Presented here is a view of early childhood education as a process reflecting social principles and practices which have evolved over time. It is argued that society first showed concern for the physical well-being of its young by protecting newborns from their own parents. Secondly, society became concerned with children's training and, later, with intellectual and moral development. Society's third concern was for the emotional and social development of its young, an interest that became apparent during the child study movement of the early 1900s. It is further argued that, generally, these distinct concerns reflect, respectively, the programs presently called childcare, kindergarten, and nursery school. The main portion of this text focuses on sponsorship, philosophical roots, and scope of services in these three types of programs, emphasizing the most influential people and events in the history of early childhood education. A flowchart offers an approximate structural model of historical influences, beginning with Socrates, branching at Pestolozzi to the influences of Owen, Montessori, Herbart and Hegel, and culminating in the work of Stolz, Taylor, Temple, and Harrison. (RH)