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Tabula Rasa
John Locke's essay entitled Some Thoughts Concerning Education is published. Locke wrote that "the little and almost insensible impressions on our tender infancies have very important and lasting consequences." He argued that the "association of ideas" that a person makes when very young are more important than ones made later as they are the foundation of ones self. They are the first marks put on the "tabula rasa" and thus the first beginnings of ones self. -
The Dream of Universal Preschool
The Infant School Society of Boston submits a petition to incorporate infant schools into the Boston Public Schools. The proposal was rejected by the Primary School Committee. The opposition cited mental health specialists and child-rearing advice-givers who believed that excessive early stimulation was damaging to children. -
The Kindergarten
Friedrich Froebel began his educational institution in 1817 but it wasn't until approximately 1837 that it developed into the organized system we are familiar with today. Froebel's methods inspired and informed the work of many early education experts including Maria Montessori and Rudolf Steiner. -
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Progressive Education Movement
The Progressive Education Movement in the United States helped develop American public schools from a rough idea to a regular norm. John Dewey was a principal figure in the movement .He belieed that education should be focused on the childs skills and interests.He also believed that school must represent the present life including parts of the student's home life and that the teacher should facilitate this , not as an authoritative figure, but as a member of the learning community. -
The First Casa
In 1906 Maria Montessori was invited to oversee an educational program for the children of working parents in a low-income aparment building. The first Casa opened in 1907 enrolling around 60 children between the ages of two and seven. The experinces gained here and practices developed would become the foundations for the Montessori educational philosophy and methods. -
Economic Opportunity Act
The Economic opportunity Act of 1964 was created by president Lyndon B. Johnson. The purpose of the act was to Eliminate poverty, expand educational opportunities, increase the safety net for the poor and unemployed, and to tend to the health and financial needs of the elderly. This act created the foundations for the Head Start Act of 1981. -
Education of All Handicapped Children Act
The EAHC Act mandated that states develop and implement policies that would provide equal access to education and one free meal a day for children with physical and mental disabilities. It also required that school provide administrative procedures so that the parents of said children could dispute decisions made about thier child's education. -
Head Start Act
The Head Start Act of 1981 restated specified provisions of the EOA relating to Headstart Programs and Identified those programs as "Head Start" programs and authorized appropriations to carry out these programs through the 1984 fiscal years thus carrying on these important early education programs.
