Froebel, Friedrich

Friedrich Froebel, the father of kindergarten, was perhaps the first person to use play as the central element of an educational method. Central to his method, which he named “kindergarten” or children's garden, was a series of educational play materials he termed “Gifts.” He also created finger plays, a new type of musical and premathematical play for mothers to use with their young children. Rooted in play, kindergarten began early-childhood education as it is known today. His educational method, or “the Kindergarten Movement,” spread around the world over the next century.

Born in eastern Germany on April 21, 1782, Froebel spent much of his childhood in the outdoors, becoming one with his natural surroundings. Later, he would include his love of nature and the outdoors into kindergarten. His early academic training in mathematics, architecture, and mineralogy could have led to a professorship at several prestigious universities; however, Froebel refused these opportunities and instead became a teacher. He began his teaching career in Switzerland under the tutelage of the renowned educator Johann Pestalozzi. In 1817 in Keilhau, Germany, Froebel opened his first school. Not until 1839 could he put into practice his dream of a new schooling for young children by founding the world's first kindergarten in the village of Bad Blankenburg, Germany. Froebel not only established and taught in this first kindergarten but also began many other similar schools and trained the first women teachers for his new form of education.

Because of its closeness to a young child's heart and mind, Froebel saw play as an act of the child's true spirit. He felt that the child needed to experience things directly in order to learn and that play achieved this firsthand experience. Froebel used his prior background in mathematics to create little number stories, called finger plays, for mothers to teach their children premath and language skills. He also created a series of blocks and other manipulatives he called Gifts. Block play became a permanent part of his kindergarten movement. His most famous gift, Gift Two, was composed of a sphere, a cylinder, and a cube; this versatile combination of blocks could be used for everything from lessons in geometry to dramatic play. Believing that children needed to use their own hands in learning, he also crafted a series of activities called Occupations for use with the Gifts.

Froebel's core belief, that play offered the child not just words but active experiences that promote learning, inspired several more of his lasting contributions In the new kindergarten, playful learning was the main conduit for the knowledge, so Froebel incorporated [Page 247]art, music, storytelling, finger play, nature experiences, and circle time. Froebel often led children's play activities outdoors, an innovation that was then criticized. In 1851, at Altenstein Park, Froebel invented the play fest, perhaps an early forerunner of the modern play day.

Even after his death in 1852, Froebel's dream of spreading kindergarten around the globe endured, and many schools today with kindergartens are indebted to Froebel's philosophy and methods. Froebel lived for children and their play, and in death he is remembered for his contributions to both education and play. Rising above his gravesite in Schweina, Germany, are sculptures of his beloved kindergarten blocks in the form of the famous Gift Two, the sphere, cylinder, and cube. This monument testifies that Froebel's greatest gift to children may have been the gift of play.

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