Brief History of the Kindergarten

Froebel began his educational institution in 1817 but did not arrive at the
organized system we see today until approximately 1837. He had worked
in the Swiss school of Johann Henrich Pestalozzi and conferred with other
educational thinkers of his time. Over the course of 35 years, until his death
in 1852, Froebel devoted his life to educating children and developing the
methods to maximize human potential,
Philosophical Foundations
Froebel was greatly influenced by the work of German Romantic
philosophers Rousseau and Fichte, as well as ancient Greek thinkers, and
had been exposed to Taoist and Buddhist teachings. Although the son of a
Lutheran minister and a devout Christian, he frequently ran into resistance
from the church and other authorities for his radical thinking. He rejected
the notion of original sin while educating girls and boys (and rich/poor) as
one group, a controversial practice in 19th century Germany. Froebel lived
a devout life but did not preach or evangelize. He avoided the use of
scripture in his schools but encouraged children to observe their world ... to
recognize and respect the orderly and endless creation we all live within. A
naturalist, philosopher and researcher (Froebel helped develop the budding
science of crystallography), he approached the universe scientifically and
developed his materials to demonstrate the geometry and patterns of the
physical world.
Influence on Early Childhood Education
Froebel's method inspired and informed the work of Maria Montessori,
Rudolf Steiner and others, who adopted his ideas and adapted his
materials according to their own work. Prior to Friedrich Froebel very young
children were not educated. Froebel was the first to recognize that
significant brain development occurs between birth and age 3. His method
combines an awareness of human physiology and the recognition that we,
at our essence, are creative beings. Once early childhood education
became widely adopted, it was the natural starting point for innovations that
followed. Montessori and Steiner both acknowledged their debt to Froebel,
but the influence of the Kindergarten informs Reggio Emilia, Vygotsky and
later approaches.
The Role of Women in the Kindergarten
Because he recognized that education begins in infancy, Froebel saw
mothers as the ideal first teachers of humanity. Women, he believed, were
best-suited to nurture children and became the Kindergartners (teachers)
for his schools. As such, the Froebel Kindergarten offered the first
significant careers for women outside the home. At that time, women were
not expected (or often allowed) to work professionally. The Kindergarten
attracted ambitious, intelligent women, who received advanced educations
and developed businesses of their own. The more famous women who
advanced Froebel’s cause include Helen Keller, Kate Douglas Wiggin,
Elizabeth Peabody, Phoebe Hearst, Mrs. Leland Stanford, Mrs. Grover
Cleveland, Elizabeth Harrison. However, Froebel also believed that men,
especially fathers, were a fundamental part of a child's education. For
Froebel, education was a family activity, hence his famous quote; "Come,
let us live for our children."
Influence on Modern Art and Design
Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller, and many other notable architects
and artists were educated with the Froebel™ Gifts. Wright's connection to
the Gifts is well-documented and he was a lifelong champion of the
method, even constructing a Kindergarten for his own children (and others
in the neighborhood). Buckminster Fuller developed his geodesic dome as
a child in the Kindergarten. More than an opportunity for creativity, the
Kindergarten provided Wright and Fuller a foundational philosophy for
design, shaping their views of nature, pattern, and unity.
The Bauhaus artists used Gifts & Occupations, creating the new language
of modern art. Paul Klee, Vassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, and others
were either educated in the Kindergarten as children or were trained
Froebel™ Kindergarten teachers. They utilized these materials and
adapted the philosophy into their Bauhaus design school. Even today
children of the Kindergarten receive a university-level 2D/3D design
curriculum, learning a sophisticated visual language even before they
develop their verbal skills.
Influence on the Toy and School Supply Markets
Milton Bradley was the first major toymaker to produce the Gifts &
Occupation materials in the United States. Not only did this lead to the
rapid expansion of the school supply market but affected the design of toys
in general. In the decades that following the spread of the Kindergarten,
toys were marketed for their educational content and displayed more
potential for creative expression. Tinkertoys, Unit Blocks, Cuisenaire®
Rods, Color Cubes, and many others are direct off-shoots from
Kindergarten toys. F.A. Richter (a contemporary of Froebel) produced faux
stone versions of the Froebel™ blocks in his Rudolstadt Anker-
Steinbaukasten factory. These stone sets were a favorite toy of Albert
Einstein.

Froebel's Kindergarten Curriculum Method & Educational Philosophy

Kindergarten was the first organized early-childhood educational method.
As a keen observer of nature and humanity, Froebel approached human
education from both a biological and a spiritual perspective. Froebel
discovered that brain development is most dramatic between birth and age
three, and recognized the importance of beginning education earlier than
was then practiced. The number of innovations that Froebel pioneered
through his research is startling, and includes multiple intelligences
(different learning styles), play-based, child-centered, holistic education,
parent involvement/training, educational paperfolding, use of music,
games, and movement activities for education.
Humans Are Creative Beings
From a spiritual perspective, Froebel understood that what separates us
from other life forms is that we alter our environment. More than simple
tool-building, our brains allow us to visualize in 3-D and imagine a different
future. True education therefore must help children to understand their role
as creative beings.
Play Is the Engine of Real Learning
Froebel concluded that play is not idle behavior but a biological imperative
to discover how things work. It is pleasurable activity, but biologically
purposeful. Froebel sought to harness this impulse and focus a child's play
energy on specific activities designed to lead them to create meaning from
their experiences.

Intro to the Froebel Gifts

The Froebel® Gifts are educational materials developed for Friedrich

Froebel's original Kindergarten. Perhaps the world's most intricately
conceived playthings, these materials appear deceptively simple, but
represent a sophisticated approach to child development. The Gifts are
arguably the first educational toys.
Froebel developed special educational toys for his Kindergarten schools.
They were so named because they were both given the the child (to be
properly respected as gifts) and also function as tools for adults to observe
the innate human "gifts" each child posseses from birth. One observes the
remarkable qualities and innovative ideas that make each child unique
when they have the opportunity to explore and create according to
Froebel's method. The materials are known in a variety of terms, including
Eunmul (South Korea), Gabe (Asia) and Spielgabe (Germany).
The materials were not some accidental creation, as some modern
historians assume. Froebel spent a great deal of time observing children
and refining the design of the Gifts. He numbered Gifts 1-6 (the only
materials to identified specifically as "Gifts" in Froebel's writing) in part
because it simplifies referring to them. Later materials can be described
succinctly as tablets (Gift 7), sticks (Gift 8), rings (Gift 8 or 9), points (Gift 9
or 10). For example, Gift 2 is a set of wood solids (sphere, cylinder, cube)
with a hanging apparatus. Eight one-inch wood cubes is known more
simply as Gift 3, etc.
Gifts have one primary difference from other materials used in the
Kindergarten — they are able to be returned to their original form when
play is finished. An important part of Gift play, the presentation of the Gift is
always as a whole form (e.g. Gift 3 removed from the box as a cube form of
8 cubes), and when play is done parts are combined before being placed
into the box as a whole. There are only two other rules for Gift play; (1) all
parts must be incorporated and (2) a creation is always changed through
modification, not destoyed and rebuilt. In this way unity is maintained and
subtle lessons about the nature of change are learned.

THE FROEBEL METHOD

Modern kindergarten owes its beginnings to the German educator Friedrich
Froebel. In 1837, Frobel created a program based on principles of early
childhood specialists which became the foundation for kindergartens
everywhere, as well as several educational philosophies which are the
basis of many preschool and early education methods today.
Froebel believed that young children possess unique capabilities and
needs, and that adults should serve as the “gardeners” of children’s
potential. Froebel asserted that young children could learn best in
atmospheres that provided a stimulating and prepared environment where
they could explore and learn from their own perspectives.
Key Features of Froebel Schooling Methods
Froebel education stresses that parents are the first educators for children,
and that there should be close links between home and school. The main
goal of a Froebel education is to teach the whole child in all developmental
areas: socially, academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually. There
are four main components of the Froebel Method: motor expression, social
participation, free self-expression and creativity.
The Froebel Philosophy stresses that:
1. Play Drives Learning Play meets the biological need to discover how
things work. Froebel education believes that play is purposeful and not
idle, and that meaning is created through hands-on play activities.
2. Children can only learn what they are ready for Children develop
differently and should be allowed to learn at their own developmental
pace.

3. The teacher should serve as a guide Teachers should not be viewed

as the keepers of knowledge, but instead as guides who can help
lead a child to understanding.
4. The classroom should be a prepared environment Although Froebel
classrooms may look like they are designed for free play, they are
actually very carefully prepared, presenting children with the tools
and materials that are optimal for their level of development.
5. Movement is imperative for young learners Froebel classrooms are
alive with finger plays, songs, and all forms of movement.
Another key component of a Froebel classroom is the use of the materials
referred to as the Froebel Gifts and Occupations. The Froebel gifts are a
series of sets specially designed materials, which provide hands-on
explorations of solids, surfaces, lines, rings and points. Children use these
materials to explore principles of movement, math, and construction. The
Occupations are a set of activities designed to provide further hands-on
explorations and practice with skills like clay work, wood work, lacing,
weaving, drawing, and cutting. Again, these materials are designed to allow
children uninterrupted periods of play where they construct their own
meaning of how things work.
Strengths of the Froebel Method
There are many strengths to the Froebel method. One of the main
strengths for students who attend a Froebel School is that they learn to see
problems from many angles and to solve them independently. As they work
with materials, they gain perseverance as they attempt to figure out how to
manipulate them to create the output they want.
The Froebel method also works well to encourage independence in
students. Since they are used to solving problems that arise during their
play, they feel confident in their ability to handle issues as they arise.
The Froebel classroom develops fine motor skills in students, which aids
them with later learning and activities, such as writing and advanced art
skills.
Criticisms of Froebel Education
Critics of the Froebel education believed that the structure of the program
was too rigid. More progressive educators modified the original program
into the kindergarten that we know today, which includes more free and
imaginative play. In addition to the Froebel gifts, other unstructured
materials were added such as doll houses and large blocks where children
could experience more free-play and social interaction. Reformers decided
that children needed other ways to express themselves, and also added
music, art and movement activities to Froebel’s original ideas.
There are also those who believe that there is too much focus on fine motor
skills, and that more language, writing and reading would benefit students.
Many think that the focus on the gifts and occupations should be
supplemented with more academic types of activities, reading and writing
specifically, so that children who are developmentally ready for these types
of activities will have the opportunity available to them.

Fredrich Froebel was a Educationalist who has contributed to the

development of primary Education. For him the education of women should
be regarded as essential for the development of human race.

INTRODUCTION

Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel (or Froebel) was a German pedagogue.

He was a student of Pestalozzi.Frobel developed the concept of the
"kindergarten".He also coined the word which is now used in German and
English language.

LIFE SKETCH OF FROBEL

Frobel was born in 1782.He was a german. As Frobel lost his mother as a
infant of nine months his father remarried when he was four. The early
childhood of Frobel was quite unhappy because of the indifferent attitude of
his father and the step motherly affection.
He became an apprentice to forester at the age of 14.It gave Frobel an
opportunity to have direct contact with Nature. He joined the University of
Jena at the age of seventeen. His relationship with Dr Gruner, who
influenced him very much and persuaded him to become a teacher in his
school run on Pestalozzian lines.
He studied closely the system and found some defects in it. He worked in
military and as a curator in Berlin Museum for sometime.
He established a school at Griesheim in 1816. It was later transferred to
Keithaw. There he developed his method of education. Frobel founded his
first kindergarten at Blackenburg in 1857. His method of education was
prohibited by the German government. Frobel was so much pained at this
that he breathed his last in 1853.

WORKS OF FROBEL

Froebel is author of many books. The folowing works are mentioned

because they are mainly devoted to education.
1)Autobiography
2)Education of Development
3)The Education of Man
4)Mother play
5)Pedagogies of Kindergarten

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEWS OF FROBEL

Froebel was a spiritual idealist. For him all things of the world have
originated from God. Hence, all the objects , though appear different, are
essentially the same. This law of Unity is operating in the whole Universe.

The second characteristic of his philosophy is the Law of Development.

According to him this Law of Development is applicable of both, the
spiritual as well as the physical world in the same way.

FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPALS

1. The Aim of Education:Enable the child to realise the unity principles.

2. The Method of Education:Self- activity method of education
3. The Method of Play:The play forms for impairing education to children
4. Principle of Freedom: Free infettered natural development of children.
5. Principle of Social Atmosphere:Should be developed through self-activity
in a social atmosphere.
6. Purpose of Education:unfold the innate powers of children to order to
them to attain spiritual union with God.

CURRICULUM ACCORDING TO FROEBEL

Should give importance to Religious instruction, Nature study, Arithmetic,

Language, arts, Handicrafts

METHOD OF TEACHING ACCORDING TO FROEBEL

1. Principles of Self- Activity

2. Principle of hearing by Play
3. Principle of Sociability
4. Principle of Freedom

DISCIPLINE

He condemned the repressionistic concept of discipline held the views that

by his own free and natural activities the child learns self- discipline.

THE ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF KINDERGARTEN

(a)The kindergarten is like a miniature, society, where the children discover
their individualities in relation to others. The social aspect of development is
given due emphasis in these schools.
(b)There will be an atmosphere of freedom and lot of scope for self-
expression in the form of songs, movements and construction.

MERITS OF FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN

1. Froebel laid emphasis on pre-school or necessary education.

2. Froebel stressed the necessity of the study of child's nature, his instincts
and impulses.

PERMANENT CONTRIBUTIONS TO EDUCATION

1. Inner self- activity directs the development.
2. early education should be organises around play.
CONCLUSION
Froebel was the first educational evolutionist. Education to him was the
process by which the race and the individual evolves to higher and higher
levels.

Friedrich Froebel: The Father of Kindergarten

The Father of Kindergarten

In 1832, Froebel returned to Germany. There he established a new type of
school- The Kindergarten.
The purpose of this school was to prepare young children (3 - 5 years old)
for learning. The children were provided with an educational environment
and direction for proper development. They learned through play with
educational toys, activities, songs, and stories.
Froebel's Gifts
"The gift leads to discovery; the occupation to invention. The gift gives
insight; the occupation, power." - Froebel

Applications for Today

Froebel's ideas are still used all around the world; the kindergarten is now a
part of many public school systems.
Many of the gifts, though they now go by different names, are in use in
schools throughout the United States.
Froebel advanced the ideas of learning through play, song, and interaction.

Teaching Career
In 1805 Friedrich Froebel became a teacher at a Pestalozzian school. In
order to prepare for the position, he studied under Pestalozzi at Yverdon.
Froebel later went back to school to study language, science, and
mineralogy. He used many of the ideas from these studies to develop his
theories on human development.
Froebel established two educational institutes as well as a boarding school
and orphanage.

Humble Beginnings
Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel was born April 21, 1782.
He was the fifth child of a Lutheran pastor.
Froebel's mother died when he was nine months old.
He was forced by his father to attend a girls' primary school in his
hometown.
He felt neglected by his father and stepmother, and he moved in with his
maternal uncle at eleven years of age.
He originally apprenticed as a forester and took courses at the University of
Jena.
Froebel briefly studied architecture in Frankfurt.
Froebel was imprisoned for unpaid debts.

Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852) - Biography, Froebel's Kindergarten

Philosophy, The Kindergarten Curriculum, Diffusion of the
Kindergarten

The German educator Friedrich Froebel is significant for developing an

Idealist philosophy of early childhood education and establishing the
kindergarten, a school for four-and five-year-old children that is found
worldwide.
Biography

Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel was the youngest of five sons of Johann
Jacob Froebel, a Lutheran pastor at Oberweissbach in the German
principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolfstadt. Froebel's mother died when he
was nine months old. When Friedrich was four years old, his father
remarried. Feeling neglected by his stepmother and father, Froebel
experienced a profoundly unhappy childhood. At his father's insistence, he
attended the girls' primary school at Oberweissbach. From 1793 to 1798 he
lived with his maternal uncle, Herr Hoffman, at Stadt-Ilm, where he
attended the local town school. From the years 1798 to 1800 he was as an
apprentice to a forester and surveyor in Neuhaus. From 1800 to 1802
Froebel attended the University of Jena.

In 1805 Froebel briefly studied architecture in Frankfurt. His studies

provided him with a sense of artistic perspective and symmetry he later
transferred to his design of the kindergarten's gifts and occupations. In
1805 Anton Gruener, headmaster of the Pestalozzian Frankfurt Model
School, hired Froebel as a teacher. To prepare him as a teacher, Gruener
arranged for Froebel, now twenty-four years old, to take a short course with
Johann Henrich Pestalozzi at Yverdon. Froebel believed Pestalozzi's
respect for the dignity of children and creation of a learning environment of
emotional security were highly significant educational elements that he
wanted to incorporate in his own teaching. He also was intrigued by
Pestalozzi's form, number, and name lessons, which would form a basis for
his later design of the kindergarten gifts. After his training with Pestalozzi,
Froebel taught at Gruner's Model School until he returned to Yverdon in
1808 for two more years of study with Pestalozzi.

From 1810 to 1812 Froebel studied languages and science at the

University of Göttingen. He hoped to identify linguistic structures that could
be applied to language instruction. He became particularly interested in
geology and mineralogy. From 1812 to 1816 Froebel studied mineralogy
with Professor Christian Samuel Weiss (1780–1856) at the University of
Berlin. Froebel believed the process of crystallization, moving from simple
to complex, reflected a universal cosmic law that also governed human
growth and development.

In 1816 Froebel established the Universal German Educational Institute at

Griesheim. He moved the institute to Keilhau in 1817 where it functioned
until 1829. In 1818 Froebel married Henrietta Wilhelmine Hoffmeister
(1780–1839), who assisted him until her death. In 1831 Froebel established
an institute at Wartensee on Lake Sempach in Switzerland and then
relocated the school to Willisau. Froebel next operated an orphanage and
boarding school at Burgdorf.

Froebel returned to Germany, where in 1837 he established a new type of

early childhood school, a child's garden, or kindergarten, for three-and four-
year-old children. Using play, songs, stories, and activities, the
kindergarten was designed as an educational environment in which
children, through their own self-activity, could develop in the right direction.
The right direction meant that, in their development, children would follow
the divinely established laws of human growth through their own activity.
Froebel's reputation as an early childhood educator increased and
kindergartens were established throughout the German states.

In 1851 Karl von Raumer, the Prussian minister of education, accused

Froebel of undermining traditional values by spreading atheism and
socialism. Despite Froebel's denial of these accusations, von Raumer
banned kindergartens in Prussia. In 1852, in the midst of the controversy,
Froebel died. Although kindergartens existed in the other German states,
they were not reestablished in Prussia until 1860. By the end of the
nineteenth century, kindergartens had been established throughout Europe
and North America.

Froebel's Kindergarten Philosophy

Froebel shaped his educational philosophy during the high tide of German
philosophical Idealism that was marked by the work of Johann Gottfried
Herder (1744–1803), Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), and Georg Wilhelm
Hegel (1770–1831). In the Education of Man (1826), Froebel articulated the
following idealist themes: (1) all existence originates in and with God; (2)
humans possess an inherent spiritual essence that is the vitalizing life force
that causes development; (3) all beings and ideas are interconnected parts
of a grand, ordered, and systematic universe. Froebel based his work on
these principles, asserting that each child at birth has an internal spiritual
essence–a life force–that seeks to be externalized through self-activity.
Further, child development follows the doctrine of preformation, the
unfolding of that which was present latently in the individual. The
kindergarten is a special educational environment in which this self-active
development occurs. The kindergarten's gifts, occupations, and social and
cultural activities, especially play, promote this self-actualization.

Froebel was convinced that the kindergarten's primary focus should be on

play–the process by which he believed children expressed their innermost
thoughts, needs, and desires. Froebel's emphasis on play contrasted with
the traditional view prevalent during the nineteenth century that play, a form
of idleness and disorder, was an unworthy element of human life.

For Froebel, play facilitated children's process of cultural recapitulation,

imitation of adult vocational activities, and socialization. He believed the
human race, in its collective history, had gone through major epochs of
cultural development that added to and refined its culture. According to
Froebel's theory of cultural recapitulation, each individual human being
repeated the general cultural epoch in his or her own development.

By playing, children socialize and imitate adult social and economic

activities as they are gradually led into the larger world of group life. The
kindergarten provided a milieu that encouraged children to interact with
other children under the guidance of a loving teacher.

The Kindergarten Curriculum

Froebel developed a series of gifts and occupations for use in

kindergartens. Representing what Froebel identified as fundamental forms,
the gifts had both their actual physical appearance and also a hidden
symbolic meaning. They were to stimulate the child to bring the
fundamental concept that they represented to mental consciousness.
Froebel's gifts were the following items.

 Six soft, colored balls

 A wooden sphere, cube, and cylinder
 A large cube divided into eight smaller cubes
 A large cube divided into eight oblong blocks
 A large cube divided into twenty-one whole, six half, and twelve
quarter cubes
 A large cube divided into eighteen whole oblongs: three divided
lengthwise; three divided breadthwise
 Quadrangular and triangular tablets used for arranging figures
  Sticks for outlining figures· Whole and half wire rings for outlining
figures
 Various materials for drawing, perforating, embroidering, paper
cutting, weaving or braiding, paper folding, modeling, and interlacing

As a series, the gifts began with the simple undifferentiated sphere or circle
and moved to more complex objects. Following the idealist principle of
synthesis of opposites, Froebel's cylinders represented the integration of
the sphere and the cube. The various cubes and their subdivisions were
building blocks that children could use to create geometrical and
architectural designs. Using the sticks and rings to trace designs on paper,
children exercised the hand's small muscles, coordinated hand and eye
movements, and took the first steps toward drawing and later writing.

The occupations were items such as paper, pencils, wood, sand, clay,
straw, and sticks for use in constructive activities. Kindergarten activities
included games, songs, and stories designed to assist in sensory and
physical development and socialization. Froebel published Mutter-und-
Kose-lieder, (Mother's songs, games, and stories), a collection of
kindergarten songs, in 1843.

Diffusion of the Kindergarten

Kindergartens were established in Europe and North America. In the United

Kingdom, Bertha Ronge, a pupil of Froebel's, established several
kindergartens. In the United States, German immigrants introduced the
kindergarten. In Watertown, Wisconsin, Margarethe Meyer Schurz
established a kindergarten for German-speaking children in 1856. In New
York, Matilda H. Kriege introduced and marketed kindergarten materials
imported from Germany.

Henry Barnard, the first U.S. Commissioner of Education, popularized

Froebel's philosophy in his Common School Journal. Elizabeth Palmer
Peabody (1804–1894) established a kindergarten in Boston, translated
several of Froebel's books into English, organized an educational
organization called the Froebel Union, and established an institute to train
kindergarten teachers.

Superintendent of Schools William Torrey Harris, (1835–1909) incorporated

the kindergarten into the St. Louis, Missouri, public school system in 1873.
Harris was assisted by his associate, Susan Elizabeth Blow (1843–1916), a
dedicated Froebelian, who wrote Letters to a Mother on the Philosophy of
Froebel in 1899 and Kindergarten Education in 1900.

In the early twenty-first century, kindergarten teachers continue to

emphasize Froebel's ideas of developing the social side of a child's nature
and a sense of readiness for learning. The important outcome for the
kindergarten child is readiness for the intellectual learning that will come
later in his educational career.

Rediscovering Kindergarten
The Life and Legacy of Friedrich Froebel

The German term Kindergarten is widely recognized and understood, but

the name of the man who coined the term, ultimately redefining early
education, has largely been forgotten. In fact, today, the name Friedrich
Froebel is hardly known even in educational circles. However, the
foundations laid by this 19thcentury German educator still firmly underlie
early childhood education.

What we have come to know as the hallmarks of childhood were

established by Froebel over 175 years ago. At that time, play was viewed
as idle, and children were considered miniature adults. Froebel radically
asserted that children learn best through play, that academics should be
left for after the age of seven, and that children need to be in an
environment suited to learning through their hands. He believed that a child
naturally loves movement, music, and exploration in nature. Stories and
rhymes should be the basis for later letter and number skills.

Froebel did not so much invent these key factors of childhood, rather, he
brought them to the surface and into everyone’s attention. Froebel made
children important. His ideas became embodied in his original
“Kindergarten” or a “Children’s Garden” based on the philosophy that
children, like plants, grow at their own pace but must be nurtured by the
family and society.

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood,

for it alone is the free expression of what is in a child's soul.”

After Froebel died, his educational ideas spread throughout the world. His
theories were expanded, both positively and negatively. His ideas
influenced generations of educators such as Maria Montessori, Rudolf
Steiner, John Dewey, Caroline Pratt, Marietta Johnson, and Charlotte
Mason. The philosophies of Reggio Emilia, the Project Method,
Progressive Education, and Homeschooling have their roots in Froebel’s
Kindergarten as well. His ideas that children learn best through hands-on
exploration are clearly visible in the current focus on STEM learning in early
childhood. Many people who use these methods are unaware of the roots.

So, Froebel never truly disappeared. Yes, his name has been largely
forgotten, but he is there. One just needs to know where to look. Like
scientists, in order to understand the plant it is important to study the roots.
The key factors about childhood that he established need to be brought
back into focus and used in today’s classroom. As the late Jeanne
Spielman Rubin wrote in her book, Intimate Triangle: Architecture of
Crystals, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the Froebel Kindergarten:

In all fairness to Froebel, whose stature as a top-ranking scientist has been

thus far overlooked by historians, and to his kindergarten, the scientific
basis of which has been similarly overlooked, a significant section of the
history of education should be rewritten. Perhaps his approach–after more
than a century and a half of incomplete understanding or, more often, of
total misunderstanding–should now be reinvestigated as a possible
candidate for guiding young minds, eyes, and hands into the twenty-first
century.

Many early childhood programs and kindergartens today are a poor

interpretation of what Froebel intended. Yes, there are quality programs
and wholesome environments, but the teachers work out of a state
determined curriculum that is influenced by bench marks, testing, and
money. To rediscover Froebel means to rediscover the true essence of
childhood. The “Children’s Garden” needs to become again the place
where children are nurtured through play, hands-on exploration, and loving
care.

This monument, symbolizing Froebel’s second Gift, overlooks the village of

Keilhau where Froebel coined the term “Kindergarten”. It serves as a
reminder of Froebel’s lasting mark on the world.

Who was Friedrich Froebel?

Friedrich Froebel was born in Oberweissbach, a village in Thuringia,

Germany on April 21, 1782. His own childhood was difficult. His father was
a busy pastor of the Lutheran Church and his mother died while he was an
infant. Froebel was mostly left to his own devices until at the age of fifteen
when he was apprenticed to a Forester. This work not only immersed him
in nature, but also taught him to observe and investigate in a scientific
manner. After two years, Froebel went to Jena to attend University. After
floundering with his studies and tuition he went back to work for the
Forestry Office. Froebel’s knowledge and love of surveying and map-
making led him to architecture. He went on to become an architect’s
assistant.

Froebel grew up, in the beautiful forests of Thuringia, Germany, with a keen
love of nature. This closeness to creation, along with a firm Christian faith,
were key to Froebel’s educationist ideas, which were centered in the unity
and inner connectedness of all life.

But unexpectedly, Froebel switched paths. He had always had a great

desire to teach and a friend counceled him to apply to a model Pestalozzi
school in Frankfurt. Froebel was heavily influenced by the ideas of
Pestalozzi and eventually spent two years working under him in Yverdon,
Switzerland in order to secure a certificate.

In the same way in which Froebel diligently observed nature as a forester,

he began observing the children of his friends, colleagues, and village
neighbors. He learned by watching. Then he wrote his ideas down, shared
his theories, asked parents to read over his conclusions, and to try out his
suggestions. In 1837, Froebel established the first kindergarten at Bad
Blankenburg, Thuringia, Germany to further develop and test his radical
new educational method and philosophy based on active learning. He later
named his institution “Kindergarten”–a “garden” where children would learn
and grow in a nurturing enviornment.
 “We grow through three fundamental principles of human existence:
feeling, thinking, and doing.”

Developing the environment was so important to his philosophy that

Froebel stated that education must begin, “a hundred years before the child
is born.” Because of that, he believed, it would take “three generations to
prove the truth of the Kindergarten idea.” Until this time there had been no
educational system for children under seven years of age, nor recognition
that young children were capable of learning social and intellectual skills
that might serve as a foundation for their whole life.

Friedrich Froebel went onto open several kindergartens, write books,

lecture, and train teachers. He first put into fruition the idea of “school-
mother’s”, or women teachers. The teachers he trained spread his methods
throughout Europe and the United States.

The “Gifts” he developed are maybe the best known portion of his legacy.
They were the first educational toys and are the root of all of today’s
building toys. His “Occupations” live on in hand-work and art classes. His
movement games and songs continue. He stressed the importance of
celebrating festivals to build community strength.
 Not skill, nor books, but life itself is the foundation of all education.

When Froebel died on June 21st, 1852 disappointment lurked in the

corners. His Kindergartens were being closed by the Prussian government
for being too free—a threat to the status quo. Were they suspicious that
free-thinking Kindergarteners might undermine their authority? His methods
were forced underground but the great educator’s legacy did eventually
become widespread through the persistence of his co-workers.

As early as 1836, Froebel pointed to the United States of America as the

country best fitted, by virtue of its spirit of freedom, to receive his
educational message. In many ways this was realized after his death. Now
it is time to renew this relationship and reintroduce Froebel’s educational
theories to the 21st century. His radical ideas of child-centered education
based on play and a love of learning need to be rediscovered today.
Friedrich Froebel did positive work by being an educational pioneer who
gave birth to the kindergarten – ‘the children’s garden’.

He believed children needed a place where they could be cherished,

stimulated and helped to flourish.

His ideas were adopted by many ambassadors who spread the methods
across the globe.

These influenced the upbringing of people such as Frank Lloyd Wright,

Buckminster Fuller, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Enid Blyton and
Bertrand Russell. You can discover more about Frank Lloyd Wright’s work,
for example, via the following link.

https://www.artsy.net/artist/frank-lloyd-wright

There are several sites that provide an in-depth exploration of Froebel’s

work. One of most comprehensive is the Froebel Web – see link below.

Froebel Web

(The name Froebel is pronounced in many different ways by German

speakers. English speakers usually say Frurbel – to rhyme with herbal or
Froy-bel.)
 Philosophy and Background

Today the word ‘kindergarten’, first used by Friedrich Froebel in 1840, is

accepted as part of everyday language.

But it can be useful to review the principles which inform Froebel’s

approach to early years education.

For more than a century these have informed the training of early years
teachers at Froebel College, which was established at West Kensington,
London, in 1892. It moved to Roehampton in 1922.

The College, now part of Roehampton University, continues to educate

teachers from around the globe. The principles are summarised here:

Elements of a Froebelian Education

for Children from Birth to Seven Years
1) Principles which include

* recognition of the uniqueness of each child’s capacity and potential

* an holistic view of each child’s development

* recognition of the importance of play as a central integrating element in a

child’s development and learning

* an ecological view of humankind in the natural world

* recognition of the integrity of childhood in its own right

* recognition of the child as part of a family and a community

2) A pedagogy which involves

* knowledgeable and appropriately qualified early childhood professionals

* skilled and informed observation of children, to support effective

development, learning and teaching

* awareness that education relates to all capabilities of each child:

imaginative, creative, symbolic, linguistic, mathematical, musical, aesthetic,
scientific, physical, social, moral, cultural and spiritual

* parents/carers and educators working in harmony and partnership

* first hand experience, play, talk and reflection

* activities and experiences that have sense, purpose and meaning to the
child, and involve joy, wonder, concentration, unity and satisfaction

* an holistic approach to learning which recognises children as active,

feeling and thinking human beings, seeing patterns and making
connections

* encouragement rather than punishment

* individual and collaborative activity and play

* an approach to learning which develops children’s autonomy and self

confidence
3) An environment which

* is physically safe but intellectually challenging, promoting curiosity,

enquiry, sensory stimulation and aesthetic awareness

* demonstrates the unity of indoors and outdoors, of the cultural and the
natural

* allows free access to a rich range of materials that promote open-ended

opportunities for play, representation and creativity

* entails the setting being an integral part of the community it serves,

working in close partnership with parents and other skilled adults

* is educative rather than merely amusing or occupying

* promotes interdependence as well as independence, community as well

as individuality and responsibility as well as freedom.

You can find more details about what is now the Froebel Trust here.

http://www.froebeltrust.org.uk/

Influences

Froebel was an innovator, who was influenced by the key pioneers of

education John Amos Comenius and Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Let’s
explore their contributions.
 John Amos Comenius

Comenius, who lived from 1592 to 1670, was a Moravian theologian and
educator who became bishop of the Unity of Brethren.

Travelling all over Europe, he dedicated himself to helping students to

learn. He also implored people to recognise they were part of one human
family – rather divide over national rivalries.

Comenius is considered by many to be ‘the father of modern education’. He

believed in providing education for all children – both girls and boys – not
just those from richer families.

He produced the first picture book for children and his books were
translated into the major European Languages.

His ideas were particularly well received in Northern Europe. He was

invited, for example, to restructure the entire Swedish education system.

Here are some of the best known quotes from his book The Great
Didactic (sometimes known as The Whole Art of Teaching.)
“The proper education of the young does not consist in stuffing their heads
with a mass of words, sentences, and ideas dragged together out of
various authors, but in opening up their understanding to the outer world,
so that a living stream may flow from their own minds, just as leaves,
flowers, and fruit spring from the bud on a tree.”

“(Learning is natural) … Who is there that does not always desire to see,
hear, or handle something new? To whom is it not a pleasure to go to some
new place daily, to converse with someone, to narrate something, or have
some fresh experience?”

“In a word, the eyes, the ears, the sense of touch, the mind itself, are, in
their search for food, ever carried beyond themselves; for to an active
nature nothing is so intolerable as sloth …”

“We are all citizens of one world, we are all of one blood. To hate a man
because he was born in another country, because he speaks a different
language, or because he takes a different view on this subject or that, is a
great folly. Desist, I implore you, for we are all equally human …

“Let us have but one end in view, the welfare of humanity; and let us put
aside all selfishness in considerations of language, nationality, or religion.”
 Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi

Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi was another influence on Froebel. Living from

1746 to 1827, this Swiss educator believed in offering all children the
opportunity of a good education. He thought it was vital:

To recognise that each child’s personality is sacred.

To provide a safe environment in which children could learn (no flogging!).

To include the five senses in the learning process. He believed it called for
providing learning that connected the hand, heart and head. This also
meant learning both indoors and outdoors.

To start with concrete work – then move to abstraction. This called for an
emphasis on learning by doing, clarifying the thinking and then practicing.
He believed in encouraging children to think for themselves.

To recognise that love of learning will continue to drive the learning.

Pestalozzi explained his approach in a book called How Gertrude Teaches
Her Children: An attempt to help mother to teach their children and an
account of the method.

This attracted wide attention and students flocked from many countries,
one of these was Froebel. Before looking at how Froebel developed his
own ideas, however, let’s explore his background and development.

Growing up

Friedrich was born in April 1782 at Oberweissbach, now part of Thuringia in

Central Germany. He had a difficult childhood.

The son of a pastor, he was sixth child in the family. He was less than a
year old when his mother died and 4 years of age when his father
remarried.

He failed to get the love he wanted from the family. His stepmother
addressed him in an impersonal way. She used the formal term ‘Sie’, rather
than the informal ‘Du’ (You).
His loneliness was lifted at the age of 10 when his biological mother’s
brother, Johann Cristoph Hoffman, invited him to Stadtilm and took over his
care. Friedrich later wrote:

“It was first in Stadtilm where balance came back into my life, because at
home I had found neither motherly love nor fatherly affection.”

Friedrich took a job as a forester when he was fifteen. This proved life-
changing.

Observing the plant and animal life, he experienced a sense of wonder.

Flora, fauna and animals grew in an organic way with the whole eco-
system achieving a certain unity.

Surely the same could be true for human beings? Froebel saw the
interconnectedness in what he believed to be God’s universe. This was a
theme that would arise in his later teachings.

Finding his calling

Enrolling at the University of Jena when he was 17, Friedrich looked

forward to his studies.

Unfortunately the lessons were sterile and, despite switching courses, he

found little satisfaction.

Eventually poverty forced him to leave university. Despite owing people

only a small sum – 30 Taler – he spent time in a debtor’s prison.

Moving on, he spent the next four years trying many different kinds of work,
finally deciding to study architecture at Frankfurt. During this time he met
Anton Gruner, who ran a school in the city.

Gruner was a follower of Pestalozzi and, seeing Friedrich’s potential,

suggested that he become a teacher.

Froebel was in his element. He had finally found his calling.

The Froebel Museum

 Developing his ideas

Friedrich taught for a while and then 2 years studying at an institute run by
Pestalozzi.

Whilst he found the approach inspiring, he had some reservations. So he

vowed to create his own type of school.

During the next few years he pursued other activities – such as studying
mineralogy and serving for the Prussian army against Napoleon – but he
kept returning to his dream. Froebel’s education actually benefited from
both these activities.

Recalling his study of crystals, he said later: “The world of crystals

proclaimed to me in distinct and unequivocal terms the laws of human life.”

Whilst serving in the army he also made two friends, Heinrich Langenthal
and Wilhelm Middendorf. Both would help him in his future educational
work.

Friedrich spent the years between 1816 and 1840 developing his ideas.
During this time:

He founded a school in Thuringia. Departing from the prevailing practice in

‘ordinary schools’, it also offered education to children under six.
Froebel was joined there by several devotees, including Langenthal and
Middendorf. The teachers’ families lived together in a community and the
school’s approach was based on enabling pupils to develop their creativity.

He married Henriette Wilhelmine Hoffmeister. The marriage lasted 21 years

until her death in 1839. (He would marry again in 1851 to Luise Levin.)

His ideas also began to reach a wider audience. He published The

Education of Man and designed educational materials that encouraged
children to use their creativity.

Friedrich was invited to Switzerland and spent several years there opening
schools. Returning to Bad Blankenburg, he founded the Play and Activity
Institute and trained play facilitators.

He also developed more of the ‘play gifts’ – educational materials for

children.

The Froebel Web explains:

“The materials in the room were divided into two categories: ‘gifts’ and
‘occupations’ or activities.

“Gifts were objects that were fixed in form such as blocks. The purpose
was that in playing with the object the child would learn the underlying
concept represented by the object.”

“Occupations or activities consisted of material that children could shape

and manipulate such as paper, clay, sand, beads, string etc.

“There was an underlying symbolic meaning in all that was done. Even
clean up time was seen as ‘a final concrete reminder to the child of God’s
plan for moral and social order.’”

The ‘Gifts’

Froebel is probably best known: a) for creating the ‘kindergarten’; b) for

creating ‘gifts’ – what would now be called ‘educational materials’ – for
children.

(The original German term for each ‘Gift’ is ‘Gabe’. So in Froebel literature
you will see references to ‘Gabe 1; Gabe 2;’ etc.)
He produced gifts that were ‘simple’ and interrelated. They encouraged the
child to play, be creative and explore designs that mirrored the unity of the
universe.

So what were the gifts? The following material is drawn from the Froebel
Web and can be found at:

Froebel Web

Froebel Gifts – uncovering

the orderly beauty of nature

“The original five gifts were published by Froebel in his life time. The
remaining gifts were used by Froebel in his Kindergarten and published
after his death …

“Collectively they form a complete whole, like a many branched tree, whose
parts explain and advance each other.”

“Each is a self-contained whole, a seed from which manifold new

developments may spring to cohere in further unity.

“They cover the whole field of intuitive and sensory instruction and lay the
basis for all further teaching.

“Froebel developed a specific set of 20 ‘gifts’ – physical objects such as

balls, blocks, and sticks – for children to use in the kindergarten.

“Froebel carefully designed these gifts to help children recognize and

appreciate the common patterns and forms found in nature. Froebel’s gifts
were eventually distributed throughout the world, deeply influencing the
development of generations of young children.”
The first gift – a ball.

“This is the first and most important plaything of childhood. The child first
seeks to contemplate, to grasp and to possess objects as a whole.

“A ball supplies exactly what the child seeks, and so the child likes to play
with the ball. The extraordinary charm of a ball exerts a constant attraction
both in early childhood and later youth.”

The second gift – the sphere and the cube.

“This gives more pleasure than the ball during the second half of the first
year, when children begin to employ themselves in more definite ways.

“The sphere and cube belong together in play because they are opposite
and alike.”
The third gift – a wooden cube, divided once in each direction to create
eight smaller cubes.

“The cube of the second gift is the basis of the third gift. Eight cubes are
presented to the child in the form of a single larger cube.

“As each cube is removed, different shapes emerge.” The eight blocks can
then be arranged to create forms of life, knowledge and beauty. These
involve:

Forms of Life

The child can use the gifts to create something they find in their life – such
as a building, house, table, sofa or tree.

Forms of Knowledge

The child can use the gifts to explore maths, science and logical ideas. This
enables them to develop their sense of proportion, equivalence and order.

Forms of Beauty

The child can use the gifts to create beauty. The Froebel Web explains:

“The blocks can be arranged to form patterns of symmetry and harmony.

Beauty forms appeal to our aesthetic sense. Froebel also called
this dancing as the blocks are progressively rearranged to reveal evolving
patterns of increasing complexity.”
The fourth gift – is a cube of the same dimensions as the third gift.

“It also consists of eight identical blocks, each of the same volume as the
blocks of the third gift.

“The blocks in this gift are each twice as long and half the thickness of the
cubes of the third gift … Together with the blocks of the third gift more
complex Life Forms emerge.”

The fifth gift – this gift expands on the cubes of the third gift.

“Presented as a larger cube with three blocks along each edge, it would
theoretically consist of twenty seven cubes.

“The surprise in this gift is that three of the cubes are divided diagonally to
form six triangular faced blocks and another three are divided twice to form
twelve smaller triangular blocks.

“The triangular shapes also enable the construction of more complex

Beauty and Life Forms.”

Froebel’s innovative work attracted admirers and critics, the former helping
him to take the next step.

The Kindergarten Movement

Friedrich established the first Public Kindergarten in ‘The House over the
basement’ in the Esplanade in Bad Blankenburg.

He coined the term ‘Kindergarten’ to emphasise the need to encourage

children to grow. He said:

“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is
beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.”
Writing in his book, A Child’s Work: Freedom and Guidance in Froebel’s
Educational Theory and Practice, Joachim Liebschner explains that there
was one further key element:

“A long strip of land, in front of the house, became an essential part of the
Kindergarten.

“The plan drawn up by Froebel himself and still in existence, shows a

central area divided into single plots of about a square yard (square meter),
one for each child, surrounded by a path and adjoined by similar size plots
for growing flowers, fruit and vegetables.

“On either side of the central area were playgrounds for the children and
overlooking all this, a paved area for visiting parents and friends of
children.”

“While each child was free to arrange his or her own patch to grow what
interested him or her, the enclosing beds were communally worked, thus
emphasising the uniqueness of the individual as well as his or her
responsibility toward the community.”
Froebel’s ideas were backed by influential people, many of the strongest
advocates being women. Within a decade there were over 50
kindergartens established across the country.

The ideas also began spreading abroad – more of which later. During this
time Froebel started a publishing firm for his books and educational
materials.

His book Mother Songs proved enormously popular. Describing the book,
the Froebel Web explains:

“It is a little universe, a Unity in itself. Froebel wanted to sum up his

thoughts on education in this book.

“Froebel describes family situations from the daily life in a family … (The
book) has a motto for each picture and then a verse for mother and child.
Froebel also wrote commentaries to the pictures.

“The pictures, verses, rhymes and music should give the child an idea
(Ahnung – a hunch or presentiment) of an inner world, that is from the outer
to the inner.

“One of the purposes of the book was to develop a child’s ‘body, limbs and
senses’ in various finger plays and games with its mother.”

During these years Friedrich established the first training institute for
kindergarten teachers at Marienthal.

This was previously a hunting lodge of the Duke of Saxe-Meiningen, near

Bad Liebenstein in Thuringia.
Upon seeing it for the first time, Froebel said:

“This would be a beautiful place for our institution. Marienthal, the vale of
the Marys, whom we wish to bring up as the mothers of humanity, as the
first Mary brought up the Saviour of the World.”

Success had its price, however, and the kindergarten movement was about
to suffer suppression.

Froebel’s approach to education was perceived as radical, but the Prussian

authorities confused his views with those of his cousin, a fiery socialist.

As a result, Prussia banned kindergartens from 1851, one year before

Froebel’s death. The ban remained in place until 1860. Fortunately for the
kindergarten movement, however, influential people carried the ideas
abroad.

Many of these pioneers were women. Here are just a few who carried the
torch.
 Henriette Schrader-Breymann

Henriette worked with Froebel when he was in Thuringia and became one
of the key educators in the kindergarten movement.

She went on to found the Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus, which still exists today.

(See link at the end of this piece.)

Blazing the trail in a previously male-dominated culture, she developed a

training centre for women teachers.

She combined theoretical training with hands-on experience – an approach

that continues to this day. Henriette educated women from many different
countries including, for example, the first Swedish Kindergarten teachers.

You can read about today’s work at Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus at:

Pestalozzi-Froebel Haus
 Baroness Bertha von Marenholtz-Buelow

Connected to aristocratic families across Europe, she became a great

advocate of Froebel’s methods.

She was a driving force in spreading his ideas to the Netherlands, England,
France, Belgium, Italy and, through a relative, to the United States.

The Baroness used her aristocratic contacts when kindergartens were

banned in Prussia and other German states.

Her efforts helped to lift the ban and she reached a wide audience by
publishing her book Reminiscences of Froebel.
 Margarethe Meyer Schurz

Margarethe was born into a prominent family in Hamburg. She was

encouraged by her parents to pursue the arts and education.

During this time she came into contact with Froebel’s teachings and,
together with her sister Bertha, met him in 1849. Bertha went on to open
several kindergartens in Germany.

Moving to England with her husband, Mr Ronge, Bertha opened the

England Infant Garden in Tavistock Place, London.

Margarethe joined her sister to teach in England before moving to

Wisconsin with her husband Carl Shurz. Her story is continued on the
Froebel Web at:

Froebel Web

“Margarethe employed Froebel’s philosophy while caring for her daughter,

Agathe, and four neighbour children, leading them in games and songs and
group activities that channelled their energy while preparing them for
school at the same time.

“Other parents were so impressed at the results that they prevailed upon
Schurz to help their children, so she opened a small kindergarten, the first
in the United States.
“Like most of the early kindergartens in the United States, it was conducted
in German. The kindergarten in Watertown continued until World War I,
when it was closed because of opposition to the use of the German
language.”

“She later said that Froebel credited her with expressing his views better
than his own books had.

“Her work certainly gained an audience; kindergarten became an accepted

and integral part of American education and an accepted course of study
for elementary teachers.”

“Margarethe Meyer Schurz died in Washington, D.C., at the age of 43. The
memorial tablet, dedicated in 1929, rests only a few feet from the site of the
building where she ran her kindergarten – the first ever in America:

“In memory of Mrs. Carl Schurz (Margarethe Meyer Schurz) Aug. 27, 1833
– March 15, 1876, who established on this site the first kindergarten in
America, 1856.”

Elizabeth Peabody
Elizabeth was 55 when, in 1859, she learned of Froebel’s work in
Germany. The next year she opened America’s first English speaking
kindergarten in Boston.

She ran the school for 8 years and then made a study tour of Europe.
Returning to the United States, she spread the message through her
writing.

She wrote the Kindergarten Guide, Kindergarten Culture, The Kindergarten

in Italy and Letters to Kindergartners. Elizabeth published the Kindergarten
Messenger – the newsletter for the movement.

She also founded the American Froebel Union in 1877 and became its first
president.

You can find out more about Elizabeth via the Google Reader excerpts
of Women in American Education: 1820 – 1955, by June Edwards. This
can be found at:

Google Reader

Death

Friedrich continued to pursue his ideas, but the final years of his life were
difficult. Despite encouragement from his followers, he was dispirited by the
ban on kindergartens in Prussia. He died on June 21, 1852 in the
Marienthal.

His final resting place is in Schweina near Bad Liebenstein. His grave stone
was based on the ‘gifts’ of the sphere, cylinder and cube. The Froebel Web
explains:

“The sphere and the cube together represented Knowledge, Beauty and
Life.

“The sphere predominantly corresponds with the feelings or heart,

(affective) and the cube to thought and intellect (cognitive).”
The Kindergarten Ban in Prussia was lifted in 1860, eight years after his
death. Friedrich’s work lives on, however, in many places around the world.

Principles

Writing about Froebel, Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz-Bülow

explained how his personality lit up when engaged in his vocation. She
wrote:

“He became entirely another person when his genius came upon him; the
stream of his words then poured forth like fiery rain.

“It often came quite unexpectedly and on slight occasions; as in our walks,
for instance, the contemplation of a stone or plant often led to profound
outbursts upon the universe.”

“But the foundation of all his discourses was always his theory of
development the LAW OF UNIVERSAL DEVELOPMENT applied to the
human being …

“One needed to see Froebel in his class, in order to realize his genius and
the strong power of conviction which inspired him.”
Bearing this in mind, let’s explore some of the principles that inspired him in
his work.

People are creative

“Man is a creative being,” proclaimed Froebel. Everybody is creative,

everybody is an artist.

Everybody can use their talents to shape a better world. Froebel believed
that each person was many sided.

He used the analogy of a crystal. Shining a light on one side – providing

one educational ‘gift’ for growth – may or may not highlight their brilliance.

Providing many educational ‘gifts’ gave opportunities to find and develop

their talents. This could help people to follow a fulfilling path in life.

“The maple wood blocks … are in my fingers to this day,” wrote Frank
Lloyd Wright, in his autobiography.

“As a child, Frank had already shown an interest in building. So his mother,
Anna, bought him a set of Froebel gifts when visiting the Philadelphia
Centennial Exposition in 1876. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy
web site says:

“Wright’s mother attended the Exposition, and brought back with her a new
educational tool: Froebel blocks.

“Developed as part of Friedrich Froebel’s new Kindergarten program, the

“gifts” presented structured play activities using two and three dimensional
geometric forms, patterns, and constructions.”

“Even in his later years, Wright fondly recalled building with the maple
blocks.

“The geometric logic of his buildings, their massing, and pattern can be
traced back to the time he spent with his Froebel blocks.”

You can find this piece at:

Link
 Frank Lloyd Wright

People are creative in different ways. Enid Blyton became a Froebel

teacher, for example, and went on to write stories for children.

Not everybody can become a famous architect or author, but everybody

has talents they can use.

People can be helped to develop

through play and other creative activities

Creative people retain a sense of play. They love to follow their passion,
pursue possibilities and create finished products.

“There is nothing more serious than play,” we are told.

Froebel believed it was vital to give each child the opportunity to explore
different materials, create new forms – of life, knowledge and beauty – and
achieve a sense of completion.

Writing in The Education of Man, Froebel explained the purpose of play

and the various ‘gifts’.

“Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it

alone is the free expression of what is in a child’s soul …

“The character and purpose of these plays may be described as follows:

“They are a coherent system, starting at each stage from the simplest
activity and progressing to the most diverse and complex manifestations of
it …

“The purpose of each one of them is to instruct human beings so that they
may progress as individuals and members of humanity in all its various
relationships.”

“Collectively they form a complete whole, like a many branched tree, whose
parts explain and advance each other.

“Each is a self-contained whole, a seed from which manifold new

developments may spring to cohere in further unity.

“They cover the whole field of intuitive and sensory instruction and lay the
basis for all further teaching.”

“The mind grows by self revelation. In play the child ascertains what he can
do, discovers his possibilities of will and thought by exerting his power
spontaneously.

“In work he follows a task prescribed for him by another, and does not
reveal his own proclivities and inclinations – but another’s. In play he
reveals his own original power.”

Froebel believed that each child had their own rhythm. They would learn
when they were ready to learn.

The educator’s role was to provide the encouragement and stimulation to

help them develop.

Play can be a starting point for creativity, but progress does not always
come easily. Doing what you love can involve overcoming tough
challenges. Froebel wrote:

“A child who plays and works thoroughly, with perseverance until physical
fatigue forbids will surely be a thorough, determined person, capable of
self-sacrifice.”
Creative people do what they enjoy but they also love to ‘sweat’. They gain
a great sense of satisfaction from completing a task that adds to life,
knowledge or beauty.

Norman Brosterman explores such creativity in his book Inventing

Kindergarten: Seedbed of Modern Art. Looking at Froebel’s influence, he
describes how kindergartens played a key part in the development of artists
such as Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Le Corbusier and the Bauhaus
school. He argues for revisiting the original spirit of Froebel’s work.

He believes this produces “a sensitive, inquisitive child with an uninhibited

curiosity and a genuine respect for nature, family and society.”

People can do creative things that mirror

and contribute to the unity of the universe

Froebel was a deeply spiritual man – seeing God’s hand at work

everywhere in the universe. Perhaps he was born that way. Perhaps it
came from his time as a forester, observing the patterns of nature.

Perhaps it came from his time as a mineralogist, observing patterns in

crystals. Perhaps it was simply because he appreciated life.
Whatever the causes, he saw patterns in the universe. Froebel believed it
was possible for human beings to experience, emulate and build on these
designs.

Children could experience these patterns in kindergarten. The loving

environment enabled them to feel safe and, like flowers, they could be
nurtured to grow.

The ‘gifts’ replicated and gave children the opportunity to pursue the
designs in life, knowledge and beauty.

The physical garden enabled them to connect with the eternal rhythms in
nature. ‘Connection’ was a crucial element for Froebel. This meant
connection with one’s soul, connection with other people and connection
with the universe.

For him this also meant connection with God. Exploring and creating such
designs could enable people to fulfil their potential. He wrote:

“If man is to attain fully his destiny, so far as earthly development will permit
this, if he is to become truly an unbroken living unit, he must feel and know
himself to be one, not only with God and humanity, but also with nature.”

Practice

So what have been the effects of Friedrich’s work? The word ‘kindergarten’
has become integrated into many languages.

Thousands of kindergartens have been set-up around the world. His work
also had a strong influence on educational thinkers such as Thomas
Dewey in America.

Now there are colleges that specialise in educating teachers in Froebel’s

approach.

Peter Weston’s book The Froebel Educational Institute, for example,

outlines the history and ongoing development of the Froebel College in the
UK.

Peter has also produced an excellent overview of Friedrich’s influence

in Friedrich Froebel: His Life, Times and Significance.
You can find a free download at:

Book Download

The kindergarten movement enabled children to explore. It also

encouraged many women to develop their professional careers. Let’s
consider these two themes.

Kindergartens

The best kindergartens are real ‘gardens for children’. Researching for this
article, I interviewed parents whose children attended Froebel
kindergartens.

The response of one parent, Liz Straker, was typical. Looking back at the
kindergarten her children attended, she said:

“The environment was stimulating. It offered variety and encouraged kids to

be curious.

They would come in the morning and there would be at least 10 activities
laid out for them to choose from.

“Kids could choose what they were interested in – not be told what to do.
There was close observation of each individual child and their progress and
needs.”

“The activities on offer would change daily. These might include dressing
up, computer, some teacher-led arts, craft activity and role playing.
“There were also lots of outdoor activities with interesting equipment, such
as mini-assault courses, gardening and bicycles.

“Sometimes there would be ‘Show and Tell’. Each child would bring
something in they were interested in and talk to the rest of the class about
it.

“There was a daily structure and timetable that was adhered to. Break time,
group reading time and outside play time was at the same time each day.

“This gave the kids a sense of stability and security. Finally, they were
encouraged to take responsibility – caring for each other and clearing up at
the end of the day.”

“Sounds like how it should be,” somebody may say. Agreed, but therein lies
a challenge.

The kindergarten described by Liz embodies the spirit of Froebel’s work.

Some others simply put up the name ‘Kindergarten’.

They then failed to understand the philosophy about encouraging each

child in the garden.

Manufacturers produced building blocks and other educational toys that

were poor copies of the originals.

Froebel recognised the limitations of his own writing, which is maybe why
he placed so much emphasis on training teachers.

Seeing him – and his nearest teachers – in action was the best way to
convey the spirit behind the kindergarten.
 Women Teachers

Froebel had an enormous effect in another area. He laid the foundations for
many women to develop professional careers as kindergarten teachers. He
wrote:

“The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands of women, the mothers,
than in the possessors of power, or those of innovators who for the most
part do not understand themselves.

“We must cultivate women, who are the educators of the human race, else
the new generation cannot accomplish its task.”

He saw women’s role as going far beyond the home.

The Froebel Web explains: “The women who trained as kindergarten

teachers gained economic independence and a respected role in the
community.”

Initially they were trained within the kindergartens. Many then went on to
set-up their own establishments and train others. Women were primarily
responsible for the spread of kindergartens across Europe, Russia and the
United States.

Friedrich was aware of his own limitations, particularly in terms of passing

on his ideas.
He believed in other people’s ability to carry the ideas forward. Drawing on
his knowledge of nature, he recognised that some things took time. He
wrote:

“The last word of my theory I shall carry to my grave, the time is not yet ripe
for it.

“If three hundred years after my system of education is completely and

according to its real principle carried through Europe, I shall rejoice in
heaven.

“If only the seed be cast abroad, it’s springing up will not fail nor the fruit be
wanting.”

Friedrich Froebel planted many seeds. Some have come to fruition.

FROEBEL GIFTS

Friedrich Froebel was a German educator in the early 1800s who is

considered the founder of the kindergarten movement. He developed a
series of play materials he called Gifts that included geometric
building blocks designed to teach children about forms and their
relationships in nature. They were so named to emphasize to the children
that the playthings should be properly respected as gifts and to the
teachers to recognize the individual “gifts” each child possessed from
birth.1
Froebel believed that the education of the child should begin shortly after
birth. With much thought and observation, he developed his system of
learning with the Gifts he designed to function as tools with which to
awaken and develop a child’s recognition of common elements found in
nature through inanimate things. His Gifts progressed from the simple to
the complex, and the handling of the objects at a very young age gave
children an innate sense of cause-and-effect while still beyond their
comprehension.2 Froebel was influenced by Johann Heinrich
Pestalozzi’s ideas that asserted children need to learn through
their senses and through physical activity. He argued for “things before
words, concrete before abstract.”3

Froebel numbered the Gifts to simplify referring to them in his writings,

which described the first six Gifts. More Gifts were developed in his later
kindergarten work. Gifts are distinguished from other play materials in the
kindergarten: they are able to be returned to their original form when play is
finished. Froebel proposed two rules for Gift play: (1) all parts of the
particular Gift must be incorporated in the play, and (2) a creation is always
changed through modification, not destroyed and rebuilt, allowing unity to
be maintained and subtle lessons about the nature of change learned.4

Of the ten Froebel Gifts, the first six Gifts involve solids; Gift 7, surfaces;
Gift 8, lines; Gift 9, rings, and Gift 10 points. Froebel also developed
another set of activities that he called “occupations.” The occupations were
designed to furnish material for practice in certain skills with clay, wood
carving, paper folding, drawing, weaving, stringing beads, and other
materials.5 The Gifts would lead to discovery; the occupations to invention.
The Gifts would give insight; the occupations would give power.6

Froebel’s Gifts were designed to meet the cognitive and developmental

needs of children. His writings gave specific suggestions for using each Gift
to develop the desired effects with the appreciation of their relationships to
forms of life (relating to objects found in a child’s life/world), forms of
knowledge (math/science), and forms of beauty (abstract patterns and
designs).

Gift 1 – Yarn Balls: The earliest toy for infants, Froebel’s soft yarn balls
included six balls: three primary colors of red, yellow, and blue; and three
secondary colors of orange, green, and purple. They were easy to grasp
and helped the child to distinguish form, color, and movement, the qualities
of matter in the physical universe.7

Gift 2 – Sphere, Cylinder, and Cube: This device contained a wooden ball,
a wooden cube, and a wooden cylinder, which were suspended by strings.
When spun, the individual shapes demonstrated the principle of unity by
discovering that the spinning of one shape shows the shape of another – a
spinning cube produces a cylinder and a spinning cylinder produces a
sphere – revealing their interconnectedness.8

Gift 3 – The Divided Cube: This set of blocks contains a two-inch cube
made up of eight one-inch cubes. The purpose of these blocks was to
introduce the concept of parts making up a whole. Mathematical concepts
of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division can be introduced.
Froebel strongly believed in the value of symbolic play and allowing the
child to use his imagination to play with the cubes.9

Gift 4 – Rectangular Prisms: With only a slight variation from Gift 3, eight
rectangular blocks opened up many more possibilities for constructive play.
The blocks have a proportion of 1 to 2 to 4 (1/2” by 1” by 2”). The
mathematical concept of fractions can be discovered with the pieces.10

Gift 5 – Cubes and Triangular Prisms: This Gift consists of a three-inch

cube made up of 21 one-inch cubes, 6 half-cubes, and 12 quarter-cubes.
Best used with children five years or older, this Gift introduces triangles and
allows for more realistic buildings and structures during constructive
play.11

Gift 6 – Classic Building Blocks: This three-inch cube is made up of 18

rectangular blocks, 12 flat square blocks, and 6 narrow columns. Concepts
of scale, proportion, symmetry, and balance can be discovered with this set
of blocks.12

Gift 7 – Parquetry Tablets: Geometric shapes made from wood, plastic, or

paper, this Gift contains seven shapes – square (1” and 2”); equilateral
triangle (1” and 2”); right-angled isosceles triangle (1” and 2”); right-angled
scalene triangle; obtuse isosceles triangle; circle (2”); and half circle (2”).
Each shape comes in a pair of complementary colors. These shapes are
derived from the surfaces of the earlier Gifts. Moving from understanding
surface as part of the solids, now the concept of surface or plane as a
separate object is introduced. From working with solids to objects in a two-
dimensional form, the child begins to shift from concrete to abstract
comprehension.13

Gift 8 – Sticks and Rings: This Gift moves from the concept of surface to
the concept of line, representing the edges or outlines of earlier objects.
The set usually contains some or all of the following pieces: 1”, 2”, 3”, 4”
and 5” sticks and 1”, 1.5” and 2” diameter rings, plus 1”, 1.5” and 2”
diameter half rings. These sticks and rings encourage children to lay down
patterns.14

Gift 9 – The Point: This Gift features small objects in a variety of colors to
represent the point. Through the progression of the Gifts, the abstract
quality of a point, which has no dimension, is explored. Abstract concepts
cannot be taught, but can be discovered through play and internalized.
Using a paper grid with the points helps draw the connection between
points and lines.15

Gift 10 – The Framework Gift: Using points and lines to make three-
dimensional solids is accomplished with this Gift. Originally dried peas were
soaked until they were soft enough for toothpicks to be used to connect the
structures, known as peas work. Today’s architectural toys such as
Tinkertoys and Erector sets can accomplish the same goals as Gift 10.16

In his book outlining the use of his Gifts, Education by Development,

Froebel also laid the foundation for using curvilinear solids with children.
This Gift forms a cylinder with concentric rings divided into 36 pieces with
halves, thirds, and quarter pieces. This Gift is especially suited for
architectural constructions.17

Froebel’s system of play and learning proved to successfully connect

children with nature through the observed patterns discovered. Highly
acclaimed architect Frank Lloyd Wright accredited his early learning with
Froebel’s Gifts in kindergarten as awakening his mind to the rhythmic
structure in nature. “I soon became susceptible to constructive pattern
evolving in everything I saw. I learned to ‘see’ this way and when I did, I did
not care to draw casual incidentals of Nature. I wanted to design.”18

Milton Bradley was the first major toy maker to produce the Gifts in the
United States. With the spread of the kindergarten movement, more toys
were marketed for their educational content and their potential for creative
expression.19
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL

Friedrich Froebel was truly a pioneer in early childhood education. He

established a new type of school for three and four year old children in
1837, which he called a child’s garden or kindergarten.1 Prior to this there
had been no educational training for children under the age of seven. There
was no recognition that young children were capable of learning social and
intellectual skills.2

Friedrich Froebel was born in 1782 in Oberweissbach, Germany. His

mother died when he was an infant, and he experienced a profoundly
unhappy childhood, left to care for himself much of the time. Spending time
alone playing in the gardens and forests around his home led to a love and
respect of nature that remained throughout his lifetime.3 He had a natural
curiosity for learning and avidly read many books on a variety of subjects.
He studied forestry, surveying, and architecture as well as crystallography
and mineralogy and worked in these fields before turning to his eventual
work in education. All of these experiences influenced his future views of
educating children.4

In 1805, Froebel was hired as a teacher at the Pestalozzian Frankfurt

Model School. He was greatly influenced by Johann Pestalozzi, a highly
regarded educator of his day. Froebel appreciated Pestalozzi’s respect for
the dignity of children and his creation of a learning environment that
promoted emotional security for them.5 Pestalozzi saw children as having
an innate desire to learn, and he believed that children needed to be active
in their own learning. Encouraging children’s natural curiosity and desire for
exploration, Pestalozzi’s views developed a revolutionary teaching system
from the standard teaching methods of rote memorization and
lectures.6 Pestalozzi also welcomed poor children and orphans to attend
his schools, which was also a revolutionary practice.7

Froebel’s most important work, The Education of Man, published in 1825,

reflects Pestalozzi’s impact on Froebel’s views of educating children. His
well-known motto was “Kommt lasst uns unsern Kindern leben!” which is
literally translated as “Come, let us live with our children!” He proposed that
play is a necessary element in educating the “whole” child allowing him to
use all his imaginative powers and physical movements to explore his
interests. Froebel stated, “Play is the highest expression of human
development in childhood, for it alone is the free expression of what is in a
child’s soul.”8 He was convinced that the primary focus for teaching young
children should be through play, which contrasted with the prevalent view
at the time that play was a form of idleness and disorder.9

In 1816, Froebel opened his own school, the Universal German

Educational Institute, which he ran himself until 1830, when he opened
schools in Switzerland using his teaching techniques.10 In 1837, Froebel
opened his first kindergarten in Blankenburg, Germany. He coined the
word, kindergarten, to express his vision for training young children. He
stated: “Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but
each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of
peers.”11

Froebel’s kindergarten used free play, games, songs, stories, and crafts to
stimulate imagination while developing physical and motor skills. The
kindergarten program was designed to meet children’s needs for physical
activity, sensory awareness, creative expression, exploration of ideas and
concepts, the pleasure of singing, and the experience of living among
others. His educational approach was for “self-activity,” the idea that
allowed the child to be led by his own interests and to freely explore them.
The teacher became a guide rather than a lecturer.12

Froebel developed toys for inventive play that he called “gifts” and
“occupations.” Gifts were objects that were fixed in form, such
as blocks and balls. He designed a large box of 500 wooden building
blocks for children.13 Children’s symbolic play with blocks gave a
more open-ended play experience than the intricate, decorated toys that
children normally played with in that day. Froebel felt that building with
blocks helped children progress from the material to the abstract.14 He
envisioned that the Gifts would teach children to use their environment as
an educational aid and that they would see the connection between human
life and life in nature.15 Occupations were objects that children could
shape and manipulate freely using their own creativity, such as clay, sand,
beads, and rope.16

Froebel also included in his kindergarten philosophy the study and nuture
of plants in a garden for stimulating children’s interest in nature. He felt it
was important for children to grow up in harmony with nature.17 Earlier
learning experiences with children in a garden convinced Froebel that
action and direct observation were the best ways to educate.18

Between 1848 and 1852 there were 31 kindergartens founded in German

cities. Many of these kindergartens were open to children of all social
classes and religious denominations teaching tolerance and understanding
unlike other educational institutions of that time. Froebel died in 1852 after
a short illness. His legacy of changing the philosophy of education in
Germany led other educators to continue his work.19

Pioneers In Our Field: Friedrich Froebel - Founder of the First Kindergarten

By Early Childhood Today Editorial Staff

The first installment in Early Childhood Today’s series on the Roots of Early
Childhood Education
Grades
PreK–K
"Children are like tiny flowers: They are varied and need care, but each is
beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers." -
Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)
Friedrich Froebel was a motherless child. Losing his mother before the age
of 1, and being raised by a father who had little time for him and his two
brothers, left Froebel with a yearning for something seemingly impossible
to satisfy.

Froebel spent much of his time alone in the gardens surrounding his home.
Here, as a young boy, he would play all day and explore his surroundings.
This led to a deep love of nature that would remain with Froebel to the end
of his days and influence all of his future achievements.

As a young man, Froebel accepted a teaching position at the Frankfurt

Model School. Frankfurt Model School was based on the teachings of
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, a well respected educator of the day.
Pestalozzi welcomed the poor into his school, including orphans practice
that was revolutionary. His philosophy included the idea that children need
to be active learners.

Froebel applied his "hands-on learning" approach when he left the school
to be a private tutor. The parents of the children he tutored offered Froebel
a small patch of their property to use as a garden. The learning
experiences with the children in the garden convinced Froebel that action
and direct observation were the best ways to educate.

In 1837 Friedrich Froebel founded his own school and called it

"kindergarten," or the children's garden.

Prior to Froebel's kindergarten, children under the age of 7 did not attend
school. It was believed that young children did not have the ability to focus
or to develop cognitive and emotional skills before this age. However,
Froebel expressed his own beliefs about the importance of early education
in the following way: ". . . because learning begins when consciousness
erupts, education must also."

Froebel labeled his approach to education as "self-activity." This idea

allows the child to be led by his own interests and to freely explore them.
The teacher's role, therefore, was to be a guide rather than lecturer.
In the end, Froebel's most important gifts to children were the classroom,
symbolically viewed as an extension of a lovely, thriving garden, and that
which he needed most as a child a teacher who took on the role of loving,
supportive parent.
This article originally appeared in the August, 2000 issue of Early
Childhood Today.

The learning experiences with the children in the garden convinced

Froebel that action and direct observation were the best ways to
educate.
Froebel's Kindergarten Goals
Froebel's kindergarten was designed to meet each child's need for:

 physical activity
 the development of sensory awareness and physical dexterity
 creative expression
 exploration of ideas and concepts
 the pleasure of singing
 the experience of living among others
 satisfaction of the soul

A Classroom Garden
Children can discover Froebel's "gifts" with indoor garden experiences.

 Plant window boxes with bulbs. Paper-white narcissus bulbs will grow
and bloom quickly indoors.
 Create a classroom terrarium in a clear fish tank. Fill the tank with
layers of gravel, sand, and soil and plant with mosses and ferns.
Caring for this mini-ecosystem lets children observe life.
 Plant seeds of fast growing vines such as beans and sweet peas.

He gave children:
- respect for their intellectual and emotional
abilities and development
- the classroom (symbolically viewed as an
extension of a flourishing
garden),
- and that which he needed most as a child:
A teacher who took on the role of loving, supportive parent. Friedrich
Froebel was truly a pioneer of Early Childhood Education, and a role model
that all educators can still learn from today.

Elements of a Froebelian Education

The Principles include:

 recognition of the uniqueness of each child's capacity and

potential
 a holistic view of each child's development
 an ecological view of mankind in the natural world
 a recognition of the integrity of childhood in its own right
 a recognition of the child as part of the community

The Pedagogy involves:

 knowledgeable and appropriately qualified teachers and

nursery nurses
 awareness that skilled and informed observation of children
underpins effective teaching and learning
 use of first hand experience, play, talk and reflection as media
for learning
 activities which have sense, purpose and meaning for the
child, and involve joy, wonder, concentration and satisfaction
 a holistic approach to learning which recognises children as
active, feeling and thinking human beings, seeing patterns and
making connections with their own lives
 encouragement rather than punishment
 individual and collaborative activity and play
  development of children's independence and sense of
mastery, building on what children are good at
 development of all faculties and abilites of each child:
imaginative, creative, linguistic, mathematical, musical,
aesthetic, scientific, physical, social, moral, cultural, and
spiritual
 a recognition that parents and educators work in harmony and
partnership

The Environment should:

 be physically safe but intellectually challenging, promoting

curiosity, enquiry, sensory stimulation and aesthetic
awareness
 combine indoors and outdoors, the cultural and the natural
 provide free access to a rich range of materials that promote
open-ended opportunities for play, representation and
creativity
 demonstrate the nursery to be an integral part of the
community it serves, working in close partnership with parents
and other skilled adults
 be educative rather than merely amusing or occupying
 promote interdependence as well as independence,
community as well as individuality and responsibility as well as
freedom

Friedrich Froebel’s Theory of Education Explained

Anyone who has children attend school in the last 150 years has seen
Friedrich Froebel’s theory of education at work. This is because Froebel is
often referred to as the “Father of Kindergarten.”

Froebel firmly believed that every child should be treated as an individual

and their unique abilities should be encouraged to grow. In doing so,
Froebel believed that teachers could create a learning environment that
was harmonious. Kids could be happy, allowing them to seek growth in
their own unique way.

Froebel also believed in the value of play and self-activities as part of the
learning process. When kids were allowed to explore who they were as a
person, Froebel believed that would allow the child to explore their full
potential as a student. Under his theory, young children were heavily
exposed to ideas that would teach about art, nature, design, and
mathematics.

Froebel Created a System of Learning That Didn’t Involve Formal Teaching

In the kindergarten classes that Froebel design in the mid-1800s, the goal
was to help young children be able to integrate into a formal learning
process later on in life. Instead of immediately saturating young children
with formal lessons, testing, and other schooling components, he took a
different approach to his kindergarten system.

His classes would consist of games being played and songs being sung.
He focused on occupational skills, artistic construction, and “gifts.” Froebel
believed that if the materials used to teach young children were “gifts”
instead of “supplies,” then they would be more receptive to the learning
activities that were being offered.

Throughout the learning process, Froebel also encouraged young children

to compare their work to that of their friends and classmates. He
encouraged them to test everything, ask plenty of questions, and explore
on their own.
The 4 Tenants of Friedrich Froebel’s Theory of Education

Froebel had a philosophy that he incorporated into his theory of education

that consisted of four specific and basic components.

 Free Self-Activity. By allowing children to play in the way they

wanted to play every day, Froebel believed that each child could
learn at their own pace. It would be up to the child through their
own self-activities to determine what they would learn for that day.
If they were interested in reading, they would pick up a book to
look at it. If they were interested in art, they would paint. Then
teachers could adapt their approach to each child and encourage
skill and knowledge growth based on the activities chosen.
 Creativity. Children are naturally creative, using their imagination
to dream up brand new worlds, characters, games, and activities.
Froebel believed that any educational system for young children
should incorporate these elements, allowing children to focus their
creativity into the talents and skills that they naturally had. This
would make the learning process fun, no matter what actual skill
was being learned for that day.
 Social Participation. Learning a particular skill is important, but so
is learning how to interact with other people. Froebel believed that
when kids had the chance to meet new people their age and were
encouraged to develop friendships, it would create an environment
that was more welcoming and harmonious for everyone involved.
Kids would group up with others who had similar interests and this
would expand everyone’s knowledge in that interest.
 Motor Expression. By practicing specific physical skills, such as
building, Froebel suggested that kids could increase their overall
learning potential by getting to know more of what their bodies
could do on a regular basis.
A Public Confusion of Family Ideals in the Theory of Education

When Froebel publicized his ideas for kindergarten and showed what the
results of his structures could achieve, it was well-received throughout
Germany and Prussia. The ideas refused to spread very far, however,
because of a governmental misunderstanding of what was actually being
suggested.

In August 1851, the Prussian government officially banned Froebel’s theory

of education, labeling it as demagogic and atheistic. They declared that it
had destructive tendencies in the areas of politics and religion.

The problem was that the Prussian government was actually following an
idea that had been written by Froebel’s cousin Karl. Karl Froebel had
published an essay that was entitled Female Colleges and Kindergartens,
which dared to suggest that women and girls should have equal
opportunities to be educated as men. This was frowned upon, but because
of the confusion, it was Friedrich’s theories that were rejected.

The delay in spreading the concepts of kindergarten wouldn’t last for long.
One of Friedrich Froebel’s students, named Margarethe Schurz, would
create the first kindergarten class in the United States in 1856 based on
Froebel’s ideas. Schurz would inspire Elizabeth Peabody to create the first
English-speaking kindergarten in the United States in 1860.

That means over the course of just one decade, Froebel’s ideas would
begin to influence young students all over the world. Many modern
kindergarten classes still utilize the core concepts of his theories of
education and kindergarten class organization.

In Germany, private kindergartens would adopt Froebel’s ideas, but it

would not be until 1908 when kindergarten teacher training would be first
recognized in Germany through state regulatory laws.
Froebel Toys and How They Help the Learning Process

Froebel firmly believed that playing was an important part of the

educational process for children. It is the cornerstone of his theory of
education. To encourage play, Froebel designed a series of toys that could
be used as part of the educational process. These toys were what he called
“gifts” and they are still around today.

The term “gift” was more than just an encouragement for the child to play.
The toys were actually meant to be given to the students so they could use
them at home and at school to reinforce the learning process. Froebel had
only two rules when it came to playing with the gifts.

1. All parts of the gift had to be incorporated as part of the playing

experience.
2. The gift must always be presented in its whole form.

There were initially six gifts that were offered as part of the kindergarten
curriculum that Froebel designed. These gifts can still be ordered
individually or as a combined set through Froebel’s Gifts, an organization
that Froebel helped to develop.

Here are the six original gifts.

 Gift 1: Yarn Balls. Froebel recognized that balls are often the first
toys that infants enjoy. They are often a favorite toy as well. By
using yarn balls, not only can a child play with something fun, but
they can also create geometric shapes through their play efforts
that can teach basic mathematics.
 Gift 2: Sphere, Cube, and Cylinder. Froebel called these toys the
“children’s delight.” The different features of the shape allow for
children to embrace their curiosity and to see how the shapes
interact with other elements in the world.
  Gift 3: Divided Cube. This gift was designed to help children
represent the different things that were in their life. They could
build towers, trains, or other structures and then create imaginative
stories around them.
 Gift 4: Rectangular Prisms. This gift is much like the divided
cube, allowing children to build something that is important to
them. It is divided into eight pieces, allowing for modular
construction.
 Gift 5: Cubes and Triangular Prisms. This gift allows children to
further explore their building and construction skills with larger
objects. The cubes can be divided into quarter-cubes, creating up
to 21 unique pieces that can be used to build something.
 Gift 6: Classic Blocks. This gift continues the building process,
giving children building blocks in oblong, square, and column
shapes to continue their construction and play concepts.

Additional gifts have been added to Froebel’s theory of education over

time, adding more geometric shapes and skills to the repertoire. Gift 7, for
example, offers a set of parquetry tablets that can be made from either
paper, plastic, or wood. Gift 7 offers children objects that represent two-
dimensional forms, including rings and straight lines using sticks and rings.
Gift 9 features small objects that are kept sorted in a square-shaped
organizational container.

Then there is Gift 10, which is a framework gift. It would be similar to a child
receiving a box of K’nex building materials.

Froebel established the first 7 gifts within his theory of education. His
students and followers added the additional gifts after his death to expand
upon the ideas that were included in his kindergarten programs.

Early childhood education today is based on the idea that Friedrich Froebel
had so long ago: that humans are creative beings. Our brains visualize
items in three-dimensions, which allows us to visualize a different future. To
educate young children, it would therefore be necessary to help children
understand their role as a creative being.

By incorporating playing as the engine to create real learning opportunities,

Froebel harnessed the impulses that high levels of energy provide to create
something meaningful from the learning experience. That is why his theory
of education is still widely used today.

About Froebel
Who was Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)

Born on 21 April 1782 Friedrich Froebel was a German educator who

invented the kindergarten. He believed that "play is the highest expression
of human development in childhood for it alone is the free expression of
what is in the child's soul." According to Froebel, in play children construct
their understanding of the world through direct experience with it. His ideas
about learning through nature and the importance of play have spread
throughout the world.

Froebel considered the whole child’s, health, physical development, the

environment, emotional well-being, mental ability, social relationships and
spiritual aspects of development as important. Drawing on his
mathematical and scientific knowledge Froebel developed a set of gifts
(wooden blocks 1-6) and introduced occupations, (including sticks, clay,
sand, slates, chalk, wax, shells, stones, scissors, paper folding). It seems
appropriate to mention Froebel's gifts and occupations in conjunction with
this new course. Particularly as the gifts and occupations are open-ended
and can be used to support children’s self initiated play.

Froebel believed that it was important for practitioners to understand the

principles of observation including professional practice, the multiple lenses
through which they see children- and that children see their worlds, as well
as offering children freedom with guidance and considering the children's
environments including people and materials as a key element of how they
 behave.

Because Froebel based much of his understanding of children on

observing them this has changed the way we think about children's play.

We have Froebel's insights to thank for placing child initiated activity with
adults working with children to give them freedom with sensitive guidance
and symbolic and imaginative play at the heart of our curriculum

Principles

Froebelian principles as articulated by Professor Tina Bruce (1987, 1st

edition and 2015, 5th edition).

1. Childhood is seen as valid in it self, as part of life and not simply as

preparation for adulthood. Thus education is seen similarly as something
of the present and not just preparation and training for later.
2. The whole child is considered to be important. Health – physical and
mental is emphasised, as well as the importance of feelings and thinking
and spiritual aspects.
3. Learning is not compartmentalised, for everything links.
4. Intrinsic motivation, resulting in child-initiated, self directed activity, is
valued.
5. Self- discipline is emphasised.
6. There are specially receptive periods of learning at different stages of
development.
7. What children can do (rather than what they cannot do0is the starting point
in the child’s education.
8. There is an inner life in the child, which emerges especially under
favourable conditions.
9. The people (both adults and children) with whom the child interacts are of
central importance.
10. Quality education is about three things: the child, the context in which
learning takes place, and the knowledge and understanding which the child
develops and learns.

A Froebelian principled approach to early childhood education in practice

 It is important that practitioners offer children what they need now. For
example, some children may need to be allowed the autonomy, (to make
 choices and decisions and to use their skills and techniques) to mix their
own paints. While other children may not be ready to mix paints for
themselves, and will just waste expensive resources if they are allowed to
ladle paint everywhere, and splash water onto it, but they may be ready to
learn how sand, clay and gravel behave when in contact with water. They
can learn about the properties of materials. Another child may be ready to
mix paints, but may need a great deal of practitioner support as they are in
the early stages of learning how to do this.
 The practitioner must nurture the ideas, feelings, relationships and physical
development and embodiment of children. The practitioner needs to be
able to recognise when children need personal space or need to be
diverted into something appropriate for them without making them feel bad
about using the paints inappropriately, because they couldn’t yet
understand. Children need to be given help sensitively, in a way which will
build their confidence, skills and autonomy.
 All children learn in ways which can be linked with The official framework
documents of their country, such as the areas of learning in the Early Years
Foundation Stage (England) or The Curriculum for Excellence (Scotland),
The Foundation Phase Curriculum (Wales) Aistear (Ireland), or
Understanding the Foundation Stage (Northern Ireland) and also Te
Whariki (New Zealand).
 Children are self-motivated when they are encouraged to be so and their
intrinsic motivation to learn is not crushed, but nurtured by practitioners that
have an understanding of them.
 Children are encouraged to develop self-discipline. This helps children to
concentrate well, and to learn effectively. It also relates understanding of
self, others and the universe.
 Children need to be given choices, allowed to make errors, decisions and
offered sensitive help as and when it is needed, This will help children to
learn in ways which are right for each of them as individuals. In this way
practitioners are supporting and also extending their learning.
 Practitioners need to place emphasis on what the children can do, rather
than what they can’t do. The tone and atmosphere should be encouraging
and not judgemental or critical. This Froebel believed builds self-esteem
and confidence. In other words at every stage children need to be that
stage – with adults providing opportunities for them to practise and apply
what they know and can do.
 Children need to be given personal space to construct, build and model.
However children also benefit from lots of talking with the practitioner about
what they are doing and going to do. Language, talking and listening to
 each other, is an important and central way in which children become
symbol users.
 When it comes to taking a Froebelian approach to observing children. It
might look as if the practitioners are only there in the background, but in
fact they are central. Practitioners working with young children, either in
group setting or in a home based setting, are key to helping children
develop and learn. Practitioners create warm affectionate atmospheres,
which open children up to learning and help children to know themselves,
respect themselves, like themselves, and engage with their learning very
positively.
 Froebel believed that practitioners also create the physical environment
both indoors and outdoors. He points out how important it is for children to
learn without external pressures from practitioners. The people we meet,
the environment and atmosphere, are as important as what we learn. We
do our best work with helping children to develop and learn when we
observe what they find of interest, and what they show us they would be
interested to learn. This is the base on which we can build what we need
children to know, understand and learn in order to participate fully in their
community and the wider world.