Practitioners can learn a great deal from the work of early years educator and lecturer Susan Isaacs, as Professor Tricia David explains

Susan Isaacs was born in Lancashire in 1885. It is clear from her personal history that she had an enquiring mind - her father put a stop to her education when she was 15 because she declared herself an agnostic. Her reflections on his refusal to speak to her for the next two years may have furthered her determination and her later insistence on children's need for freedom to explore and express themselves.

For the next seven years Ms Isaacs remained at home, assisting her stepmother. However, at the age of 22, she enrolled in a teacher education course to work with five- to seven-year-olds at the university in Manchester.She transferred to a degree course and graduated with first-class honours in philosophy in 1912. Subsequently awarded a studentship in the psychology department, Ms Isaacs gained a master's degree, later qualifying in medical psychoanalysis.

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