KINDERGARTENS

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 401, 7 April 1937, Page 2

KINDERGARTENS

NEW EDUCATIONAL IDEAS Report to Association In presenting a report to the New Zealand Free Kindergarten Association, of the educational idsas she had studied during her tour of America, England and Scotland, under the auspices o fthe Carnegie Fellowship, Miss Constance Colegrove laid great stress on initial differences between the English and American methods of child education. In England, on the whole, said Miss Colegrove, the sysltem was based on the provision of (a good physical environment, and an adequate hygienic training while in the States, the main emphasis was laid on the psychological knowledge gained .through recent studies in this field. The standard of entrance for teacher training in kindergarten and nursery school work, she pointed out, was higher in the States and in Eng land than in New Zealand, but the students, while being more highly trained in theoretical work, did not get the same practical experience thait wa; offered in this country. “If New Zealand is to keep in line With what is being done in other countries, she must make further provision for offering the amenities to a larger number of children of pre school age,” said Mies Colegrove. Nursery Schools Established. Great strides had been made in England in the last few years in the establishment of nursery schools and nursery classes', and 'the Government and local authorities seemed alive to the fact of the necessity for, and the value of, providing suitable educational facilities for the children of three to five years' of age. So-me very fine buildings had' been erected recently, some were in the process ’□£ being built, and many old buildings •were being altered and modernised. _Large sums of money had been, and are still being apt nt. Miss Colegrove continued Ith'at in New Zealand we thought of kindergar en children as being 3 to 5 years of age. In the States, kindergartens mostly took children from 5 to 6, and the nursery schools took the children from 3 to 5, and in some cases from 2 to 5. One heard far more of the nursery schools dhan of kindergartens, it ‘being n newer idea, and a different conception of the educational nerds of children based on the recent studies it psychology. Up-to-d.-ite kindergartens, of course, tried to follow modern procedures. There w re tw(o types of nursery schools in the States, those for the children of ’.he well-todo, which were mostly in

eonneqtion with universities and colleges, and were often used as demon stration schools and laboratory centres, and the emergency nursery schools. These latter had been established during the last three or four years by the Federal Relief A.s&ociation, to meet/ two needs—to provide positions for teachers who were unemployed and to take care of the children of relief workers.