Kindergarten

1840

Friedrich W. A. Froebel (1782–1852)

Child-centered educational ideals date from the eighteenth-century writings of the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. They embody the idea that there exists in children an innate impulse or dynamic principle that will lead them to education. The role of educators in this approach is most like that of gardeners, tending children in such a way that growth occurs naturally. An explicit expression of this was the kindergarten, or “children’s garden,” a term coined by German educator Friedrich Froebel.

Froebel grew up a lonely child. His mother died when he was an infant, and his father, a Lutheran minister, was busy with his work. Early in life he developed an intense love of nature, perhaps because he lived in one of the loveliest parts of Germany. He believed nature ultimately expressed the unity and interconnectedness of all things.

As a young man, Froebel decided to devote his life to childhood education. Influenced by the Swiss educator Johann Pestalozzi, Froebel sought to create conditions where children could play, sing, explore, and learn through activities.

In 1837, Froebel and two friends opened the Play and Activity Institute in the German state of Thuringia. He began calling it a kindergarten in 1840. To encourage the children, Froebel created a set of toys, or “gifts,” that symbolized his philosophy. One was a ball, to indicate the unity of nature and the perfectibility of mankind. Patterned and geometric blocks were part of the set, too, meant to teach the child about the relation of the parts to the whole. Through these activities and materials, Froebel intended the school to be a place where the child’s nature could develop and learning would be natural.

Curiously, the kindergarten had less success in Germany than in other parts of the world. But by the end of the nineteenth century, kindergartens were thriving in many other countries around the world.

SEE ALSO Rousseau’s Natural Child (1762), Casa dei Bambini (1907)

Three Girls Reading, oil on canvas, by German painter Walter Firle (1859–1929).