Early Childhood Education around the World

In Germany early childhood education is affordable and universally accessible to families while not encumbered by the bureaucracy of being part of the state education system.

Hyde Flippo summed up the German early childhood landscape in his book, The German Way. "Kindergarten (literally "children's garden") is both a German word and a German invention." [Friedrich Froebel's kindergarten pre-school educational philosophy has been widely adopted around the world. It is "…somewhat ironic to discover that kindergarten in Germany is not usually part of the state-supported school system (except in former East Germany), even though about 85 percent of German youngsters between the ages of three and six attend voluntary community and church-supported kindergartens."