抄録
The purpose of this study is to examine the process of creating childcare that engenders a zest for life and its historical meaning, focusing on a history of multi-age childcare in a public nursery school. The author analyzed practical records of the multi-age childcare and also conducted interviews of the people most involved. In the beginning, the public nursery school emphasized intentional childcare and it caused unnatural relationships among children. After reflection on this problem, the nursery workers tried to create a childcare situation in which each child could naturally express what he/she wished. With the change of society and family life, a new type of difficult children to care began to appear. Understanding what those children really wished and needed, the nursery workers transformed their intentional childcare into childcare which aimed at increasing children's satisfaction with their lives.
