Kindergarten

KINDERGARTEN, a public educational institution for part-time young children (in the USSR) from 3 to 7 years of age. Among other institutions of social education, the K. occupies an exceptionally important place, since it serves the period of life when the organism is distinguished by special plasticity, when the activity of apparatuses having decisive significance for the formation of personality develops with great speed and force: sensory, motor, emotional, and by the end of the period—higher nervous apparatuses. For the peasant and working family, the K. has enormous educational and socio-economic significance. Being a conductor of new cultural and hygienic forms of life, one of the most effective instruments for transforming the way of life, freeing the working mother and peasant woman, overloaded with domestic labor and petty household cares, from a heavy burden, the K. contributes to raising the working and peasant family to a higher cultural level and thus plays the role of an important, still inadequately evaluated factor in increasing the productive forces of the country. Historical information. The K. owes its name to Froebel (Froebel, 1782-1852). In 1837, Froebel opened the first K., and since then this name has been established in all countries for educational institutions for part-time preschool children. The spiritual father of the K. should be considered Heinrich Pestalozzi (Heinrich Pestalozzi, 1746-1827), whose pedagogical ideas and their practical application Froebel had the opportunity to become acquainted with. The honor of embodying the idea of public preschool education among the working masses belongs to the great social reformer-utopian Robert Owen (R. Owen, 1771-1858), who as early as 1816 addressed a letter to English workers, calling on them to send their children to the schools he had founded. At the present time, there is not a single cultural country in which K.s have not received more or less significant development. The picture of the most powerful development and flourishing of preschool education is given at the present time by the United States, where K.s, both quantitatively and qualitatively, leave Western Europe far behind. While in the countries of Western Europe, especially in Germany, the pedagogy of the K. shows signs of stagnation and the ideas of Froebel, progressive in their time, are turning into a dead letter and a craft technique, the American K. has undergone a great evolution. Thanks to the work of American pedologists and educators (St. Hall, Dewey and others), all the outdated methods and dogmas of Froebelianism were eliminated from the K. and replaced with more flexible and more vital principles and methods. Preserving and to a large extent embodying in life the main idea of Froebel—the idea of including the K. as an obligatory element in the general system of public education and upbringing—American preschool workers with great zeal within the limits limited by the prevailing bourgeois ideology, build K.s on the principles of strengthening the child's health, developing in him creative initiative, initiative and faith in his own strength. The American K. is distinguished by its rich, diverse and carefully thought-out equipment (especially—building material, which has met with sympathy and application among us as well). The ideas of Froebel penetrated into Russia in the second half of the 19th century, in the era of the birth of the populist movement. The first K. according to the Froebel system was opened in Petersburg in 1879. Until the beginning of the 20th century, all initiatives in the field of public preschool education, without having support among the masses and encountering opposition and persecution from the government, had a narrow circle and fragmented character. The revolution of 1905 gave a strong impetus to the public movement in the field of preschool education; in a number of cities, special societies and circles arise, journals appear, and for the first time the foundation of a popular K. is laid in the form of institutions of free K.s in Kiev, Samara, Odessa, Moscow, Petersburg, etc. The October revolution caused a revolution in the field of preschool education. For the first time not only in the history of Russian education, but also in world history, the power proclaimed the upbringing of the child from the earliest years of life a matter of not only state importance, but also state duty. From now on, on the path to the spread of K.s, to covering them with all the proletarian and peasant child population, in the USSR there are only factors of economic significance. The evolution of ideas of preschool education in the USSR has passed during the post-revolutionary years a long, winding, far from finished path. In the legacy from the preceding era came the ideas of free education, the extreme exponent of which was L. N. Tolstoy, who was under the influence of Rousseau. Subsequently, the conductor of the principles of free education in a more moderate form became the circle of educators, representatives of the radical intelligentsia, grouping around Shatsky and Shleger. The pedagogical principles of Shleger, according to which the child, his interests and needs should be at the center of the pedagogical process, and labor, play and art should serve as instruments of education, were officially recognized and approved already in the resolutions of the first post-October congress on preschool education (April 1919); but already at the II congress in 1921, free education was recognized as a 'reactionary utopia, the class roots of which are laid in the camp hostile to communism'. A fundamental revision of preschool work was undertaken at the III congress (1924), at which the above-mentioned triad of free education—labor, art, play—was replaced by another triad—activism, realism and collectivism. The main changes in the methods of work of the K. were the wide introduction into the life of the K. of elements of modernity (participation of the K. in revolutionary holidays, demonstrations, etc.) and the introduction into practical work of planning, programming and systematic accounting. In recent times, there is a tendency to build all the pedagogy of the K. on a strictly scientific pedological analysis of the peculiarities of the growing organism and the nature of the influence on it of the surrounding physical and social environment, to apply in the pedagogy of the K. the achievements of reflexology, psychology and experimental pedagogy, as well as to comprehensively penetrate the life of the K. with physical culture. There is no doubt that this tendency promises a further fruitful evolution of preschool pedagogy in the USSR. The K. as an instrument for the improvement of the masses. The K. should be regarded both as a center of culture and collective education and as a powerful instrument for the improvement of the masses. In order for the health-improving role of the K. to be performed most perfectly, it is necessary that the requirements of hygiene and prevention be assimilated not in a formal sense, but in their deep significance by the administrative bodies of preschool education, the pedagogical personnel of the K. and the broad masses of the population. The basic requirements that hygiene of education imposes on the K. are the following.—Choice of place for the K. When choosing a place for a preschool institution, the same requirements should be made as when choosing a place for a school building (to the soil, building materials, sources of water supply, etc.).—The planning of the K. building itself of the usual urban type (for 40-50 children) should be based on the need for the following parts: entrance hall, cloakroom, toilet (for boys and girls separately), three work rooms for 3 groups, play room, dining room, bathroom-washroom, duty room, which can also serve as a museum, room for medical examination, isolation room with a separate exit to the outside, kitchen, pantry, terrace. For the hygiene of preschool education, it is also important to pay attention to the following details. The cloakroom should be warm, light and spacious enough, since observations show that its crampedness is one of the sources of nervous excitement in children. Toilets must be necessarily light and spacious enough for the child to be able to observe cleanliness. From 6 years old, boys and girls use separate toilets. The volume in work rooms should be equal to 10 m³ per child (with a height of 3-3.5 m). In the dining room, and in other rooms intended for short-term stays, the specified norm can be reduced to 8 m³.—FURNITURE should correspond in its dimensions to the height and proportions of the children's bodies. In the K. there should be at least two types of furniture: for the younger group of children (3-5 years) and the older group (5-7 years). Furniture should not be uniform; it should differ in durability, simplicity and elegance of lines, be free from any unnecessary decorations (carving, etc.) and differ in relative lightness, so that the child can move it himself. Didactic material. To the didactic material, both natural and artificial, which the K. uses for educational purposes, hygiene and pedology impose a number of requirements: 1) the material must be free from any properties that can harm the child's health; 2) it must be in full accordance with the biological peculiarities of the preschool child at a given stage of his development. In particular, with respect to individual types of material, the requirements are as follows. 1.

The sand should be taken from a clean place, far from garbage and privy pits, and kept in a special box (outside wooden, inside zinc, with legs, height 30 cm, length 100 cm, depth 15 cm), the sand needs to be periodically moistened so that dust does not spread in the air, and every 3 weeks it should be changed or at least thoroughly washed. 2. Clay, valuable for its plasticity, is a relatively safe material; it is necessary to ensure that children suffering from questionable, in terms of infectiousness, skin diseases are not allowed to work with clay; the clay should also be periodically replaced with fresh clay. 3. Scrap material, which can be of great service to the educator, requires great caution from a hygienic point of view. One should not use junk and things whose origin is unknown. Scraps of fabrics, clothing, linen that have been worn should be subjected to the action of steam and ironing. 4. Building material. The irresistible attraction of children to wood and working with it indicates its high biological value. Sufficient richness and diversity of forms and sizes of building material is one of the basic conditions for its productive use by children. The forms and proportions of the building material should be simple, approaching geometric figures; the building material should not be too small. It is advisable that its use requires some effort and gives incentives for collective labor. However, the size and weight of individual cubes, prisms, cylinders, boards, beams, etc. should not create obstacles when moving and require excessive expenditure of strength. Maximum weight for the younger group 1.5 kg, for the older group 2.5 kg. The building material of American kindergartens deserves great attention. The building material should be kept clean; the surface of cubes, etc. should be smoothly planed, the paint should not fade and stain the hands. It should be borne in mind that green paints often contain poisonous substances. 5. For the development of muscles, coordination of movements and general strengthening of the health of preschoolers, the kindergarten should be supplied in sufficient quantity with balls, pins, sleds, ring toss, skis, etc. 6. The tools used in construction and other works should correspond to the structure and strength of children. The regime of the kindergarten should also be built on rational bases and in accordance with the biological and physiological peculiarities of the child's organism. The regime of the kindergarten cannot be carried out according to a firmly established scheme, mandatory under all conditions; it should change depending on the type of kindergarten, climatic, socio-domestic and local conditions, etc. Below is an approximate daily routine for two types of kindergartens, ordinary and extended, in the central zone of the RSFSR. Daily routine under the air (winter) regime. Ordinary kindergarten (from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.). 9 - 9¾ a.m. Gathering of children in the yard, rest in the yard. 9¾-10¼ a.m. Going into the house, inspection, washing hands, putting on smocks, breakfast, brushing teeth, cleanup for on-duty children, dressing. 10¼-12¼ p.m. Going out into the yard, rhythmic exercises (20-25 min.), free play, creative work, cleanup of the yard, organized activities, walk-15 min. for younger ones, 25 minutes for older ones. 12¼-1¼ p.m. Coming into the house, washing hands, dinner, mouthwash, preparation for sleep. 1¼-2¼ p.m. Sleep for all groups outdoors. 2¼-2¾ p.m. Going into the house, dressing. 2¾-4 p.m. Going out into the yard, from where parents pick up children. Under this regime, out of a total of 7 hours, children spend 4½-5 hours outdoors. Extended kindergarten (from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.). 8 - 8¾ a.m. Gathering of children in the yard, rest in the yard. 8¾-9 a.m. Going into the house, inspection of children, putting on smocks, washing hands. 9 -9¾ a.m. Breakfast, brushing teeth, cleanup after breakfast for on-duty children, dressing. 9¾-12¼ p.m. Children going out into the yard, caring for animals, rhythmic exercises (20-25 min.), free play, creative work, cleanup of the yard, organized activities, walk-15 min. for younger ones, 25 min. for older ones. 12¼-1¼ p.m. Coming into the house, washing hands, dinner, mouthwash, preparation for sleep. 1¼-2¼ p.m. Sleep for all groups outdoors. 2¼-3¾ p.m. Coming into the house, dressing, listening to music, looking at pictures, quiet activities, drawing, modeling. 3¾-4 p.m. Washing hands, afternoon snack, mouthwash, cleanup for on-duty children, dressing. 4 - 5 p.m. Going out into the yard, being outdoors, conversation, storytelling, children are left to themselves, going home from the yard. 5 - 6 p.m. Going out into the yard, being outdoors, conversation, storytelling, children are left to themselves, going home from the yard. Under this regime, out of a total of 10 hours, children spend 6½ hours outdoors. Physical culture. All elements of the kindergarten regime should be built on the principles of properly organized physical education. For this purpose, the main natural factors should be widely used in the kindergarten: air, water and sun. One should strive to make the regime of mass kindergartens approach the regime of children's institutions in the open air (forest schools). A necessary condition for achieving this goal is the presence of a veranda or awning in the yard, supply of the kindergarten with cotton bags that allow for daytime sleep and rest in the open air, and, what is especially important, the presence of a good and appropriately equipped yard. Nutrition. One of the most important elements of the correct hygienic regime in the kindergarten is the rational organization of nutrition. Depending on the type of kindergarten, children receive food there 2 or 3 times: 1) breakfast and 2) dinner or 1) breakfast, 2) dinner and 3) afternoon snack. The food should contain sufficient, but by no means excessive, amount of full-fledged proteins, about 50-60 g per day, of which 50% should be of animal origin. Fats have enormous importance for the correct nutrition of a preschool child as a source of energy and vitamins. The daily amount of fats should average 40 g. Liver fat, milk, cream, butter are rich in vitamins. Of the various kinds of fats, those containing phosphorus lecithins, which are abundant in egg yolk, cheese, caviar, oatmeal, beans and green peas, have special importance for the nutrition of a preschool child. Among carbohydrates, fresh vegetables and fruits have the greatest value due to their richness in vitamins, which should never be absent from the food. The attached (pp. 853-854) basic daily ration for a healthy child aged 3-5 years (younger group of kindergarten) and 5-8 years (older group) can serve as material for organizing nutrition in the kindergarten, with the calculation of half of the given daily ration for an ordinary kindergarten and ¾ of the ration for an extended kindergarten. This calculation, however, should not be applied mechanically; one must take into account that, as life practice shows, the additional food that the child receives at home is usually rich in carbohydrates, contains little protein and is very poor in fats. Types of preschool institutions. Along with the main type of institutions for preschool social education-kindergarten, urban and rural (in its two forms: ordinary kindergarten, functioning from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and extended kindergarten-at a factory, plant, functioning from 7-8 a.m. to 6 p.m.), living conditions have created the need in the USSR for the creation of other types of preschool institutions: preschool orphanage (for orphans and half-orphans, homeless and neglected children), preschool home (or extended kindergarten) for backward (defective or 'exceptional') children, kindergarten-sanatorium (or kindergarten in the open air) for exhausted and weakened preschoolers. Recently, under the pressure of difficult housing conditions, special substitutes for kindergartens ('primitives') are being created, such as children's corners and evening groups at clubs, cooperatives, children's rooms in housing association houses, etc. A promising form of pedagogical social assistance to the working population is the emerging pedagogical consultations in the USSR. Statistical data. According to the data of the Central Statistical Administration for 1926/27, there were 1,629 kindergartens and centers throughout the Union with 85,349 children, for 1927/28 in the RSFSR (together with autonomous republics)-1,137 kindergartens with 57,607 children, children's centers 259 with 14,050 children and summer preschool playgrounds 3,096, serving 167,322 children (preschool institutions serve no more than 0.6% of all preschool children in our country). The role of the doctor. The authoritative initiator and promoter of hygiene and physical culture in the kindergarten should be the doctor. Not only questions about the equipment and maintenance of premises, the rhythm of work and rest, but also the evaluation of didactic material, methods of educational use and study of children's games, rational organization of various works and activities, fall within the competence of the preschool doctor, who should give them the correct hygienic and biological interpretation. In order to meet the requirements posed by the peculiarities of the organization of the kindergarten, the doctor serving it must possess, besides thorough knowledge of the biological peculiarities of preschool age, knowledge of the basic principles and methods of kindergarten pedagogy. The fight against infectious diseases.

The characteristics of the age of children attending kindergarten make it not only a place where infections are frequently introduced, but also a possible source of their spread. In this area, the physician must take into account the special dangers that acute infections pose to children of the younger group in K., as well as to anemic children, those with poor nutrition, and those weakened by past illnesses; in relation to these children, measures of isolation and prevention must be carried out with special care. It must be remembered that the mortality rate of preschool children from acute infections such as measles, whooping cough, etc., is significantly higher than in subsequent years.

Difficult-to-educate children. The importance of K. in the problem of difficult-to-educate children has not yet been sufficiently evaluated. According to Arkin's data, the number of difficult-to-educate children in Moscow's K. averages 10-15%. Among the various types of difficult-to-educate children, two groups can be distinguished that may have a particularly harmful influence on the entire children's collective: 1) disorganizing children, who do not submit to discipline, are aggressive, and introduce chaos, disrupting any collective game or work, and 2) children with sharply expressed manifestations of prematurely awakened sexuality. It is precisely these groups that most often supply K. with children who do not belong there and who need to be directed to special institutions (and if such do not exist, then to free K. of them). The identification of "exceptional" children who are not adapted to the organization of life in an ordinary K. and to whom this life cannot also adapt, and the creation of special institutions for such children is currently one of the most pressing tasks of education, in the solution of which physicians have the most responsible role.

The work of the educator in K. The proper organization of K. and the productivity of its work depend to a large extent on the health of the teaching staff. It must be recognized that preschool pedagogical work, carried out among small children, noisy, extremely active, often nervously excited, easily susceptible to injuries and illnesses and therefore requiring constant attentive care and strained observation, places very great demands on the educator's strength and his nervous system.

Morbidity among preschool workers. Data from our investigations, as well as studies conducted by the psychiatric department of the Institute of Occupational Diseases in Moscow, indicate enormous morbidity among preschool educators, in particular the extremely widespread occurrence among them of nervous and mental diseases, often in severe form (schizophrenia, severe neuroses), as well as influenza and laryngitis. The hygiene physician must qualify preschool pedagogical work as work associated with significant occupational hazards, and the labor protection institutions must carry out corresponding measures. When determining the length of the working day and annual leave, providing preschool workers with places at resorts, sanatoriums, and rest homes, etc., it is necessary to take into account the above-mentioned difficult conditions of preschool work.