Froebelian Research Articles

The Gifts and ‘Contributions’: Friedrich Froebel and Russian Education (1850–1929)

This article examines the contribution of the Russian Froebelian movement to educational theory and practice in Russia, in the context of the cultural transformation there from the second half of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. The Froebel movement had a strong influence on not only the formation of Russian early years educational practice but also child psychology. The analysis explores mainly, but not exclusively, the educational ideas of two followers of Froebel, Elizaveta Vodovosova (1844–1923), educator and writer, and Luiza Schleger (1862–1942), founder of the first public kindergarten in Moscow. Their lives and educational beliefs highlight the development of two different interpretations of Froebelian educational theory in two particular periods of Russian cultural development. In this article we argue that the specific accommodation of Froebelian pedagogy in pre‐revolutionary Russia created the foundation for the presence of Froebelian ideas in the curriculum of Soviet Early Childhood Education.

Early Learning Standards: What Can America Learn? What Can America Teach?

PERHAPS nowhere is the international transmission of ideas and knowledge better understood or more widely practiced than in the field of early childhood education. For decades, transcontinental exchanges have made early childhood education an international hybrid. LEARNING FROM ABROAD America has welcomed innovations from abroad. From Germany a century ago came Friedrich Froebel's idea of the kindergarten. From the former Soviet Union came Lev Vygotsky's ideas about socially constructed knowledge and scaffolding. From Italy came the pioneering work of Maria Montessori and the widely admired practice of Reggio Emilia. Indeed, American early childhood education owes its very existence to the work of international pioneers. This international influence may be necessary once again, as American early childhood education undergoes major intellectual shifts. Long-held theories about when, what, and how children learn are being questioned. The prominence of play, once the sine qua non of high-quality early education, is being challenged. (1) Curriculum, which once emanated directly from the child's interests, is now framed to comply with adult-developed standards. (2) And services for young children, once the purview of many small, community-based microenterprises, are increasingly becoming part of the education system. (3) In response to these profound ideological shifts, American early childhood education has been besieged with reforms. While these reforms have targeted a variety of areas, including governance, finance, quality rating systems, professional development, and program accreditation (4)--to mention but a few-perhaps the most pervasive reform has been the introduction of learning to early childhood education.(5) Statements of what children should know and be able to do, these early learning now exist in 46 states. (6) Whether called benchmarks, frameworks, guidelines, or standards, such efforts are legion. We make a case here for enhancing the American movement in early care and education by learning from our international counterparts. We present cogent evidence from the Going Global Project, a sixnation initiative funded by UNICEF that provides valuable lessons for three pivotal aspects of the approach: content, values, and process. But first, a brief summary of the Going Global Project is in order. For the past three years, we have been involved in this effort, working with Brazil, Ghana, Jordan, Paraguay, the Philippines, and South Africa to develop, validate, and implement early learning standards. (7) Representing several continents and a wide range of heritages and cultures, the countries also varied in their initial receptivity to early learning standards. As in the U.S., some international early care and education professionals were skeptical of the idea; they expressed grave concern about establishing a standard to which all children, coming from different backgrounds and having had variable opportunities, would be held equally accountable. Others were Only five states have comprehensive for physical and motor development at a time when childhood obesity ranks high on the national agenda. concerned with the nomenclature, feeling that standards implied a leveling that did not accommodate the diverse learning styles and approaches traditionally fostered in early childhood settings. Finally, still others were concerned that the development of early learning offered a false promise unless it was backed up by intensive professional and parental support. Despite these concerns, through a structured and highly inclusive process, enriched by ongoing technical assistance, each country developed standards, taking the concerns of the skeptics into consideration. In all cases, the resultant were tailored to each country's unique values and social construction of children and childhood. Within each country, the process emphasized respecting and embracing internal cultural differences. …

Rediscovering Froebel: A Call to Re-examine his Life & Gifts

This article examines the life of Friedrich Froebel, the founder of the kindergarten movement and his first 10 “gifts to children.” The author suggests that Froebel’s philosophy of German Romanticism caused the waning use of his methods. He continues to state that Froebel’s development of instructional material and structured play-based curricula is worth re-examining during this time for greater accountability and expectation for the early academic success of children.

A Glimpse of the CLISS 2: The Children's Literature Summer School and Symposium, Roehampton University, London, England. July 2003

What is CLISS? For an overview, we offer three perspectives, three voices, each offering a personal view: tutor Lissa Paul, organizer Kim Reynolds and participant Wally de Doncker. The essays in this issue offer in-depth views: close looks at the range of subjects discussed at the international gathering of children's literature specialists. A Tutor's View: Lissa Paul The anticipation of returning to a place where you've been happy is perhaps one way adults reconnect with childhood selves, recapturing the sense of living in the future rather than through the filters of experience and memory. My return to the Children's Literature International Summer School (CLISS, sponsored by the National Centre for Research in Children's Literature [NCRCL]) in late July 2003 felt that way. I'd been one of the first international group tutors at the first CLISS in summer 2001, and had quickly become part of the international community of students living, studying, touring, and eating together on the welcoming campus, which also houses Froebel College, named after the founder of kindergartens, Friedrich Froebel (1782–1852). Froebel believed that education should be a "creative and interactive process," so it is likely that he would have approved of the CLISS seminars taking place on the campus that week in late July. The weather was English summer: slightly cool, but not uncomfortable. There's a lovely little pond on the grounds, with a blue heron often present. And just outside the campus walls is Richmond Park, protected [End Page v] in the late seventeenth century as a royal deer preserve. On one early-morning walk in the park, tutors Lynne Vallone, Peter Hunt, and I all observed a large herd of stags quietly grazing. Inside the walls of the college, the lectures, seminars, displays, and conversations are all focused on children's literature—in an array of international aspects. One of my favorite moments from CLISS 2 occurred during a lecture by Peter Hunt on "Children's Literature and the Loss of God." Two Israeli students sitting next to me were taking notes in graceful Hebrew script in their right-to-left notebooks. Those kinds of cross-cultural moments were frequent, though ephemeral. There were, however, many more enduring cross-cultural connections with students and colleagues from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. For people like me, living in North America, children's literature by default almost always means English-language children's literature. The teeming creative and academic inventiveness alive in the rest of the world remains almost invisible, existing on the very edges of our anglophone peripheral vision. CLISS brings the children's book world of those cultures up close, and makes us rethink ourselves. My first visit in 2001, for example, included a meeting with Anette Steffensen from Denmark, seeding the opportunity for a lecture and subsequent connection with the wonderful Centre for Children's Literature in Copenhagen—and with some of the people who have since been invited to join the editorial board of The Lion and the Unicorn, including Wally de Doncker from Belgium and Tomoko Masaki from Japan. An Organizer's View: Kim Reynolds The idea of running a Children's Literature International Summer School in the United Kingdom was part of a general movement in that nation to reassess the contribution made by children's literature, in all its forms, to culture. The Arts Council of England was central to this process and has helped to finance CLISS since its inception (and has contributed funds to this issue of The Lion and the Unicorn). The Literature Department there recognizes that literature for children has played a significant role in shaping aesthetic tastes, literary heritage, social mores, and attitudes to being British at least...

Froebel and the Rise of Educational Theory in the United States

This contribution compares entries on Friedrich Froebel and the kindergarten in German and United States’ histories of education from 1857 to 1933. In the American histories, Froebel appears as the great “hero” of education of the 19th century, whereas in the German histories, Pestalozzi is the “hero.” This difference in the perspectives goes back to fundamental differences in the political culture and political traditions of the two countries, which differed greatly as to the shaping of the public and private spheres. Consequently, there were also different views on public education. In the immigration society of the United States, it was important to integrate children with various language and cultural backgrounds. As families could not do this alone, public kindergartens were needed. In Germany, in contrast, Froebel’s idea of the kindergarten was seen as an attack on family ties, and Pestalozzi was highly esteemed, because he made home education central. The American interest in “making citizens” produced Froebel as the hero; the German interest in leaving the education of young children to mothers and in the family lauded Pestalozzi. This case study of the reception of Froebel in Germany and the United States illustrates the high context-dependence of the construction of educational “heroes.”

Let us grow the seeds for peace the life or Dr. Masako Shoji, honorable member of World OMEP

Dr. Masako Shoji, awarded honorable member of World OMEP held at Yokohama, Japan, died in February, 1998. Her tomb is built in the shape of Friedrich Froebel’s, sphere, cylinder and cube, together with his loving verse inscribed, “Let us live with our children”. She translated the complete works of Friedrich Froebel into Japanese from the original German. She had a first-hand experience of the Atomic Bomb in Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Since then she has become an earnest advocate of world peace.

O jogo e o desenvolvimento infantil na teoria da atividade e no pensamento educacional de Friedrich Froebel

Este artigo apresenta um estudo teórico comparativo da pedagogia desenvolvida por Friedrich Froebel e da teoria da atividade (Leontiev, Elkonin e Vigotski) no que diz respeito ao jogo e ao desenvolvimento infantil. Ainda que essas duas abordagens considerem o jogo uma atividade muito importante no desenvolvimento da criança, elas diferem em sua visão do que seja o significado do jogo no contexto do processo de formação do indivíduo. Essa divergência é uma conseqüência de suas opostas concepções acerca da relação entre a natureza humana e a história.

The Froebellious Child in Catherine Sinclair's Holiday House

While some critics celebrate Catherine Sinclair's Holiday House (1839) for its innovative playfulness, others have drawn attention to its underlying didacticism, especially its formulaic, death-bed ending. Rudd argues that the book has a more overarching unity and addresses different concepts of child rearing. In contrast to the over-zealous corporal punishment and utilitarian fact cramming, the ideas of educationalists, such as Friedrich Froebel, are promoted. In this conception, children are given a protected space in which to grow, where the excesses of the carnivalesque can be indulged, which are, ultimately, a reflection of a benevolent Christianity.

Многоликость еврейской благотворительности в Киеве, 1859–1914 гг.

SUMMARY: This article examines the culture of philanthropy that developed among the Jews of late imperial Kiev. Charitable giving and communal welfare served as political tools that benefactors used to push for greater acceptance of Jews in Russian society as well as to shape a new, healthy, and “cultivated” generation of Russian Jews. By creating a community of progressive philanthropic organizations independent of the male-dominated communal institutions, Jewish women played an important role in extending the boundaries of the Jewish community and identity and in the creation of a Jewish civil society that mirrored new developments in Russian society at-large. As was the case in Western Europe, Jews in Kiev understood their philanthropic organizations as a means towards the end of integration into the surrounding society; it was hoped that institutions such as the Jewish Hospital would show Russians the true face of Judaism and Jews: caring for all, regardless of faith; forward-looking and progressive; helping to advance the country of which they were an integral part. Charity was also one of the few realms in which Jews could exert leadership in the public sphere, since Jewish political participation was restricted by the state (especially on the municipal level, where Jews lacked representation even after they had received the right to vote for the State Duma in 1906). And the array of “model institutions” they founded were indeed intended to be shining examples for the city, the region, and the entire empire: the Jewish Hospital was declared one of Kiev’s finest; the Brodsky Trade School was patterned after the best educational institutions in Europe; the OPE’s kindergarten adopted the latest pedagogical methods of Friedrich Froebel, German educational reformer and founder of the kindergarten. Moreover, the institutions that Kiev’s Jews created were nearly identical in their organization, goals, and methods to analogous hospitals, schools, shelters, and relief agencies then being established throughout the empire and elsewhere in Europe; more Russian than Jewish, the only thing they had in common with traditional hevrot were some nomenclature choices, such as calling poor relief “ Tmikhe .” The only differences were the kosher food and the teaching of “Divine Law” (religion classes) in Judaism and not Christianity. Thus, the civil society that was developing throughout imperial Russia, and especially in its urban centers, was being replicated within Russian Jewish society as well.

A child's work: freedom and play in Froebel's educational theory and practice

This book considers Friedrich Froebel's work and ideas in the light of the continuing debate over methods of primary education, raising the old conflict between child-centred and traditional education; concern about the role of teacher in the classroom; and the renewed challenge of 'play' as a tool of education. To Froebel, play provided the means for a child's intellectual, social, emotional and physical development. Froebel believed that the education of a child began at birth, and that parents and teachers played a crucial role in helping children in this activity. Play is a mirror of life, he wrote, leading to self-discipline and respect for law and order. The events of Froebel's life are carefully documented in A Child's Work, together with their influence on his ideas and their spread. The author shows how the early death of Froebel's mother and a home lacking in love were to provide the impetus behind one of Froebel's overriding aims: the fostering of family life. The shaping of his educational thought and philosophy through contact with the ideas of other educators, especially his 'spiritual father' Pestalozzi, and philosophers such as Kant, Hegel and Krause, is examined. Froebel's continuous reassessment of the function of play in a child's life came to fruition in the concept of the Kindergarten and the creations with which he peopled it. Illustrations from original sources complement the thorough explanations of these educational innovations in the book. From the soft ball on a spring, the simplest of the Gifts, to the unravelling of more complex ideas in the Mother Songs, Froebel incorporated the various facets that he saw as important in play: the notion of the symbolic and the surmise, the tension between the known and the unknown, the development of physical dexterity and care for the environment. As we continue to shift towards an emphasis on a more formal, more restrictive and less creative mode of education, it is an appropriate time to re-examine Froebel's contribution to educational thinking, which was revolutionised by his ideas. His respect for a child as an independent, searching and creative person learning through his own actions, and for the teacher as facilitator and guide, led to monumental changes. Froebel's legacy challenges us to examine the assumptions underlying current trends in education, and our attitude towards educating young children.

Little Workers of the Kindergarten

Friedrich Froebel (1772–1852) was the founder of the kindergarten, an educational philosophy and curriculum for the threeto seven-year-old child first applied in Blankenburg, Germany in 1840. His faith in the efficacy of productive manual labor to strengthen the creative and spiritual qualities of the youngest children was central to his orderly, disciplined program. Although the method did not survive intact in the many applications to which it was put, Froebelian teaching had a pervasive international influence in a century that was increasingly interested in children’s training and children’s culture, while simultaneously growing in nationalism and technology. Because Froebel preferred to treat children as “creative, productive being[s]” and to foster their desire for “practical usefulness” (Bowen 32), his methods naturally intersected with the interests both of technocrats and Luddites at a moment when the world of work was undergoing significant changes. On the one hand, his children developed precocious dexterity and selfdiscipline, characteristics that industrialists admired. On the other hand, the idea that work is by its nature infinitely satisfying to the worker was likely to be abrogated by modern production methods. But as Courthope Bowen remarks in his explanation of the Froebel method, teachers examining Froebel’s philosophy will themselves be drawn to live out their lives “more wisely, more strenuously, and more fruitfully” (59).

Lina, uma criança exemplar! Friedrich Froebel e a pedagogia dos jardins-de-infância

O presente trabalho dedica-se a analisar um importantíssimo texto de Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852), fundador dos jardins-de-infância (kindergartens): "De como Lina aprendeu a escrever e a ler: Uma história para crianças que gostam de estar ocupadas". O texto expõe, na forma escrita de uma historinha, os mais importantes princípios educacionais de Froebel. O objetivo foi apresentar, a partir da historinha, as idéias do autor a respeito de como se deve pensar e fazer educação para infância. Retomou-se as idéias de um dos pioneiros da educação de crianças menores de 6 anos, por considerar-se que sua teoria educacional traz os germens das discussões atuais que são travadas em prol da construção de uma pedagogia da educação infantil.

Unpacking child-centredness: A history of meanings

This paper examines the historical development of the term 'child-centred' in the discourse of early schooling in America. The discussion begins with the founder of the kindergarten, Friedrich Froebel, and traces the development of the kindergarten in the US until the 1930s. We explore how underlying meanings of the term child-centredness have changed - which were lost and which survived by tracing the educational and philosophical currents of each historical context. The term balances on many layers of complex and sometimes contradictory meanings that have been forged over the years by competing interest groups, each appropriating the term and, adding to and taking away from the existing meaning, moulding it to their own purposes. In the process, some underlying meanings were lost, others were added. Meanings were changed and then shared within and sometimes across groups. The term has masked complex and contradictory underlying assumptions about children and their learning and development that should be addressed.

The garden in Fröbel's kindergarten: beyond the metaphor

The kindergarten is an educational experience that has been shared by a range of cultures since the nineteenth century. Created in 1839 by Friedrich Frobel, a controversial German educator, the word kindergarten described the educational philosophy he developed for children of 3–6 years of age. Fröbel is known primarily for the gifts he invented as part of his kindergarten pedagogy. The gifts (figures 1 and 2), a sequential series of play objects, were predecessors of the play blocks and other toys used by children today. A less known aspect of the kindergarten, implied in the word itself, is the garden (figure 3).

Froebel & the Hitler Jugend: the Britishing of Froebel

Having worked long and hard on the life and work of Friedrich Froebel, we intended to refresh ourselves by revisiting educational controversies of the early twentieth century as recorded in Child Life,the organ of the Froebel Society from 1931‐1939. The eye catching title of an article from 1933 drew us into the world of British froebelians and there, as we read on, we became aware of a process of transformation whereby Froebel's quintessentially German idealist philosophy became British empiricist froebelian theory.

Euclidean Constructions and the Geometry of Origami

(1995). Euclidean Constructions and the Geometry of Origami. Mathematics Magazine: Vol. 68, No. 5, pp. 357-371.

Froebel and Christianity

In the educational thought of Friedrich Froebel we are confronted with a panoramic view of the universe of knowledge and experience. His influence on the educational practices of kindergartens, nursery schools and other preschool provision in different cultures around the world has been substantial. It is true also that the essence of his personal philosophy and his mission in regard to the education of young children has been variously interpreted, perhaps misunderstood, but almost certainly largely ignored in recent decades. To many experienced preschool educators, Froe‐belianism is connected with the discourse on ‘child‐centredness’, on the richness that ‘play’ affords the child in the construction of world knowledge, on the conception of unity in and through nature. Froebel's seminal work is however much more than an extended treatise on human learning: it is driven by an articulated vision of the human condition in relation to the Creator. For Froebel, this relationship was not only paramount in his ...

Aims of a Good School: The Curriculum of Friedrich Froebel Edited Highlights from Froebel's Writings

(1993). Aims of a Good School: The Curriculum of Friedrich Froebel Edited Highlights from Froebel's Writings. Early Years: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 54-57.

The Black Forest in a Bamboo Garden: Missionary Kindergartens in Japan, 1868-1912

The spread and adoption of German educator Friedrich Froebel's kindergarten idea in Japan occurred early in the history of the international kindergarten movement. Kindergartens were introduced as one among the vast array of Western educational ideas that flowed into Japan from Europe and the United States between 1868 and 1880. The years after 1880, however, were marked by increased governmental efforts to centralize authority, a strong shift in attitude away from Western learning, and government efforts to strengthen its control of education in Japan's movement toward modernization. During the Meiji Era (1868-1912), a period of profound transformations in Japan, the conditions that paved the way for kindergartens to become a permanent part of the educational landscape also transformed the kindergarten from a Western into a Japanese institution. The kindergarten has been considered an international movement since the middle of the nineteenth century. Moreover, historians of the kindergarten recognize that in countries that successfully adopted the kindergarten, the pedagogical content of kindergartens developed uniquely to serve both the educational goals and the ideological needs of the educators themselves.' While the national differences have been noted, however, there are no studies that directly address the influence of a new national context on the process of transformation. Because the kindergarten in Japan began as a deliberately borrowed educational institution, the history of the kindergarten is a model case study of the

Avoiding a "Hothouse System of Education": Nineteenth-Century Early Childhood Education from the Infant Schools to the Kindergartens

Histories of education in United States have often focused upon role of nineteenth-century urbanization and industrialization in accelerating educational innovation. In keeping with this trend, historians of kindergarten have attributed success of this institution to several factors. The kindergarten, based on pedagogy of German educator Friedrich Froebel, was first introduced in United States from Germany in 1860 and by 1914 was entrenched in most American urban public school systems. By then, over nine hundred cities operated nearly 6,500 kindergarten classes with an enrollment of 312,000 children.1 In accounting for this movement's rapid success, some historians have emphasized role of kindergartens in assimilating immigrants that poured into American cities after Civil War.2 Others have argued persuasively that kindergarten's emphasis on the Child, Home, Family, and Motherhood, as well as faith in perfectibility of children, meshed nicely with nineteenth-century evangelical concerns over conflict between private and public spheres, and therefore found an enthusiastic following among female reformers, philanthropists, and educators.3