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Finding Aid for the Ethel Young papers, 1942-1992
970  
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Table of contents What's This?
  • Descriptive Summary
  • Administrative Information
  • Biography
  • Scope and Content
  • Organization and Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Descriptive Summary

    Title: Ethel Young papers
    Date (inclusive): 1942-1992
    Collection number: 970
    Creator: Young, Ethel.
    Extent: 51 boxes (25.25 linear ft.) 4 oversize boxes.
    Abstract: Ethel Silver Young (1915-2005) is recognized as a pioneer in early childhood education. She developed preschool and K-level curricula for multicultural and mixed-income preschool environments, was a leader in the local cooperative nursery school movement, and helped develop award winning films for pre-school children. The bulk of the collection consists of teaching and classroom observation notes, administrative papers, and teaching curriculum from the many workshops and nursery schools where Ethel Young taught in California.
    Language: Finding aid is written in English.
    Repository: University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.
    Los Angeles, California 90095-1575
    Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

    Administrative Information

    Restrictions on Access

    COLLECTION STORED OFF-SITE AT SRLF: Open for research. Advance notice required for access. Contact the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

    Restrictions on Use and Reproduction

    Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library, Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

    Provenance/Source of Acquisition

    Gift of Annie Michele Young and Martha R. Young, November 23, 2005.

    Processing Note

    Processed by Daniel Mateo Schoorl in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT), with assistance from Kelley Wolfe Bachli, Summer 2008.

    Preferred Citation

    [Identification of item], Ethel Young papers (Collection 970). Department of Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.

    UCLA Catalog Record ID

    UCLA Catalog Record ID: 6154803 

    Biography

    Ethel Silver Young (1915-2005) is recognized as a pioneer in early childhood education. She developed preschool and K-level curricula for multicultural and mixed-income preschool environments, was a leader in the local cooperative nursery school movement, and helped develop award winning films for pre-school children.
    Ethel Young was born on May 3, 1915, in Wilkinsburgh, Pennsylvania. She married Bernard Young in 1937, after completing her undergraduate education, first at Hunter College of the City University of New York and then at the University of California at Berkeley, majoring in English and Education. She began her teaching career in 1943 after having children and completing the Nursery School Techniques and Procedures course, through the Department of Education Extension of UC Berkeley. Early teaching positions include the Jewish Educational Center Nursery School, in Montebello, California, and the Heights Cooperative Nursery School, in Los Angeles, California, where she took the responsibility as teacher-director of the school, which anticipated the model of Head Start programs. From 1963-1967, Ethel Young taught summer school and workshops at the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts, where she developed her program on the "Art in the Child's Life."
    As a teacher and administrator Ethel Young was most active in the Palo Alto Unified School District from 1966-1977. During which time as a supervising teacher, she developed the Multi-Cultural Pre-Kindergarten Project an experimental program, with Title I funding, that explored the nature of combining middle and lower-income students in kindergarten classes. In 1973 Ethel Young completed her Master's degree in Education at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont, filing a thesis entitled "First of All There's Me," a study of child expression of self identity. She also took graduate courses in early childhood education at UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Santa Barbara on a wide range of topics, including early childhood development, parent involvement, self concept development, communication skills, play, integrate curriculum multicultural education and compensatory pre-school education.
    In 1967, she contributed to a series of educational films, using preschool age casts, as an advisor and the author of the teacher guidelines to the series produced by Sterling Educational Films. As a primary author for the Amazing Life Games Theatre, a series of films and games published in 1971 by Houghton Mifflin, Ethel Young completed what she considered her greatest published work. She would also contribute as an author to the text "Early Learning Activities," published by Houghton Mifflin in 1981. As a consultant and presenter she taught various workshops through universities in California and for professional nursery school teaching organizations throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Her involvement includes organizations such as National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the Association for Childhood Education International (ACEI). As a teacher, consultant, and administrator Ethel Young's work focused on a broad range of topics and areas but was always based on the need for early childhood education and addressed the best manner in which to educate preschool age children.
    Ethel Young died at the age of 90 on March 13, 2005.

    Scope and Content

    This collection comprises of the professional papers of Ethel Silver Young. The bulk of the collection consists of teaching and classroom observation notes, administrative papers, and teaching curriculum from the many workshops and nursery schools where Ethel Young taught. The administrative and teaching papers mainly pertain to the Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) but also include materials from schools such as the Idyllwild School of Music and Arts (ISOMATA), Jewish Educational Center Nursery School, Heights Cooperative Nursery School and the various PAUSD nursery schools, including Ventura School, Peninsula School, Ross Road School, Aliso Village School and the Palo Verde School.
    There are also study abroad and research files with newspaper clippings, articles, brochures, and pamphlets. The study abroad files mostly contain material from the Summer Schools of the British Association, through which Ethel Young studied abroad and eventually led tours of educators abroad to England. The research files comprise of materials collected on numerous topics that represent the educational interests of her career. The collection also includes films on 16mm reels, from the many films she contributed as consultant and author. Also included are photo albums, slides, photo negatives, photo prints, and student art as pertaining to Ethel Young's teaching career and classroom documentation. Lastly, is a set of activity cards and four films, published by Houghton Mifflin as the Amazing Life Games Theatre.

    Organization and Arrangement

    The collection is organized into seven series as determined through the original order of the collection, Ethel Young's career and the various roles she undertook as a professional teacher, consultant and administrator.
    1. Manuscripts and publications
    2. Nursery school programs
    3. Study abroad materials
    4. University teaching materials
    5. Research files
    6. Professional organizations
    7. Film work.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

    Subjects

    Young, Ethel --Archives.
    Early childhood teachers --California --Archival resources.