Exploring McMillan's Theory and its Enduring Impact on Education

This essay delves into Margaret McMillan's profound contributions to early childhood education, highlighting her advocacy for children's welfare and her innovative approaches to nursery care. It discusses her background, which fueled her passion for social reform, and her observations of the detrimental effects of poverty and poor health on children's education. The essay critically appraises McMillan's emphasis on holistic child development, including physical and mental health, nutrition, and stimulating environments. It also examines her establishment of open-air nurseries and training centers, which demonstrated the importance of hygiene, medical care, and teacher training. Furthermore, the essay explores the enduring relevance of McMillan's principles in contemporary childcare and education practices, emphasizing the significance of active learning, parental involvement, and creating nurturing environments for optimal child development. Desklib provides a platform for students to access this and other educational resources.

Running head: MCMILLAN THEORY OF CHILDCARE EDUCATION
MCMILLAN THEORY OF CHILDCARE EDUCATION
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Margaret McMillan was a renowned social activist who has huge contribution to the
development of early childhood education. She was actually an educator, teacher as well as a
child and family advocate who had developed many reforms for the development of the
condition of the children and fought for the children’s causes (McMillan 2018). She also had a
huge contribution to the development of legislation not only in the local level but also in the
national levels of England. She along with her sister had founded an exceptional open-air
nursery that later became famous as the Rachel McMillan Nursery school and Training centre at
n international level (Pound 2017). The research that she had conducted in the nation of the
United Kingdom had helped her to develop some of the social determinants that affect the
quality development of children and even affected their education. Therefore, the assignment
will mainly help to enlighten the different aspects of early year education that was considered
important for development of children. Her works would be critically appraised and the effects
of her theory in modern day education would be discussed in the assignment.
In order to shed light on her theory, it is important to develop an idea about her
background that made her to formulate certain aspects for development of children. Margaret
McMillan had a rough childhood as the sudden demise of her father resulted in complete
disruption of the life of the family. At that time, McMillan was getting her education in the
United States (Clough and Nutbrown 2015). At this uncertain event, her mother took her and her
sister Rachel to Scotland where she completed her education and started working as a governess
to a rich old woman. She was always keen to be a socialist as the different issues faced by the
society in the different parts of the United Kingdom made her to think about ways how she could
help them. In such a time, her employer gave her a condition that whether McMillan would
choose the inheritance of her property or pursue her socialist career. This made her come under a

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dilemma where she ultimately chose to be a socialist. From this activity of her, one can easily
understand the inner love for society and humankind. She had always tried her best to develop
the conditions off the society so that human beings develop better quality education and lead
successful lives. Therefore, she left the women and formed an independent labour party. Luckily,
she got the opportunity to visit a number of schools being an elected member of the Bradford
school Board. During such surveys, she came across a number of shocking events that made her
start thinking for the quality of life of the children who are undertaking education. The first
things that he noticed among the schoolchildren of the schools were the presence of curable
diseases as well as malnutrition among the children (David, Gorouch and Powell 2015). Many
other aspects also came to her notice that included complete lack of sunlight and fresh air in the
school classrooms making them claustrophobic and unhealthy place to study and spend time in.
Several other such instances made her take the decisions that she would try her best to develop
the conditions of schools for the early year education. She also saw that proper medical and
dental care were also absent that affected the quality of the lives of the children. All these made
her put forward certain important aspects that when incorporated resulted in better health of the
children.
One of the most important criteria that he had out forward was the development of the
health of the children both physically and mentally. It is indeed an important factor as the
researchers have provided an explanation about the link that is present between development of
better health and its impact on gaining education and better future lives. Researchers are of the
opinion that differences in the household resources as well as different types of community
factors and healthcare issues between the different socio-economic classes have the potential to
affect the environments as well as the practices of their families and different communities

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(MacBlain 2018). These in turn are responsible for the improper access of the children through
nutrition, health as well as development. Therefore, the aspect that McMillan had observed in the
school and developed idea about the possible effects of improper health of the children on their
brain development and education has been indeed a fact. Such information observed and put
forward to the society in such strenuous times of social inequality in united sates was indeed
praiseworthy.
One of another important observation that he had undertaken was the improper condition
of the slums that affected the living condition of the children largely. She had told the society the
conditions by which the slums children were living at that time would have negative impacts not
only on the life of the children but would also affect the future of the nation as well. Researchers
are indeed of the opinion that how the children are educated in a nation has great impacts on the
future of the nation as they have the potential to develop themselves as experts and help the
nation to develop the GDP and in turn the economic condition of the nation (Singer and Wong
2018). Better the knowledge, skills and professionalism developed by individuals, betterment of
business, agriculture, manufacture, production and others take place. However, before that, all
individuals need to be healthy and educated and early year education lays the main foundation of
every child’s education. Therefore, at that early age, when such researchers had not yet used to
take place on the societal norms and development, she had put forward the concept. She had
advised that important steps that need to be taken is to develop proper interventions for making
the lives of slum children better. Therefore, she had put forward a number of activities that had
helped the condition of the children learning in schools much better (Follari 2015). She had
instructed the schools to initiate systems of bath for the children to maintain their hygiene and
initiating the system of school meals so that they can develop proper nutrition. She also

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requested schools to understand the importance of the development of the medical inspection as
well as treatment so that the health status of the children gets better and that children can live
healthy and playful lives. Researchers are of the opinion that nutrition, attachment, proper
playful interactions, different types of games and enough independence in the early childhood
have positive impacts on brain development of the child (Jarvis, Swiniarski and Holland 2016).
According to McMillan “‘Every slum can become a garden. Every slum child is a power-house
of energy. Once given a chance of real growth, this Human Power, inspired by Higher Powers
yet, can settle every kind of problem, financial and otherwise’. Researchers are of the opinion
that every society should try to overcome the barrier that exists between different socio-
economic classes so that all men irrespective of their status can achieve education and live
healthy lives. McMillan had successfully recognised that in order to develop safe and prosperous
nation for the future, the drivers of the future generation that is the children should be taken care
of. Poverty, discrimination and stigmatisation affect the mental health and physical health of
children and such children can never develop high quality life for such individuals. Therefore,
children be provided with all those interventions that help to make them healthy first and then
gain education. She had also stated that 'What is important is not the giving of instruction, but the
preparation of a suitable provocative environment, an environment where new chances are made
possible'. She was herself a believer of developing interventions so that children are exposed to a
developed environment rather than only speaking about interventions without taking initiatives
(Holland and Jarvis 2016). Her argument was accepted by the state who stated that if they are
stressing on the compulsory education for all, they should be also advocating for the
responsibility of proper nourishment in schools. One of the initiatives she had taken was the
formation of the Deptford Clinic in 1910 that used to serve a number of schools in different

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areas. The clinic was seen to provide help in dental care, surgical aid as well as lessons in the
breathing and posture. She has also established Night camp where children of slums could wash
their clothes and wear clean night clothes (Brwon and Maye 2017)_. She along with her sister
Rachel also opened founded the open air-nursery and showed that only one child out of 30 got
sick mainly because of the different precautions they had taken. Therefore, the disorders did not
spread from one to other.
Some of the principles that she had put forward are even considered important and are
incorporated in present day care of the children and education. One of the most important belief
of McMillan that is even believed in the present day that children learnt best through their first
hand experiences and that active learning is one of the most beneficial aspect for developing high
quality education. Another of her belief that is also incorporated in modern day early child
education was that parents play an important role in development of children and hence their
contribution should be valued and they should be made an active part of education system
(Treloar et al. 2017). In the present generations also, most schools prefer interactive sessions
with the teachers so that their knowledge of child nurture can be known and accordingly their
knowledge can be enhanced. Many of the authorities also take active steps to counsel families in
ways by which they can develop proper environment in their homes so that brain of the child is
developed well (Gorson and Browne 2015). Many of the schools provide efficient nutritious
meals to their children and provide them education about how to develop healthy body and
healthy mind by undertaking proper balanced meals.
One of the most important initiatives she had also taken was to train the teachers in an
effective manner so that they can learn to identify the importance of various needs and
requirements of children. Finding appropriate teachers in times of Margaret after the World War

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1 was becoming very difficult. Therefore, she took initiative of setting up sessions where
teachers were taught the correct methods of evaluating a child’s need and teaching them and
developing them in better ways. Just like her principles, today also, teachers are trained to
understand the behavior of the children first through observation and then developing
interventions unique to the need of the particular individual. Researchers have indeed praised the
fact that her vision which she developed at that time through her observation only are now
scientifically proved and had formed the basis of foundation of early year education (Nutbrown
and clough 2014). Margaret believed that a nursery school teacher has great responsibility
because it is her who develops the brain and nervous system of the children. This has been in
turn proved later when researchers had conducted different brain based experiments where such
theories have been proved. She also stated that teachers of very young children have the most
important objective than any other teachers and therefore they should have finer perception as
well as a wider training and outlook. She had always paid much importance to garden as space
for helping the children to explore their activities, urges to develop knowledge, learn and get
close to nature. This has been still the most important aspect followed in modern education
where teachers are asked to help children develop their motor activities through playing in the
garden, their explorations, their venturing tendencies, their interaction with nature and others.
These help them to develop their cognitive power, helping them for mental development,
interaction powers as well as physical strength and motor development (Eliot 2016). Just like the
principles of Margaret, present day schools also providing emphasis on outdoor plays and their
classrooms are called shelters just like the ay Margaret had advised. Present day, schools are also
following her principles where children have no examinations to sit as well as no formal
structure. Children are seen to play, run in free open spaces, feel the sun and wind and thereby

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explore the nature. These help children to be fit and fine and take them capable to gain basic
knowledge through realization and identification of facts.
From the entire discussion, it is seen that Margaret McMillan had been one of the best
early year education reformist which had great contribution in shaping the early year education
system in Britain. She had successfully indentified that in order to educate children, it is first
important to develop proper environment for the children where they get healthy food and can
maintain hygiene. She had established many centers that not only educated teachers but also
provided meal service, dental care service and many others for children. Many of the principles
of the reformist like open gardens, involvement of parents in education, developing nutrition and
any others are also incorporated nowadays in schools as that helps in educating children and
developing potential for them.

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References:
Brown, J.M. and Kaye, C., 2017. Where do the children play?: An investigation of the
intersection of nature, early childhood education and play. Early Child Development and
Care, 187(5-6), pp.1028-1041.
Clough, P. and Nutbrown, C., 2015. Rachel and Margaret McMillan: practice and politics. In The
Routledge International Handbook of Philosophies and Theories of Early Childhood Education
and Care (pp. 61-72). Routledge.
David, T., Goouch, K. and Powell, S. eds., 2015. The Routledge international handbook of
philosophies and theories of early childhood education and care. Routledge.
Eliot, A., 2016. Margaret McMillan. Young Children.
Follari, L., 2015. Foundations and best practices in early childhood education: History, theories,
and approaches to learning. Pearson Higher Education AU.
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MacBlain, S., 2018. Learning Theories for Early Years Practice. SAGE.
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