read to understand the directions. After calculating the cost, they would purchase the materials. In building the table, geometry, physics, and math were learned along the way. This was a group effort that encouraged children to work together in teams, so school became a society in miniature. Children’s social skills were developed along with reading, science, and math. The teacher’s role in the process was one of ongoing support, involvement, and encouragement.

The contribution of John Dewey to American education cannot be underestimated. Dewey’s ideas are part of today’s classrooms in several ways. His child-oriented schools are a model of child care centers and family child care homes, as learning and living are inseparable. The teacher’s role served as a model for current intentional teaching methods (see the “ Teaching with Intention ” feature in every chapter). As the following sections on kindergarten and nursery schools illustrate, Dewey had a vision that is still alive today.

1-1fThe Field Expands: Kindergarten

The word kindergarten—German for “children’s garden”—is a delightful term. It brings to mind the image of young seedlings on the verge of blossoming. The similarity between caring for young plants and young children is not accidental. Froebel, the man who coined the word, meant for that association to be made. As a flower opens from a bud, so does a child go through a natural unfolding process. This idea—and ideal—are part of the kindergarten story.

John Dewey’s lab school involved children in activities of a practical, real-life nature, such as weaving small rugs to use in the classroom.

Enlarge Image

Reprinted with permission from Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

The first kindergarten was a German school started by Froebel in 1837. Nearly 20 years later, in 1856, Margarethe Schurz, a student of Froebel, opened the first kindergarten in the United States for German-speaking children in her home in Wisconsin. Schurz inspired Elizabeth Peabody (1804–1894) of Boston, who opened the first English-speaking kindergarten there in 1860. Peabody, after studying kindergartens in Germany, in turn influenced William Harris, superintendent of schools in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1873, Harris allowed Susan Blow (1843–1916) to open the first kindergarten in the United States associated with public schools. By the 1880s, kindergarten teachers such as Eudora Hailmann were hard at work inventing wooden beads, paper weaving mats, and songbooks to use with active 5-year-old children.

Look at kindergarten in a historical perspective to trace the various purposes of this specialized educational experience. At first, Froebel’s philosophy (as discussed earlier in this chapter) was the mainstay of kindergarten education. At the same time, kindergartens began to become an instrument of social reform. Many of the kindergartens started in the late 1800s were established by churches and other agencies that worked with the poor and were called charity kindergartens. For instance, “in the early kindergartens, teachers conducted a morning class for about 15 children and made social calls on families during the afternoon. The children were taught to address the teachers as ‘Auntie’ to emphasize her sisterly relationship with their mothers” (Hewes, 1993).

Moreover, by early 1900, traditional kindergarten ideas had come under the scrutiny of G. Stanley Hall and others who were interested in a scientific approach to education. Dewey advocated a communitylike (rather than garden-style) classroom. A classic clash of ideals developed between followers of Froebel (conservatives) and those of Dewey’s new educational viewpoint (progressives). For those who saw kindergartens as a social service in an era of rising social conscience, the reasons for helping the less fortunate were similar to the rationale that led to the creation of Head Start 60 years later.

The emphasis in a Froebelian kindergarten was on teacher-directed learning. Dewey’s followers preferred a more child-centered approach, with teachers serving as facilitators of children’s learning. This is the same tension that exists today between the “back to basics” movement and the supporters of child-centered education. The progressives found fault with the “gifts” of Froebel’s curriculum. Those who followed Dewey believed that “real objects and real situations within the child’s own social setting” should be used (Read & Patterson, 1980). Froebel was viewed as too structured and too symbolic; Dewey was perceived as child-oriented and child-involved. Even the processes they used were different. Froebel believed in allowing the unfolding of the child’s mind and learning, whereas Dewey stressed adult intervention in social interaction.

The reform of kindergarten education led to the creation of the modern American kindergarten. By the 1970s, the trend was to focus on the intellectual development of the child; thus, there was an emphasis on academic goals for 5-year-olds. By the late 1990s, the concept of DAP advocated a shift toward more holistic, broad planning for kindergarten. (Today’s kindergarten programs are discussed in Chapter 2 .)

1-1gPatty Smith Hill

Hill (1868–1946) of Teacher’s College, Columbia University, was an outstanding innovator of the time and one of the Progressive movement’s ablest leaders. It was she who wrote the song “Happy Birthday,” created sets of large blocks (known as “Patty Hill blocks,” now known as hollow and unit blocks) and founded the National Association for Nursery Education (NANE). The largest association of early childhood educators, it is now the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). Trained originally in the Froebelian tradition, she worked closely with G. Stanley Hall, and later with John Dewey. Thus, her philosophy of classroom teaching was a blended one. She believed strongly in basing curricula and programs on the nature and needs of the children, and she was one of the major education experimenters of her day. She was

…guided by principles of democracy and respect for individuals. She argued for freedom and initiative for children, as well as a curriculum relevant to children’s lives. It was she who originated large-muscle equipment and materials suitable for climbing and construction, a departure from the prescribed small-muscle activities of the Froebelians. Patty Hill also urged unification of kindergarten and first-grade work, but her objective was not to start 5-year-olds on first grade work, as we today might readily assume. Rather, emphasis was on giving 6-year-olds the opportunity for independent, creative activities before embarking on the three R’s. (Cohen & Randolph, 1977)

These ideas became the backbone of kindergarten practice. Moreover, Hill did not work for kindergarten alone. In fact, during the 1920s, Hill rekindled Froebel’s early ideas to promote nursery schools for children too young to attend kindergarten. Regardless of controversy within, kindergartens were still on the fringes of the educational establishments as a whole. In fact, Hill (1996) herself commented that “adjustment to public-school conditions came slowly… [and] until this happy adjustment took place, the promotion of the self-active kindergarten children into the grades has made it possible for the poorest and most formal first-grade teacher to criticize and condemn the work of the best kindergarten teacher as well as the kindergarten cause, because of the wide gap that existed between kindergarten and primary ideals at that time.”

As Hill and others prevailed and made continual improvements in teaching methods, materials, guidance, and curriculum, the interests of kindergarten and primary education could be seen as more unified.

1-1hA Foundational Base: Nursery Schools

The very phrase nursery school conjures up images of a child’s nursery, of a carefully tended garden, and of a gentle place of play and growing. In fact, the name was coined to describe a place where children were nurtured (see the section entitled “ The McMillan Sisters ”). Nursery schools have always been a place of care, for the physical needs, the intellectual stimulation, and the socioemotional aspects of young children’s lives. At the same time that kindergarten was taking hold in the United States, the nursery school movement was beginning in both here and Europe.

Early Nursery Schools

Early childhood educators took Dewey’s philosophy to heart. Their schools reflected the principles of a child-centered approach, active learning, and social cooperation. By the 1920s and 1930s, early childhood education had reached a professional status in the United States. Nursery schools and day nurseries went beyond custodial health care. They fostered the child’s total development. The children were enrolled from middle- and upper-class homes, as well as from working families. However, until the 1960s, nursery schools served few poor families.

Parent education was acknowledged as a vital function of the school and led to the establishment of parent cooperative schools . Brook Farm, a utopian cooperative community in the 1840s, had “the equivalent of an on-site child care center ‘for the use of parents doing industrial work’ or for mothers to use ‘as a kindly relief to themselves when fatigued by the care of children’” (Hewes, 1993). The first of these parent participation schools was developed in 1915 at the University of Chicago, where a group of faculty wives started the Chicago Cooperative Nursery School.

Research centers and child development laboratories were started in many colleges and universities from about 1915 until 1930. These laboratory schools were active in expanding knowledge of the importance of a child’s early years. As Stolz (1978) describes it, “the [preschool] movement from the beginning was integrated with the movement for child development research. The purpose… was to improve nursery schools, and, therefore, we brought in the people who were studying children, who were learning more about them, so we could do a better job.” It is noteworthy that professionals such as Hill, Lois Meek Stolz, Edith Dowley, and others encouraged researchers to share their findings with classroom teachers to integrate these discoveries into the daily programs of children.

This model, patterned after the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879, was formed to train psychologists in the systematic training of child study. This model adopted a scientific approach to the study of human beings, as the field of psychology itself attempted to become more like the biologic sciences.

Traditional nursery and kindergarten included circle time.

Golden Gate Kindergarten Association

The second approach, like the Butler School of Hampton Institute and later Spelman College, was established primarily for teacher preparation and training. The latter model took its influence almost exclusively from educational leaders. These nursery laboratory schools attempted a multidisciplinary approach, blending the voices from psychology and education with those of home economics, nursing, social work, and medicine. By 1950, when Katherine Read Baker first published The Nursery School: A Human Relationships Laboratory (now published in seven languages), the emphasis of the nursery school was on understanding human behavior and then building programs, guidance techniques, and relationships accordingly. In her estimate,

…the nursery school is a place where young children learn as they play and as they share experiences with other children.… It is also a place where adults learn about child development and human relationships as they observe and participate in the program of the school.… Anyone working in an educational program for children, even the most experienced person, needs to be learning as well as teaching. The two processes, learning and teaching, are inseparable.

Lucy Sprague Mitchell (1878–1967) established early childhood education in the United States by helping it grow out of Dewey’s progressive movement. Raised in an environment of educational and social reform, Mitchell developed the idea of schools as community centers, as well as places for children to learn to think. As Greenberg (1987) explained, Mitchell gathered together, in a democratic, cooperative venture, many talented people to brainstorm, mastermind, and sponsor the following:

· A remarkable Bureau of Educational Experiments designed to combine newfound psychological awareness with democratic concepts of education

· A school to implement and experiment with these principles in order to provide the best environments for children’s learning and growth

· A laboratory to record and analyze how and why the principles function

· A teachers’ college to promote the principles and train teachers to maintain the ideal environments to follow them

· A workshop for writers of juvenile books, which was then developed into the new genre now known as children’s literature

· A bulletin to disseminate it all, as well as to disseminate what a plethora of progressive educators were up to elsewhere, beginning in 1916

Strongly influenced by John Dewey, she became a major contributor to the idea of educational experiments; that is, trying to plan with teachers the curriculum experiences that would then be observed and analyzed “for children’s reactions to the various learning situations [and] the new teaching techniques” (Mitchell, 1951). For instance, Mitchell suggested that teachers expand on what they knew of children’s “here-and-now thinking by making

…trips with kindergarteners to see how work was done—work that was closely tied up with their personal lives… the growth in thinking and attitudes of the teachers had moved far… toward the conception of their role as a guide as differentiated from a dispenser of information.

By establishing Bank Street College of Education (and its laboratory school), Lucy Sprague Mitchell emphasized the link between theory and practice—namely, that the education of young children and the study of how children learn are intrinsically tied together. Today’s “Teacher Researchers” movement (see the themes of “ Importance of Childhood ” and “ Professionalism ” in this chapter and Chapter 15 ) emphasizes this approach.

Abigail Eliot (1892–1992) pioneered the nursery school movement by bringing the work of the McMillan sisters from England to the United States (for more information, see the section entitled “ The McMillan Sisters ”). A graduate of Radcliffe College and Harvard University, Eliot had worked at Deptford School in the slums of London. A social worker by training, she became interested in children and their relationships with their parents. Eliot had a lively and clear view of what good schools for children could be. She founded the Ruggles Street Nursery School in the Roxbury section of Boston, teaching children and providing teacher training, and served as its director from 1922 to 1952, when it was incorporated into Tufts University. Today, it is known as the Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, an integral part of the university.

Eliot became the first woman to receive a doctoral degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education and, after retiring from Tufts, moved to Pasadena, California, where she helped establish Pacific Oaks College. In all her work, she integrated Froebel’s gifts, Montessori’s equipment, and the McMillans’ fresh air, as well as her own ideas. As she put it (Hymes, 1978):

For us in early education…the new idea—was program. I had visited many day nurseries in Boston as a social worker. I can remember them even now: dull green walls, no light colors, nothing pretty—spotlessly clean places, with rows of white-faced listless little children sitting, doing nothing. In the new nursery school, the children were active, alive, choosing.

1-1iMidcentury Developments

Even as the economic crisis of the Great Depression and the political turmoil of World War II diverted attention from children’s needs, both gave focus to adult needs for work. Out of this necessity came the Works Progress Administration (WPA) nurseries of the 1930s and the Lanham Act nurseries of the 1940s. The most renowned program of the mid-20th century was the Kaiser Child Care Centers.

Celebrating a birthday in a WPA nursery program, provided by the Lanham Act for women in the workforce during World War II.

Courtesy of WPA (Works Progress Administration)

Kaiser Child Care Centers

During World War II, funds were provided to deal with the common situation of mothers working in war-related industries. Further support came from industry during World War II. An excellent model for child care operated from 1943 to 1945 in Portland, Oregon: the Kaiser Child Care Centers. Kaiser became the world’s largest such center and functioned around the clock all year long. A number of services were made available on site. An infirmary was located nearby for both mothers and children. Hot meals were made available for mothers to take home when they picked up their children. Lois Meek Stolz was the director of the centers, and James L. Hymes, Jr., was the manager. He describes the centers this way (Hymes, 1978):

…The centers were to have three distinctive qualities. One, they were to be located not out in the community but right at the entrance to the two shipyards, convenient to mothers on their way to and from work. They were to be industry-based, not neighborhood-centered. Two, the centers were to be operated by the shipyards, not by the public schools and not by community agencies. They were to be industrial child care centers, with the cost borne by the Kaiser Company and by parents using the service. Three, they were to be large centers, big enough to meet the need. In the original plan, each center was to serve a thousand preschool children on three shifts.

These centers served 3,811 children. As Hymes points out, they provided 249,268 child-care days and freed up 1,931,827 woman work-hours.

However, once the war ended, the workers left. Child care was no longer needed, and the centers closed. The Kaiser experience has never been equaled, either in the universal quality of care or in the variety of services. However, it did leave behind a legacy, which Hymes has stressed ever since (in Dickerson, 1992): “It is no great trick to have an excellent child care program. It only requires a lot of money with most of it spent on trained staff.” The model Kaiser Child Care Centers provided for child care remains exemplary.

1-2Civil Rights and Head Start

As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld laws concerning “the core of the Jim Crow system, the public schools in which white and black children first experienced the reality of segregation… Jim Crow schools—which taught their students only those skills needed for agricultural work and domestic service—fit the needs of the whole economy and society” (Irons, 2004). The term Jim Crow itself comes from a character in a late 1880s minstrel show and refers to the complete system of segregation.

The Kaiser Shipyard operated a model child care center during World War II.

Genevieve Naylor/CORBIS

World War I played an important role in moving large numbers of blacks from the rural South to the cities of the North and West, beginning what has been called the Great Migration. By 1930, the reported literacy rate for blacks had doubled from 1900 to just more than 80 percent, but “the educational status of blacks in the Jim Crow states remained abysmally low in 1950” (Irons, 2004). The living standards for all Americans in poverty during the Depression plummeted, but African Americans had a particularly difficult time. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s administration and the emerging industrial union movement gave impetus to blacks looking for both employment and political change. World War II continued the process of transformation for many adults, but for children, the situation was still bleak.

The stage for another legal challenge to segregation was set. As Weinberg (1977) states, “Midcentury marked a turning point in the history of black America. The movement for equality came under black leadership, embraced unprecedented numbers of Negroes, and became national in scope. A persistent black initiative forced a reformulation of public policies in education.” Children were starting to be considered citizens with rights.

The attack against the segregation system had begun. As seen in the historic cases of McLaurin v. Oklahoma (1950) and Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), the concept of “separate but equal” was overturned. Furthermore, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 continued to address the struggle for equality of opportunity and education, one that persists today in our schools and society (see the section entitled “ Ethic of Social Reform ”).

1-2aWar on Poverty: Head Start

In pointing out the plight of the poor, education was highlighted as a major stumbling block toward the equality of all people. Furthermore, excluding Americans from educational opportunities could put the United States at risk of losing its preeminent position in the world. Project Head Start was conceived as education’s role in fighting the “war on poverty.” The same goals of Froebel and Montessori formed the basis of Head Start: helping disadvantaged preschool children. This was a revolution in American education which had not been seen since the short-lived child care programs during World War II. This project was the first large-scale effort by the government to focus on children living in poverty.

Head Start began in 1965 as a demonstration program aimed at providing educational, social, medical, dental, nutritional, and mental health services to preschool children from a diverse population of low-income families. Dr. Edward Ziegler, the first director of the U.S. Office of Child Development and chief of the U.S. Children’s Bureau, was one of the planners of both Project Head Start and the Parent & Child Centers (now known as Early Head Start). In 1972, it was transformed into a predominantly part-day, full-year program. Key features included health services, small groups, parent-teacher collaboration, and the thrill of communities getting involved with children in new ways. Osborn (1991) tells us:

I wish I knew how to tell this part of the story… the bus driver in West Virginia who took time off from his regular job and went to the Center to have juice and crackers with “his” children because they asked him to.… The farmer who lived near an Indian Reservation and who each morning saddled his horse, forded a river and picked up an Indian child—who would not have attended a Center otherwise… they represent the true flavor of Head Start.

Over the years, Head Start has provided comprehensive developmental services to more than 10 million children and their families.

Head Start is the largest publicly funded education program for young children in the United States.

National Archives

This was an exciting time, a national recognition of the needs of young children and a hope for a better quality of life. Head Start was an attempt to make amends, to compensate poor children by preparing them for school and educational experiences. Parents, who were required to participate at all levels, were educated along with their children. The purpose of the community-based governing boards was to allow the program to reflect local values and concerns. Concurrently, underprivileged poor people were being encouraged to participate in solving some of their own problems.

The spirit of Head Start was infectious. As a result of community interest in Head Start, there was a burst of enthusiasm for many programs for the young child. Thanks to Head Start, there is national attention to the need for providing good care and educational experiences for young children. The Head Start program is recognized as an effective means of providing comprehensive services to children and families, serving as a model for the development of the ABC Child Care Act. (The program is discussed in Chapter 2 .)

1-2bFrom Sputnik to High/Scope

After World War II, few innovations took place until a small piece of metal made its worldwide debut. The launch of Sputnik, the Soviet satellite, in 1957 (the first successful space exploration in the world) caused an upheaval in educational circles. Two questions were uppermost in the minds of most Americans: Why were we not first in space? What is wrong with our schools? The emphasis in education quickly settled on engineering, science, and math in the hopes of catching up with Soviet technology. It was time for a change in American education, both for reasons of social equity and of cognitive achievement.

High/Scope was conceived to address the effects of poverty on children’s development and to focus attention on cognitive aspects of learning. Two studies funded by the federal government were initiated to study the effects of different educational approaches. The first study, entitled “Planned Variation,” focused on Head Start programs. The second study, “Project Follow-Through,” addressed the effects of programming from preschool through third grade. High/Scope was one of these models. Developed by Weikart and colleagues (Schweinhart, Barnes, & Weikart, 1993), the curriculum identified key experiences relating to concept development and expanded to include education for all developmental domains, as well as recommendations for the physical environment and daily schedule (see Chapters 9 and 10 ). Research on this program has continued for decades and has identified clearly the positive long-term impacts of excellent nursery school education.

1-2cInfant-Toddler Care

Some people say that we are in the midst of a second child care revolution for young children, as more and more parents than ever before are leaving the home to work. Parents must rely on educators to teach their children from a very young age, including as infants. While many European industrialized nations have addressed these issues, the United States has not completely faced this reality or risen to the challenge.

The roots of infant-toddler care stem from the women’s movement of the 1920s, which focused attention on deeply held beliefs about child-rearing and early education practices. When the United States mobilized around World War II, child care was addressed so as to enable mothers to work while fathers served in the armed forces. With the advent of the 1960s, women once again entered the workplace, and both parents needed to focus on working outside the home in addition to raising their families. Care for children by extended family, family child care homes, and day care centers was on the rise.

The American public is currently unclear about the best way to raise very young children, especially those younger than age 2. Women, by and large, are working outside the home and are no longer available around the clock to care for infants and toddlers; meanwhile, men are not generally electing to stay home or raise their children full time. There are not nearly enough properly funded centers or family child care homes for infants and toddlers under 3 years of age, and the patchwork system of parents, extended family, and neighborhood adults provides fragmented care, which may be less than optimal. As we learn more about the critical time period of 0–2 years of age for brain development, we need to look carefully at instituting quality child care for infants and toddlers.

1-2dContemporary Developments

As we move into the 21st century, three practices are serving as turning points for contemporary early education:

· DAP. In 1997, 2003, and 2007, DAP articulated early education’s principles of standard teaching practices that enhanced the growth of the whole child and included age, family, and individual elements. Mastery of play is considered one of the most important developmental tasks for young children, learning constructed by the learning through interaction with physical materials and thinking about the experiences (Nell & Drew, 2013). Look for the “ DAP ” box in each chapter and the “Ethic of Reform” themes in this chapter and Chapter 15 .

· Standards. Education in the United States has become focused on an extensive implementation of state educational standards. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), passed in 2001, and Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, call for new standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K–12. These developments may be as significant as Brown v. Board of Education in changing the direction of education for years to come (Weber, 2011). The standards-based movement in early learning includes identification and monitoring of quality indicators, as well as an emphasis on data-driven decision-making. Learn more about these issues in Chapter 5 (teachers), Chapter 6 (children), and Chapters 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 (curriculum), as well as the themes of “ Professionalism ” and “ Ethic of Social Reform ” in this chapter and Chapter 15 .

· Media and Technology. The introduction of technology into modern life is staggering in its speed and influence. From television and video games to computers/Internet and technological tools (such as iPhones, iPads, and other devices), the inclusion (or, to many, intrusion) of such devices into the lives of children, families, and schools is here to stay. What we have learned at the end of the 20th century about brain development and neuroscience must now be blended with the technology that we are using in the early 21st century and beyond. Check out the Brain boxes, the Technology focus in Chapter 14 , and the “ Importance of Childhood ” and “ Transmission of Values ” themes in this chapter and Chapter 15 .

1-2eInterdisciplinary Influences

Several professions can enrich the experience of early childhood. This diversity was apparent from the beginning of education, as the first nursery schools drew from six different professions: social work, home economics, nursing, psychology, education, and medicine. Three of the most consistent and influential of those disciplines were medicine, education, and child psychology.

Medicine

The medical field has contributed to the study of child growth through the work of several physicians. These doctors became interested in child development and extended their knowledge to the areas of child-rearing and education.

Maria Montessori

Maria Montessori (1870–1952) was the first woman in Italy to be granted a medical degree. She began studying children’s diseases and, through her work with children with intellectual disabilities, found education more appealing. Her philosophy is discussed earlier in this chapter and is part of the Chapter 10 curriculum models.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) made important contributions to all modern thinking. The father of personality theory and psychiatry in general, he drastically changed how we look at childhood. Freud reinforced two specific ideas:

· (1)

a person is influenced by his early life in fundamental and dramatic ways, and

· (2)

early experiences shape the way that people live and behave as adults.

Thus, psychoanalytic theory is mostly about personality development and emotional problems. Freud’s work set into motion one of the three major strands of psychological theory that influence the developmental and learning theories of early childhood today. Although he was not involved directly in education, Freud and psychoanalytic theory influenced education greatly. Chapter 4 expands on the theory and its application in early childhood education.

Arnold Gesell

Arnold Gesell (1880–1961) was a physician who was concerned with growth from a medical point of view. Gesell began studying child development when he was a student of G. Stanley Hall, an early advocate of child study. He later established the Clinic of Child Development at Yale University, where the data he collected with his colleagues became the basis of the recognized norms of how children grow and develop. He was also instrumental in encouraging Abigail Eliot to study with the McMillan sisters in England.

Gesell’s greatest contribution was in the area of child growth. He saw maturation as an innate and powerful force in development. “The total plan of growth,” he said, “is beyond your control. It is too complex and mysterious to be altogether entrusted to human hands. So nature takes over most of the task, and simply invites your assistance” (Gesell, Ames, & Ilg, 1977).

Through the Gesell Institute, guides were published using this theory. With such experts as Dr. Frances Ilg and Dr. Louise Bates Ames, Gesell wrote articles that realistically portrayed the child’s growth from birth to adolescence. These guides have sharp critics regarding their overuse and inappropriate application to children of cultures other than those studied. Moreover, their approach can be limiting, particularly as we think of developmentally appropriate practices and the importance of both individual variation and family and cultural diversity (Copple & Bredekamp, 2010). Chapter 3 uses Gesell’s “ages and stages” material to develop the word pictures used widely as a yardstick of normal development, and Gesell’s maturation theory is discussed in Chapter 4 .

Benjamin Spock

Benjamin Spock’s book Baby and Child Care was a mainstay for parents in the 1940s and 1950s. In a detailed “how-to” format, Spock (1903–1998) preached a common-sense approach that helped shape the childhood of many of today’s adults. By his death in 1998, the book had sold almost 50 million copies around the world and had been translated into 42 languages.

Medical doctors such as Benjamin Spock have contributed to early care and education in significant ways.

Romano Gentile/A3/Contrasto/Redux

Spock saw himself as giving practical application to the theories of John Dewey (discussed earlier in this chapter) and Sigmund Freud (see Chapter 4 ), particularly in the ideas that children can learn to direct themselves, rather than needing to be constantly disciplined. He suggested that mothers use the playpen less and allow children freedom to explore the world firsthand. To that end, he asked parents to “childproof” their homes—a radical thought at the time. The word permissiveness, as it relates to child-rearing, became associated with his methods, although Spock himself described his advice as relaxed and sensible, while still advocating for firm parental leadership.

Spock became an outspoken advocate for causes that extended his ideas. He was an active critic of those forces—economic, social, or political—that destroy healthy development. Spock (1976) noted:

Child care and home care, if well done, can be more creative, make a greater contribution to the world, [and] bring more pleasure to family members, than 9 out of 10 outside jobs. It is only our mixed-up, materialistic values that make so many of us think the other way around.

T. Berry Brazelton

T. Berry Brazelton (1918– ) is a prominent pediatrician who supports and understands the development of infants and toddlers. He developed an evaluation tool called the Neonatal Behavioral Assessment Scale (NBAS), also known as “the Brazelton,” to assess newborns. Cofounder of the Children’s Hospital Unit in Boston, professor emeritus of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, and a former president of the Society for Research in Child Development, he is also a well-known author. His pediatric guides for parents deal with both physical and emotional growth. His writings speak to the parents’ role in child-raising, such as setting limits, listening to what children say, and observing what they do, as in the following excerpt:

I think many working parents have a very tough time thinking about limits. They find it difficult to say no, to set behavior standards.… Parents tell me, “I can’t stand to be away all day and then come home and be the disciplinarian.” We have to realize how hard it is for parents to discipline these days. They need a lot of reinforcement to understand how important reasonable discipline is to the child. Teachers can be very important here, helping parents see the need to expect more adequate behavior (Brazelton & Greenspan, 2001).

Brazelton advocates a national parental leave standard and is involved in a federal lobbying group known as “Parent Action.” He hosted the nationally syndicated show What Every Baby Knows; is cofounder of Touchpoints, an educational training center focusing on teacher/parent communication about early development; and writes about key areas of need for children to develop well (Brazelton & Greenspan, 2001).

1-2fEducation

Early childhood is one part of the larger professional field known as education. This includes elementary, secondary, and college or postsecondary schooling. Along with Steiner, Dewey, and Eliot, several other influences from this field bear attention.

The McMillan Sisters

In the first three decades of the 20th century, Margaret and Rachel McMillan, who were sisters, became pioneers in early education. Nursery schools in Britain and the United States probably were developed because of the drive and dedication of the McMillans.

Both sisters had broad international backgrounds. Born in New York, they grew up in the United States, Canada, and Scotland. Margaret studied music and language in Europe. She was well read in philosophy, politics, and medicine. Rachel studied to become a health inspector in England.

Health studies performed between 1908 and 1910 showed that 80 percent of children were born in good health, but by the time they entered school, only 20 percent could be classified that way. Noticing the deplorable conditions for children younger than age 5, the McMillan sisters began a crusade for the slum children in England. Their concern extended beyond education to medical and dental care for young children. In 1910, they set up a clinic in Deptford, a London slum area, and the clinic became an open-air nursery a year later. The McMillans called it a “nurture school.” Later, a training college nearby was named for Rachel. With no private financial resources, these two women faced tremendous hardships in keeping their school open. It is to their credit that Deptford still exists today.

The McMillans’ theory of fresh air, sleep, and bathing proved successful. “When over seven hundred children between one and five died of measles, there was not one fatal case at Deptford School” (Deasey, 1978). From the school’s inception, a primary function was to research the effects of poverty on children.

Queen Mary (left) with some of the children from the nursery school attached to the Rachel McMillan Training College in Deptford (1930).

Of the two sisters, Margaret had the greater influence on the school at Deptford. After Rachel died in 1917, Margaret continued to champion early education issues beyond Deptford. “Her clinics, night camps, camp school, baby camp, open-air nursery school, and training college all reflected her conviction that health was the handmaiden of education” (Bradburn, 2000). Eliot writes of her:

Miss McMillan invented the name [nursery school]. She paid great attention to health: a daily inspection, the outdoor program, play, good food—what she called “nurture.” But she saw that an educational problem was also involved and she set to work to establish her own method of education for young children. This was why she called it a “school” (Hymes, 1978).

Susan Isaacs

Susan Isaacs (1885–1948) was an educator of the early 20th century whose influence on nursery and progressive schools of the day was substantial. In 1929, she published a book called The Nursery Years, which emphasized a different point of view than that of the behaviorist psychologists of the times. She interpreted Freudian theory for teachers and provided guidance for how schools could apply this new knowledge of the unconscious to the education of children. She proposed:

…the opportunity for free unhindered imaginative play not only as a means to discover the world but also as a way to reach the psychic equilibrium, in working through wishes, fears, and fantasies so as to integrate them into a living personality (Biber, 1984).

The teacher’s role was different from that of a therapist, she asserted, in that teachers were to encourage play as a bridge in a child’s emotional and intellectual development. Isaacs’s influence is felt today in schools whose philosophy emphasizes the child’s point of view and the notion of play as the child’s work.

The Child Study Movement

A survey of education influences is incomplete without mentioning the Child Study movement in the United States beginning in the 1920s. It was through this movement that education and psychology began to have a common focus on children. Besides the Gesell Institute, many research centers and child development laboratories were established at colleges and universities around the country. The Merrill-Palmer Institute, for example, began in 1920 as a school to serve urban children in Detroit, Michigan, and later served as a model for the Head Start program; in addition, it sponsored research and training about children and families. Schools of psychology looked for children to observe and study; schools of education wanted demonstration schools for their teachers-in-training and for student-teacher placement. Schools of home economics wanted their students to have firsthand experiences with children. Schools of education hoped to develop leadership from among its teaching and research staff. These on-campus schools provided a place to gather information about child development, psychology, and educational innovation (Harms & Tracy, 2006).

This period of educational experiments and child study led to an impressive collection of normative data by which we still measure ranges of ordinary development. The Child Study movement was the impetus that began the search for the most appropriate means of educating young children. Laboratory schools reflect the interest of several disciplines in the growth of the young child.

The British Infant Schools

Developed by Robert Owen in the early 19th century, the British infant schools had a strong commitment to social reform. In Britain, the term infant school refers to the kindergarten and primary grades. In 1967, the Plowden Report proposed a series of reforms for the schools. These changes paralleled those of Owen and mainstream American early education. Three aspects of this open school style that received the most attention were:

· Vertical (or mixed-age) groupings . Children from 5 to 8 years of age are placed in the same classroom. Several teachers may combine their classes and work together in teaching teams. Children may be taught by the same teachers for 2 or 3 years.

· Integrated day . The classroom is organized into various centers for math, science, and the arts. The teacher moves from one child or center to another as needed. Play is often the central activity, with an emphasis on follow-through with children’s ideas and interests as they arise.

· Thinking over facts . There is an underlying concept that the process of thinking takes precedence over the accumulation of facts. Learning how to think rather than stockpiling data is encouraged. How to identify and solve problems is valued more than having a finished product. Teachers focus on the child’s current learning rather than on the future.

On-campus schools have a legacy from the Child Study movement of the early-to mid-20th century, where students can learn in a laboratory setting.

The infant school model of mixed-age range is used widely in early learning centers and school-age programs in Europe and the United States, while American elementary schools and those in China still hold primarily to the one-year/one-grade model.

Reggio Emilia

In the last part of the 20th century up to the present, another educator and his educational system influenced early childhood learning. Loris Malaguzzi (1920–1994) developed his theory of early childhood education from his work with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers while working as the founder and director of early education in the town of Reggio Emilia, Italy. His philosophy includes creating “an amiable school” (Malaguzzi, 1993) that welcomes families and the community and invites relationships among teachers, children, and parents to intensify and deepen to strengthen a child’s sense of identity. Malaguzzi continually asked teachers to question their own practices and listen to the children, as can be seen in a letter from him (Gandini, 1994) excerpted here:

My thesis is that if we do not learn to listen to children, it will be difficult to learn the art of staying and conversing with them.… It will also be difficult, perhaps impossible, to understand how and why children think and speak; to understand what they do, ask, plan, theorize, or desire.… Furthermore, what are the consequences of not listening?… We adults lose the capacity to marvel, to be surprised, to reflect, to be merry, and to take pleasure in children’s words and actions.

Reggio Emilia has attracted the attention and interest of American educators because of its respect for children’s work and creativity, its project approach, and its total community support. Its focus on child self-expression and the emergent curriculum model are discussed in Chapter 10 and used as a basis for the curriculum covered in Chapters 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 .

1-2gPsychology

The roots of early childhood education are wonderfully diverse, but one taproot is especially deep: the connection with the field of psychology. In this century particularly, the study of people and their behavior is linked with the study of children and their growth.

Initially, child development was mostly confined to the study of trends and descriptions of changes. Then, the scope and definition of child development began to change. Psychodynamic theories of Freud and Erikson were contrasted by behaviorist theories of John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner and by the cognitive theories of Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth studied attachment, Lawrence Kohlberg and Nancy Eisenberg moral development, and Michael Maccoby and Carol Gilligan gender differences.

Developmental psychologists now study the processes associated with those changes. Specifically, child development focuses on language acquisition, the effect of early experiences on intellectual development, the process of attachment to others, and how neuroscience discoveries reveal developmental processes. Such is the world of early childhood—it is no wonder that we are so closely tied to the world of psychology, as discussed in depth in Chapter 4 .

1-3Themes in Early Childhood Education

When we review the colorful and rich history of early childhood education, four major themes emerge. Each is reflected in the many influences on early childhood education.

1-3aEthic of Social Reform

The first theme, the ethic of social reform , expects that schooling for young children leads to social change and improvement. Montessori, Owen, the McMillans, Smith Hill, Eliot, and the Head Start and High/Scope programs all tried to improve children’s health and physical well-being by attending first to the physical and social welfare aspects of children’s lives. Recent examples include Marian Wright Edelman, Louise Derman Sparks, Robert Coles, and Jonathan Kozol. Organizations such as the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Annie E. Casey Foundation, NAEYC, and state advocacy groups illustrate how important this theme is to this work.

Edelman in particular is an outstanding children’s advocate. A graduate of Spelman College and Yale Law School, Edelman began her career as a civil rights lawyer. (She was the first black woman to be admitted to the Mississippi state bar.) By the 1960s, she had dedicated herself to the battle against poverty, moving to Washington, D.C., and founding a public-interest law firm that eventually became the Children’s Defense Fund (CDF). CDF has become the strongest voice for children and families in the United States (see Figure 1-6 ). The author of several books, including Families in Peril, The Measure of Our Success, and The Sea Is So Wide and My Boat Is So Small, Edelman advocates for equity in social reform:

[We] seek to ensure that no child is left behind and that every child has a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life with the support of caring families and communities (Edelman, 2006).

Figure 1-6

The CDF, led by Marian Wright Edelman, has successfully advocated for children with research and persistence for more than three decades.

CDF: Child Advocacy as Social Reform in the United States

· 1975

Assisted in passing the Education for All Handicapped Children Act

· 1979

Blocked attempts to eliminate $200 million for social services

· 1980

Supported Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act

· 1982

Helped forward the Children’s Mental Health Program

· 1990

Supported Act for Better Child Care (Child Care and Development Block Grant)

· 1994

Reauthorized Head Start with quality improvements

· 1997

Promoted Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)

· 2001

Expanded Child Care Tax Credit

· 2002

Food stamp provisions preserved

· 2003

Preserved CHIP funding to all states

· 2007

Evaluated the CDF freedom schools and summer enrichment programs, found that children score higher on standardized reading achievement tests.

· 2008

Published its annual State of America’s Children report, which says that the United States lags behind nearly all industrialized nations in key child indicators.

· 2010

Established its online research library, using data from a wide range of sources, primarily federal data systems such as the Bureaus of the Census and of Labor Statistics, and from nonprofit and educational entities such as the Kaiser Family Foundations and National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies.

· 2014

Marian Wright Edelman delivers an address concerning events and jury decisions regarding the police killings of black men and boys, and calls for the need for justice and progress with systemic racial problems

This reform work is being continued by her son, Jonah, who now organizes the annual Washington, D.C., rally “Stand for Children.”

Sparks, in collaboration with Dr. Betty Jones, the Anti-Bias Task Force of Pacific Oaks, and Julia Olsen Edwards of Cabrillo College, has published several books and countless articles about anti-bias education. These works outline several areas in which children’s behavior is influenced by biases in our society and suggests a host of ways that teachers (and parents) can begin addressing these issues. These professionals have added an important dimension to the notion of social reform, for they focus attention on ourselves, the school environment, children’s interactions, and the community of parents and colleagues in educational settings.

Brain Research Says …

What Is Neuroscience, and why Should We Care?

When the field of psychology began to develop in the 1800s, new questions began to surface about the brain and the mind. Freud’s ideas about the subconscious mind, Piaget’s concepts of the thinking mind, and behaviorists’ work on changing thoughts and attitudes via shaping behavior all led to the emergence of cognitive science in the late 1980s. A landmark report by the National Academy of Sciences entitled From Neurons to Neighborhoods: The Science of Early Childhood Development (Shonkoff & Phillips, 2000) joined early childhood education with neuroscience. Since then, the development and availability of brain-imaging techniques provide glimpses of brain activity as an individual thinks and feels.

We are now in what might be called the “century of the brain.” If the human brain is like the hardware of a computer, the mind may be seen as the software. Further, this software changes as it is used; people assign different meaning to the inputs and outputs of things. Brain structures can now be mapped on a matrix. The work of cognitive neuropsychologists allows us to link specific regions of the brain with specific cognitive processes such as verbal and memory skills, attention, emotional responding, and motor coordination. Experimental techniques used on animals (which could not be ethically used with humans) have revealed the brain regions that connect with psychological processes. Combining computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), technologies developed during the late 20th century, with the more recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron emission topography (PET) allows us to determine the location of tumors or lesions, as well as study the genetic basis of differences (Byrnes, 2001; Ansari & Coch, 2006).

The new frontier of neuroscience is showing us the remarkable plasticity of the brain, as well as the critical nature of the early years. “Early experiences determine whether a child’s developing brain architecture provides a strong or weak foundation for all future learning, behavior and health” (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2007). Neuroscience and education create an ideal partnership in outlining a better understanding of how we learn so we can create more effective teaching methods and curriculum (Carew & Magsamen, 2010); Dubinsky, Roehrig, & Verna, 2013). Hand in hand with child development research and early education practitioners, we can address questions about why you—and society—must invest in young children.

Questions

1. If this is the “century of the brain,” what do you think will change in educational practices?

2. What do you think parents should know about brain development in the first 5 years of a child’s life?

3. What would “investing in young children” look like in your community? In your state?

Social reform also has been championed by educators and citizens beyond early childhood education. Poverty and disparate school quality lead the list. Robert Coles, a psychiatrist and educator, has written and lectured extensively about his observations and work with children of poverty and is best known for Children of Crisis: A Study of Courage and Fear (1971). Kozol has spoken extensively about segregation in the schools, most notably in his books Letters to a Young Teacher (2007) and Savage Inequalities: Children in America’s Schools (1991), in which he writes:

Surely there is enough for everyone in this country. It is a tragedy that these good things are not more widely shared. All our children ought to be allowed a stake in the enormous richness of America. Whether they were born to poor white Appalachians or to wealthy Texans, to poor black people in the Bronx or to rich people in Manhasset or Winnetka, they are all quite wonderful and innocent when they are small. We soil them needlessly.

In the United States, three national organizations advocate for the well-being of children, families, and teachers. First, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, founded in 1948, is one of the largest private foundations in the United States and is based on helping vulnerable kids and families succeed. Their research assists agencies to create funding mechanisms to provide early educational experiences for all children. Second, the SPLC, incorporated in 1971 and led by Morris Dees, works tirelessly to fight hate and bigotry and seek justice at all levels. The publication Teaching Tolerance and SPLC’s many resources for educators assist teachers from preschool through high school.

Last but certainly not least, comes the NAEYC. Founded originally by Patty Smith Hill as the National Association of Nursery Educators (NANE), NAEYC is the world’s largest organization working on behalf of young children from birth through age 8. It promotes high-quality early learning through written policies and position statements; standards of professional practice and programs, including the establishment of DAP; and the publication of research and practices, including the journals Young Children, Teaching Young Children, Voices of Practitioners (online), and Early Childhood Research Quarterly (sponsor). Each chapter opens with connections to both its professional development and ethical conduct, and the correlation chart on the inside cover of this book is based on NAEYC Professional Preparation Standards.

Individual state and local organizations are working to advocate on behalf of early education. In California, for instance, Children Now is a nonpartisan, umbrella organization that is leading the Children’s Movement to advocate for a “pro-kid agenda” in health, education, services, and welfare. Early Edge began in the early 2000s to focus in increasing access to high-quality programs, and now has an expanded early learning agenda for children from birth to the third grade.

Reform of society includes educational reform. Currently in the United States, there is a drive toward standards-based education. At the elementary level, movements such as No Child Left Behind and Common Core State Standards are based on the idea that quality education can be defined so as to close the achievement gap. In early learning, Race to the Top and School Readiness/Transitional Kindergarten initiatives are defining quality indicators for programs and certification for teachers.

Public policy is being shaped with early childhood education in mind. It needs the full participation and guidance of professionals and organizations at every level. Check your state and area for local and national efforts that promote goals important for children’s success in life and school and teachers’ success in providing quality education. Educators today still assert that neglected, undernourished children are not ready to learn, impoverished families in underserved communities are stretched too thin, and poorly paid teachers in underresourced programs cannot educate children well. Reform in society and education can go further as described in Chapter 15 .

1-3bImportance of Childhood

The second theme is the importance and uniqueness of childhood . In fact, the entire concept of the child as a special part of human existence and, therefore, a valuable part of the life cycle rests on this theme.

The saying “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree” could apply to all children and their early childhood learning experiences, as well as to an individual child. When people accepted the importance of childhood, they began to take responsibility for a quality life for children. From Comenius, Rousseau, and Froebel of earlier centuries through Neill and the Child Study Movement of the 1900s, and into today’s busy and stressful world, society began to provide for the health and physical welfare of children and come to understand the necessity to care for their minds. Reflecting on public thinking about childhood over the past four centuries reveals these patterns (Mintz, 2004):

· Premodern childhood (through the 17th century) Children as adults in training

· Modern childhood (the 18th–20th centuries) Children as innocent and fragile creatures

· Postmodern childhood (the late 20th to 21st centuries) Children as participants in and consumers of culture and everyday life

As we look at contemporary society, childhood can be robbed through abuse and neglect, and it can be superseded by an overemphasis on the acquisition of consumer products or the use of technological devices as substitutes for interaction and loving relationships. It can be threatened by the stresses of poverty, divorce, work priorities, or worries.

We believe that the early years form the foundation for later development physically, intellectually, socially, and emotionally. This viewpoint takes a holistic approach; that is, all developmental areas of a child matter and blend together to form a complete child. Even as we teachers outline the separate developmental domains, we must take into account the whole child, for each part influences the whole. Current trends that support this theme are DAP and the contexts of culture and family that we are becoming familiar with in our global community (see both the “ DAP ” and “ Diversity ” features in every chapter). Children come to us with a genetic history and from families that belong to and identify with a range of racial, ethnic, cultural, language, and socioeconomic groups.

Childhood is a special time of life.

Moreover, early childhood educators believe that play is essential to children’s development. Of increasing concern to childhood advocates is the pushing of children toward adulthood too fast and away from childhood too quickly. Spurred by the advent of technology and social media and the rush to academic content, young children are pushed unnecessarily out of a relaxed childhood by a fast-paced society whose pressure to succeed puts children of all ages at risk. The classic comments of David Elkind (1982) still ring true today:

We should appreciate the value of childhood with its special joys, sorrows, worries, and concerns. Valuing childhood does not mean seeing it as a happy, innocent period but rather as an important period of life to which children are entitled. They have a right to be children, to enjoy the pleasures and to suffer the trials of childhood that are infringed upon by hurrying. Childhood is the most basic human right of children.

Children need special attention during these years. Childhood is fundamentally different from adulthood; it needs to be understood and respected as such. Children’s styles of learning, of letting the child “learn by doing” and “learn by discovery,” are part of the essential respect for children and childhood. Public recognition of that need has created a wealth of programs for the young not dreamed of at any other time in history. Chapter 15 will examine current issues of childhood and family stresses and offer ideas to relieve the pressures that might crush childhood as we value it.

1-3cTransmitting Values

The third recurrent theme in our educational heritage is that of transmitting values . What children should ultimately do and be is at the core of all child-rearing practices, whether in the home or the school. Values—whether social, cultural, moral, or religious—have been the essence of education for centuries.

· Puritan fathers valued biblical theology, so schools of their time taught children to read the Bible.

· Rousseau and Froebel valued childhood, so they created special places for children to express their innate goodness and uniqueness.

· The works of Montessori, Dewey, and Steiner reflected a belief in the worth and dignity of childhood.

· Ziegler of Head Start and Derman-Sparks of the Anti-Bias Curriculum realized that the child’s self-worth would be enhanced by valuing one’s culture or origin.

These educators all transmitted their values into the educational practices we have inherited.

Many issues clamor for our attention. Information overload threatens to drive us to distraction and inertia. “People are so overwhelmed,” wrote Brazelton and Greenspan (2001). “While they’re whirling around, they don’t have time to stop and think, ‘What are my values? Do my children really come first? Am I making time for them in my life?’” Many young families today are aware of this situation and are looking for spiritual and moral direction for themselves and their children, including from public programs, schools, and their teachers.

Children learn what they live. Valuing and connecting children’s home culture with an early childhood program is challenging. Successful teaching practices must reflect teaching practices at home in substantial ways; blending basic life skills, ethics, culture, and traditions builds substance in our children and in our society. This teamwork is possible if (and this is a big if) adults can find a way to honor diversity and still form a cohesive culture. “An ability to reach unity in diversity will be the beauty and test of our civilization,” said Mahatma Gandhi. It is our ethical responsibility to articulate our values as educators and to include those of the families we teach.

Early educational experiences transmit society’s values to children.

Teaching children to live in a democratic society has always been valued in the United States. In the curriculum from early education through college, this belief is reflected as we educate our children for citizenship. Being an early childhood educator provides you with the opportunity to be an agent for social change—to actually translate the values of democracy into practice.

In the 21st century, this includes addressing issues of social diversity head on. This will include multicultural/bilingual approaches, educational practices that include equitable treatment of gender/sexuality and special needs, and the pervasive presence of media. Successful teaching practices include the process of defining our values and working on how we teach them; both are critical issues in education, and they will be explored in Chapter 15 .

1-3dProfessionalism

The fourth recurrent theme is professionalism . “If you are thinking about working with young children as a career, perhaps you are wondering how early childhood education compares in prestige and importance with elementary or secondary education,” wrote Stanford’s Edith Dowley (1985). As one of the original head teachers of the Kaiser Child Care Centers, Dowley had seen many changes in her nearly half-century in the field: “Is it truly a profession for growth and change? Can a student preparing to work with young children today look forward to a challenging, intellectually stimulating, and rewarding future in an early childhood profession?”

If you have read this chapter up to this point, then you already know the answer. The early years are a special time of life, and those who work with young children can openly declare their calling. There are four aspects of this sense of professionalism:

· Sense of identity Early childhood professionals see themselves as caregivers who strive to educate the whole child, taking into consideration the body, the mind, and the heart and soul (see Chapter 3 and Chapters 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 and 14 ).

· Purpose to engage in DAP What constitutes quality care and education calls for blending three knowledge bases:

· Child development and learning

· The strengths, interests, and needs of each child

· The social and cultural contexts in which children live

See the DAP and Brain Boxes in each chapter, and the discussion of Early Learning Standards in Chapter 15 .

DAP

Making Good Teaching a Professional Enterprise

As you look to making teaching your profession, you need to be familiar with developmentally appropriate practices (DAP). The foundation of good teaching for young children is based in engaging in practices, regardless of the setting, that are appropriate to the children in front of you. A blend of the familiar and the novel, with the challenges of meaningful and relevant experiences that are full of play and focus, helps all children grow and learn.

At the same time, making this a profession includes articulating what DAP is and ensuring that the public understands and endorses these priorities. The Save Our Schools March on Washington, D.C., held in the summer of 2011, was an event that did just that. Luminaries such as Jonathan Kozol, Diane Ravitch, and Matt Damon spoke on behalf of teachers. “Teachers are my heroes,” stated Kozol. “I always feel safe in a group of teachers.” Ravitch added, “We join together—parents, students, school leaders, teachers—to insist that the public schools are the public trust.… [E]ducation is a right, not a race.… Our goal is to prepare all children to be winners in their own lives.”

To inspire is part of a teacher’s commitment to DAP, as Damon’s comments point out [ www.washingtonpost.com (2011)]:

I was raised by a teacher. My mother is a professor of early childhood education. And from the time I went to kindergarten through my senior year in high school, I went to public schools. I wouldn’t trade that education and experience for anything.

I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself—my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity—all come from how I was parented and taught…

But it’s more than that. My teachers were EMPOWERED to teach me. Their time wasn’t taken up with a bunch of test prep—this silly drill-and-kill nonsense that any serious person knows doesn’t promote real learning. No, my teachers were free to approach me and every other kid in that classroom like an individual puzzle. They took so much care in figuring out who we were and how to best make the lessons resonate with each of us. They were empowered to unlock our potential. They were allowed to be teachers.

Making good teaching a professional enterprise asks you to speak out about what YOU know is good for children.

· Commitment to ethical teaching and to child advocacy Being a professional means behaving with a child’s best interests in mind, keeping confidentiality when discussing issues in the classroom and about families, upholding a code of ethics, and taking one’s self and work seriously. (See Chapter 5 , the Code of Ethical Conduct references and Diversity boxes in all chapters, and both the “ Ethic of Social Reform ” and “ Importance of Childhood ” themes in Chapter 15 .)

· Participation in the work as a legitimate livelihood Early childhood education is more than glorified babysitting; the people who provide care and education to young children deserve wages and working conditions that are worthy of their efforts. The Center for the Study of Child Care Employment, led by Marcy Whitebook, is attempting to both define and highlight the issues of labor and employment of early childhood workers as a profession (see the “ Teaching with Intention ” box and “ Professionalism ” theme in Chapter 15 ).

Since the onset of the 21st century, the boundaries of the profession have changed rather dramatically for teachers. As children spend more of their early lives in educational settings, the role of the teacher has expanded. Aside from the traditional roles that teachers have assumed, they are now expected to serve as curriculum specialists, diagnosticians, health care providers, family counselors, adult educators, program managers, child development experts, child advocates, mental health specialists, nutrition specialists, and many other functions too numerous to list. At the same time, the teaching profession is confronting new notions of pedagogy and more intense scrutiny by professional groups. With the focus on standards, readiness initiatives, assessment, and other forms of accountability, the field of early education is truly being reinvented (Cruz, 2008). The challenges we face in meeting our professional obligations are considerable.

So where do we go from here? We have professional organizations to guide us (see Figure 1-7 ). These organizations have made improvements in the status of children, and they have begun to outline standards and practices for the people who call themselves “early childhood professionals.”

Figure 1-7

Documents that promote professionalism in early childhood education.

Guides to the Early Childhood Profession

Document	Goal	Source/Access
Code of Ethical Conduct	Provide a moral compass for early childhood educators	Feeney & Freeman (1999), Feeney (2011), Appendix A of this book
DAP	Provide guidance about current understandings, values, and goals for working with children in group settings	Copple & Bredekamp (2010), Chapters 2 , 4 , 5 , 9 , and 10 of this book
Program Accreditation Criteria and Procedures	Establish recommended standards for practice, serving as benchmarks	NAEYC Academy (2006), Chapters 2 and 15 of this book
Early Childhood Professional Preparation	Guidelines for teacher education	NAEYC Standards for Professional Preparation Programs (2009), CA ECE Competencies (2011), Chapters 5 , 6 , 7 and 8 of this book

Enlarge Table

Professional Resource Download

These four themes—an ethic of social reform, the importance of childhood, the transmission of values, and professionalism of the field—have been at the center of early education for centuries. Occasionally one theme dominates, as it did in the 1960s when the desire for social reform led to the creation of Head Start. At other times, they seem indistinguishable from one another. Together, they have shaped the direction of early childhood education as we know it today. As we learn more about children, society, and ourselves, now is the time to reconsider and redefine our aims and directions. It is a formidable challenge—and one for us to meet in flexible, innovative ways.

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