Abstract
Kindergarten is a fundamental step for a child, a transition between family and school system. In most cases, it also is his or her first confrontation to life in society. The question of the schooling of two-year-olds is thus not one to be taken lightly. What is the actual state of the schooling of two-year-olds nowadays in France? What are the advantages and the inconvenience of such schooling? After having answered those two questions based on secondary research, I have met the headmistresses of a nursery school and of a kindergarten, in order to have the direct point of view of people working on the field.
According to the law on education of the 10th of July 1989, every three-year-olds child has the right to have a place in a kindergarten, if its family asks so. Concerning the schooling of two-year-olds children, it is implemented in priority in schools located in low income areas. The report joined to the law explains in fact that if the benefits of an early schooling on the later success of the children is nowadays unanimously recognized and concerns all children, kindergarten plays an even more important role for disadvantaged children in the access to knowledge. As a consequence, their schooling at the age of two is a primary goal of education policies. So instead of the generalization of two-year-olds children schooling, an action targeted toward low income areas was promoted. Even with the intended corrective policy, the schooling rate of two-year-olds children has declined in low income departments, such as Seine Saint Denis, where it was 21.2 % in 1999, that it to say a fall of 10 points of percentage compared to 1989.
