Early childhood education in the 70's: A view from NEA center

Abstract

At NEA Center, the importance of early childhood education has long been an accepted fact. Since 1884 when the Kindergarten Department was organized as a result of a meeting of the Froebel Institute of North America, the National Education Association has given moral as well as financial support to maintain a program for its members professionally involved in the education of young children. The organization with which I am associated is an outgrowth of the Kindergarten Department. Only during recent years, however, has the representative assembly of the NEA gone on record as supporting early childhood education for all children thus giving the NEA officers and staff the green light to plan action programs to illustrate the intensity of the NEA's concern for the education of children before the first grade. The NEA, however, is only one of the organizations housed at NEA Center in Washington, D.C. Many of the 34 other departments, affiliates, associated organizations, and institutes affiliated with the NEA have also recently revealed an increased interest in the education of young children. These organizations, such as the American Association of Elementary-Kindergarten-Nursery Educators (E/K/N/E), work independently as well as cooperatively with the NEA to promote expanded and improved educational programs for young children. Since this issue of the JOURNAL is designed to give a report on where we are in January 1971, and where we should be going in the 70's, I'd like to share with you in more specific terms some of the recent events at NEA Center related to early childhood education and then to share with you my thoughts concerning what professional organizations must do if this is to be the decade in which early childhood education is to become available to all children throughout the United States.