INFANT SCHOOL. An educational, or rath er charitable institution, which sprang up dur ing the latter part of the eighteenth and early part of the nineteenth century, at first on the Continent, and later in Great Britain, and in the United Stales. The object was to care for neglected children of early age, especially those of factory women, who were left with few physi cal comforts and no moral oversight. Such chil dren were gathered I ,gether during the day, and, in order to render their care less irksome, they were taught to march, to perform simple gymnastic exercises, to sing simple songs, to re peat the multiplication taldes, names of the days of the week, and similar things, and in later years at some places to read and sew. The edu cational purpose was purely secondary, at least until the influence of the Pestalozzian ideas pre vailed in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. There is no historic connection with the origin of the kindergarten (q.v.).
The first. infant, school was founded in 1780 by Oberlin (q.v.), the pastor of Walbac-h in France. Tie appointed women in his own parish to as semble the children between the ages of two and six and to interest them, by conversation, in pic tures, maps, sewing, etc. In Great Britain the first infant school was due to Robert Owen, opened in connection with his communistic es tablishment at Lanark. Scotland. In 1827 the Glasgow Normal Seminary was founded by David Stowe to carry out this idea of the infant school. In 1819 a similar school was established in London in charge of Wilderspin. under the patronage of such men as James Mill, Zachary llaeanlay. and Lord Brougham. I It her schools soon followed, and in 1836 this movement was unified in the forma tion of the "Dome and Colonial infant School So ciety," which contributed more than any other instrumentality to the extension of the infant school by training teachers and instituting model schools. Up to this time the movement had suc ceeded by keeping dist inet the processes of train ing and instruction, and by not attempting any educational work of the latter character. The
society was the outgrowth of the influence of the :Nlayos, brother and sister. one of whom land been a student of Pestalozzi at Vverdon. There after the work of the infant school was to in clude iustrnetion after the Pestalozzian methods. 'Under the educational grants of Parliament, many infant schools were and espe cially since the lloyal Commission of 1858-61 tl ey may be considered as a component part of the British school system. In Continental Eu rope it is the kindergarten built upon Troche Ilan lines that is very generally established. In France, however, the public oleic. which is for children of two and three years of :ult., is very general. The ecolc enfantine for children of four and five years of age is a kindergarten. Such schools, as distinct parts of school systems. will he described ender the title NA-riox.Yr, TION. SYSTEMS OF. The term infant school is or dinarily restricted to the type of charity-grant schools of England. In the United States the first infant school was established in Boston. in 1826. under A. B. Alcott. While this school was a marked success, and there were numerous similar attempts in various other American cities, there was no great demand for such in stitutions in a population not primarily urban and engaged in manufacture. Similar needs were met by the Sunday-school, awl, before there arose any great need for the charity infant school, by elementary public schools with free tuition.
Consult ; Gill, Systems of Education. 1857) ; article on Children, Education of,'' in Sonnensehein's Cyclolumlia of Educaiion (London, 1589); Wilderspin. Infant System. 1540) ; id., Education o/ the 1 Ming 18I(1); Gregory. Elementary Education (London, 15951. also, KINDERGARTEN : NA