History of Early Childhood Education

V. Celia Lascarides, Blythe F. Hinitz

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781136705533
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Early Childhood Education

History of Early Childhood Education presents a thorough and elegant description of the history of early childhood education in the United States. This book of original research is a concise compendium of historical literature, combining history with the prominent and influential theoretical background of the time. Covering historical threads that reach from ancient Greece and Rome to the early childhood education programs of today, this in-depth and well-written volume captures the deep tradition and the creative knowledge base of early care and education. History of Early Childhood Education is an essential resource for every early childhood education scholar, student, and educator.

Part I
The Beginnings of Early Childhood Education

Chapter 1
Antiquity

For we are lovers of the beautiful, yet simple are our tastes, and we cultivate the mind without loss of manliness.

—The Funeral Oration of Pericles

In antiquity the family was the center of the child’s early education. Education proper, paideia, did not begin until the child was seven and was sent to school. Until then, he was “brought up” at home by women, primarily by his mother, and in well-to-do families also by his “nanny.” She was different from the one who might have nursed the child. Usually a slave stayed with the family until she died and was tenderly regarded by the child. During these early years, the child was introduced into social life, shown how to behave and be well mannered and polite, and given some of moral discipline. The early years were devoted to learning the language and something about his own culture. He was introduced to music by listening to cradle songs, and to literature through his “nanny’s” tales, Aesop’s fables, and the myths and legends of gods and heroes. In addition to parents and nurses, many other adults contributed to child rearing: tutors, “companions” (slaves of the same sex as the child), physicians, academic teachers, athletic trainers, and military instructors. The laws of many city-states in antiquity had substantial provisions regulating the ways children were to be reared. Child rearing was an important sociopolitical aspect. The family was the primary unit of social and economic organization in ancient Greece and Rome. Political life was an extension of the family into the public realm.¹

Several themes have been identified to give cohesiveness to this chapter and to lead the reader from one historical period to the next, to monitor continuity and change, to make comparisons between the past and the present, and to draw some conclusions. The themes are: (1) the importance of children; (2) differentiation between children and adults, stages of development; (3) education: its aim or goal, location, persons responsible for teaching children and content taught; gender differences; and (4) play and its importance.

Sparta and Athens were city-states.² Rome was first a city-state, then a republic, and later an empire. City-states distinguished between citizens and noncitizens. City-states and empires needed different classes of citizens to sustain themselves. In both, only citizens could own land and participate in government.

Ancient Greece

The ancient Greek civilization was influenced by the cultures around it. This fact does not diminish, however, the contributions the Greeks have made. The goal of ancient Greek education was to produce citizens able to take their places in the civic community regardless of the political system. The educational system started from a concept of what form the state ought to have, and it was designed to fit that concept.

Sparta and Athens were chosen because they represent two different ideas about education. The government of the first was totalitarian, of the second democratic. Both have influenced subsequent educational systems throughout the Western world and beyond.³ The eras described were at the height of both communities, having evolved for several hundred years before they reached their pinnacle.

Sparta⁴ (600 B.C.)

Sparta was a settlement of five neighboring unwalled villages in a fertile valley on the banks of the river Eurotas in the southeast Peloponnesus ruled by the Spartans, a small group of conquerors among a large subject population. The land was divided equally among the Spartan citizens. Spartan society was composed of the Spartan citizens, the Helots or state serfs, who were not barbarian slaves who could be sold. They were subjugated Greeks of “sturdy and prolific stock” who were compelled to work the land they did not own and were not allowed to leave. The rising numbers of Helots were a constant threat to the Spartans. The third class in the society was the Perioikoi or “dwellers around.” They were landed gentry, who were allowed to keep their personal freedom and to manage their village governments had to follow the Spartans to war, but did not share Spartan rights. Sparta was an oligarchy, ruled by a council of thirty men, all over the age of sixty, elected for life. No citizen had the right to make proposals to the council. Sparta’s national existence depended on the military excellence of its citizens. Their whole life was organized to this end. The cost of security was the loss of individualism.⁵

Spartan citizens were supported by a hereditary allotment produced for them by the state serfs. The citizens spent their lives hunting, in military exercises, at the yearly festivals, and in their clubs. A Spartan took all his meals at his club and regularly contributed to it a specified amount and type of food produced on his share of the land. In addition to their military training, the chief occupation of the adults was the education of the younger generation. Spartan education was almost identical with Spartan life. It produced individuals completely subject to the state. The Spartan ideal was physical bravery, power, and endurance. Patriotism and sacrifice of the individual to the common welfare were inculcated in the individual throughout life.⁶

Importance of Children/Infanticide

Spartan law was interested in children from birth. Sparta had a highly developed system of eugenics. Every newborn baby had to be inspected by a committee of elders, and if the infant did not meet the Spartan physical standards, it was exposed to die. Sometimes the abandoned infant was lucky and was rescued and raised by the Helots or the Perioikoi.

If the infant was approved, it was taken back home to be brought up by its mother until the age of seven years. During this period, the parents acted as the guardians of the child on behalf of the state. At home, children were taught the epics of Homer: the Iliad and the Odyssey, and other songs of heroic acts. Spartans did not swaddle their infants. They believed that full use of their limbs would make children strong. Spartan parents were not allowed to interfere in their child’s training, even at the earliest stages. Discipline was an important aspect of the children’s education. Mothers or nurses enforced rules that taught the children not to be afraid of the dark, not to be afraid when left alone, and not to have temper tantrums.

The boys went with their fathers to their clubs until they were seven. At the club, they sat on the floor near their fathers and learned how to play with their peers and how to engage in rough playing without flinching. Any adult could stop the game if it became too rough. The boys were introduced into the Spartan way of life by seeing the hardships their fathers endured and by listening to their discussions.⁷

Differentiation between Children and Adults/Stages of Development

The Spartans acknowledged that children develop through several stages and are different from adults. They divided these stages into two segments: the preschool years, from birth to seven; and the years of formal education, from seven to twenty. When a boy reached seven years, the state took him over and he was state property until the day he died.

According to Marrou,⁸ the years from eight to twenty were divided into: the little boy (8–11 years), the adolescent (12–15 years), and the ephebe (16–20 years). Each stage was divided into substages and named individually.⁹

Education of Boys

When the boys became seven years old, they left their homes and went to live in the barracks or boarding schools for a collective education. Early in their lives, future Spartan citizens were instilled with the spirit of war. Being brought up in boarding schools eliminated the individualizing tendencies of family and hereditary instincts. The ideal character of the Spartan was instilled in all boys.¹⁰

The Spartan boarding schools were organized in some ways like today’s Boy Scouts. They were divided into packs and divisions, and the older boys were in charge of the younger ones. In other ways, they were organized like the youth programs of totalitarian regimes where the youth eat, sleep, and train together. Education was entirely physical, with boys exercising and exposing themselves to all kinds of weather so they could be hardened. The process was progressive. During the first four years, the little boys met for games and exercises. The adolescents had to become tougher and started military training, and the ephebes were totally in military training. They learned how to move in formation, how to handle arms, how to fence and throw the javelin, and to look for food to survive when left in the countryside for long periods of time.¹¹

Discipline was an important aspect of education and was taught by the perpetual presence of authority, the paidonomos—superintendent of boys. The child owed obedience to older children, to all adult citizens, and to paidonomos. The paidonomos by law had “whip carriers” next to him ready to carry out his punishment for idleness or other infractions. The training of the young was the job of every “freeman.” The training was aimed to produce self-control in action and speech, endurance, reverence, and self-sacrifice. A Spartan was not allowed to leave the barracks, even if he married, until he was thirty years old, when he was admitted to citizenship.¹²

There was neither commerce nor accounting in Sparta, and literary instruction was minimal. Rhetoric was forbidden. Sparta had a few written laws that had to be memorized. Spartans memorized the epics of Homer so that they might remember examples of heroism in their battles, and sang the praises of past victories as they marched into battle. Spartan education included music, gymnastics, and dancing.¹³

Education of Girls

There were gender differences in Spartan education because of the sexes’ adult roles. Spartan girls were trained to be mothers of soldiers. All female education was subordinated to the duty of producing as many healthy babies as possible, like women in some totalitarian systems.¹⁴ Girls ate all their meals at home, but they lived an outdoor life like their brothers, and had to train their bodies in order to bear strong children. They took part in contests of strength and speed, sharing the gymnasium and the musical training with their brothers. Among their sports were wrestling, running, and swimming.¹⁵ Girls danced and sang on certain festival days in the presence of young men, so they might meet and marry.

Sparta’s educational system resulted in a rigid society, which became the victim of itself. Spartan society in the fifth century b.c. numbered about 8,000, but declined to 700 in the year 244 B.C.¹⁶

Classical Athens (Fifth—Fourth Century B.C.)

Athenian society by the fifth century b.c. had evolved from an aristocratic to a democratic society. It consisted of four classes: (1) those with an annual income of 500 bushels of produce; (2) the “knights,” who either had a horse or an income of 300 bushels, to support a horse; (3) the “teamsters,” who owned a team of oxen and had income of 200 bushels; and (4) the laborers, the remaining citizens. They were governed by an elected assembly, to which ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Figures
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Abbreviations
• Part I: The Beginnings of Early Childhood Education
• Part II: Early Education in the United States
• Part III: Diverse Populations
• Part IV: Professional Organizations and Conclusions
• Appendix 1: Daily Schedules of Nursery Schools
• Appendix 2: Materials and Equipment
• Appendix 3: The Children's Charter
• Appendix 4: Chronology of Educational Pioneers and Their Countries/States
• Index