History of Early Childhood Education in the United States

The origins of the early childhood program movement in the United States can be traced to the religious, philosophical, political, and industrial revolutions that transformed Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. Some of the influential theorists who have contributed to the field of early childhood include Johann Amos Comenius (1592–1670), a Moravian bishop; John Locke (1632–1704), an English philosopher and physician; Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), a German philosopher, writer, and composer; Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827), a Swiss pedagogue and educational reformer; Robert Owen (1771–1858), a Welsh social reformer; Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (1782–1852), a German pedagogue and a student of Pestalozzi; John Dewey (1859–1952), an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer; Maria Tecla Artemesia Montessori (1870–1952), an Italian physician and educator; Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), a ...