Michelle Jozwik Sunday, October 06, 2013 ECD 1404

FRIEDRICH WILHELM AUGUST FROBELS LIFE April 21, 1792- In Oberweissbach, Germany, marks the birth of naturalist, philosopher, and researcher Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel. He would become the pioneer of the kindergarten system. Froebel was the sixth and youngest child of Pastor Johann Jakob Froebel. His mother had passed away nine months after his birth. The first ten years of his childhood was not pleasant. A stepmother who gave him no love or care and a father who gave him no attention raised him. At the age of ten, Froebel went to live with a brother of his mother, Superintendent Christoph Hoffman, in Thuringa, Germany. He had spent a lot of his time there alone in the gardens. This led to his love and respect of nature that would remain with him throughout his life. He thrived and attended school, but his only interest was math. He made his confirmation at fifteen, which was the mark of the end of school for those in Germany. In 1797, at the age of fifteen, he attended school to learn about forestry, geometry, land surveying, and valuation. Over the next few years, Froebel would work as a forester and eventually attend Frankfurt University to study Architecture. After a year of studying. He could no longer pay tuition which landed him in prison and then on to job from job. Until one day through a friend, who thought he had a special calling, met Anton Gruner. Gruner who was a follower of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, had opened the first school based on Pestalozzis progressive pedagogy. Froebel accepted a job teaching at Frankfurt Model School and stayed on for two years. He had been successful in teaching, but in the back of his mind, he was fully aware of his lacking of education. Froebel then decided to leave and pursue private studies. From there, he became a private tutor to the three sons of Baron of Holzhausen. He was in charge of instruction and education of the three boys. The family had also offered him a small patch of their land to use as a garden. In this garden, Froebel invented simple games to play.

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This learning experience with the children convinced him that action and direct observation were the best ways to educate. This employment he used to further finance his studies. From 1808-1810, Froebel went to attend a training institute in Yverdon, Switzerland, run by Pestalozzi. After two years, he left the institution with the basic principles of Pestalozzis theory, but thought something was missing. Since he had such a strong Christian faith, Froebel felt education should be more closely related to religion. He quotes Pestalozzi takes man existing only in appearance on earth, but I take man in his eternal being, in his external existence 3. So in 1811, after saving up some money, he enrolled in the University of Gottingen, where he was convinced he would find the spiritual unity of human education in natures laws. Froebel then began to study mineralogy, physics, chemistry, and natural history. After studying at Gottingen, he went on to study at Mineralogical Institute in Berlin. During his studies, he was called to fight in the Prussian Army along with others as the Black Riflemen. There he met Heinrich Langenthal and Wilhelm Middendorf, who would become his lifelong friends and support him in his educational struggles. As the war ended, Froebel returned to work at the mineralogical museum where he was convinced that the geometric handiwork of God and the variations in crystalline forms were the outcomes of same natural growth of plants and people. This idea which he would use later to help plan out his gifts. He still at this point had a desire to be a university teacher. After working there for a year, he was offered a professorship of mineralogy. This was a true testament of his self-directed education. He turned down the position and set forth to pursue his NEW dream of educating man. In 1816, Froebel started his own school in small village in Grieshiem. The main reason for this was to help educate his three nephews. They had been put in his care due to the deaths of their parents. He had also acquired two more students to his school, Ernst and Georg,

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descendants of Martin Luther. After a year, Froebel moved his school to another small village called Keilhau. Wilhelm Middendorff and Heinrich Lagethals brother joined him as teachers. Eventually, the school would grow to fifty-six students attending and add more teachers. All of his children in his school were seven years old and above. It was believed at that time that younger children did not have the ability to concentrate or develop cognitive and emotional skills. During this time, he would eventually marry Henriette Wilhelmine Hoffmeister and publish his first book The Education of Man. This book would outline his theory of education based on wholeness-a person must ideally be in harmony with society and nature, so that school and life, knowing and doing, cannot be separated and playing and learning and working should form a harmonious unity4. The school in Keilhau would face some challenges and Froebel decided to leave Germany. Froebel in 1831 was given the chance to open schools in Switzerland, but as time went on, they found his way of teaching too liberal. He would then find an opportunity to run an orphanage in Burgdorf, which was previously run by Pestalozzi. At this place, he would start to seriously think about the importance of pre-school education. It became a realization that neither state nor church was going to help to educate the very young. He also knew at this time that he wanted women for the teaching positions. Some of Froebels early toys and games started to form at this period and would later on become part of his gifts. In 1836, Froebels wife became ill and they had to return to Germany. His ideas of opening an institution for educating the very young came in June of 1839 in Bad Blankenburg. Froebel would name it Play and Activity Institute. It would educate children ages three to six and women would teach them. Later on in 1840, he would rename it Kindergarten or Garden of Children. This name would reflect his love of nature and teaching. As the years followed,

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Froebel would publish another book called Mutter and Koselider (Mothers Songs). This would be a collection of pictures, verses for mother and child. This engaged the childs body and senses in finger play and games. Approximately seven years after the first kindergarten was established, seven more opened. A year later, there were more than fifty kindergartens operating in Germany. By now, Froebel and Middendorff traveled all over the country spreading the ideas of the new kindergarten system. By 1848, training had been set up for kindergarten teachers. The women he thought should be sensitive and easily approachable. He saw mothers as the perfect candidates for nurturing the children and they became the kindergarten (teachers). Training would take six months. This was a great opportunity for employment for women outside of the home. Froebels kindergarten had become a success as 260 kindergarten teachers celebrated in the summer of 1848. Even though with all this celebration of his work, there was those that were critical of his educational theories. These critics would eventually convince the Prussian government to ban kindergarten in 1851. Froebel for some time tried to restore confidence in the kindergarten, but eventually fell ill. On June 21, 1852, Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel, less than a year of his school closing dies of a short illness. His dear friend Middendorff talked of his life at his funeral. As a child, Friedrich Froebel, the friend of children and the apostle of childhappiness, fell asleep. Without a struggle and without pain ended a life which never for a moment had an egotistical thought but which had been entirely dedicated to mankind and childhood 1. The design of his gravestone was the sphere, cylinder, and the cube of Froebels second gift. Ernst Luther, a formal student, created it. About eight years later after his death, the ban on kindergarten was lifted. His ideas of the kindergarten would live on through his followers and supporters. One in particular, Bertha

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Marie von Marenhotlz would spread the kindergarten to other European countries. She helped found them in France, England, Italy, and Belgium. Another follower, Margarethe Shurz would open the first kindergarten in United States. Her program was conducted in German. Four years later, Elizabeth Peabody in Boston opened the first English-speaking establishment. Susan Blow founded the first public kindergarten in 1873. Froebel died never knowing the impact his work would have all over Europe and in the United States. THE KINDERGARTEN Froebels ideas were based on the idea that every human being had a spiritual nature and that every person had spiritual worth and dignity. He believed that children at birth were born with all that they would be-innate characteristics. Froebel saw education as beginning in infancy. Mothers were the ideal first teachers of humanity. He was the first to recognize that significant brain development occurs between birth and the age of three. This was his reasoning for developing Mothers Songs. This helped mothers to interact and develop their brains. He wrote more than fifty songs and games as a means to teach children before even reaching the kindergarten age. Froebel became quite interested in the ages of children from three years old to six years old. He felt as some of the other educational reformers of his time that adults should not impose their views and ways on children. They felt childhood was an important period of human growth. Froebels theory was mainly based on that children should be educated through play. He wanted a learning environment that would be like a garden where children unfolded as naturally as a plant. The teachers would be gardeners. This was the basis of his developing ideas- a place where they could be cherished, stimulated, and blossom. He called this wonderful place- The Kindergarten. Children attending would grow and develop in the best possible manner in his

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educational environment. As he had written in The Education of Man, play is the purest, the most spiritual product of man at this stage, and is at once the prefiguration and imitation of the total human life, -of the inner, secret, natural life in man and in all things3. He believed education was a family activity as he states, Come let us live for our children1. His own childhood lacking in love provided the driving force behind one of his aspects of education: fostering of family life. Froebel felt that the kindergarten should not replace the family, but become part of the whole that made up the school and child. Froebel as part of his curriculum designed his own teaching materials called Gifts. These objects helped to stimulate the senses, build language skills, and learn underlying concepts. The Gifts were in the form of many materials. The first one, balls of yarn or wool. This gift would be the first plaything a mother gives to a little one. Wherever you see a child, you are bound to find a ball! The Gifts started at a stage of the simplest activity and progressed to more diverse and complex ones. He was a strong advocate of the idea that children learned through playing with the blocks. Block play was very important in kindergarten, as we see today in our modern kindergarten classrooms. Open block play offers endless possibilities for creating and discovery. Materials for drawing, paper weaving, folding paper, and modeling clay called Occupations accompanied the Gifts. A typical day would usually be around three hours, consisting of singing, dancing, gardening, storytelling, games, and crafts. At a certain point of the day, children would be seated at worktables for their daily Gift play. Sometimes they had more than one gift to work with at a time. As they manipulated these objects, the children began to learn concepts in nature, science, and aesthetics. Occupational work usually followed with a creation made from seeds, beads, or clay that they would take home. No two days were the same, but always started with a song and

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ended with one. This represented his basis for his system-unity in diversity. His philosophy of education had four components: free self-activity, creativity, social participation, and motor expression. Some parts of his theory may have been forgotten or discredited, but he always be known as The Father of Kindergarten. When I first heard of Froebel in our classroom readings, I was instantly fascinated. Froebel was such a true believer of children developing at their own level and readiness. In my own personal life, I support the natural unfolding of childrens learning and social development. I was thankful that my daughters preschool teacher had suggested JR Kindergarten. She would have entered kindergarten at four years old. At the time, Sarah was not socially ready. My husband and I made the choice to give her the opportunity to have one more year in pre-k. As Froebel did in his time, we had critics! We will never regret that decision; Sarah is in the fourth grade now and is where she should be academically and socially. His theory of learning through play is something I use every day as a classroom assistant in kindergarten. I work with three children that have learning disabilities and are in an inclusion classroom. During free time, I always I take 2-3 of them and play a game that have some underlying concepts like learning numbers or ABCs. The children truly love the games and do not even realize they are learning! This quote by Friedrich Froebel touched my heart, Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers1. In some ways this is how I feel about my kids I work with every day. They are children that may not come from homes that are the best environment and on top of that faced with learning disabilities. It gives me great joy to see them play and work along the other children their age.

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While doing research, I had found that he had welcomed children from all backgrounds: religious, social class, and even children with special needs. He even trained his teachers to be accepting of all children. In todays society, we have children from different cultures and as educators need to be supportive of every child. I feel Froebels way of teaching learning through play and that he felt every child was unique is what every classroom should look like. He did not intend for children to just run around, but to control their impulses and direct then to focus on activities. Froebel like the classroom of today had similar schedule-good morning music, song that tied into a particular theme (weather, season), large group discussion, and work at tables, craft time, games, and then goodbye song. I believe educators today should strive to recognize each childs level of development, emotional, social, physical, and intellectual. Friedrich Froebel was truly the pioneer of early education.

Michelle Jozwik Sunday, October 06, 2013 ECD 1404

Bibliography 1. Unknown, Froebel Web: An Online Resource, 1998 -2009, www.froebelweb.org, 1998 2009. 2. George S. Morrison, Early Childhood Education Today, Pearson Education, Inc. 2001, Boston, MA. 3. Norman Brosterman, Inventing Kindergarten, Harry N. Abrams, Inc; 1997, New York 4. Peter Weston, Friedrich Froebel: His life, times, & signifance, Roehampton Institute, 1998, London, England.