Preschool education refers to the education of children prior to the first grade of elementary school. Although some children below the age of three are enrolled in preschool educational programs, the overwhelming majority of children in such classes are between the ages of three and five. The programs that serve them include kindergartens, nursery schools, \Lday-care center\ls, Montessori schools, and programs for children with special educational needs. Preschool programs serve a range of purposes. In general, they are designed to support the development of children during their early years. They serve to increase children's intellectual and language competence and to provide them with the skills of self-expression. They act as socializing agents, preparing children for the world of the elementary school as well as for participation in society at large. In many ways the preschool acts as the bridge between a child's life at home, in the very limited family, and life in the larger community, which is first experienced in school. A number of special programs serve children whose parents work, as well as those of single-parent families and families that need additional social support to maintain themselves. \THead Start\t and similar programs, such as those supported under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, provide education, health, and social services for children from low-income families. Many communities have also begun to provide preschool education for handicapped children. In these programs children who have any handicap--including visual, auditory, linguistic, emotional, mental, and orthopedic handicaps--or who have a learning disability are provided with educational programs to help them cope with their difficulties and learn to use their potential abilities to their maximum. In many cases preschool programs provide extended services for the children enrolled, as well as for their families. Since the late 1960s the number of children in preschool programs in the United States has greatly increased, whereas the total number of children under age 5 has decreased since 1960 although their numbers rose in the 1980s. The percentage of children enrolled in preschool programs rose from about 27% in 1966 to almost 55% in 1986. In October 1986 there were 5,971,000 children enrolled in preprimary programs--3,157,000 five-year-olds, 1,772,000 four-years-olds, and 1,041,000 three-year-olds. This represented 86.7% of the five-year-olds, 49% of the four-year-olds, and 28.9% of the three-year-olds. Of those enrolled in preschool programs, the majority attended for only part of the day. PRESCHOOL PROGRAMS Preschool programs are sponsored by a variety of agencies. Kindergartens, serving five-year-olds, are a part of the public elementary school in most communities. Some younger children--primarily those in special educational programs and those from low-income families--are also enrolled in public school programs. California enrolls a limited number of four-year-olds in a comprehensive early childhood program. Many private kindergartens also exist in the United States, especially in communities that do not have kindergartens in the public schools. Nursery schools, Montessori schools, and day-care centers are usually run by private agencies, nonprofit community agencies, or profit-making institutions that are owned by either individuals or corporations. There are also a number of franchise nursery schools and day-care centers. In many communities parents have organized cooperative nursery schools for their children. In many countries day-care services are supported by government funds and are widely available. In the United States federal support for day-care services has been the subject of controversy. Although limited federal and some state funds are available to purchase day-care services for needy children, at least two bills in support of comprehensive child-development programs including day-care services have been passed by Congress in the past decade, only to be vetoed by the incumbent presidents. THE BEGINNINGS OF KINDERGARTENS Although the various forms of preschool programs have much in common, they have arisen from different roots and have evolved independently. The kindergarten originated in Germany in about 1835. It was developed by Friedrich \TFroebel\t, who designed a program for young children aimed at helping them understand the unity of Man, God, and Nature through a set of symbolic activities. He developed a set of manipulative materials to be used by children in prescribed ways--activities much like the arts and crafts activities in modern preschools--and a set of songs and games. Froebel's kindergarten ideas were brought to the United States by German immigrants and soon kindergartens for German-speaking children were organized in various cities. The idea of the kindergarten soon reached English-speaking American communities, and by the beginning of the 20th century private kindergartens existed in many areas. A number of settlement houses offered kindergarten education to children from poor and immigrant families. Some public schools also experimented with kindergartens. With the advent of the field of child study and the progressive education movement, kindergarten programs departed from the original symbolic Froebelian activities and became more responsive to the needs of American society and the new knowledge that was being generated about young children. THE BEGINNINGS OF NURSERY SCHOOLS The nursery school was first developed (1911) by Rachel and Margaret McMillan in England. It was designed to serve the needs of the poor, and health, nutrition, and social services were provided along with an educational program. When nursery schools were introduced in the United States in the 1920s, they were organized as private schools and university laboratory schools, catering to the needs of more affluent children for whom extended services were not needed. Programs became more education-oriented, supporting the development of the young child through play activities. The \TMontessori method\t developed in Italy in the early 20th century and originally served poor children. Unlike the nursery school, Montessori programs did not focus on the play activities of children. Reading and writing instruction is begun early in the Montessori school, and exercises in practical life are presented to help children become more independent. Day nurseries were established in the United States as early as the 1850s, primarily as custodial institutions, and they provided care for children of working mothers. In time their focus changed, and they became social agencies supporting families in trouble or helping single-parent families. In recent years the needs of working mothers have again become a concern of these programs. Educational components were added as the idea of nursery education was disseminated in the 1920s. Although the day-care center has an educational program like that of a nursery school for part of the day, it must also cater to other needs of children. Much of the program includes time for eating, resting, and recreation. LEARNING IN PRESCHOOLS Preschool programs are built on the concept of play as an educational medium. Through play children are expected to learn about themselves and about the world around them, to organize what they learn into conceptual schemes, and to express what they come to know. Activity periods in these schools support play by using different classroom centers. A blockbuilding area allows children to create wooden building-block constructions and to use various toy accessories. A housekeeping area provides opportunities for children to act out various adult roles. An arts and crafts area allows children to paint, draw, build, and shape both two- and three-dimensional projects. An area is set aside to allow children to work with manipulative play materials, such as puzzles, parquetry blocks, pegboards, Cuisenaire rods or other mathematical materials, and construction materials. A music area provides musical instruments for children to explore, records to listen to, and a place to move to music. A library area provides a quiet space where children can begin to acquaint themselves with printed materials. Outdoor space is provided nearby for children to play in more active ways, such as digging in a sandbox, running, and climbing. Play activities in these various centers are alternated with more quiet, sometimes structured, activities, such as listening to stories, being involved in discussions, watching films, or engaging in teacher-directed activities. Cleaning up the classroom and self-care help the children learn to become more personally independent. Field trips may be used to extend the child's experiential world. As children move through nursery school and kindergarten a lessening of emphasis on play for the sake of learning and an increase in emphasis on required work activities take place. Teachers provide children with greater opportunities to gain those capacities necessary for learning the basic academic skills that are introduced in the primary grades. In recent years a range of preschool program alternatives has been developed, especially for children from low-income families. These program models differ both in the techniques of teaching used and in the purposes assigned to the preschool. Some programs focus essentially upon preparation for specific primary school instruction, whereas others attempt to support a broader intellectual and personal development. Some programs are built upon particular psychological theories, such as the behavior theory of B. F. \TSkinner\t or the cognitive theory of Jean \TPiaget\t. Still other programs have an eclectic base. The evidence as to which program is most effective is less than clear, and the different values underlying the various educational approaches create additional confusions. PARENTS AND PRESCHOOL EDUCATION The involvement of parents in the education of their young children is important as they are actually the first teachers of their children. The preschool serves as a bridge from the home to the larger society. Early American kindergartens included parents' clubs, and parent-cooperative nursery schools have evolved into centers where parents are involved in both policymaking and classroom teaching activities and where they learn about parenting and child development from the professional staff. In recent years parent involvement has taken on additional importance. Head Start programs are required to involve parents on advisory committees, to engage them in classroom activities, and to provide some form of parent education. Similar attempts at working with parents are found in other good preschool programs. While the parents are less directly served in programs at the kindergarten level and in the public school, good parent-school relations are always considered important in working with young children. PRESCHOOL TEACHERS Teachers in preschool education differ widely in both the kinds and depth of their preparation. Kindergarten teachers in public schools are expected to be prepared in early-childhood or elementary education. Most often this preparation comes in a 4-year college program; sometimes additional education is required. These teachers will be required to maintain a teaching certificate from the education agency in their state. Nursery-school teachers and day-care practitioners may be prepared in early-childhood programs or in child-development programs. Preparation for some of these personnel may be available in a 2- or 1-year community college program as well as in a 4-year program. Unfortunately, some personnel in preschools have no formal preparation at all. The requirements for working in a nursery school or day-care center are set by the state agency that licenses preschool centers. Often the main concern of such licensing is the basic protection of the children rather than the quality of the education they will receive. In some states early-childhood or nursery-school teaching certificates are issued. Sometimes licensing requirements do not require schools to hire certified or degreed teachers. In addition to state certificates, the Child Development Associate Consortium issues a credential for a child-development associate to those who work with young children. This credential, based on preparation and demonstrated performance, is relatively new, and has not yet found nationwide acceptance. A number of issues are of concern in preschool education today. One relates to the availability of such education. Kindergarten is still not universal in all states, and many educators feel that it should be. Educators also feel that nursery schools and day-care centers should be available to all children, not just to those whose parents can afford to pay the tuition. To make it universally available, government support would be required. Several major questions remain: Who should be provided with preschool education, and should government be expected to support such education? If provided, should it be within the public schools, or should it be provided by private agencies? Another issue relates to the content of preschool education. Although a variety of program alternatives are available today, no agreement has been reached on proper goals of preschool education or the best method of teaching young children. No full-scale research projects have been available; however, some of the questions asked about different programs cannot be answered through research. A third issue pertains to the proper preparation of practitioners in preschool education. Both the amount and content of preparation that should be required are at issue. The quality of a preschool program depends to a great extent upon the quality of the teacher. Teacher preparation also relates to the cost of preschool education. Requiring higher standards of preparation will necessarily lead to staffing of centers by higher-paid personnel. A further issue is the relationship of preschool education to parents and families. Head Start programs were established as comprehensive early childhood centers, serving both children and families. Given the large number of single-parent families and isolated nuclear families, preschool programs could provide a necessary support for the development of families as well as children. Such an effort would require some changes in traditional thinking about preschool education. Bernard Spodek Bibliography: Balaban, Nancy, Starting School: From Separation to Independence (1985); Broman, Betty, The Early Years in Childhood Education, 2d ed. (1982); Day, Barbara, Early Childhood Education, 3d ed. (1988); Fontana, David, ed., The Education of the Young Child, 2d ed. (1984); Landreth, Catherine, Pre-School Learning and Teaching (1983); Osborn, D. Keith, Early Childhood Education in Historical Perspective, rev. ed. (1980); Ross, Elizabeth Dale, The Kindergarten Crusade: The Establishment of Preschool Education in the U.S. (1976); Seefeldt, Carol, ed., The Early Childhood Curriculum (1986); Spodek, Bernard, Teaching in the Early Years (1978); Tobin, Joseph J., et al., Preschool in Three Cultures: Japan, China and the United States (1989). See also: \Tplay\t (IN \Tbehavior\t); \Tprimary education\t.