Freud_Burlingham_1943_War_and_Children_k_text

CONCLUSIONSWhy are wartime nurseries so difficult torun? Do so much more thought, energy andmoney have to be spent on them than seemednecessary in former times?Nursery Schools have always been plannedas extensions of the home. They provide spacewhere the home is overcrowded, safety wherekitchens or streets are dangerous to play in,toys to be handled where family possessionshave to be respected, and attention and interestfrom the nursery teacher where mothers areoverworked and harassed. This was true ofthe proletarian nurseries in Middle Europeand in Russia. In America, on the other hand,where nurseries for the middle classes are noless frequent than elementary schools, they providethe community life for which the childisready, and which the small middle class familyis unable to give.In none of these cases were Nursery Schoolsmeant to substitute for the home, no more thana free milk scheme in schools is meant as asubstitute for home cooked meals, than welfareclinics do away with the need for the mother'scare, or child guidance clinics with the needfor educational efforts on the part of the185