(successor, Childhood Education International) was an American organization established at Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1892, in the interests of concerted action among the supporters of the kindergarten cause.
July 1892, at Saratoga Springs, at the 32nd Annual Meeting of the National Education Association, a number of the Kindergarten teachers of the U.S. met together to consider a proposal of Sarah Stewart of Philadelphia to form an organization which should have two purposes.
[2] As a beginning, four distinct aims were stated:[1] The principles underlying the kindergarten system were the groundwork of modern primary education.
Its mission was to collect, collate, and disseminate the valuable knowledge already attained, and to inspire to greater and more intelligent efforts in the future.
It fell naturally into the spirit and method of the times, which was no longer that of isolated effort, but of concentrated, harmonious action.
It invited coöperation from public and private schools, churches, and benevolent societies of every kind and grade, which had for their object the educational interests of young children.
[1] The establishment of a high standard of training for the position of kindergarten teacher was long felt to be a necessity by those intimately connected with the work.
Each local center retained complete autonomy, and continued the activities which were begun before joining the general union.
It was hoped that not only finished products would be displayed, in well-graded sequence, but that practical illustrations of method would be given with the young children present.
The cities were the following: Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Providence, Rhode Island, Wilmington, Delaware, Albany, New York, Buffalo, New York, Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Toledo, Ohio, Cleveland, St. Louis, Missouri, Des Moines, Iowa, San Francisco, and Smyrna, Turkey.
Most of them responded promptly to the invitation to give reports of kindergarten progress in their countries, and expressed hearty sympathy with the movement.
was called for July 12, 1895, in Denver, and brought together a representative group of sixty kindergarten experts for a discussion of the intent and purposes of such a union.
Lucy Wheelock was selected to fill the vacancy of president, made by the resignation of Mrs. Sarah Cooper, at the spring meeting held in Washington in connection with the National Woman's Council.
There were nineteen committees, working in the interest of Hygiene, Child Study, Experimental tests, Arts, Science, Home and School Philanthropy, and Social Service.