| The history of nursery schools is intimately related to | | | | this were made for the children of the urban poor and |
| the history of mass schooling. Provision of nursery | | | | in times of national emergency as in the GREAT |
| schools and other institutions for the education and | | | | DEPRESSION and World War II, but provision of |
| care of young children (generally under the age of six) | | | | nursery schooling trailed behind that of day-care |
| came relatively late in the development of school | | | | centers and other forms of child-minding that lacked |
| systems. Not until it was accepted that early childhood | | | | the educational rationale of nursery schools. |
| was a highly significant stage in human development | | | | The preschool education institution is more commonly |
| and one during which the contours of the later stages | | | | known as kindergarten. A nursery school is a school |
| were formed was there much interest in making | | | | for children between the ages of three and five years, |
| formal arrangements for the education of the young. | | | | staffed by qualified teachers and other professionals |
| Just how young was dependent on the age set for | | | | who encourage and supervise educational play rather |
| starting school, which varied from country to country, | | | | than simply providing childcare. The curriculum goals of |
| as school systems developed with the coming of | | | | a nursery school are more specific than for childcare, |
| industrialization and urbanization. Schools for children | | | | but less strenuous than for primary school. In some |
| under the compulsory age for school attendance were | | | | areas, the provision of nursery school services is on a |
| motivated by a combination of a desire for moral | | | | user pays or limited basis while other governments |
| regulation, social control, and CHILD SAVING. Demand | | | | fund nursery school services. |
| for the provision of care for young children increased | | | | It is distinguishable from a day nursery in that it serves |
| as women, many of whom were mothers, were | | | | children of both working and nonworking parents, rarely |
| increasingly drawn into the labor market. | | | | receives public funds, and has as its primary objective |
| The adoption of the nursery school by public education | | | | to promote the social and educational adjustment of |
| systems throughout most of the twentieth century | | | | children, rather than to provide a daytime child-care |
| was constrained by their cost and by the view that | | | | service. The first nursery schools were opened in |
| the best place for most children below school age | | | | London in 1907. |
| was with their mothers in their homes. Exceptions to | | | | |