Spread of infant schools outside Britain and Ireland

The movement was influential globally over subsequent decades with schools being founded across Europe, the British empire and the United States.

Infant schools were used by missionary groups in an effort to convert the empire's non-Christian subjects.They inspired the creation of Salles d'asile; a type of facility for young children developed in France from 1826.

The movement also spread to the United States but quickly disappeared after a backlash against young children being educated outside the home.

[4][5][6][7] The first infant school in Great Britain was established in 1816 for the children of mill workers in New Lanark, Renfrewshire in Scotland.

[9][10] Early childhood education was a new concept at the time and seen as a potential solution to social problems related to industrialisation.

[11][12] A theory developed of how infant teaching should ideally be conducted — this included moral education, physical exercise and an authoritative but friendly teacher.

Infant schools were quickly founded across Europe, the British Empire and the United States in the decades after the first establishments in Great Britain.

In various countries, the number of infant schools expanded quickly for a period before enthusiasm declined and expansion slowed down.

Historians have attributed the international appeal of infant schools to multiple factors; an ambition to expand Christian faith, greater interest in the development of young children, a desire to improve the moral character of society as a whole and the working classes especially.

For instance, in 1855, the government of Victoria, in modern Australia, wrote to the central education authority in England and Wales requesting two trained teachers to run a model example of an Infant School.

[17] Some planation owners in the British West Indies established infant schools for enslaved children before they were put to work on the plantations.

Plantation owners and colonial officials in the West Indies usually opposed missionary infant schools.

More plantation infant schools were established following the end of slavery in 1833; to encourage the freed workers to remain working there and spread Christianity among their children.

[19] American opinion was open to the idea; the United States was experiencing similar economic changes to Britain at a slower pace and a more sentimental view of childhood was beginning to develop.

[23] Infant schools were established by a diverse range of groups and appealed to families of various economic backgrounds,[24] though they were primarily for the poor.

No formal training was available for infant teachers in the United States, who were often inexperienced young women, so they tended to rely on books of this nature.

[27][28] Some infant schools emphasised play while others focused on academic study; parents often wanted their children to be strictly disciplined and taught how to read.

[29] May, Kaur and Prochner describe the chapters it was organised into:[29]... (1) the Opening of the School with hymns and prayers; (2) Arithmetic utilizing a Numeral Frame, and Geography, taught with children in the gallery and the teacher using pasteboard shapes and figures; and (3) Natural History using pictures and an analytical system ('What is this?

[35] The American infant school movement was largely forgotten, rarely mentioned in literature from the middle decades of the 19th century.

[36] Writing in 1986, Pence argued that a worry that young children being cared for outside the home might undermine the family continued to be theme in American public debate throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

[66] One unusually detailed account of an infant school timetable suggested they were teaching a similar curriculum to their British counterparts.

[74] Infant methods were introduced into missionary schools near the Bay of Quinte in Upper Canada by Methodists from the United States.

[75] This group established temporary missionary settlements with the aim of completely surrounding converts with a new way of life,[76] education was considered important for reinforcing this.