Educators
Many ideas in today's parenting and education go back to these thinkers. Each page gives their core ideas, what they mean for parents today, what modern research supports and what it does not, and links to free full texts where they exist.
Confucius551–479 BCE (traditional dates) China Teacher and thinker of ancient China whose sayings were collected by his students in the Analects. 6–12 yearsFree full text Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778 Geneva and France Philosopher whose novel-treatise Emile set out an education that follows the child's natural development. Free full text Friedrich Froebel1782–1852 Germany German educator who founded the kindergarten and put play at the centre of early education. 1–3 years3–6 yearsFree full text Maria Montessori1870–1952 Italy Italian physician and educator who developed the Montessori method in the early 1900s. 1–3 years3–6 yearsFree full text John Dewey1859–1952 United States American philosopher who founded the Laboratory School in Chicago to test ideas about education. 6–12 yearsFree full text Cai Yuanpei1868–1940 China First minister of education of the Republic of China (1912) and head of Peking University from 1916 to 1926. 12–18 yearsFree full text Jean Piaget1896–1980 Switzerland Swiss psychologist who described how children's thinking develops through a series of stages. 0–12 months6–12 years12–18 years Lev Vygotsky1896–1934 Russia (Soviet Union) Russian psychologist whose 1934 book Thought and Language studied how thinking and speech develop together. 0–12 months1–3 years3–6 years Tao Xingzhi1891–1946 China Chinese educator who studied at Teachers College, Columbia, and in 1927 co-founded the Xiaozhuang rural teachers' school. 6–12 years Erik Erikson1902–1994 Germany and United States Psychoanalyst whose 1950 book Childhood and Society set out his theory of psychosocial development. 12–18 years