Education, RattleBag and Rhubarb

Child Education Magazine – a window on the past

On my recent visit to England I came across a small trove of Child Education magazines (published by Evans Brothers Ltd. of Russell Square, London) from the early 1960’s.

They had belonged to my mother – a regular subscriber – who looked forward to reading each edition.

Although she was by then near the end of a long career as an early childhood educator (her first appointment was in 1935)  she remained an avid learner, always ready to add ideas and activities to her extensive repertoire of teaching techniques.

What is striking about these magazines is what they imply about the teachers who read them.

Each edition is packed with practical ideas for music, art, crafts, science as well as reading and numbers.  There are songs, poems, stories and all kinds of background on harbors and tugboats and bridges and trains and life on the farm.

Each edition contains ideas and background for nature study – butterflies, bird migration, river life – and not a worksheet in site. There’s a strong emphasis on music, poetry, movement and the natural world.

Children, it seems, were expected to be in classrooms that were rich with creativity, wonder and activity.

This is from the  Museum of Childhood (UK) which recently acquired another seventy-five editions of the magazine from 1950-1975 :

The readership of Child Education must have been lively, interesting teachers, passionate about trying new things and doing the best for the children in their tutelage. Articles on emerging psychological theory, educational spaces, and pedagogy give an academic underpinning to the crafts and poems printed to be cut and copied.

The Colour Factor Set in Historical Perspective

We think of the sixties as a time of great change in education and elsewhere. And so  it was. The Plowden Report – Children and their Primary Schools was soon (1967) to extol progressive  approaches to education, stressing that “at the heart of the educational process lies the child”.

And while these editions harken back to a more traditional time in the poetry and music there are references to immigration and social change as well as more timeless concerns about mixed-age groupings, child psychology, managing difficult children and creating classroom community.

Clearly, Child Education was reaching out to an audience and serving the needs of creative and forward-looking  teachers open to new ideas and interested in how best to teach young children.

This article The Colour-Factor Set in Historical Perspective is a fascinating on the origins of math manipulatives. We take them for granted now but we can thank Froebel and other progressive educators for introducing them to the classroom.

I love the way the article begins:

Every development in the field of teaching aids rests upon the inventive insight of known and unknown educationists of bygone days, without whose work that development could not have taken place.

It’s easy to smile as some of material. This riveting – the story of Bess and Jim – aid for beginning readers for example. But that said, it behooves us to remember, and build on, the best of the past just as we devise new ways to do the same old work.

And there’s one more aspect of the magazine that noteworthy:

Take a look at this small child playing with fire. She’s serious, intent on her work, safe and clearly deemed capable of behaving responsibly.

That edition from the Museum’s collection (not mine) is from 1953  when it seems to me that children had all kinds of freedom to run wild and their parents had very little.  That balance seems to have flipped .

 

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7 thoughts on “Child Education Magazine – a window on the past

  1. I was interested because my auntie who died in 2005 was a subscriber. One thing I was trying to find out was whether she got a children’s record from 1967 called A White Bear For Christmas from the magazine. Anyone any ideas? Chris

  2. The magazine was actually published from 1924 to 2011 and it’s master stroke was that it contained beautiful pull out full colour posters for the classroom walls. I subscribed from 1984 until it went out of print and I also inherited all my aunt’s collection meaning I have an uninterrupted collection from 1935 to 2011. I still use the magazines and the posters in my teaching. The magazine is still available but only as an online version. I shall donate all my older ones to the collection when I find the time.

  3. Child education is really important and every children should get education so that they can have better opportunity and can get better life standard..This is really important to make Good child education planning so that you have adequate money and at the right time.

    1. A good early childhood (and beyond) education is the right of every child. All children should have that opportunity in any developed and decent society. We ALL benefit from a well-educated, healthy and cared for community. So education should not be some kind of privilege for the few but the birthright of every child. It’s an investment in our collective future. Failure to do can only lead to social collapse and a nightmare world for all of us.

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