BUILDING ON A TRADITION OF
EXCELLENCE
CHAPER TWO
Learning from the past
Progress ~ Spurts ~ Setbacks…
What does this painting tell you about children?
Changing Views of Childhood
 Miniature Adults
 Need of Redemption
 Blank Slates – John Locke
 Innocents - Rousseau
 Economic Value
 Competent Child
 Citizen with Rights
 Product of your own
History
A continuum of influences & ideas
Consider the Beliefs held by each individual and place them on the
continuum of beliefs about children, education, teaching and learning.
Child is…
Education is…
Learning is…
Teaching is…
Child is…
Education is…
Learning
is…Teaching
is…
European Influences
Current practice strongly reflects early influences
John Amos Comenius
 Czech 1592-1670; Minister with his own school
 Three Key Ideas
 Change from punitive to making learning easier, deeper and
more pleasant
 Teacher engage children with nature; follow the child
 Children should learn their own language, not Latin
 Orbis Pictus – first children’s picture book
 Learn through senses; need to be active; developmental
stages; child-centered
Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
JOHANN PESTALOZZI
By: Jaclyn Avdoyan
Antoinette Burns
Brianne Toomey
Erin Hogan
Jamie Jenkins
Who? When? And Where?
 Swiss educator born in Zurich, Switzerland
 Studied theology at the University of Zurich
 In 1769, he lived on his farm where he managed a
school for poor children.
 In 1799 he directed a school at Bergdorf.
 In 1805, he was the director of a boarding school in
Yverdon.
 He described all his philosophies on education in his
book How GertrudeTeaches Her Children.
View of the Child and Learning
 Believed that children need to discover ideas for themselves
through their own activity
 Teachers must guide the child’s learning and nurture it rather
than direct it
 Learning must be done through direct observation and
sensory experience in the natural world
 All children – including children who lived in poverty- could
benefit from education
View of Teaching
 Promotes “whole child” point of view, which he called “the
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hand,heart, and head”
Believed children learned in stages, mastering a skill before
progressing to next stage.
Opposed memorized learning, and replaced it with concrete
learning. Ex. Use of tactile objects
Individuality of each child is IMPORTANT
Children are motivated to learn by their interests, not threats
or punishments
Pestalozzi’s Influence
 Not only did Pestalozzi influence the elementary education
system for Prussia, but also had a great influence on America.
 His book, How Gertrude Teaches Her Children, played a
significant initial influence in that he passed his plans through
into his practice.
 Educators today follow his idea of the ‘reflective practitioner.’
He is focused on observation and reflection; however still
concerned with experimentation and action.
 The teachings of Pestalozzi became effective in immeasurable
school systems.
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)
 Maggie Leggour, Kellie Smith, Jamie
Vanduzer, Noelle Rosen, Chelsea Hunt
•Nicknamed, “The Father
of Kindergarten”
•German
•His ideas spread
throughout Europe
•Basis for kindergartens
in the United States
Froebel’s Beliefs
• Believed in the innate goodness and capacities of children,
and saw God’s image in them
• Teaching should be based on students interests and teachers
should understand there development by observing them
directly
– Observe and nurture without interfering
• Learning is a process of unfolding from within and it should
be done on the child’s own timetable
Froebel’s Gifts
 Used to guide and structure children’s play
 Concrete materials for children to manipulate in specific
ways
 6 wooden balls in the colors of the spectrum
 Cube that divided into 8 smaller cubes
Froebel’s Occupations
 Planned experiences designed to train children’s eye hand
coordination and mental activity
 Drawing on grid paper
 Lacing paper strips
 Weaving mats
 Folding and cutting paper into designs
Froebel’s Influence
 The creation of a large scale kindergarten in the United
States
 Today many of his basic ideas are used in preschools and child
care programs
 His beliefs are still used and recognized over 150 years later
Maria Montessori
By: Amanda O., Katherine B., Phil L., Jaclyn R., and Amanda K.
About Maria
 Born in 1870 – 1952
 Major figure in the history of early
childhood education
 First woman in Italy to receive a medical
degree
 Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
History
Montessori worked with poor children whom many thought
were mentally deficient.
 Believed children were not this way biologically, but rather
because their environment was not set up for them to learn
effectively.
 Created Children’s House in which she educated needy children
to prove how successful they could be early in life.
 Same theory as Head Start used when they began their
program.
Key Elements
 Believed each child had unique potential
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to reveal rather than a “blank state”
Teacher made a Prepared environment for their students
The Montessori Method consisted of dividing the classroom into
centers where students could use materials to work freely
and independently to learn
Focused on making the classroom a natural environment
where she could observe the students and wanted each
student to individually fulfill their potential
Maria Montessori did not have “play-time” scheduled in her
classroom because she felt her method of work was fun
Impact
 Several elements of her approach
remain widely accepted practices
today
 Association Montessori International
(AMI) and the American Montessori
Society (AMS) provide information,
teacher training, and certification
 Lasting contribution to the field was
her development of Montessori
materials and her impact on the
organization of early childhood
environments
Kindergarten Movement
Kindergartens ~ Children’s Garden
 First K –Wisconsin 1856 – Margarethe Schurz
 Elizabeth Peabody- social reformer…first English speaking K
 Susan Blow – expanded K and kept Froebels vision
 First public Kindergarten
 Defended Froebel’s ideas
 Formed the International Kindergarten Union – became
Association for Childhood Education International
Progressive Education
Similarities between Progressivism and
Developmentally Appropriate Practice
John Dewey
(October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952)
• Born in Burlington, Vermont
• John and his two brothers grew up in
a middle-class household.
• American psychologist, philosopher,
educator, social critic and political
activist.
• Received his PhD from Johns
Hopkins University in 1884.
• Also wrote about many other topics,
including experience, nature , art,
“Education is a social process. Education is growth. Education is not a preparation
for life; Education is life itself.”
logic, democracy and ethics.
-John Dewey
Views on Children
 Passive learners = waste of time
 Believed children should determine the curriculum
 Children need to learn by experience
 Engaging in active learning vs. lecture
 Learning is not just obtaining knowledge , but
developing skills, habits and attitudes.
*Passive learners absorb information compared to active learners who
do and become involved*
Views on Teaching & Learning
Teaching
•Social institute-community
•Influence and assist children as they work
together
•Teachers and parents working together
•Social interaction
•Integrated curriculum
•Build on interest
Learning
•Child-Centered curriculum
Interaction
Traditional approach
Good judgment
Influences
 Dewey was influenced by G. Stanley Hall, William James,
George Hegel and many others.
 Influenced by observing his own children at play, and
immigrant English learners
 He has been influencing education for over 100 years and
influenced progressive education in the 1920’s
 Major influence on public education
Nursery School Movement
Based on the philosophy of studying and nurturing
children’s development
Patty Smith Hill
(1868-1946)
 Patty’s father believed that girls should be prepared for a profession; her
mother agreed and also thought that play was essential to childhood.
 These experiences as a child influenced her views of childhood and
education for her entire life.
 Anna Bryan started a teacher training program in Louisville, Kentucky
which Patty was one of the first students.
 She started her own kindergarten where she encouraged children’s play
as a way to learn.
Work as a Kindergarten Teacher
1896: Patty Hill and mentor Anna Bryan studied with G. Stanley
Hall.
Together they developed a new curriculum for teaching young
children.
 Patty Hill believe in the importance of teaching the “whole
child”.
This caused her to value a multidisciplinary approach to the field.
 Included: Physicians, social workers, psychologists, and artists
Patty Hill’s vision for kindergarten
included 3 purposes:
1. “To minister to the nature and needs of children
from 4 to 6 years of age.”
2. To see the relation of K to the first grade curriculum;
lay the foundation that children need “without
sacrificing the right of the kindergarten child to free,
full development on his own level.”
3. To connect kindergarten to the home, reduce the
gap between the two, and build on the learning that
takes place there.
 She feared public school kindergarten would take away
from parent education, as well as push the children away
from early reading, writing, and play.
Other Important Contributions
 Developed resources such as building blocks, songs, poems, and books
to use as fun teaching tools.
 Faculty of Teacher’s College in New York, considered a master teacher.
Served as president of the IKU in 1908. Her report on the content of
curriculum and the role of play became the vision of Kindergarten as we
know it today.
 In 1926, she founded NANE which later changed its name to NAEYC.
She was the first member and her views about early childhood
education dominated the movement during its early years.
Caroline Pratt
 Teacher’s College: play freely and experiment with materials
 I learn from children – Study of children in open-ended settings
 Pretend play
 Self-directed plans
 Field trips
 Solve problems through play
 Unit blocks
 Founded The Play School in NYC Greenwich Village
 City and Country School
Lucy Sprague Mitchell
By: Kara, Alyssa, Jenna, & Jamie
• Prolific writer and authored a series of children’s books.
• Created a writers workshop for authors of children’s books.
•Among the best- known writers who were involved in the workshop
were Margaret Wise Brown (Goodnight Moon,The Runaway Bunny) Ruth
Krauss.
• Instrumental in efforts to expand early childhood education beyond
laboratory schools and use it for true social reform.
• Mitchell lived to see the Bank Street approach used as the model for the
Head Start program, a cornerstone of the war on poverty.
Lucy Sprague Mitchell
By: Kara, Alyssa, Jenna, & Jamie
BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL EXPERIMENTS
• Launched in 1916 to teach teachers and conduct research
• Goals…
1. Focus on child development rather than learning specific curriculum.
2. A whole-child approach to learning and development.
3. Observe how children’s development is stimulated by experiences
and activities.
4. Focus on scientific measurement of stages of development and
establishing norms.
Lucy Sprague Mitchell
By: Kara, Alyssa, Jenna, & Jamie
BANK STREET APPROACH
• Mitchell’s educational philosophy for the Bank Street College, formerly the
Bureau of Educational Experiences.
• Curriculum should be based on individual children’s development
• Learning occurs through interaction with the environment and other
people.
• Children’s experiences in the “here and now” provide the launching pad for
their learning.