ABSTRACT
The French educational system is currently under pressure to extend nursery education to two-year-olds. This pressure is based in particular on the argument that the school environment might be an effective substitute for the home environment, especially when the latter does not appear to give the child sufficient stimulation (families from socially disadvantaged backgrounds and families where the language spoken at home is not French). As regards the functioning of the school system, there have been many cases where a clear divergence has been shown to exist between ‘commonly held’ opinions and objectively measured facts so that it would seem desirable not to confine oneself to opinions. On this question of the effects of nursery school for two-year-olds, it has therefore seemed necessary to look for facts which might support these opinions or, on the contrary, contradict them.
