Heresy in Nursery School - The Bomb Throwers & Direct Teaching

Oct 13, 2026

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A critical discussion of early childhood learning argues that systematic efforts to stimulate cognitive growth soon after birth and during preschool years can foster rapid learning and enjoyment. It examines how psychologists and educators assess the effects of programs such as Head Start, the role of terminology about disadvantaged children, and why short-term gains may fail to persist. The text challenges assumptions that young children should be left to chance and explores direct teaching through illustrative classroom episodes.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages9

Reading Time23 min

AccessFree to download

Why Early Learning Matters

Measuring Effects and Long-Term Outcomes

Terminology and Poverty-Related Development

Disadvantaged vs. Culturally Deprived

Direct Teaching vs. “Chance” Learning

This issue of the Quarterly has to dowith organized efforts to stimulatethe mental growth of young humanbeings from shortly after birththrough early childhood.This fieldhas been drawing greatly increasedattention over the past few years. One reason why is that more psy-chologists have been making inten-sive studies of how people learn andare convinced that the years frombirth to around six are of criticalimportance for the individual'sfuture cognitive development.Psy- chologist Benjamin Bloom estimates that about 50 per cent of mature intelligence is developed by age four and another30 per cent by age eight.Some psychologists doubt whetherany amount of remedial work later on will enable a child todevelop intellectually to his full potential if he does not re-ceive the proper stimulation at the proper time—that is,veryyoung.While there is disagreement as to the optimum timefor beginning systematic learning,there is general agreementthat it has been a mistake to leave the intellectual develop-ment of young children almost entirely to chance. Furthermore,there is much evidence that children notonly can and do learn at an enormously fast rate in theirearliest years,but that they actually enjoy doing so.Somepsychologists believe that curiosity is almost as strong as themost basic of human drives,and it is a commonplace thatsmall children,as well as older ones and adults,take prideand pleasure in achievement.We stress this rather obviouspoint because much preschool education in the United Statesto date has seemed to be based on the supposition that littlechildren may be harmed in the psyche if systematic attemptsare made to help them learn.(A nursery schoolteacher washeard to remark,apropos of some four-year-olds who were receiving some help with numbers:"Children of that age CARNEGIE QUARTERLYCARNEGIE CORPORATION OF NEW YORK hether (and When)Little Children ShouldBe Helped to Learn the time they enter school.This is,of course,the reason forthe federally supported Project Head Start and other pro-grams which attempt to prepare “disadvantaged”childrenfor school before they reach it.(A word on terminology.Forseveral years,we have held out against using the phrases"culturally deprived”and“disadvantaged"to describe chil-dren whose parents have low incomes.We feel that thesegenteelisms are less accurate and more patronizing than astraightforward word like “poor,”which describes an eco-nomic state and suggests,by implication,the conditions thatoften accompany it:poor diet,crowded and noisy housing,a low level of education among parents and of intellectualexpectations for their children,a general lack of books andemphasis on language development.The euphemisms,how-ever,are now in almost universal use,so we reluctantly sur-render and choose,as the lesser evil,“disadvantaged”over“culturally deprived.”) There is now a great flurry of experimentation and re-search in early education,which should be all to the good.There are extremely important questions to which answersneed to be found.Remarkably little is known about how to stimulate cognitive developmient in little children,or how to measure it,for that matter.Little is known about the specific VOLUME XVII/NUMBER 1 WINTER 1969 should be out playing with theirlittle peers.”) Another major reason for the in-tense interest in early education isthe heightened public awareness ofthe relationship between povertyand the lack of certain kinds of men-tal development.Some psycholo-gists say that differences along classlines are apparent by the time chil-dren are less than two years old,and children from the lower socio-economic classes are,by and large,well behind middle-class children by In their book Teaching DisadvantagedChildren in the Preschool,Carl Bereiterand Siegfried Engelmann,two of themost controversial of the new breed oftheoreticians and practitioners,de-scribe their visit to a traditional,"successful"preschool for poor young-sters.The teacher proudly tells them

FAQs

Why does the text emphasize stimulating learning in very young children?

It argues that the years from birth to about six are critical for future cognitive development, and that children can learn rapidly and enjoy it when properly stimulated.

What does the document say about early education programs like Head Start?

It notes encouraging short-term progress for many children, but it also describes difficulty assessing long-term effects and reports that many children appear to fall back after leaving the program.

How does the document address differences related to poverty and development?

It highlights heightened awareness of the link between poverty and deficits in certain mental development and explains that children from lower socio-economic classes may show lag by very early ages.

Oct 13, 2026

Upload by Adam