Young Children, Families, and Society in America Since the 1820S: the Evolution of Health, Education, and Child Care Programs for Preschool Children.

Abstract

I explore the relationships among young children, families, and society in America since the 1820s, an aspect of life that has undergone important changes over the years. At the turn of the nineteenth century, the family was the primary agency of early socialization, education, and care, though the church, the schools, and the community played a role, too. There were no institutions or services designed specifically for preschool children. Since that time American economic and social development has both succeeded in separating the family from the wider society and has seemingly rendered child rearing more problematic. Reflecting these and other developments, nonfamilial public and private programs have emerged since the 1820s that have catered to the health, education, and child care needs of young children and their families. Today institutions intended to supplement, supplant, or compensate for the child-rearing activities of parents abound. This study examines the rise, evolution, and , in some cases, the decline of institutions and services designed specifically for young children. I take as my subject the rise and spread of charity, social welfare, and government-sponsored group child care; charity, public, and private infant schools, kindergartens, nursery schools, and federal compensatory education programs; and charity, public, and private preschool child health conservation programs and services. My thesis is that since the 1820s programs designed specifically for young children have been established in the belief that the family, the church, the schools, and the community were no longer able to meet the special health, education, and child care needs of young children. Further, I argue that the voluntary associations and public agencies that have established specialized programs for preschool children have done so for one of three reasons. First, during the past century- and -a-half, groups have sought to capitalize on the plasticity of the preschool years by establishing institutions to variously supplement, supplant, or compensate for the way impoverished families have socialized and cared for their young children. Second, over the last 150 years a growing number of relatively affluent families have expressed interest in using pre-school child health, education, and child care programs to supplement the child rearing activities of the home. Third, some preschool child programs have been developed to serve the generality of young children. Over the years, interest in using preschool child programs to supplement, supplant, or compensate for family child-rearing practices has risen and ebbed in response to changing social and intellectual trends. Today there are no preschool child programs which reach the generality of children. However, families that value and can afford health, education, and child care services for their young children can buy them in the private market and some poverty-stricken families can get desired preschool child services through the work of charitable or government agencies. This two track delivery system of preschool child health, education, and child care services does not serve well those at the bottom third of the social hierarchy.