What are some good educational systems for preschool?

What are significant pedagogical changes that have taken place in educational systems (in the West) over the last 100 years?

• If Rip Van Wrinkle would wake after 100 years of sleep, he would certainly be surprised by how society has changed in many ways, to the point that he wouldn't recognize today's hospitals, businesses, recreational activities, postal service, transportation options, etc.  But mostly likely he would recognize schools, especially their "grammar" (same-age cohorts in each class, 45-minute to 1 hour classes, subject matter divided into disciplines, the centrality of student testing and certification, etc.) as being essentially the same to what he experienced 100 years ago.  Educational technology has certainly changed, but can this be said for the pedagogy behind it?

• Answer:

  When I was in grade school during the 1950s, rote memorization was very important. Then, in the late '60s, students had to KNOW why 6x7=42, but not memorize it. Not ever. Too many students ended up having no clue what 6x7 is. The beauty of my education was that the memorization came first and then we discussed WHY. The same "memorization" existed with penmanship -- I was taught the Palmer Method and did endless push-pulls and spirals and such like. The people in my generation (and before it) usually have readable and even quite lovely handwriting. In English class, we spent hours squaring nouns, circling verbs, triangling direct objects, underlining prepositional phrases (double underlining the actual preposition) -- you get my point.... Education went through labor pangs of New Math and DeNealian penmanship and now, because of computers/smartphones with their emails and texting, schools have dropped handwriting and even English grammar (who cares about that now?). Every student has a laptop or even a tablet. We start them out early -- baby gifts used to include bibs and footed sleepers; now gifts are baby smartphones and ankle monitors. My father, born in 1919, wouldn't recognize education today.