Theplays of childhood are the germinal leaves of all later life......To leadchildren early to think, this I consider the first and foremost object of childtraining.
Knowledge acquired in our own activeexperience is more living and fruitful than that conveyed only by words. ——The Education of Man
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Froebel, a German, was born in 1782. His mother died when he was a baby, and hisfather, for Froebel, a stranger, too preoccupied with his church work. Froebeldied at the age of 70 after a shortillness. His longtime friend Middendorfplanned and erected a monument to Froebel incorporating three of his main “gifts”for children: the sphere, cube and cylinder.
1. Froebel’s Philosophy
Frobel’s philosophy evolved during many years of teaching andobserving children, discussing with colleagues, and reflecting on everything hedid. It was also influenced by hisschooling and education and his early experiences within his family, as well asby the prevailing idealistic philosophy, the scientific spirit of his time, andthe educational ideas of Pestalozzi.
1826, Froeble wrote The Education of Man,published fourteen years before the naming of the kindergarten, his majorphilosophical and theoretical writing on education. He saw the universe as a whole, as unity, asoneness, and called this concept “god” — “all pervading, energetic living,self-conscious and eternal unity”. Hisgoal was to bring children closer to god, to this unity. All his earlier studies focused on this, andthe concept resurfaced at the core of his educational theory.
Froebel believed that children realize themselves onlythrough self activity or self occupations, not through the traditional formatof children responding to static subject matter. Education, therefore, had tobe based on the spontaneous interests and activities of children. The role ofthe teacher was to become a guide and to protect the child from things thatwould weaken, warp or hinder the process of learning. The teacher needed to create an environmentthat would stimulate and further the child’s education and learning. In orderto do this, the teacher needed to introduce specific experiences and activitiesfor the child.
In Froebel’s education model, instruction and teaching werenot synonymous with imparting knowledge. Froebel believed education had to balance a respect for theindividuality of children and the need for an organized, articulated program.
Froebel believed thatteachers and parents must be aware of a child’s development in order to teachand to provide an appropriate environment: “…notethe moment, the proper place, for the introduction of a new branch of instruction. The whole attention of the teacher must bedirected to these budding points of new branches of instruction.”
Froebel was also clear in his belief that teachers andparents were not to rush children’s development.
2. Stages of Development
Froebel articulated three stages of development and earlygrowth. Though he gave rough estimates of ages for these, he warned that thesestages were not strictly age-dependent.
① infancy stage birth-3years
relied on mother and family,
experienced oneness in family situation,
learned that each person is unique but also a member of awhole,
mother responsible for education in these early stages,
mother Play and Nursery Songs used to assist mothers at thisstage.
② child stage 3-7 years of age
began when child came to represent the internal world inoutward ways, children could express inner feelings in languages and throughart,
play would be the basic technique of learning anddevelopment,
Froebel’s whole set of kindergarten materials developed forthis age group,
rhythm, dancing, music, language, and drawing would beimportant.
③ boyhood7-10 years of age（童年）
More formal instruction at this point, activity turned toproduction of things, other children played an increasingly important role inchildren’s learning about the social world.
In his writings and in his work with children, Froebelconcentrated primarily on the first two stages. These three stages were continuous, with no sudden breaks in theprocess. The complete development in each stage was essential to the attainmentof the next stage. As a consequence,education was not primarily for teaching but for development.
"In his entire cultivation, it is highly important thathis development should proceed continuously from one point, and that thiscontinuous progress be seen and ever guarded. Sharp limits and definite subdivisions within the continuous series ofthe years of development... are therefore highly pernicious, and evendestructive in their influence."
——The Education of Man
Longbefore psychologists were to develop theories about developmental stages,Froebel stated that the needs of each stage must be fully met. The complete development in each stage wasessential to the attainment of the next stage. As a consequence, education was not primarily for teaching but fordevelopment: " How differentcould this be in every respect, if parents were to view and treat the childwith reference to all stages of development and age, without breaks andomissions; if, particularly, they wereto consider the fact that the vigorous and complete development and cultivationof each successive stage depends on the vigorous, complete and characteristicdevelopment of each and all preceding stages of life!
The boy has not become a boy, nor has the youth become a youth, by reaching a certain age, butonly by having lived through childhood." ——The Education of Man
3. Froebel Educational Practice
3.1First School
Afterleaving the army in 1814, Froebel went to Berlin and became a curator at theMineralogical Museum at the University of Berlin, using his skills and knowledgeof the natural and physical world. In this job, he continued his own academicstudies of crystals and minerals; recent scientific discoveries had allowedclassification based on molecular structure. He left the museum in 1816 whenthe widow of his recently deceased brother Christoph wrote asking for advice oneducating her three boys.
Froebel,with other person’s financial support, set up a Pestalozzian school called theUniversal German Educational Institute at nearby Keihau in1817. This was Pestalozzi’s image of a school as afamily. The school’s philosophy wasactually a combination of Rousseau’s and Pestalozzi’s ideas. The children wore simply clothes, spent largeamount of time outdoors and studied as their needs arose. Children designed their own building blocks,which were then made by a local carpenter. The children were not asked to do any tasks that the adults were notalso prepared to do, from harvesting crops to building a new roof. Rules were the same for teachers andpupils. It was home-like andinformal. In the second year ofoperation, Middendorf and langerthal joined the school family.
Theschool also included a system of student government, which was described byGeorge Ebers, a student in the school:
“We formed one large family, and ifany act really worthy of punishment was committed by any pupil, Barop summoned us all, formed us into a courtof justice, and we examined into the affair, fixing the penalty ourselves. Froebel regarded these meeting as a means ofcoming into the unity with life.”
“We took long walks up themountains or in the forest, the older pupils acting as teachers. We discoveredevery variety of insect on the bushes and in the moss, the turf, the bark oftrees, on the flowers and blades of grass. We listened to the note of bieds;and how many trees we climbed, whаtѕtеер cliffs we also climbed, through what crevices we squeezed, to add a rareegg to our collection. Our teachers'love for all animate creation had made them impose bounds on our zeal, so wewere required always to leave one egg in the nest, and if it contained but onenot to molest it. "
Froebelremained inflexible and authoritarian in his administrative style. His nephews made public charges against him,still resentful of what they perceived to be Froebel's slight of their mother.They charged that the school was a centre of radicalism and treason. The schoolwas already suspect because of its progressive approach to education and thelong hair of the boys (in German tradition) and male teachers! The Prussian governmentcleared the school of these charges after a thorough investigation, but theschool's reputation was damaged. The school plunged into debt, and the enrollmentsank to five in 1829. Froebel's brothertook over and Froebel left.
3.2Burgdorf at Mid Life
Froebeltravelled to Burgdorf, near Berne, the site of the original Pestalozzischool. Here a strong local governmentprotected him as he set up another school in 1835. In this situation he developed two mainideas:
①Verysmall children needed an orderly set of experiences calculated to awaken theirabilities, stimulate their mental activities and produce and innerorganization.
② Mother needed specific training to help theiryoung children at home so they could provide beginning basic education.
Tosupport these beliefs, he developed his ideas into a book called Mother Playand Nursery Songs(sometimes called Mother’s Songs, Games and Stories),published in 1844. Organized series ofgames, songs and pictures were presented to help mothers educate theirchildren. In each instance there was amotto to guide the mother, a verse with music and a picture to illustrate theactivity. It was a precursor to activitybooks of songs, dances and finger plays still common in early childhoodprograms.
3.3 TheOrigin of Kindergarten(1836-1848)
Renewedby a specific interest in young children, Froebel went to Berlin to study anddevelop his plans for schools for younger children. Soon afterward, he rented and abandoned millin Blankenburg and opened a school called—translated as an “institution wheresmall children are occupied”.
Imagine a man of 55, a failure in everythinghe had done. The village called him anold fool who played with children. Hiswife was an invalid and died soon afterward in 1839. His nephews continued to attack him. But at last he had found his passion andtalent.
Therewere about 50 children from on to seven years of age, and Froebel developedmaterials and equipment for them to use in their learning. One day in talking with Middendorf about hisschool, Froebel came to see his community as a garden in which children couldgrow and learn. From then on the word kindergarten was used to identify thattype of program for young children : “Eureka! I have it! Kindergarten shallbe the name of the Institution.”
Froebelwanted his school to be seen as a place children could fully develop. The term “kindergarten” allowed him to avoidusing the word “school”, and this distinction was important to him, as hewanted the kindergarten to be different from a traditional school. His image of a garden and the natural growthof children developed not only form his own ideas but also the nature imagesdescribed by people like Comenius, Rousseau and Pestalozzi.
Beforechoosing the word kindergarten, Froebel had thought of the German equivalentsof “institute for the self teaching of little children”, “playschool” and “schoolfor the psychological training of little children by means of play andoccupations”. He did not want the wordschool as it implied schooling as “putting in”. Rather he wanted the new nameto reflect the cultivation of children’s capacities and thought of “nurseryschool for little children” which conveyed his sense of a nursery thatgardeners use to nurture plants.
For the next seven years, Froebel worked withthe children and developed a rich assortment of teaching materials andexperiences for children. The equipmentand activities were produced and distributed throughout Germany and the rest ofEurope for schools and mothers.
4. Froebel and Play
Froebel found in play the instinctive activity of the child,the impulse and the method for the child’s development, “from within outwards”.In The Education of Man ,he encouraged mothers to “cultivate andfoster it”, “fathers to protect and guard it”, because through play a childreveals the future of his mind to anyone who has insight into humannature. Play is “ the highest level ofchild development”, the spontaneous expression of the child’s thought andfeeling.
Froebel encouraged parents to foster the play impulse byproviding children with space to play and by allowing them to participate inadult occupations instead of refusing them. He exhorted the parents: “ Let uslive with our children”. He continuesthat play needs to be in harmony with the nature and the ability of the child.(Today it is called developmentally appropriate.) Through play, the child learns to use hisbody, learns how to achieve his goals and master the conventions of his motherlanguage; he learns about the external world and the qualities of physicalobjects, he forms associations, recognizes moral relations, learns about therights of others and that he is part of the community.
Froebel believed that play develops the child’s mind andconnects the child to the wider world. The best way is to begin with an activity which is easy and attractivethat will lead the child forward, developing all his abilities and making himmaster of himself. However , Froebel didnot advocate allowing the child total self-direction that would lead to lawlessbehavior. He recommended that theteacher observe the child and provide for his developing needs both in terms ofmaterials for the child to experiment with and by adjusting the surroundings sothat the child may be free from temptations and have ample opportunities toexplore.
Froebel had remarkable sensitivity and insight into children and theirlives and growth. He had a rareunderstanding of the vulnerability of childhood and of the key role adultsassume in nurturing the child. He notonly developed materials and experiences for young children but also raised theprofile of early childhood education for centuries to come. Organized and articulated curriculum, respectfor the individuality of children, a balance of child focus and knowledgefocus, and a play orientation were all hallmarks of his programs of gardens forchildren.
The"father" of kindergarten. Friedrich Froebel wanted children to grow in an environment that wouldnurture their capabilities-- a garden for children. He gave the name "kindergarten" tohis dream.
