ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors look to the end product of the educative process, the adolescent and the mature adult, in order adequately to formulate the goals of education; these distant goals must be kept in mind as the authors devise aims and methods for the pre-school years. The national preoccupation with early childhood education is thrusting developmental psychologists and educators into a realm where few have dared to tread the sanctity of early childhood. Most early theorists who considered the problem of cognitive development during childhood concluded that learning tend to follow relatively predictable patterns, and that the rate of development is determined by the more or less permanent intellectual level of the child. The time of earliest learning is thought, conjecturally at least, to occur in the prenatal period. Neonates have been demonstrated to exhibit considerable learning potential. The authors explore little about the long-term stability of early education programs.
