Social Historical Perspectives Information Flashcards
Mid 19th century
enormous waves of immigration, increasing low cost laborers, industrialization, urbanization
Mid 19th century (details)
- led to an increase in problems never seen before
- reformers: mostly non-professionals (religious/political reasons)
- take it upon themselves to bring change
- THEORY OF INDOOR RELIEF: create physical institutions to control destitution
- Half Orphan Asylums (kids given up by families when they couldn’t care for them in hopes that when they could they could get them back eventually)
- OUTREACH starting (OUTDOOR RELIEF): districting, volunteers go out and provide help and materials
o Emotional support and support in child-rearing
o Pre-occupation with parenting started with these pressures
o Childrearing became main function of family
o New set of institutions created to PROTECT children and save them (later known as child welfare system) – notion of focusing on children
Scientific Charity Movement
: built on notion of self reliance, limited government! Carefully calibrated how much money or assistance we give
COS: charity organization societies
LED to the Scientific Charity Movement
built on notion of self reliance, limited government! Carefully calibrated how much money or assistance we give
COS: charity organization societies
Scientific Charity Movement
- charity must be given carefully, not whole-heartedly
- Day nurseries created: 1870s-18880s into 20th century
o Later became known as DAY CARE
o Designed to care for neglected kids as a family preservation strategy
o Privately funded, religious
o Investigation of families to determine whether or not their situation was deserving of services (later led to individualized efforts that we see today)
DEMARKATION POINT
late 19th century- shift from religious basis toward scientific basis to address social problems
- Emergence of a body of knowledge
- private charities
- develop moral nature of those you help
- personal relationship instead of viewing as “cases”
- dependent on donations
- concerned with distinction between deserving poor and undeserving
- belief that giving out charity without investigating would lead to dependence on alms giving
- charity visitors organized their activities and learned principles of practice and techniques of intervention
- profession of social work: developed from COS movement, settlement houses movement and development of institutions to deal with range of social problems (grew out of the church)
- social work has roots in social and economic upheaval
- aimed at directing/reforming individuals (now is more of a holistic approach)
NOW
recognition that poverty has social and economic basis rather than personal moral deficits
Purpose of pre-school: Child development focus
- infant schools in 19th century
- first pre-school programs
- idea of young kids being different and needing unique experiences
- started in Scotland and spread
- recognized kids ways are different, more play based
- started debate on what kids need!
- Idea of promoting preschool started 200 years ago!
- Preschool research all positive
- 1960s: preschool revolution occurred: for all classes, started as a rediscovery of poverty (WAR ON POVERTY)
- new view that environment plays a part (led to push for children living in poverty to attend preschool, view that intelligence was not fixed)
o
Head Start
Head Start: parenting support program
o Johnson as president- how to address poverty?
o Wanted to rely on education to address poverty!
o War on poverty led to educational opportunities
o Empower poor to learn how to solve problems
Now there is an academization of pre-school (Less self-directed play ore standards and assessments)
Nursery Schools (1910-1920s)
- forward looking institution
- preschool to prepare kids for society
- social elements
- psychological elements
- place for kids to act on world
Purpose of child-care
Purpose of child-care: to meet working families’ needs
- historically focused on harm of child care (however, now there are positive child development studies)
- A private activity but subject to public expectations
- Bulk of money is private, but some streams of government funding (child care and development fund, temporary assistance to needy families)
1950s
1950s: women in work force increased (safe place for kids to work out fears)
- now day care is a normative experience for many infants and toddlers
- question for caregiver: who am I supposed to be to this infant?
o Not teachers, not parents, but what?
o Lowest paid people, not a lot of incentive to go into this field
o Dissonance between working conditions and expectations
Montessori
: leading child through concrete experiences to more abstract levels, individualized, utilizing windows of opportunity for growth, prepared environments, working on their own, mixed age groups, self-paced (has influenced ECE)
- children as vehicles to change world
Dewey
experimental education, life experiences
- social experience
- grouped all kids together
- children seen as social beings, real world problem solving high lighted
- environment and adults need to extend child’s learning
- social constructivist approach
- has influenced formal education
- concerned about how to equip kids to address problems in world
- tried to connect home and school
Montessori and Dewey
: both interested in how to motivate kids
- different in views of larger world
- both recognized that kids have their own ways to act on world
- both put formal instruction aside!
Transition to School: Kindergarten
- separation, adjustment to new setting, differences in socialization strategies, longer hours, academic focus, rules, social experience, assessments/evaluations, about getting kids ready for whole schooling career, learning to do new tasks, sitting still, attending, controlling emotions, parents relinquish kids to other adults (a lot about parents too)
- Critical period theory: what kids don’t learn during this critical period will be harder to master later
- Transactional theory: bidirectional influences, child and environment influence each other
- Downward pressures of kindergarten
- A lot about social comparison
- School reflects our culture: competitive nature
- Most children start school feeling competent as learners and by the time they are in middle school, half feel like failures and feel incompetent in school
Kindergarten: emerged in 19th century
- viewed children as key to society and a better world
- Froebel: 1970
- Idealize early childhood
- Children carry weight of future
- Idea that children learn through play (by play he meant singing, dancing, manipulation of objects, story telling, not FREE PLAY)
- Children learn through acting on world
- Working with children (Froebel believed) involved and required special training (first significant early childhood workers)
- Part of school system or outside of it? Had to decide!
- 1960s: shift to more demands in K started
- now a days: readiness is tested in child… why just look at child? Why not look at institution too?
o Measures only have short term validity
o Long term: not predictive
