The philosophical foundations of early childhood education
and care were built by three men Comenius, Locke,
and Rousseau. Let's examine their contributions in turn.
John Amos Comenius (1592-1670) was a Czech
philosopher. He is regarded as the forerunner of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and
Froebel who you will hear about a little later on. His contribution to the
philosophy of early childhood education related to innovation in pedagogy. He
suggested that human life- from the womb to the grave was a series of
educational stages in which objects from nature would serve as the basis of
learning. He believed that by studying things as they existed in reality, you
could understand how they came about. This situates him as the first proponent
of experiential learning.
Comenius also believed in universal education and felt that
all children, whether male of female, rich or poor, gifted or mentally
challenged were entitled to an education. He regretted that, in his day, only a
privileged few received formal schooling.
A painting of Comenius by Rembrandt
John Locke, a British philosopher (1632-1704),
theorised that children are born as "blank slates" ie they do not
have an innate sense of things but are ready to learn whatever is offered to
them. For example, he argued a child will not instinctively realise that the
sun rises and sets each day unless they are taught that fact. A similar analogy
is a jug full of milk (the teacher holds the knowledge) and an empty cup (the
child is bereft of knowledge). In this view it is the teacher's role to fill
the cup of knowledge.
Locke believed that during the formative years, all of a
child's experiences form and shape their personality and nature. Whilst others
believe a child's nature is something he/she is born with, Lock believed that
nature is determined by experience and shaped by life experiences and perceptions
of these experiences.
A painting of Locke, National Portrait Gallery,
London.
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 -1788) was a western
philosopher (born in Switzerland). He set out his views on education in a book
that he wrote entitled Emile. He was a naturalist and believed that the child
should be allowed to grow close to nature and be given the right to think in
his/her own way. He said that a child's education comes from nature, from men
and from things. He did not think the child should be forced to do things. He
saw a child, not as a small adult, but as a child, and stressed that childhood
was a crucial period in life. He discussed children's development in three
stages: birth to 12 years, 12-16 years, and 15 years to adulthood. This was
quite a shift in thinking, as at this time children were seen as small adults,
able to work and contribute to the family (remember the plight of children
working in Britain). By establishing childhood as a stage in life, Rousseau
gave children their rightful place. He is remembered at the liberator of the
child.
Kamerman (2006, p.10) in a report to UNESCO on education for
all, commented that ECEC policies and programs in Europe and the Anglo-American
countries evolved out of remarkably similar historical streams; child
protection; early childhood education; services for children with special
needs; and services to facilitate mothers’ labor force participation. In the
countries reviewed [Britain, France, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, United
States], one overarching theme is the movement from private charity, beginning
in the early and middle 19th century to public responsibility, evolving largely
after World War II. She found that the extent of public responsibility varies,
however, across the countries. with a relative emphasis given in public policy
to custodial care of poor and disadvantaged children of working mothers, on the
one hand, and education and socialization of all children, on the other.
THE ESTABLISHMENT OF KINDERGARTEN
The following excerpt on the history and development of
Kindergarten is taken from The Wisdom of Play by David Elkind et al.
(2009, p. 4).
The methodology and curriculum that
underpins kindergarten were created by educators such as Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi, Friedrich Froebel, Maria Montessori, and Rudolf Steiner. More
recently kindergarten has been informed by the research and theories of Sigmund
Freud, Jean Piaget, and Erik Erikson. While there are differences in the
approaches of these early childhood educators, they all had once clear
message: that early childhood curriculum and practice must be adapted to
the maturing needs, abilities, and interests of the child (Elkind, 2009).
This was the principle embodied in the
Kindergarten Program, developed by Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) and
the first early childhood program to be widely adopted in both Europe and
abroad. The kindergarten movement was propelled by the industrial revolution
and the introduction of women into the factory labor force. Later, Maria
Montessori’s (1870-1952) early childhood program was also widely
adopted both in Europe and abroad. But it was not until after WWII that early
childhood education came to be seen as an important first step on the
educational ladder.
In America, the Head Start Program, launched in the
1960s for low-income children, had an unintended consequence. Although it was
very effective, the title gave parents the impression that education was a
race, and that the earlier you start, the earlier and better you finish.
Middle-income parents wanted their preschoolers to have a head start as well.
This gave added emphasis to the importance of early childhood education as the
answer to improving the educational system.
As a consequence, kindergarten, once a half-day
affair required by only 40 percent of US states, has become largely a full-day
affair required nationwide. Academics, including math and reading curricula,
testing and grades, are now the norm in many schools. Programs for younger
children have expanded as well. Today, some 80 percent of children under the
age of six spend part or full time in non-parental child care settings. Having
your child cared for outside of the home, once looked down upon as an
abrogation of a mother’s maternal instinct, is now a socially accepted
practice. Indeed, those parents who choose not to put their children in
out-of-home settings are the ones perceived as insufficiently concerned with
their child’s welfare.
With the rapid expansion and acceptance of early
childhood programs, the basic principle of early childhood education, supported
by an overwhelming amount of contemporary research and classroom experience, is
dismissed as irrelevant. Instead, we have had a politically and commercially
driven effort to make early childhood education “the new first grade.” A
play-based curriculum is best suited to meet the emerging needs, abilities, and
interests of young children. We have come too far from where early education
began: with the child.
