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Froebel, Friedrich (Wilhelm August)
born April 21, 1782, Oberweissbach, Thuringia, Ernestine
Saxony [now in Germany]
died June 21, 1852, Marienthal, near Bad Liebenstein, Thuringia
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Froebel also spelled Fröbel German educator
who was founder of the kindergarten and one of the most influential
educational reformers of the 19th century.
Froebel was the fifth child in a clergyman's family. His
mother died when he was only nine months old, and he was
neglected as a child until an uncle gave him a home and
sent him to school. Froebel acquired a thorough knowledge
of plants and natural phenomena while at the same time beginning
the study of mathematics and languages. After apprenticeship
to a forester, he pursued some informal university courses
at Jena until he was jailed for an unpaid debt. He tried
various kinds of employment until he impulsively took a
teaching appointment at a progressive model school in Frankfurt
run by Anton Gruner on lines advocated by the Swiss educator
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Froebel became convinced of
his vocation as a teacher at the school.
After two years as assistant to Gruner, Froebel went to
Yverdon, Switz., where he came into close contact with Pestalozzi.
Though he learned much at Yverdon, he quickly discovered
the weakness of organization that characterized Pestalozzi's
work. In 1811 Froebel entered the University of Göttingen,
where military service in the Napoleonic Wars soon interrupted
his studies. During the campaign of 1813 he formed a lasting
friendship with H. Langenthal and W. Middendorff, who became
his devoted followers and who joined him at a school he
opened at Griesheim in Thuringia in 1816. Two years later
the school moved to Keilhau, also in Thuringia, and it was
there that Froebel put into practice his educational theories.
He and his friends and their wives became a kind of educational
community, and the school expanded into a flourishing institution.
During this time Froebel wrote numerous articles and in
1826 published his most important treatise, Menschenerziehung
(The Education of Man), a philosophical presentation of
principles and methods pursued at Keilhau.
In 1831 Froebel left Keilhau to his partner and accepted
the Swiss government's invitation to train elementary school
teachers. His experiences at Keilhau and as head of a new
orphan asylum at Burgdorf in Switzerland impressed him with
the importance of the early stages of education. On returning
to Keilhau in 1837 he opened an infant school in Blankenburg,
Prussia, that he originally called the Child Nurture and
Activity Institute, and which by happy inspiration he later
renamed the Kindergarten, or garden of children.
He also started a publishing firm for play and other educational
materials, including a collection of Mother-Play and Nursery
Songs, with lengthy explanations of their meaning and use.
This immensely popular book was translated into many foreign
languages. Froebel insisted that improvement of infant education
was a vital preliminary to comprehensive educational and
social reform. His experiments at the Kindergarten attracted
widespread interest, and other kindergartens were started.
Unfortunately, because of a confusion with the socialist
views of Froebel's nephew, the Prussian government proscribed
the kindergarten movement in 1851. The ban was not removed
until after 1860, several years after Froebel's death in
1852.
One of Froebel's most enthusiastic disciples, the Baroness
of Marenholtz-Bülow, was largely responsible for bringing
his ideas to the notice of educators in England, France,
and The Netherlands. Later they were introduced into other
countries, including the United States, where the Froebelian
movement achieved its greatest success. There John Dewey
adopted Froebel's principles in his experimental school
at the University of Chicago. Kindergartens were established
throughout Europe and North America and became a standard
educational institution for children of four to six years
of age.
Froebel was influenced by the outstanding German idealist
philosophers of his time and by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and
Pestalozzi. He was a sincerely religious man who, because
of his belief in the underlying unity of all things, tended
toward pantheism and has been called a nature mystic. His
most important contribution to educational theory was his
belief in self-activity and play as essential
factors in child education. The teacher's role was not to
drill or indoctrinate the children but rather to encourage
their self-expression through play, both individually and
in group activities. Froebel devised circles, spheres, and
other toys to stimulate learning through well-directed play
activities accompanied by songs and music. Modern educational
techniques in kindergarten and preschool are much indebted
to him.
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