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 tomonumental changes. Froebelis legacy challenges us to examine the assumptions underlying current trends in education, and our attitude towards educating young children.

Inventing Kindergarten reconstructs the origins of the most successful system ever devised for teaching young children about art, design, mathematics, and natural history.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1896 edition. Excerpt: ... PAPER FOLDING Materials: Squares, triangles, and circles (usually four inches in diameter) of engine-colored, glazed, and coated papers, dyed in all colors, shades, and tints. Oblongs and hexagons are also sometimes used. Paper has long been so cheap and abundant a Paper Fold- fabric that for many years mothers have Modema used itto delight their children. In the occupation. firelit winter evenings, before the days of the useful (and ugly) match, our grandmothers folded dainty lamplighters, under the watchful eyes of an admiring little group, and when the pretty work was over, marvelous paper boats and boxes and windmills were fashioned for the expectant audience. Many times in the quiet home-life of the German peasant, Froebel with that all-inclusive gaze of his saw parents and children united in this simple art, and noticed the unfailing delight which it evoked, and since his desire was, as he says, to attain the universal elements of proper work for childhood, he gathered this flower also to twine into the garland of kindergarten occupations. Cheap and simple are the materials which these employ, and yet so "frugal is the chariot that bears the human soul" that a mere valueless bit of folded paper may prove a "prancing courser" to bear us " lands away." "There are indeed great ways of borrowing," as Emerson says, and when Froebel took his means of occupation from the home-life of the common people, he proved himself one of those geniuses that "borrow nobly." In Folding we again make use of the material which forms the basis of most of our Materials of kindergarten occupations, and the only Foldmlimit to the talks and poems and stories on the subject will be the time at our disposal and the interest of the children. For the...

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