History of Early Childhood Education

The history of early childhood education goes back hundreds of years. If you want a specific history you must be specific on the area to which you want to know about. Each geographic area, country and neighboring town has had a different path that has led us to where we are today. Starting with childcare for the royal and wealthy to necessity for the working family’s during the Industrial Revolution in our own country. War has played a huge part as to how and who educated children. Fathers were going off to war and leaving mothers to work to keep the family in food. This created a need for outside care. The age at which children were taught by others outside of the family has greatly changed over the years as well. Official schooling was not started till age 7 or 8 for boys and not at all for girls if you were at a lower income level. Never having a formal education was common for poor families because everyone worked to help out. Richer families had nannies and tutors for their children from birth. As time has passed we have seen the need to educate all children. Still there is a gap in the quality of care and education depending on how much you can afford to pay. Free programs are full of under staffed and uneducated teachers. This is not to say that all state and federal programs are bad. Some are lucky to have truly committed teachers who care for the future of their students. We have come a long way from where early childhood education was started but we still have a long way to go. Not all changes have been for the best, but change on a large scale is good because it shows that ideas are always changing and willing to learn from past mistakes.

"Catch a Bubble"

After watching a video titled "Catch a Bubble" @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2dLPFaehV0&feature=emshare_video_user, I am upset and even a little teary eyed. I can very much see it as offensive from a child's point of view to be told to catch a bubble in order to tell them to be quiet or zip it. It is the equivalent to telling them to shut up. We want children to learn to use their words, but then we tell them not to. Yes, we do need to have their attention at times but yelling at a child is not the way to do it. We must capture their focus with song and take the time to talk to them as another individual who deserves respect. Just because they are young does not make them less. You wouldn't tell an adult to "put a bubble in it" during a board meeting or any time you are trying to speak. Children learn by example and this is not a lesson we want to teach them.