History of Ece

Maria Montessori was born in Chiaraville, Ancona, Italy in 1870. She became the first female physician in Italy after she graduated from medical school in 1896. During the time that she was a physician, she observed children and analyzed how they learn. She concluded that they build their self from what they learn in their environments. Children learn themselves. That is how to sum up Montessori's philosophy on early childhood education. She believed in children's rights, the value and importance of children's work to develop themselves into adults, and that this developing would lead to world peace.

In the Montessori way of learning, children are grouped in three or six year spans and during this time they have the same teacher. After every age, the children are required a minimum of one three hour work period per day. The set-up of the play area is set up by subjects and the children are free to move around the room with no time limit. The universal characteristics of children are recognized for each level of development; the first is birth through age 6, and the second is ages 6 through 12. The first level is called casa dei bambini or "children's house" where each child is nurtured and guided in an individual paced environment. They do this so when they enter the second level, they become peer oriented and learn in a social environment.

Maria believed that children learn in a distinctively different way than adults. She also believed that children are masters of their own environment, which prepares them to be academic, comfortable, and allow a maximum amount of independence. The overall goal of Montessori is to provide a stimulating, child-centered environment where children can touch, explore, and learn without fear so that their lives can be filled with love and learning. There are Montessori schools all over North America and all around the world. So many people have listened to the philosophy of Maria Montessori and have agreed with it, enough to start a chain of Montessori schools. I believe that her approach to child learning is one of the most influential in early childhood education history. She passed away in Holland in 1952.

Friedrich Froebel

Friedrich Froebel was born on April 21, 1782. He is best known as the "father of kindergarten." He studied under the brilliant John Pestalozzi from 1808 Ð'- 1810. When he left, he felt that their was something missing from Pestalozzi's theory of a permissive school atmosphere, emphasis on nature, and the object lesson. He believed that the "spiritual mechanism" was the foundation of early learning.

He began to take a look at the children who were just about to enter school (ages 4 Ð'- 6). In his mind he saw a place where children would be nurtured and protected from outside influences. He decided to call his school "kindergarten" which in German means "child garden." He then opened up a training school for the teachers of his kindergarten's. He believed that the teachers should be highly respected people that the children would want to imitate.

The first kindergarten opened up in Germany in 1837. It featured songs, stories, games, play and crafts to stimulate imagination and develop motor skills. The kindergarten was to be separated into two different categories: gifts and occupations. Gifts were the objects that were fixed in form, like blocks. The purpose was to be that in playing with the object, the child would learn the underlying concept represented by the object. Occupations allowed much more freedom and consisted of things that the children could shape and manipulate. In these areas, the teachers were to point out the symbolism to the children expecting that they would understand.

Froebel's ideas provided the direction for kindergarten curriculum in the late 19th century. Many of his ideas can be learned in kindergarten today such as goal oriented activities, outdoor time, learning through play and group games. His ideas on "spiritual mechanism" have been forgotten

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