hildren think, feel, learn? EDUCATION: How can children learn and be taught?"
The challenge has always been a part of the American educational question. Maris A. Vinovskis chronicles the infant school movement which began in the 1820s and 1830s: "[By] 1840, approximately 40 percent of all three year olds in Massachusetts were attending school." Social forces and public opinion eventually convinced the majority of educators to abandon the infant schools, yet the question of educating children under the age of 5 or 6 remained a vital issue for debate.
Sharon L. Kagan summarizes the three essential questions that continue to be at the heart of the debate: the setting in which such education should take place, what should be taught, and the philosophical questions raised by such an approach. Many proponents for preschool programs lobbied for them to be included within the physical setting (and budgets) of public schools, while others argue that early schooling should remain in the home or be conducted in a specialized setting. The curriculum is also a point of continuing discussion: should early education focus on teaching reading or does such an advanced, formal program ultimately do more harm than good? The philosophical issues have proved to be the most complex of all, including discussions of equality among programs, accessibility, and the importance of cultural diversity as a factor in what is taught and how it is presented.
These issues all came to a head in the establishment of the first large-scale experiment of early childhood education in America during the twentieth century, the Head Start program. Gordon and Williams-Browne call the development of Head Start, a federal program designed to give low-income children critical support during the preschool period, a response to both the cold war and the civil rights movement. Vinovskis argues that the program was more an outgrowth of President Lyndon Johnso...