This book grew out of Margaret Fletcher's many years' experience with nursery school children. The first edition, reprinted five times following publication in 1958, has proven an extremely useful working guide for both experienced and novice teachers and for parents of nursery school children.

This new edition contains an epilogue by Professor Dorothy Millichamp entitled 'Preschool Teaching: An Historical Perspective', which concentrates particularly on developments in the 1960s and on the goals of pre-school education in the 1970s. An introduction by Dr Mary L. Northway of the Brora Centre, and an updated, expanded bibliography are other features of this new edition.

The author discusses the qualities of the ideal nursery school teacher, and describes how daily life in the school can be planned so that good human relations develop between adults and children. The goals to be sought include the development of independence and the growth of the ability to recognize when help is needed and the willingness to seek and accept it.

Margaret I. Fletcher was, until her retirement in 1965, Supervisor of the Nursery School Division and Assistant Professor of Child Study at the Institute of Child Study, University of Toronto.

Margaret Fletcher's profile page

"The adult too concerned with theories, textbooks and complexes or too careless of the young child is apt to forget the simplest rules that should govern their relationship. This little book is an excellent reminder, lively, simple and very human, of the natural duties of the adult to children which consist in helping and fostering their growth."

Courrier

"This book represents the experience accumulated over many years by a person with real ability to understand the general principles underlying human growth and development and human behavior...On the whole, this small book is one of the most practical and useful about young children that the reviewer has read, and it can be recommended highly to all who are interested in human growth and development."

Mental Hygiene