Friedrich Froebel, a German educator, founded the first kindergarten ("child's garden" in German) in 1837 in Blankenburg, Germany. He also taught adults how to be kindergarten teachers. One of his adult students, Mrs. Carl Schurz, moved to the United States and started the first kindergarten in this country in Watertown, Wisconsin, in the mid-1800s. By 1873, St. Louis added the first American public kindergarten, and preschools for students under age five began to spring up in Europe around this same time. Preschools were introduced into the United States in the 1920s.
Preschool programs expanded rapidly in the United States during the 1960s, due in large part to the government instituting the Head Start program, designed to help preschool-aged children from low-income families receive educational and socialization opportunities and therefore be better prepared for elementary school. This program also allowed the parents of the children to work during the day. Around the same time, many U.S. public school systems began developing mandatory kindergarten programs for five-year-olds, and today many schools, both preschool and elementary, both public and private, are offering full-day kindergarten programs.
- Adapted Physical Education Specialists
- Adult and Vocational Education Teachers
- Art Teachers
- Athletic Directors
- Biophysicists
- Book Editors
- Career and Employment Counselors
- Career and Employment Technicians
- Child Care Service Owners
- Child Care Workers
- Child Life Specialists
- Children's Librarians
- College Administrators
- College Professors
- Community Nutrition Educators
- Computer Trainers
- Cooking Instructors
- Curriculum Coordinators
- Dance School Owners and Managers
- Distance Learning Coordinators
- Driving School Owners and Instructors
- Education Directors and Museum Teachers
- Edupreneurs
- Elementary School Teachers
- English as a Second Language (ESL) Teachers
- Environmental Education Program Directors
- Flight Instructors
- Guidance Counselors
- Health Educators
- Instructional Coordinators
- Instructional Designers
- Journalism Teachers
- Learning Innovations Designers
- Library and Information Science Instructors
- Mathematics Teachers
- Music Teachers
- Nannies
- Neonatal Nurses
- Nursing Instructors
- Pediatric Dentists
- Pediatricians
- Physical Education Teachers
- School Administrators
- School Nurses
- Secondary School Teachers
- Special Education Teachers
- Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists
- Speech-Language Pathology Assistants
- Teacher Aides
- Tutors and Trainers