This year’s Froebel USA conference will be held August 4-5, 2012 in San Francisco. Attendees from Asia, Europe and North America will convene to share practical techniques for using the Froebel Gifts & Occupations in a modern educational setting. A diverse interdisciplinary group, including early childhood educators, homeschooling parents, designers, and architects will be present. Over 12 speakers will present mostly hands-on activities for applying the Froebel materials to design education, literacy assessment, teaching geometry and much more. For more information please visit the Froebel USA conference website or the online registration form.

Beatty’s recent article looks at the contrast between scripted and unscripted instruction. Another thoughtful and well documented work, it casts a modern eye on the heavy-handed way Froebel teachers were drilled at the end of the Froebel era. While it does not address it specifically, it raises an important issue about the difference between a teacher’s own training and their classroom actions. Often the Froebel teachers received set instructions for their behavior while allowing children to respond creatively to the activity at hand. Froebel Kindergarten teachers were expected to respond appropriately to whatever occurred in the moment. They were highly trained, think “Navy Seals” or “Jedi Knights” of the classroom and. once trained, were usually given free reign by their employers or supervisors.

However, the instruction was rigorous and tedious, and not all teaching students were suited for the work. Coupled with the exponential growth in demand for Kindergarten, it became impossible logistically to meet both the quantity and quality goals. So the leadership of the Columbia Teachers College (William Heard Kilpatrick, Patty Smith Hill, et al) and John Dewey, of the University of Chicago, staged a coup and took early childhood education off a Froebel standard into a more “Progressive” (although factory-like) model of education.

It is possible that much of our decline in education can be traced back to this practical/philosophical shift. As the pendulum swings back toward play-based, child-centered education with a goal toward developing creative, life-long learners, we may discover that we’ve held ourselves back for an entire century.

Phoebe Hearst • Bertha von Bulow • Elizabeth Peabody • Helen Keller

One of the great contributions of the Froebel Kindergarten was offering perhaps the first significant career for women outside the home (just as nursing was also getting started). In the mid 19th century, women were not expected (or even widely allowed) to work professionally. This meant a life of domestic work tethered to men (fathers, husbands, brothers) or the church. The Kindergarten attracted many ambitious, intelligent women and allowed them to become self-supporting (and often business owners themselves) while providing perhaps the highest human calling — the education of the human race. Many famous women were involved in Froebel’s cause; Baroness Bertha von Marenholz Bulow, Helen Keller, Kate Douglas Wiggin, Elizabeth Peabody, Anna Bissell, Phoebe Hearst, Mrs. Leland Stanford, Mrs. Grover Cleveland, Margaret Hamilton, Elizabeth Harrison (… the list is a long one and I’ll let you Google those listed for more info). I recall a feminist publication a few years ago made the assumption that Froebel began using women as his Kindergarten teachers because men had refused to take part. Nothing could be further from the truth. Below is written his reasoning in his own words. I hope you can read between the lines and see how urgently he felt the need for women to take control of education (and thus society) and how much he worked to empower mothers toward early education of their children. Contrary to what John Taylor Gatto has written, Froebel (and his followers) did not advocate removing children from the care of their families and placing them into a state-run system. That resulted of taking us off the Froebel “gold standard” … but that’s another post.

Women are to recognize that childhood and womanliness (the care of childhood and the life of women) are inseparably connected; that they form a unity, and that God and nature have placed the protection of the human plant in their hands. Hitherto the female sex could take only a more or less passive part in human history, because great battles and the political organization of nations were not suited to their powers. But at the present stage of culture nothing is more pressingly required than the cultivation of every human power for the arts of peace and the work of higher civilization. The culture of individuals, and therefore of the whole nation, depends in great part upon the earliest care of childhood. On that account women, as one-half of mankind, have to undertake the most important part of the problems of the time — problems that men are not able to solve. If but one-half of the work be accomplished, then our epoch, like all others, will fail to reach the appointed goal. As educators of mankind, the women of the present time have the highest duty to perform, while hitherto they have been scarcely more than the beloved mothers of human beings. ~ Friedrich Froebel

P.S. This is not to say (nor did Froebel obviously believe) that men are unable to provide early childhood education (either as fathers or teachers). Although their numbers are relatively few (due to laws, restrictions, or prejudice), there are many wonderful examples of male Kindergarten teachers (including my friend John Derrig … we miss you John, but your joyful spirit lives on in our hearts. ).

On June 21st (the summer solstice) in 1852, Friedrich Froebel died. Nearly one year previously, at the age of 69 he had married Luise Levin, his most trusted of Kindergarten teachers. Less than a month after his marriage he saw his life’s work outlawed by decree of the German government, who were concerned that Kindergarten was a socialist plot designed to undermine the influence and status quo of the monarchy. This shock to his system at that advanced age slightly weakened his grip on life and his immune system, creating an opening for disease. His last days were documented by his faithful friends/colleagues, and I’ve found it helpful in understanding the man. I briefly aggregate their descriptions here (my apologies for the editing and lack of footnoting):

On the 6th June he was attacked by the illness which proved fatal. In health he had often been stern and exacting. Now he was remarkably gentle and submissive, and gave a welcome to all. He would talk cheerfully with his wife or his doctor, and would smile and thank the children or students who brought him flowers. Sometimes he would direct the arrangement of them, or he would express his enjoyment of the fresh air coming in through the open window, and then speak of his union with God and nature.

He exhorted his friends in Keilhau to live a life unity and harmony, and entrusted his wife to the care. He begged his doctor to endeavour to interest the local government in his work, and especially the Duchess of Rudolstadt.” It is Christian work,” he said. He then asked his students to sing him a lullaby; and the next day (Saturday evening) he bid adieu to a lady friend, who had zealously worked for him in Liebenstein (Frau Pietzsch). He also bade farewell to his faithful friend Middendorff, thanking him again and again for his sympathy.

On the Sunday before his death, a favorite child came to bring him flowers; he greeted her with unbounded delight. Although it was difficult for him to lift his hand, he reached it out to her, and drew the child’s little hand to his lips. The care of his flowers he recommended in these words: “Take care of my flowers and spare my weeds; I have learned much from them.” And in his very last hours he asked again for flowers.

The window must be opened frequently, and he brightened up visibly at the aspect of nature, and often repeated the words,” pure, vigorous nature”; and at another time, “Always hold me dear,” also, ” I am not going away, I shall hover round in the midst of you.” He spoke much about truth to Barop, who had come with the teacher Clemens, saying, among other things, “Remain true to God.”

At about seven o’clock in the evening of the Monday he desired to be propped up in a sitting position, and his eyes opened once more on the face of his friend Middendorff; then closed for ever. All present sank on their knees (his wife, Middendorff, Frau Marquart, and a nurse were present), with the feeling almost as if they had seen a beloved child go to sleep.

“Nature,” said Middendorff, “made her last effort and then was still. The mind went peacefully, lovingly, thankfully back to its source. A life harmonious, pure, and true in all directions was closed. He was himself a representation of his beloved sunset; the light of his being set upon us like the sun; and I felt as if, like the sun, he must return to us.

Even in my sorrow I realised the eternity of life, and that one day death and weeping will be no more. His thoughts had often led him to the light, and now had come the time when he should penetrate into a new day. He who had stood so near to Nature, who had listened for her words, and followed her law in simple trust, now lay on her breast like a loving child.

Surely she would reward his love. He was her faithful son, and she his true mother. And thus she took him to herself.”
With flowers about him he lay as if soothed to rest by the tones of the men’s voices singing the funeral hymn. He was buried on the 24th June, in the picturesque little churchyard of Schweina, about a mile from Marienthal. An immense procession of friends, adults and children followed him to the grave. The funeral oration was pronounced by Pastor Rueckert, who, after alluding to Froebel’s work for women, for children, and for humanity, concluded with the
following words :”Here lies a noble heart, resting from its labours. Froebel’s work was for the good of earliest childhood and latest posterity.

Middendorf writes …

“The garlanded bier was set down in the spacious vestibule, to be strewn with wreaths and flowers by the numerous children. All, even the smallest, tried to show their love and gratitude to him once more.

But not only children came; friends, known and unknown, pressed forward to show their esteem and reverence; the teachers of the country round about, one and all, kindergartners and those he had befriended, came even from a great distance, invited by their own hearts to that solemn day.

The teachers united in a solemn song, in moving tones. Then the train was set in motion towards the churchyard of the village of Schweina.

A heavy shower fell while it was on the way, so that we were obliged to stand under shelter for a long time. Parson Ruckert remarked, ‘Even his last journey is through storm and tempest.’

When the procession was again set in motion, and passed over the bridge of the brook, Ernst Luther, a descendant of the great reformer, whom Froebel and his brother had educated gratuitously in Keilhau, out of regard for his ancestor, said, ‘Thirty-five years ago to-day he here led me by the hand through Schweina.’

To this high aim he now sacrificed all his powers, his property, his time, his repose. And perhaps children of his own were denied him by the decree of the Eternal Wisdom, that he might not be bound and limited by cares for his own, that he might see and love in the poorest human child the child of God.”

~~~~~*~~~~~

I love flowers, men, children, God! I love everything. ~ Frederich Froebel

No, my last word I take with me into the grave; the time for it has not yet come. ~ Frederich Froebel

If three hundred years after my death my method of education shall be completely established according to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven. ~ Frederich Froebel

But it is difficult to rely on just one source of information. Froebel’s own writings are the most authentic, although his writing style is often difficult to follow (not helped by the English translations made over 140 years ago). Much variation has occurred over the years, with companies such as Milton Bradley adding new “Gifts” to the mix and muddying the waters. Generally speaking, the books by those who knew and worked with Froebel are the best.

Froebel himself did not explicitly produce a “curriculum” for an important reason … because his goal was to create a prepared environment and encourage adults to follow the child in a play-based process. He had very specific ideas about the design of the materials and how they relate to the properties of our universe, but he did not want to create a one-size-fits-all “recipe” for education.

This is not to say that Froebel intended an unstructured free-for-all of random play. The adult guiding the play was well-trained in observation and skilled in helping the child make connections. For a true educator (whether trained or naturally intuitive) the Gifts & Occupations provide powerful tools for a child-centered educational environment.

Many dozens of books (and thousands of articles) have been written about the Froebel™ Gifts. The most important thing to remember is that the materials are intended as an opportunity for a child to create … to take an idea inside their mind and manifest it outside. Once created, the child can observe what they have done, perhaps learn proper vocabulary from the adult, and internalize what they have learned in the process. The goal is not to have them replicate designs of patterns made by others, as is often done my uninformed but well-meaning people these days. Keep the play creative and you will likely be on the right track.

Click here to view the embedded video.