UpDate - Vol. 14, No. 7, Page 8
October 13, 1994
Memory lane; Moments recalled as preschool marks anniversary
The Laboratory Preschool in the College of Human Resources will
celebrate its 60th anniversary with a variety of events during
Homecoming weekend on the campus.
From 1-4 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 23, on the preschool grounds outside
of Alison Hall on Academy Street, family entertainment will include
storytelling, the Bubble Man, puppet shows, music and songs. Alumni
and their families are especially encouraged to attend and bring back
photos from pre-school days.
The Laboratory Preschool began as a children's play group in the
1930s. Early newspaper and departmental reports from the late 1930s
and early 1940s recount the school's beginning.
According to one account:
Ten small Newark children have been enjoying play school
day on Saturdays during the spring in the practice house of
the home economics department at the Women's College of the
University of Delaware. One of the children has called the
play school, "The Little College."
This play school was started because the class in child
development discovered that it knew almost nothing about
small children. Books tell one what children are like, how
they grow, what they eat, what they wear, but as one student
said, "How do we know? And, besides, no two children are
alike!"
So to get first-hand experience with small children, to
observe how the principles learned in class are put into
practice, to see the differences as well as the similarities
in children, the play school was organized under the
direction of Miss Henrietta Fleck, instructor....
A mid-morning lunch of fruit juice, tomato juice or milk
was served. Each child sat at a table of the correct height
and poured his own cup of milk or juice. Children who
disliked what was being served, contentedly drank it because
the other children were enjoying theirs and because it was
so much fun to pour one's own....
The 16 college girls who are observing the children are
assigned duties such as serving the beverage, helping with
toilet activities and preventing unfair play.
That first class of 3-year-olds included five boys and five girls
and was so successful that by 1935 the laboratory was being offered
for two periods a week each semester. The University Archives contains
a request made in 1935 for a fully equipped nursery school.
An article written by a Hester Smith in 1938 details a day in the
life of the preschool:
"Good morning, Peter! Good morning, Diane!" It is a sunny
Monday morning at 10 o'clock and play school in the Home
Economics Practice House on the Women's College campus is
about to begin....
The procedure upon entering play school is for each child
to take off his outer garments and hang them on his own
hook. Miss Baker, the school nurse, then examines them for
sore throats or any ailments which might be infectious to
the other children. They then go to a little table and pour
themselves fruit juice.
If the day is warm and the weather permissible, they go
into the yard where there is various outdoor equipment. If
the weather is inclement, they go upstairs and play with
indoor toys. Before going home at 12 o'clock, they either
listen to the Victrola or are told stories. Then down the
stairs they go, don their wraps, and run to meet their
parents-ready for lunch and an afternoon nap.
An article in The University News from April of 1940 records a
new location and some changes to the school in five years:
Time rings the changes! Can this be Room 10, Science
Hall? Have the students' chairs and the professor's table
shrunk into these bits of furniture? Perhaps some wizard has
changed the tripod holding maps of the world into the small
easel in the corner and the pens and tests and notebooks of
generations of students into these bright toys and colorful
books and pictures?...
Yes, for this is the laboratory of HE 322, Child
Development- headquarters of Play School for the present
semester.
What to do if 3-year-old Alice cries when her mother
leaves her and if Johnny takes toys away from other children
are merely two of the problems in pre-school education that
are studied by students in the course. The answers are put
to a real test in the school of 12 children between the ages
of 2 and 4 years.
In addition, observations are made in regard to
personality traits, ability to coordinate, vocabulary,
sentence structure, span of interest, memory, development of
imagination, habits and degree of independence. A special
study is also made of play equipment suitable for this age
group.
The children who attend Play School also share in the
benefits. They have an opportunity to play with children of
their own age and thereby learn much that cannot be learned
from adults; they acquire independence; they have access to
play equipment which is suitable to their age and size and
is developmental in nature; they progress physically and
they form good habits.
The work in child development is just a small part of a
large whole by which the School of Home Economics strives to
fit all of its majors for two professions- homemaking and
another which is dependent upon the field of specialization
in college.
A report from the School of Home Economics reports that "In 1940
a special federal grant and the gift of an interested friend made
possible one of Miss (Amy) Rextrew's long-sought goals, the addition
of a specialist in child development and family life and the
subsequent establishment of a nursery school."
Accounts of life in nursery school in the 1950s can be gleaned
from these letters written by alumni to Alice Eyman, director of what
is now called the Laboratory Preschool.
Michael Munroe, now of Lakesville, Mass., recently wrote:
I went to the University of Delaware preschool on Academy
Street for three complete terms, in 1955, 1956 and 1957....
Newark was a great place to grow up, and the University
campus was the best part of it. I don't believe that any
years were happier than those I had in nursery school. I
liked the red building with the ladder to the top. I liked
painting the equipment with brushes and water in warm
weather...
I liked the metal slide when it was new. That must have
been in 1957, my last year. (When we got the metal slide we
kept a pet rabbit in a cage beneath it.) Inside, I remember
the BIG wooden blocks the best; I hope they still have them.
I wish that the preschools my boys went to had that kind. We
used to make the outline of a boat that several of us could
get inside of.
I liked juice and cookies and having our backs rubbed on
the mats when it was nap time; that was just about the best.
It was the last time a teacher ever encouraged me to sleep
in class. Of course the young, enthusiastic, friendly co-eds
were the best. I am sure I was in love with most of them
each year.
...There was always something to do as a child on the
University of Delaware campus, and all the fun began with
the University of Delaware Laboratory Preschool.
Another point of view was expressed by a University alumna who
worked in the preschool and also wrote to Eyman. Pat Childs, Delaware
'76 '78M, now of Tucson, wrote:
In reading the "Alumni Brief" the other month in the
University of Delaware Messenger, I came across the blurb
about the lab school turning 60 and felt both old and young...
I was happy to hear that you are still the director and so
many good memories came back to my experiences both in your
class and student teaching. What I would learn in both I'd
carry with me every day of my life, both when I was able to
teach and now that I've had to retire, but volunteer as
often as possible.
I'll never forget that constant voice saying, "What's
another way you can do that?" Sometimes I hadn't a clue, but
it forced me to seek alternatives both with the children and
with my own personal challenges of dealing with severe MS....
The other most poignant reminder of my experiences with
the lab school was the freedom to be myself and create my
own teaching style.... You respected individual differences in
not only the kids but the student teachers, and for that
I'll be forever grateful.
For more information on the University's Lab School or its
anniversary celebration, call 831-8555.
-Beth Thomas