ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION

INTRODUCTION

The previous units in this course have provided you with the general background information about the child and his education. The attitudes of people towards children in different places and at different times in history were discussed in those units. We have also discussed how some individuals and groups took up the courage to press for the recognition of children as individuals with separate minds, interests, needs, rights and conscience. The declarations of children's rights by the UNO and the constitutional provisions on the rights of children have also been discussed with you. Therefore, in this unit we shall start discussing how the pre- school establishment started at different times and places in Europe. It is really going to be an interesting experience for you to find out the origin of pre- school education.

OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter carefully, you should be able to:

• described the Pre- school education in ancient times. 
• enumerate the roles of individuals or groups in the development of pre- school education in Britain. 
• Origin of Pre-school Education 

The Ancient Times

Plato is widely recognized as the first person to classify education into the formal levels as we now have them in modem societies. The educational levels by Plato as recorded by Akinpelu, (1981:31) are:

1. Nursery/Kindergarten for children aged 3-6 years 
2.  Elementary (Primary) ) level for children aged 7-10 years (c) Secondary level for children aged 11-17 years 
3. Higher education for Adults Aged 20-35 years 

Our concern will be for the first level which is the pre- school or Nursery school level. One thing that is very important for us to appreciate about Plato, who lived between 427-248 BC, is his great ideas about how and why children between three and five years should be educated. According to Plato, this level of education should be developed to play and games. He was of the opinion that the process of education should start as early as possible. This, according to him, is because it is during the childhood period that any impression which one may wish to communicate is easily stamped and taken. In other words, the childhood period is the stage when we can start to give the necessary training for an all-round development of the child. We should not wait till the child has become an adolescent or an adult before we start his education. Why? You know, it will be very difficult for example to start teaching an adult how to read and write. Plato also suggested that children should be taught by specially trained teachers and not just anybody as it was done during his time.


Another important contribution of Plato to the development of early childhood education is in the area of learning environment. He strongly believed that we should surround the child with beautiful things and the right kind of environment. That is to say, we must place the child among those things, places or people which are like what we want him to become. This shows that Plato realized that children always like to imitate people or things around them. Therefore, if we do not want them to Imitate bad things, we must expose them only to good and desirable things, attitudes and values. We must also appreciate the fact that Plato brought in these good ideas on early childhood education at a time when education was not well coordinated and people were just doing whatever they thought was good for them. Thus, Plato's ideas marked the beginning of the formal school system, a formal curriculum that we are now very familiar with (Akinpelu 1981).

From this brief discussion on the development of early childhood education, you will realize that the education of children has for a long time been attracting the attention and interest of people right from the ancient times. Although various forms of cruelty were meted to children during this period, yet there were people who could still think about how best to educate them. We shall now see the beginning of early childhood education in modern Europe.

Modern Europe

In one of the earlier units, you have learnt how children were treated in the middle ages. You have also learnt about the activities of groups and individuals who influenced the general change in attitude towards children. You will still recall how children were to do things like adults as from the age seven years. In other words, they worked, played and even discussed like adults. There was no special school for them as children and adults were taught together in the same class. However as from the 17th century, particularly during the reformation, men and women were inspired by religious or humanitarian feelings to protect and defend the life and rights of children. Through great people such as John Calvin and the Puritans, a comprehensive model of child development was provided. As you learnt, the puritan under the Leadership of Calvin took child-rearing practices seriously. They believed that children have the capacity for learning at an early age and that they could be helped to become independent and self-reliant individuals (Vasta 1995).

Similarly, people like John Comenius, John Locke, Rousseau, Froebel and Maria Montessori all contributed greatly to the development of early childhood education. If you can quickly go through your unit four of this course, you will see the various contributions of each of these people in early childhood education in Europe.


From their individual contributions, childhood education has been generally accepted as a desirable thing for children in all parts of the world. Moreover, the international community has now risen up to the task of protecting children from all forms of deprivation, abuse and inhuman treatment. As you have learnt in unit five, the United Nations Organisation (UNO) has adopted certain declarations on the rights of children. Nigeria as a member of the UNO has endorsed the declaration like others. In addition to this, various countries of the world now have laws which protect the rights of the child. The countries in Western Europe and North America are in the forefront in the call for the eradication of all forms of child abuse.

In different parts, of Western Europe and North America, there are now various programmes initiated by government to ensure the proper growth and development of children. Moreover, there are guidelines, which are strictly enforced in the establishment and management of pre - primary schools. We shall discuss more about such activities in the other units or sections of this course.

SELF ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

i. (a) Identify the different levels of Education as suggested by Plato.
(b) Why did Plato say that the Education of children should start early in life?

• Your answer should include the following: (a) Nursery education 3-6 years 
• Primary Education 7-10 years 
• Secondary education 11-7 years 
•  Higher education 20-35 years 

(b) So that we can make lasting impression on the child

• Children easily learn during this period 
•  They always imitate people around 
•  We should surround them with good and decent things or people to Imitate early in life