Chapter 10The Nursery School MovementCINDY SHELTON

Nursery School of Movement

American Nursery School was outcome

Interest in Pre-Kindergarten education

Resulted from advances in science and social needs

Board of Education Standards for Nursery School

Physical care of children

Mental and social education of children

Administrative details of the institution

Staffing of the institution

Caroline Pratt (1867-1954)

Founder of Play School

Opened in 1914 with six children

Process of getting information is what is important

Child centered

Promote equality between sexes

Liberate creativity

Philosophy was to “study interest and abilities of the growing child as they re manifested , to supply an environment that step by step shall meet the needs of his development, stimulate his activities and orient him in a changing world and that shall at the same time afford him effective experiences in social living.”

Bureau of Educational Experiments

Founded in 1916

Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Caroline Pratt & Harriet Johnson

Conduct research for better data about children’s growth

Bring schools into many aspects of child’s life

Improve education of children

Studied growth in terms of maturity instead of age

Harriet Merrill Johnson (1867-1934)

Studied nursing and health

Research interest was in the whole child

Find environment suited for needs of 2-3 year olds

Analyze physiological and psychological

Pioneer of Nursery School Development

Bureau of Educational Experiments Nursery School (1919)

Work with children in first three years of life

Children need to explore

Play leads to expression

Dramatic play is way of organizing experiences

Teacher role is different and separate from parent

Play leads to social relations

Margaret Naumberg (1890-1983)

Children’s School based on Freudean psychoanalytic theory

Founder of Art Therapy in US

Freud – child is an individual with individual needs and life

Education at service of child instead of child at service of education

Emotional and intellectual side of education

Used art to treat and diagnose disturbed adults and children

Walden School (The Children’s School) (1914)- Nauremberg

Curriculum centered around child’s desires and interests to know, do and be

Children at first move rapidly between activities and as they change, concentration improves and they become self directed

When a child lacks self esteem, security and has fear their ability to learn is diminished

Learn by doing

Parent Cooperative Preschools in US (1915,1916)

Children AND Parents

Believed parents want to be involved

Unique to US and disagreement about which was first school

These schools spread throughout US

Organized by parents

Parents are trying to meet needs of their own children

Professional guidance from educators

Parent Cooperative Contributions

Many contributions to Head Start made by parent cooperatives

Parent participation

Volunteers

Use of paraprofessionals

Inclusion of underprivileged

Over 80 year period has made contributions

What parents can do for themselves and children, early childhood education and the world

Bird T Baldwin (1875-1928)

Relation between physical and mental growth

Physiological development comes before mental

Basic nature and attributes developed by time start school and that leads to importance of early education

Importance of social development and personality

Iowa Child Welfare Research Station (1921) Designed for work in “eugenics” – socialization into proper habits of health, diet and

sobriety for the young plus watching out for members of the opposite sex who came the wrong side of the track

Half day program for ages 2-6

Free play, storytelling, music, singing, group conversations

Nursery School of the Iowa State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts at Ames (1924)

Focus on Home Economics

Students spent 20 hours with nursery school children

Nursery school focus on good biological habits (Eating, sleeping, toileting)

Social relationships developed through play

Real life experiences such as gardening, trips to post office, dairy store, farms

Used lunch as a learning opportunity

Parental Involvement

Edna Noble White (1879-1954)

Taught High School and Home Economics at Ohio State

Founding director of Merrill Palmer Motherhood and Home Training School in Detroit to train young women to be mothers and homemakers

Opened Experimental nursery school that was second center for child development research

Physical, mental and emotional development of children needs to be studied at college level

Merrill Palmer Nursery School (1921)

Provide attractive and adequate environment for learning

Full day program

Physical and mental exams along with developmental history completed prior to admission

Could start at 18 months and continue through age 5

Two groups of children – one with similar ages and one with all ages

Yearly summaries of growth completed and shared with parents

Arnold Lucius Gesell (1880-1961)

Did not like the numerical methods to assess intelligence of preschool children and shifted to normative studies

Foundation of mental health should be developed in preschool years like physical health

Guidance needs to be early if it is going to be preventative

Gesell & The Preschool Child

Used pictures to show child development and normal development

Saw education in terms of growth and not instruction

Developmental theory

Based on biological method of development

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny = if evolution is to be understood then children have to be observed with as little imposition from external controls as possible

Believed in influence of maturation on child development

Four areas of behavior - Motor, adaptive behavior, language and personal social

Guidance Nursery of the Yale Psycho Clinic (1926)

Organized by Gesell

Observation of & guidance of children and parents

At first only let “problem children” in

Length of attendance based on severity of “problem”

In 1929 began to include “Stable” children with “problem” children

In 1929 stopped accepting “normal” children since they had difficulties comparable to “problem” children

Changed emphasis to analyzing behaviors

All problems needed some individual study including home and parent child relationships

Guidance Nursery of the Yale Psycho Clinic (1926)

Had assortment of toys so child could demonstrate his abilities in independent and social situations

No fixed program of activities & No set lessons

Individualized to student

Teacher did not teach – she guided

Records kept to help with understanding problems of children

Lawrence Kelso Frank (1890-19680

Father of Child Development and Parent Education

Children attended BEE Nursery School & City & Country School

Saw parallels between progressive education and parent education

Advocated for use of funds for child study & to a number of research oriented nursery schools

Known for his impact on his peers more so than his output

Abigail Adams Elliot (1892-1992)

Studied with McMillan's in England

She opened Ruggles Street School but she felt unprepared to do so

Purpose was to provide teacher training and provide service to the neighborhood

Dedicated her entire professional career to nursery school

Thoughts on teacher preparation

Teachers also learn by doing

Teachers develop personally and professionally

Ruggles Street Nursery School & Training Center of Boston (1922-19520

One of the earliest and based off English nursery school

Located in poor area of Boston

Playroom, auxiliary room, carpentry room, isolation room and student’s room

Full day program that ran year round

Schedule was well defined but allowed for flexibility

One of the purposes was to educate parents

James L. Hymes Jr (1913-1998)

Development of good humans makes for a better society

Child development and parent education major

Excellent child care program needs money and trained personnel

Taught at State Teachers College in NY which is first to offer education program for early childhood

“intercultural relations means relations between people”

Training of Nursery School Teachers

Majority trained by Margaret McMillan

1920 beginning of teacher prep programs associated with nursery schools

Nursery laboratory schools used for teacher training

Harriet Johnson said “Teacher needs to first of all see the children”

Johnson believed teacher needs to be able to test her own powers, pursue investigation and try out her own forms of expression

Education was science based

Emergency Nursery Schools

set up by federal government during depression

At the beginning both trained and untrained teachers were used

National Advisory Committee saw a need for a syllabus as a working guide for preparation in the field of nursery education

Led to reforms in Preparation of Early Childhood Educators Systems approach – involve students in their own learning

Stages of development in early education teachers

Survival Stage

Consolidation and Renewal Stage

Maturity Stage