Nursery World - Lessons from the past

The work of early years pioneers shows that change is always possible, says Professor Cathy Nutbrown

With continued confusion and contradiction about who teaches young
children and the status of those working with young children, I have
been looking back at the work of early childhood education pioneers and
thinking about their legacy.

Margaret McMillan was described by JB Preistley as 'a nuisance who worked miracles'. Her first nursery school was established with her sister Rachel in 1913 in Deptford, London, an area of deep poverty. Emphasising health and well-being as essential to learning, Margaret wrote in the Bolton Evening News, 'The open-air nursery school has come into existence to deal with causes. That is a real mission. It is going to take the child before disease has got a strong hold on it when it is only two years of age, and everything is promising. And it will get hold of the young mother when she, too, is plastic. These two members of society are going to be dealt with face to face, heart to heart, and hand to hand.'

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