How Did Early Childhood Curriculum Evolve?
Prior to the seventeenth century, childhood was not generally considered a distinct phase of the life span. Children who survived the first years of life were quickly incorporated into the work routines that sustained the well-being of the family. However, beginning with the Enlightenment, thinkers like John Locke (16321734) and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121778) began to describe the period of childhood as developmentally distinct and significant.
The way we think about early childhood curriculum today is influenced by many ideas about childhood that have emerged and evolved since that time. The curriculum models and approaches we use today reflect ongoing work with young children in places as diverse as the tenements of Rome and the laboratory preschools of influential universities.