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Jan 16, 1483
Martin Luther (1482–1546)
Martin urged parents to educate their children by teaching them morals and catechism. The first humanist educators began to advocate a basic education for all children, including girls and the poor. The call for universal education and literacy are two fundamental effects of this period on education as we know it today. Concern for the common man was on the rise, as skilled craftsmen formed a kind of middle class. -
John Locke (1632 - 1704)
John Locke was an English philosopher who is considered to be the founder of modern educational philosophy. He was the first European educators to discuss the idea of individual differences gleaned from observing one child rather than simply teaching a group. His contribution is felt most in our acceptance of individual differences, in giving children reasons as the basis for helping children to learn, and his theory “clean slate” points to the effect of the environment on learning. -
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778)
Rousseau was a Swiss writer and philosopher, proposed that children were not inherently evil, but naturally good. He reasoned that education should reflect this goodness and allow spontaneous interests and activities of the children. Rousseau’s ideas were considered the first comprehensive attempt to describe a system of education according to nature. He believes that children learn from firsthand information and their views are different from those of adults. -
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827)
Pestalozzi was a Swiss educator who proposed theories on education and caring that have formed the basis of many common teaching practices of early childhood education. Like Rousseau, he used nature study as part of the curriculum and believed that good education meant the development of the senses. Pestalozzi’s greatest contribution is the blending of Rousseau’s strong romantic ideals with his own egalitarian attitude. -
Robert Owen 1771-1858
Robert was an industrialist and follower of Pestalozzi, Robert extended his concerns for social reform to the families of those working in the cotton mills of Wales. He established labor practices for the workers and schooling for their children, most of whom began working in the mills as young as 6 years old. Like Rousseau, he believed that people were naturally good but were corrupted by the harsh environments. -
Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel (1782–1852)
Friedrich was one of the major contributors to early childhood education, Froebel is best known as the “Father of the Kindergarten.” Because his own childhood had been unhappy, he resolved that early education should be pleasant. His system was centered around self-activity and the development of children’s self-esteem and self-confidence. -
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
Sigmund made important contributions to all modern thinking. The father of personality theory and psychiatry in general, he drastically changed how we look at childhood. Freud’s work set into motion one of the three major strands of psychological theory that influence the developmental and learning theories of early childhood today. Although he was not involved directly in education, Freud and psychoanalytic theory influenced education greatly. -
John Dewey 1859-1952
John was the first real American influence on American education. Raised in Vermont, he became a professor of philosophy at both the University of Chicago and Columbia University. In the years that followed, Dewey was responsible for one of the greatest impacts on American education of all time. -
Maria Montessori (1870–1952)
Maria became the first female physician in Italy who worked in the slums of Rome with poor children and with mentally retarded children. Sensing that what they lacked was proper motivation and environment, she opened a preschool, Casa di Bambini, in 1907. The children were at the center all day while their parents worked. Maria designed materials, classrooms, and a teaching procedure that proved her point to the astonishment of people all over Europe and the United States. -
Susan Isaacs (1885–1948)
Susan was an educator of the early 20th century whose influence on nursery and progressive schools of the day was substantial. In 1929, she published a book called The Nursery Years, which emphasized a different point of view than that of the behaviorist psychologists of the times. She interpreted Freudian theory for teachers and provided guidance for how schools could apply this new knowledge of the unconscious to the education of children. -
Jean Piaget 1896-1980
Jean was one of the most exciting research theorists in child development. A major force in child psychology, he studied both thought processes and how they change with age. Piaget’s ideas serve as our guide to cognitive theory because of the thoroughness of his work. He had a great influence on child psychology, theories of learning, intellectual development, and even philosophy. He became the foremost expert on the development of knowledge from birth to adulthood. -
Erik Erikson 1902-1994
Erik is perhaps the most influential psychoanalyst of the modern era and certainly a key figure in the study of children and development. His interests in children and education included a teaching background at progressive and Montessori schools in Europe. After clinical training in psychoanalysis, he remained interested in the connections between psychotherapy and education.
