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428 BCE
Plato (428-348 B.C.)
Plato founded a school in Athens called the Academy. He wrote a book called the Republic that suggested that state nurseries should be established to foster a spirit of community. He also went against the common belief of his time and pushed for girls to be educated, as well as disagreeing with corporal punishment. -
Period: 428 BCE to 95
Ideas and Impact
Overall, all three of these philosophers had the same ideas: education should begin with the young child, human beings are essentially good, boys and girls both deserve an education, development of both the mind and the body are important, and that play is a valuable tool for learning. Their beliefs had an impact on later work done by future educational philosophers. -
384 BCE
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle was Plato's pupil. He also wrote about the purpose of education. However, unlike his teacher, Aristotle was more focused on the sense and logical organization of thought. Aristotle ended up teaching Alexander the Great, who spread these beliefs throughout a vast empire that that extended to India. -
35
Quintilian (A.D. 35-95)
After the collapse of Alexander's empire, the Romans rose to domination. At this time in Rome, Quintilian was the most well-known educator. He adopted his ideas and beliefs from those of the Greek philosophers. He saw that children under the age of 7 did not benefit much from the customary educational practices. He encouraged parents to allow their young children to play. He also emphasized the importance of having good nurses and tutors to learn correct speech and behavior through imitation. -
Period: 500 to 1450
The Middle Ages
During this time in the fourth century, the Roman emperor, Constantine, adopted the Christian religion. Due to this, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed, the church was able to convert the conquering barbarian tribes. Monks and nuns then began to feverishly copy books that had survived the destruction. They then handed down their knowledge to the children who had been chosen to live religious lives. Children of religious lives then received plentiful educations. -
Period: 500 to 1450
The Middle Ages Cont.
...helped in the towns as early as age three. By age seven, they were apprenticed to a specific craft. However, it is known that that childhood pastimes were distinct from those of the adults. -
Period: 500 to 1450
The Middle Ages Cont.
Boys and girls were both educated equally, just in separate places. Education became widely valued, and corporal punishment was abandoned for gentler methods. Later in the Middle Ages, St. Francis emphasized devotion to the child of Christ, inspiring more concern for the poor. Noble families often sent boys away at an early age to become child servants and learn courtly manners by observation. Girls stayed home to learn more feminine things of the times. Peasant children helped in the towns... -
Period: 1300 to
The Renaissance and Reformation
Martin Luther and John Amos Comenius both believed in universal education Their ideas and beliefs turned into what is known today as developmentally appropriate practice. -
1466
Sir Thomas Moore of England (1478-1535) & Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
Sir Thomas and Desiderius encouraged parents to stop using physical abuse as a form of punishment or motivation. They believed that children would want to learn is the subject was made enjoyable or interesting to them. -
1483
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Martin Luther advocated that education should be for ALL children, that individual literacy is important, and that all aspects of development are important. He had these beliefs due to his religion; he believed that every child should be able to read the Bible for themselves. -
John Amos Comenius [The Father of ECE] (1592-1670)
Comenius believed education to be an important vehicle for improving society. He argued that children should be taught in their own native languages up to six years old. He wrote about how children learned, and that children should be taught simple practical knowledge that prepared them for life and further education. Comenius is also known for believing that language was the foundation for later learning. He observed that children also learned spontaneous play. -
John Locke (1632-1704)
John Locke developed a theory that a child enters the world with the mind equivalent to a blank slate(tabula rasa). He suggested that a child receives knowledge through the senses and is understood through the process of application. His belief contradicted the common belief, at the time, that children entered the world with little character already formed. Locke emphasized nurture over nature. He argued that swaddling children restricted their physical exploration; swaddling should not be done. -
Period: to
The Age of Enlightenment
Locke and Rousseau, despite certain contradictory beliefs, both believed that children learn best through play; play should be a prevalent aspect in a child's life. -
Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Rousseau believed that a child was born into the world inherently good, but that civilization corrupted that. He believed that education should begin at birth and continue through adulthood. He also believed that learning in children occurred best through exploration of the environment; children learn best through their own natural play. Rousseau introduced the idea of developmental stages. -
Johann Pestalozzi (1746-1827)
After testing Rousseau's ideas of teaching, Pestalozzi realized that they were ineffective and developed his own theory on teaching. He believed that all children has the capacity to profit from education. He felt as though education should be adapted to each child's individual interests, abilities, and stages of development. He didn't believe memorization to be a proper method and instead opted for sensory learning and observation. He thought the first year of life to be the most important. -
Robert Owen (1771-1858)
Owen's inspiration sprouted from his concern for the lives of factory working children during the Industrial Revolution. He provided humane living conditions for these families and abolished child labor in his Wales textile factory. He developed the first Infant School, which offered a nurturing and emotionally secure setting for children between 3 and 10. Owen thought that the proper education of children could transform society. He did not believe in harsh punishment or pressuring a child. -
Period: to
The Industrial Revolution
Pestalozzi and Owen both advocated for the importance of sensory learning and education at very young ages. Both men believed in self guided learning for children and that caring teachers were more effective than punitive ones. -
Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel (1782-1852)
Froebel created the first known kindergarten program in Germany.He believed that children were social, that activity was the basis for knowing, and that play was essential to learning. He wanted young children to have a place to develop positive impulses and learn developmentally appropriate content. He presented his students with "gifts" that were designed to spark sensory and spiritual development. He also taught hands on activities that he called "occupations". -
Margaret and Rachel McMillan (1859-1931)
These two sisters led lives if social activism and dedicated their time to improving the welfare of poor children. They opened Britain's first school health clinic. In 1911, they opened the Open-Air Nursery School and Training Centre. This was a play oriented nursery school that they were inspired to open due to the health issues they observed in poor families. They wanted to model for other schools and teachers the proper way to care for children. -
John Dewey (1859-1952)
John Dewey believed schools should be a place for children to grow physically, socially, intellectually, and be challenged to think independently. He was the biggest spokesperson for progressive education. He sought for children to learn democratic ideals through interesting and meaningful activities. -
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925)
Rudolf Steiner developed what is now known as Waldorf education. Steiner was deeply interested in the spirituality of the child. His program stressed the development of the child's body, mind, and spirit. His purpose was to educate the "whole" child. He built his program to build a free, equal collaborative society, to develop people with a sense of purpose, and to achieve balanced development of young children, -
Maria Montessori (1870-1952)
Maria Montessori was the first to devise effective approaches for teaching children with cognitive issues who had been regarded as incapable of learning. In 1907, she founded the Children's House in Rome, where she applied methods she designed for teaching children with cognitive disabilities. Maria was concerned about preserving the dignity of a child. She developed many programs, Montessori Programs, based on her ideas. These programs are still used in education today. -
Period: to
Progressive Education
John Dewey, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Harriet Johnson, and Caroline Pratt all advocated for the education of children in different ways. However, they all had the same basic ideas and goals. They wanted to improve society by schooling children properly, help children to develop to their whole potential, and prepare children to live in a democratic society. Additionally, they also believed that education is still in the life of the child in the present, not just preparing them for the future. -
Loris Malaguzzi (1920-1994)
Loris Malaguzzi was the director of a school built in Reggio Emilia, 1948. Under Malaguzzi, by 1963, the school has become a government funded network of early childhood education. By 1980, educators were visiting the town for its publicly funded infant and toddler programs. The ideas found in Reggio Emilia revitalized the early childhood education practices. Basically, the main ideas found in the city's schools were to learn to work collaboratively in a community, develop the child's... -
Loris Malaguzzi Cont.
...develop the child's potential, develop children's symbolic languages, and to ensure that the children are visible to community and society. -
High/Scope
David Weikart created High/Scope as the first program to help eliminate or prevent the effects of poverty upon children's development. The curriculum was based on key experiences that provided the basis for planning and adapting to the learning environment. This was also the beginning of tracking children's progress and the study of early childhood education. -
Period: to
Early Childhood Education Today
Many of the practices and beliefs seen in this timeline are implemented into today's ECE programs. One of the most well known programs in the U.S. is the Head Start program. The Head Start program began in 1964. The program is generally directed towards low income families who cannot afford education or for children who have a higher chance of delinquency. Today, most education programs are based off of nurturing, respectful relationships between teachers and students. The last U.S. president... -
Period: to
ECE Today Cont.
... president, Barack Obama, was working to provide high quality preschool available to every child in America. -
Citations
Feeney, Stephanie, et al. Who Am I in the Lives of Children?: an Introduction to Early Childhood Education. Pearson Education, Inc., 2019.