Kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th century in Germany and Alsace to serve children whose parents both worked outside home. The term was coined by German pedagogue Friedrich Fröbel, whose approach globally influenced early-years education. Today, the term is used in many countries to describe a variety of educational institutions and learning spaces for children ranging from two to six years of age, based on a variety of teaching methods.
History
Early years and development
In 1779, Johann Friedrich Oberlin and Louise Scheppler founded in Strasbourg an early establishment for caring for and educating preschool children whose parents were absent during the day. At about the same time, in 1780, similar infant establishments were created in Bavaria. In 1802, Princess Pauline zur Lippe established a preschool center in Detmold, the capital of the then principality of Lippe, Germany.In 1816, Robert Owen, a philosopher and pedagogue, opened the first British and probably globally the first infants school in New Lanark, Scotland. In conjunction with his venture for cooperative mills, Owen wanted the children to be given a good moral education so that they would be fit for work. His system was successful in producing obedient children with basic literacy and numeracy.
Samuel Wilderspin opened his first infant school in London in 1819, and went on to establish hundreds more. He published many works on the subject, and his work became the model for infant schools in Great Britain and further afield. Play was an important part of Wilderspin's system of education. He is credited with inventing the playground. In 1823, Wilderspin published On the Importance of Educating the Infant Poor, based on the school. He began working for the Infant School Society the next year, informing others about his views. He also wrote The Infant System, for developing the physical, intellectual, and moral powers of all children from 1 to seven years of age.
Countess Theresa Brunszvik, who had known and been influenced by Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, was influenced by this example to open an Angyalkert on May 27, 1828, in her residence in Buda, the first of eleven care centers that she founded for young children. In 1836 she established an institute for the foundation of preschool centers. The idea became popular among the nobility and the middle class and was copied throughout the Kingdom of Hungary.
Creation of the kindergarten
opened a "play and activity" institute in 1837, in Bad Blankenburg, in the principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, as an experimental social experience for children entering school. He renamed his institute Kindergarten on June 28, 1840, reflecting his belief that children should be nurtured and nourished "like plants in a garden". Fröbel introduced a pedagogical environment where children could develop through their own self-expression and self-directed learning, facilitated by play, songs, stories, and various other activities; this was in contrast to earlier infant establishments, and Fröbel is therefore credited with the creation of the kindergarten. Around 1873, Caroline Wiseneder's method for teaching instrumental music to young children was adopted by the national kindergarten movement in Germany.In 1840, the well-connected educator Emily Ronalds was the first British person to study Fröbel's approach and he urged her to transplant his kindergarten concepts in England. Later, women trained by Fröbel opened kindergartens throughout Europe and around the world. The first kindergarten in the US was founded in Watertown, Wisconsin, in 1856, and was conducted in German by Margaretha Meyer-Schurz.
Elizabeth Peabody founded the first English-language kindergarten in the US in 1860. The first free kindergarten in the US was founded in 1870 by Conrad Poppenhusen, a German industrialist and philanthropist, who also established the Poppenhusen Institute. The first publicly financed kindergarten in the US was established in St. Louis in 1873 by Susan Blow.
Canada's first private kindergarten was opened by the Wesleyan Methodist Church in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in 1870. By the end of the decade, they were common in large Canadian towns and cities. In 1882, The country's first public-school kindergartens were established in Berlin, Ontario at the Central School. In 1885, the Toronto Normal School opened a department for kindergarten teaching.
The Australian kindergarten movement emerged in the last decade of the nineteenth century as both a philanthropic and educational endeavour. The first free kindergarten in Australia was established in 1896 in Sydney, New South Wales, by the Kindergarten Union of NSW led by reformer Maybanke Anderson.
American educator Elizabeth Harrison wrote extensively on the theory of early childhood education and worked to enhance educational standards for kindergarten teachers by establishing what became the National College of Education in 1886.
By country
Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, children between the ages of three and six attend kindergartens. Although kindergartens in Afghanistan are not part of the school system, they are often run by the government.Early childhood development programs were first introduced during the Soviet occupation with the establishment in 1980 of 27 urban preschools. The number of preschools grew steadily during the 1980s, peaking in 1990 with more than 270 in Afghanistan. At its peak, there were 2,300 teachers caring for more than 21,000 children in the country. These facilities were an urban phenomenon, mostly in Kabul, and were attached to schools, government offices, or factories. Based on the Soviet model, these early childhood development programs provided nursery care, preschool, and kindergarten for children from three months to six years of age under the direction of the Department of Labor and Social Welfare.
The vast majority of Afghan families were never exposed to this system, and many of these families were in opposition to these programs due to the belief that it diminishes the central role of the family and inculcates children with Soviet values. With the onset of civil war after the Soviet withdrawal, the number of kindergartens dropped rapidly. By 1995, only 88 functioning facilities serving 2,110 children survived, and the Taliban restrictions on female employment eliminated all of the remaining centers in areas under their control. In 2007, there were about 260 kindergarten/preschool centers serving over 25,000 children. Though every government center is required to have an early childhood center, at present, no governmental policies deal with early childhood and no institutions have either the responsibility or the capacity to provide such services.
Australia
In each state of Australia, kindergarten means something slightly different. In Tasmania, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, it is the first year of primary school. In Victoria, kindergarten is a form of preschool and may be referred to interchangeably as preschool or kindergarten. In Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, the term for the first year of primary school is prep, which is followed by year 1.In Queensland, kindergarten is usually an institution for children around the age of four and thus it is the precursor to preschool and primary education. As with Victoria and Tasmania, the first year of primary school is also called prep, which is then followed by year 1.
The year preceding the first year of primary school education in Western Australia, South Australia or the Northern Territory is referred to respectively as pre-primary, reception or transition. In Western Australia, the year preceding pre-primary is called kindergarten.
Bangladesh
In Bangladesh, the term kindergarten, or KG school, is used to refer to the schooling children attend from three to six years of age. The names of the levels are nursery, shishu, etc. The view of kindergarten education has changed significantly over time. Almost every rural area now has at least one kindergarten school, with most being run in the Bengali language. They also follow the textbooks published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board with slight modification, adding some extra books to the syllabus. The grades generally start from nursery, "KG" afterwards, and end with the 5th grade. Separate from the National Education System, kindergarten contributes greatly toward achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education in Bangladesh.Brazil
In Brazil, kindergarten is the only non-compulsory education modality, for children up to four years old completed after March 31 for the vast majority of states. From the age of four completed until March 31, the child is eligible for preschool, which is mandatory and precedes the 1st grade. When a child turns six years old between April 1 and December 31, he/she must be in kindergarten, also known as kindergarten III, also known as 3º período da Escola Infantil.Bulgaria
In Bulgaria, the term refers to the caring and schooling children attend from ages three to seven. Usually the children attend the from morning until late afternoon when their parents return from work. Most Bulgarian kindergartens are public. Since 2012, two years of preschool education are compulsory. These two years of mandatory preschool education may be attended either in kindergarten or in preparatory groups at primary schools.Canada
Schools outside of Ontario and the Northwest Territories generally provide one year of kindergarten, except some private schools which offer junior kindergarten for four-year-olds. Kindergarten is mandatory in British Columbia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island, and is optional elsewhere. The province of Nova Scotia refers to kindergarten as grade primary. After kindergarten, the child begins grade one.The province of Ontario and the Northwest Territories provide two years of kindergarten, usually part of an elementary school. Within the French school system in Ontario, junior kindergarten is called maternelle and senior kindergarten is called jardin d'enfants, which is a calque of the German word Kindergarten.
Within the province of Quebec, junior kindergarten is called prématernelle, is attended by four-year-olds, and senior kindergarten is called maternelle, which is also not mandatory by the age of five; this class is integrated into primary schools.