ABSTRACT
Elinor Goldschmied is a lesser known Froebelian pioneer in the world of childcare and early education whose principles and practice with babies and young children have great relevance. This chapter presents biographical detail of Goldschmied and her work. It draws on material from films made or directed by Elinor in Italy from 1952 and in Britain, Spain and America where she continued making films from 1986 to 1993. Before she died in 2009, Elinor bequeathed all her films to be used by early years students, families, educators and scholars as part of the Froebel Archive collection. In her films, Goldschmied guides students and puts into practice her firmly held beliefs about holistic development, emotional well-being and the learning of young children from the beginning of their lives. Goldschmied said that the philosophy of Frederich Froebel and those other early childhood pioneers closely matched her own beliefs about early childhood development.
