ED314155 PS018413
Title: Past Caring: A History of U.S. Preschool Care and Education
for the Poor, 1820-1965.
Author(s): Cahan, Emily D.
Author Affiliation: National Center for Children in Poverty, New
York, NY.(BBB27230)
Pages: 72
Publication Date: 1989
Sponsoring Agency: Carnegie Corp. of New York, NY. (QPX12280)@Ford
Foundation, New York, NY. (QPX27000)
ISBN: 0-926582-00-3
Available from: EDRS Price MF01/PC03 Plus Postage.
Availability: National Center for Children in Poverty, Columbia
University, 154 Haven Avenue, New York, NY 10032 ($5.95).
Language: English
Document Type: Reports--Research (143)
Geographic Source: U.S.; New York
Journal Announcement: RIEMAY1990
This monograph focuses on early forms of preschool care and education,
the professions and children in the 1920s and 1930s, the federal
role in a series of crisis interventions, and social and intellectual
changes affecting early education in the 1960s and 1970s. The rise
of a two-tier system for care and education of the preschool child
is addressed first. On one hand, a nursery school and kindergarten
system for middle-income children developed into one whose primary
focus was to supplement enrichment available at home. These nursery
schools and kindergartens were held together as a system by their
aim of educating and socializing the growing child. On the other
hand, a childminding or day care system for low-income children
developed in response to the necessity of maternal employment outside
the home. The report examines consequences of the stratified system
of preschool care and education for poor children and their families.
The most important of these was the stigmatization of child care
as a function of social welfare. It is concluded that various "suitable
home" eligibility requirements established for applicants of
social welfare benefits have caused minorities (especially blacks)
to be consistently excluded from the system. Over 100 references
are cited. (RH)
Descriptors:
Bias; *Day Care; Delivery Systems; *Disadvantaged; Early Childhood
Education; Educational History; Employed Parents; *Federal Government;
*Government Role; Kindergarten; Mothers; Nursery Schools; *Preschool
Education; *Social Change; Social Class
Identifiers: *Infant Care
