A Glimpse into the Beginning of American Preschool

Preschools lay the foundation for the development of young kids at an early age, readying them for a successful future in learning and education. Young minds are ripe and fresh for grasping things with relative ease while ensuring that it will stay with them for years to come. 

With a large number of preschools cropping up in the Upper West side, we can safely say that almost every kid in New York, and US as a whole, between the ages of 3-5, is enrolled in a preschool.

While preschools have become mainstream since the last decade, they have an interesting history on how they came into existence.

In the early 1800’s, there was a woman in Europe who used to teach small children outside her home. Most of the kids were between 4 to 7 years old and the learning involved basic education such as social interaction and language.

With the explosion of Industrial Revolution in the US, the need for early education was starkly evident. Parents needed someone to look after their children while they went to work, and this opened up the possibilities of exposing those children to education and learning from an early age. Taking a leaf out of the European continent, America decided that conditions were ripe for establishment of preschools right at the early stages of Industrial Revolution.

Preschools (known as Infant Schools back then) were established in factories, homes and churches to look after and teach young kids. It was a big relief for working parents; they did not have to worry about their kids anymore.

Wisconsin was the first American state to set up special provisions for the first-ever kindergarten program for four year olds. With other states following the suit, the US government set up the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in 1926 to propagate high quality education for every child up to the age of 8. This was followed by Head Start program in 1965, which steadily developed into a widely used preschool program in the US.

Today, every preschool in the Upper West side employ some kind of government program to keep the education standards high. Early education helps build up exciting prospects for efficient and streamlined development of young children.