Early Childhood Timeline: Pioneers, Theories and Practices

1592-1670Johann Amos Comenius Czechoslovakian bishop, teacher and educational theorist. Believed in universal education and equality of all people. Stressed the
importance of education for young children and advocated learning by doing and lifelong learning. May have been the first to advocate learning through play.

1636 Harvard University established

1712-1778 Jean-Jacques Rousseau French philosopher, writer and social theorist. Believed all children were born good and spoiled by civilization. Children’s innate goodness will flower when people are raised out of contact with corrupt society. He believed education should begin at birth and continue into adulthood. He envisioned children learning through their own natural, undirected play, free of adult interference in the natural growth process by allowing for the interests and spontaneous activities of children.

1746-1827Johann H. Pestalozzi A Swiss educational reformer. Devoted life to education
of orphans and poor. Set up schools for orphans and poor children. Rejected learning by memorizing and advocated sensory exploration and observation. He believed that education could help to awaken the potential of each child and could thereby lead to social reform. He wrote that the first year of life was the most important in the child’s development. He emphasized human relationships.

1783-1852 Friedrich Froebel German who studied under Pestalozzi. Education is life for the child not merely a preparation for adulthood. Child is a social being and activity, play is the basis for knowing. Father of modern kindergarten (children’s garden). Activities included blocks, yarn balls, wooden tablets natural objects, geometric shapes, stringing beads, molding, cutting, and folding. Started an institute to train kindergarten teachers. Educators from Europe and America studied with him and then returned to their homes to begin kindergartens. Two women he trained, Elizabeth Peabody and Susan Blow, came to America and established kindergartens.

1859-1952 John Dewey Lab school at University of Chicago. His integrated curriculum was effective at teaching children who learn in the here and now. He is known as the Father of Progressive Education.

1860 The concept for public education became a reality, spurned on by educators who viewed education as a public responsibility Horace Mann, Samuel Lewis and Henry Barnard

1870-1952 Maria Montessori She was the first woman doctor in Italy. She worked with children with disabilities or mental illness in Rome. Her objective was to break tasks down in pieces for them to be successful in their environment of which she designed to their scale.

1873 William T. Harris and Susan Blow incorporated the first kindergarten in public school system

1873 Elizabeth Palmer Peabody founded the first English-speaking kindergarten in Boston in 1860. After studying with Froebel’s disciples in Germany, she founded the first kindergarten training program in the United States. She was very influential in winning public support for kindergartens and the first publicly supported kindergarten opened in St. Louis in 1873. This was followed by rapid expansion for the kindergarten movement between 1880 and 1900.

1874 YWCA organized

1896-1980 Jean Piaget (Cognitive-Developmental theorist). Piaget developed the Stages of Cognitive Development to describe behaviors children exhibit during certain age ranges. Through this perspective learning is a combination of mental processes. Assimilation is how a child files new input on her/his preexisting knowledge base and Accomodation is what a child does to her/his knowledge base when taking in new information to make sense out of the new and differing stimulus. As humans grow, they learn through different cognitive stages of thinking, from the Sensorimotor (0-18 mths), to Pre-operational (18ths- 6/7 yrs), to Concrete operational (6/7 yrs- 12 yrs) to Formal operational (12 to adulthood).

1896-1934Lev Vygotsky (Socio-Cultural theorist). A writer born in the Soviet Union that
developed a theory based on cultural and social dynamics surrounding an individuals learning. Vygotsky believed children’s intellectual abilities could be guided using scaffolding; a technique for teachers/parents to aid in a child’s problem solving. He also believed that during certain critical periods parents/teachers help children to learn by giving hints or using questions to problem solve, a technique known as the zone of proximal development.

1878-1958 John B. Watson (Behaviorist theorist) Behaviorist believe children are a “blank slate” onto which their environmental experiences write. They believe all learning and development is acquired from exposure to and conditioning from the environment. Classical conditioning shapes behavior over a period of time by coupling a neutral stimulus with a positive or negative stimulus. This perspective puts the responsibility of learning squarely on the parents/teachers as being purposeful instructors.

1885 Dept of Kindergarten Instruction established in NEA

1888 National Conference of Corrections and charities advocated the use of foster families rather than institutionalizing them in almshouses or other housing methods.

1885 The first playground was developed called the Boston Sand Garden due to a playground and recreation movement for urban/working children to spend their time and prevent juvenile delinquency.

1892 Day nurseries were established to supervise poor children of working families too young to attend kindergarten. These types of establishments were in homes and were created by philanthropic/religious groups or institutions

1894 John Dewey became professor at the University of Chicago and implemented curriculum to meet the experiences and need of children to move beyond the Euro-dominated teaching and work from the philosophy of education for all.

1904 The National Child Labor committee was founded

1906 The Playground Association of America organized in Washington D.C

1911 Arnold Gesell (1880-1961) (Maturationist Theory). Gesell developed the first “normative charts” predicting physical developmental milestones at certain ages. Gesell believed that as children mature they exhibited certain behaviors in the areas of social, physical, personality and intellectual development. Gesell believed genetics and maturation lead to developmental milestones identifying a child’s readiness for learning.

1912 The Children’s Bureau provided national leadership in opposing child labor

1913 The Children’s Bureau published a booklet called Prenatal Care. It’s first edition emphasizing the health of mothers with children was called Infant Care

1916 Harriet Johnson (organized the Bureau of Education Experiments in 1916 known today as Bank Street College of Education) as an agency for research on child development.

1916 The Keatings-Owen Act was passed by congress as the first federal child labor law declared unconstitutional two years later.

1921 Julia Lathrop established a federal-state program for maternal and infant health called the Sheppard-Towner Act.

1922 Abigail Adams Eliot - opened and directed the Ruggles Street Nursery School in 1922 and Training Center in 1922 in Roxburry, MA.

1924 The Exclusion Act hampered Asian immigrants from coming into America

1926 Patty Smith Hill - established a nursery school and training center at Columbia Teacher’s College in New York City. She also founded the National Association for Nursery Education NANE) in 1926. This organization eventually evolved into NAEYC.

1927 The Julius Rosenwald fund assisted in the construction of 3,769 school buildings in 14 southern states. Black families and their children were soliciting funds and White land owners contributed because of the concern of losing Black tenants, laborers, and sharecroppers and domestic servants to the Northern migration.

1929 The National Association for Nursery Education organized by nursery school educators (NANE) focusing on the needs of nursery school children and their teachers.

1931 The International Kindergarten Union (IKU) and the National Council of Primary Education joined forces to support kindergarten and primary grades in public schools. Many educators were members in both associations helping to unify goals and focus on the needs of young children. The IKU and the National Council of Primary Education merged to become the Association for Childhood Education (ACE).

1935 Under the Work Progress Administration (WPA) umbrella the Division in Education Projects implemented the nursery school program in colleges, universities, and normal schools.

1935 Social Security Act (Title IV) passed with Aid to Dependent Families (AFDC)

1938 The Fair Labor Standards Act finally established national minimum standards for child labor that were enforceable setting the minimum age for employment at 16 and identifying 18 occupations too hazardous for children under 16.

1964 NANE became the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC). NAEYC is major influence for daycare related issues and in the field of early childhood education.

1964 The War of Poverty was declared and came with the passage of the Economic Opportunity Act. Head Start, Job Corps and Neighborhood Youth Corps were funded through this initiative, providing more opportunities for a better life.

1964 The Civil Rights Act passed

1965 The Voting Rights Act finally banned literacy tests used to keep Blacks from registering to vote.

1965 Head Start became a reality under Lyndon Johnson’s presidency.

1974 The Bilingual Education Act provided funds for non-English speaking low-income children in public schools to provide programs for quality education.

1974 The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act enabled administration to compile information related to violent treatment, misuse/abuse/neglect on children and in establishing programs to identify, target and prevent this national phenomena affecting all socio-economic areas.