DOCUMENT RESUME ED221 304 PS 113 081 AUTHOR Gardiner,'Lyndsay- TITLE The Free Kindergarte'n tylion of ViCtoria, 1908-80. INSTITUTION Australiai Council for Educational'aesearch,; Hawthorn.' REPORT NO ISBN-0-85563-244-5 UB DATE 82 OTE 241p, AgLABLE FROM Australian Council for Educational Research, 9 Frederick Street, Hawthorn,,Victoria 3122, Australia (no price quoted). EDRS PRICE MF01 Plus Postage. PC Not Available from EDRS. USCRIPTORS Community Actioni Educational Administration; *Educational ,E4-vilopment; Educational Finance; *Educational History; *Educational Innovation; Foreign Countries; Government Role; *Kindergarten; *Preschool Education; *Private Education; State Action IDENTIFIERS. *Australia (Victoria) ABSTRACT The social history of the Free Kindergarten Union of the State of Victoria, Australia, from inception in 1908 to the year 1980 is recorded in this book. Growth of the union is described within the context of the World Wars, the Depression, and urbanization and industrialization. The story begins with .- volunteerism and philanthropy, and with four kindergartees attempting to meet the needs of impoverished children. By mid-century the Unidn . had become an influence on government and throughout.society. Some of its ventures (the training of teachers, medical and dental inspection of preschool children, and funding of kindergartens and.their staff) have become government functions. Peaking at 89 member kindergartens in 1975 and facing increasingly high costs, overdrafts, and lack of management experience in local parent committees, the union persisted in pioneering efforts by also venturing into the field of preschool education for migrant children. Within this account other situations unfold, such as the conflict between popular and inexpensive full-day childminding and the more expensive educationally oriented preschools. More than a general survey, this work gives numerous details, providing, for example, particulars indicating the impact on staff of John Bowlby's research,and showing the positive influence of the "Kindergarten of the Air" rad,iojprogram on parents' attitudes toward kindergarten. (RH) ***************************************************************A****** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best,that can be made from the original doc ent. ******************************** ******* **************************** I . ' U.S. DEPARTMESOF OF EDUCATI9N NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER IERIC) This document has been relpfdttuced as rot roved from the person or organization originating it XMinor changes have he'en made to improve I. reproduf tipn quality Points of view or.winions stated in this docu ment do not necessarily represent official NIE THE position Or policif FREE KNDERGARTENUNION f OE VICTORIA 3 1908-80 %. P CD Ci , Lyndsayo Gardiner "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL IN1011CROFICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY a inrxsu we/ACEK TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)." Australian Council for Edudational Research Published by The Australian Council for Educational Research Radford House, Frederick Strget, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122 Printed and bound by Brown Prior Anderson Evans Street, Burwood, Victoria 3125: Maps drawn by Peter Buckmaster 1 National Library &Australia1 Cataloguing...in-Publication data. Gardiner, Lyndsay, 1927-. The Free Kindergarten Union of Victoria I 908-80. Bibliography. In eludes index. ISBN 0 85563 244 5 I. Free Kindergarten Union of Victbria History. 2. Ethrcation, Preschool Victoria History. I. Australian Council for Educational Research.',11. Title. 372 . 2106094,5 Copytight © 1982 Lyndsay Gardiner A t) 4 Contents Introduction Chapter I. Growing Pains The Union to 1912 8 Chapter 2 The TrainingProblem 1912-l7 24 Chapter 3 The Early Kindergartens1912-20 37 Chapter 4 The College between the Wars 53 Chapter 5 Kindergartens between the Wars. 72 Chapter 6 World War II Expansiori E9try of the Health Department 99 Chapter 7 Snakes and Ladders The College to 1957 .118 Chapter 8 War's End to Jubilee 1945-59 134 Chapter 9 New Pastures 1960-72 157 Chapter 10The Hungry Watch-dog 1973-80 185 199 , Notes and References Bibliography 226 Index 230 Maps 13 1 1912 2 1920 45 3 1-940 77 .4 1946 107 5 ,1959 135 6 1960-73 168 '1 `am Acknowledgments Many people have assisted me withtheir personal reminiscences; and with, field unravellingte organizational andfinancial complexities ofihe pre-school in Victoria.hese include: Miss Dorothy Armstrong, MissMargaret Brumley. the late Miss Lalene Cairns-Litiyd. MissMadeline Crump. Mi'sBellaiturnick, Mrs E. V. Dare. Mrs Frances Derharn.MisRuth Drake. Miss Anne Dreyer. Mrs Agnes Farrance. Miss Zoe Glanville,Miss Winifred Griffiths. Miss Mary Ann Hayes. Miss Florence Kendall,Miss Kathleen, Kenny. Mrs Lorna Kilvingtori, Miss Heather Lyon. Mrs MargaretMacneil. Miss Dora Monroe. Lady Paton. Miss Helen Paul. Miss HelenSage. Professor R. W. Selleck.Miss Betty Sommerville. Dr Andrew Spiiull, DrIsla Stamp. Miss Beth Stubbs, Miss Agnes Sutherland. Ihe late MissEva Walker. Miss Margaret Yule. I want to 'thank them all for their hely, and tothank 'also the president of .the FKU.Mrs Esma Kelso, and rnembers of the executive,'and Miss Moorhead, the present Director, and all her supervisors, as well asthe Union's office staff. whd have been unfailingly patient. helpful, and cheerfulcompanions. My husband has, to date, TA:fused acknowledgment of assistance with anyof my books: this time. he is being over-ridden. How could Iproduce a book. I wonder, withouthis sharp ere aria trenchant criticism..? a 4 Abbreviations AAPSCD Austialian Associatioh for Pre-Sehmol-Child Development ACER Australian Council for Educational Research APA Australian Pre-school Association COS Charity Organisation Spciety FKU Free Kindergarten Union IECD Institute of Early Childhood Development , KTC Kindergarten Training College MKTC Melbourne Kindergarten Te-achers College MRC Multicultural Resource Centre NEE New Education Fellowship 46. I) Introduction Our story begins-in a society witt.foufkindergartens. Melbourne's children,,in the first decades of hcr history, 'just growed'.Some priyate individuals'opened small educational *establishments; presentlythe churches and the state took a hand un'til, by 1880, all children aged six yprsand over were-legally required But there was little if any' thought forthe - . to attend some 'place of learning'. under-sixes. To be sure, their way into theworld was eased with the opening in 1856 of the Lying-in Hospital,while assorted Foundlihg Homes and Orphanages, uSnally under the auspices of areligious denomination, cared frit' those children whose parents either could orwotild not do sothemselves: This was all Rather, perhaps, one should say, it was 'all'for the vast majority of.Victorian. children . Some few, thc off-spring ofbette'r-off parents in middle-class suburbs had/towards the close of last century. the benefitof the.New Education nuive7 ment spreading from Europe toEngland, and so to other westernitypcsocieties) For the prc-school child, this NewEducation began with the work of Friedrich Froetiel (1782-1852), a German teacher of the first halfof the nineteenth century. who klieved intensely,with almost mystical fervour, infhe.impor. ,tance of the early training of thechildnot in a4system of rote learning nor in. stnct discipline, but in a gradual processof growth. The child, to Prochcl,: was like a flower: the task of the educator was toprovide the appropriate climate, soihrconditions in which the flower wouldflourish..Suitable places for play and rest, suitable equipmentgifts, hecalled themgentle direction: these were the essentials if children were to growlike'flowers in a garden. Thus the tee k nude, .1.:01 len ( molt institutions which were developed hv lollowers otroebel were -known as indergartens Pritam's first kindergarten was opened. inI avistock Place in I.ondon in 1 X6-4. and (*harks I kens in Household Words: commended it arid Prochehan philosophy to his feildersI he language seems saccharine and sentimental to our eacs. attuned to the «wler sn. ,entilic termmology of psychologists, but.the message is the same there would.be fewer sullen, quarrelsome dull witted mai and womenif there Were fewep children starved .or led improperl y.in hear] and brain', he Wrote, and again, 'Ihe first so.routings of the human Mind need thoughtful Lulture, there is no period of life, indeed, in which culture is so essential And wt. in nine out 01 ten cases, it is precisely while the little blades 01 thought and buds of love are f fad and tender, that no heed is taken to maintain the soil about them wimlesome, arid the air about them.free from blightMore particidarlv. he explained that it was Proebel*s purpoSe 'to show the direr non in whiih it Was most thettll to proceed, how hest to assist the growth of the mind hv following the maicattons nature furnishes% :and pro ceded to describe how use of Froehel's gifts leaves 'the child prompt for subsequent instill( tiori. dreadv comprehending the elements 01 a rood deal of k now ledge - Nearls sixty wars later and over twelve thousalid miles away. Miss Mary ush, one of the earliest Melhourne kindergartener's, explained how she saw the Froehelian ideal applied to industrial Melbourne. Cities, she said, present. held ut ookien oppoetimits to the hindernartensIhe t its ens nonment was dis Astro'', to ph% sit al weltare unhealthy s'hIldrett ytoth iriIntlo ners011s..lineeelopt:d orlu'llI he ex, nementt Me (In OW it streets produt orrtpe of mind linable