Introduction
The background of the system of the preschool education which we know today was made by Patty Smith Hill, a famous American activist in the sphere of education and nursing. Being a daughter of the Presbyterian priest, she was brought up by the principles of mutual benefit and the importance of education. The approach which Patty Smith Hill introduced to the educational system can be called as reformative and innovative.
The Life and Work of Patty Smith Hill
Patty Smith Hill was born on 27 March 1868 in the State of Kentucky in the family of the Presbyterian priest who was the founder of the Bellewood Female Seminary (Explore the laureate n.d.). Her father was strict and exacting; he taught Patty and her brothers and sisters to be dedicated to labor and learning. “Her mother, Martha, received college-level private tutoring at Centre College. Though earned, she never received a formal degree because she was a woman”
It should be noted that the equality of rights and duties of children was encouraged by the parents. The home commitments of boys and girls in the family were the same regardless of the gender. Undoubtedly, such progressive up-bringing of children influenced their future destinies. The mother strongly believed that the childhood is the period when the person should enjoy the pleasures in life if they did not contrast to the moral and ethical norms.
She encouraged her children playing various games to develop their independent thinking (Explore the laureate n.d.). “Even as Dr. Hill moved his family to serve different colleges throughout the United States, Mrs. Hill established extensive play areas at each new home”.
In 1887 Patty Smith Hill graduated from Louisville Collegiate Institute where she obtained her professional education (Explore the laureate n.d.). “The greatest influence on early childhood education of this time was Fredrich Fröbel, who started the first Kindergarten in Germany”.
Later, she became an assistant and a student at the Louisville Kindergarten Training School (Explore the laureate n.d.). It was the start of her brilliant career in education. After working as an assistant for some time, she became the supervisor at the Louisville Kindergarten Training School where she discovered she had talent teaching infants.
She had been working as a principle at the Louisville Kindergarten Training Schools for 12 years and “studied during the summer months with Hall, Dewey, Colonel Francis W. Parker, and Luther Gulick, the father of the U.S. playground movement” (Explore the laureate par.5). Later, Patty S. Hill joined Teachers College at Columbia University from which she retired in 1935. Patty Smith Hill died on 25 May 1946.