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Left to himself in the Thuringian forest, Froebel began to study nature, and without scientific instruction he obtained a profound insight into the uniformity and essential unity of nature's See also:

LAWS

laws. Years afterwards the celebrated See also:

Jahn (the " Father Jahn " of the German gymnasts) told a See also:

Berlin student of a queer See also:

FELLOW

fellow he had met, who made out all sorts of wonderful things from stones and cobwebs. This queer fellow was Froebel; and the See also:

HABIT (through the French from Lat. habitus, from habere, to have, hold, or, in a reflective sense, to be in a certain condition; in many of the English senses the French use habitude, not habit)

habit of making out See also:

general truths from the observation of nature, especially from See also:

PLANTS

plants and trees, dated from the solitary rambles in the forest. No training could have been better suited to strengthen his inborn tendency to See also:

MYSTICISM (from Or. µuety, to shut the eyes; µuorrts, one initiated into the mysteries)

mysticism; and when he left the forest at the early See also:

AGE (Fr. age, through late Lat. aetaticum, from aetas)

age of seventeen, he seems to have been possessed by the See also:

main ideas which influenced him all his life.

The conception which in him dominated all others was the unity of nature; and he longed to study natural sciences that he might find in them various applications of nature's universal laws. With See also:

GREAT

great difficulty he got leave to join his See also:

elder brother at the university of See also:

JENA

Jena, and there for a See also:

YEAR

year he went from lecture-See also:

ROOM

room to lecture-room hoping to grasp that connexion of the sciences which had for him far more attraction than any particular See also:

SCIENCE (Lat. scientia, from scire; to learn, know)

science in itself. But Froebel's See also:

ALLOWANCE (from "allow,' derived through 0. Fr. alouer from the two Lat. origins adlaudare, to praise, and allocare, to assign a place; so that the English word combined the general idea of "assigning with approval")

allowance of See also:

MONEY

money was very small, and his skill in the management of money was never great, so his university career ended in an imprisonment of nine See also:

WEEKS, EDWIN LORD (1849-1903)

weeks for a See also:

DEBT (Lat. debitum, a thing owed)

debt of See also:

THIRTY

thirty shillings. He then returned home with very poor prospects, but much more See also:

INTENT (from Lat. intend ere, to stretch out, extend, particularly in the phrase intendere animum, to turn one's mind to, purpose)

intent on what he calls the course of " self-completion " (Vervollkommnung meines selbst) than on " getting on " in a worldly point of view. He was sent to learn farming, but was recalled in consequence of the failing See also:

HEALTH

health of his father. In 1802 the father died, and Froebel, now twenty years old, had to shift for himself. It was some See also:

time before he found his true vocation, and for the next three and a half years we find him at work now in one See also:

PART

part of See also:

Germany now in another—sometimes See also:

LAND

land-See also:

SURVEYING

surveying, sometimes acting as accountant, sometimes as private secretary; but in all this his " See also:

OUTER

outer life was far removed from his inner life," and in spite of his outward circumstances he became more and more conscious that a great task See also:

lay before him for the See also:

GOOD, JOHN MASON (1764-1827)

good of humanity. The nature of the task, however, was not clear to him, and it seemed determined by See also:

accident. While studying See also:

ARCHITECTURE (Lat. architectura, from the Gr. ap)(LTEKrwv, a master-builder)

architecture in See also:

FRANKFORT

Frankfort-on-Main, he became acquainted with the director of a See also:

MODEL (0. Fr. modelle, mod. modele; It. modello, pattern, mould; from Lat. modus, measure, standard)

model school, who had caught some of the See also:

ENTHUSIASM

enthusiasm of See also:

PESTALOZZI, JOHANN HEINRICH

Pestalozzi. This friend saw that Froebel's true See also:

field was education, and he persuaded him to give up architecture and take a See also:

POST

post in the model school. In this school Froebel worked for two years with remarkable success, but he then retired and undertook the education of three lads of one family. In this he could not satisfy himself, and he obtained the parents' consent to his taking the boys to Yverdon, near See also:

Neuchatel, and there forming with them a part of the celebrated institution of Pestalozzi.

Thus from 1807 till 1809 Froebel was drinking in Pestalozzianism at the fountainhead, and qualifying himself to carry on the work which Pestalozzi had begun. For the science of education had to deduce from Pestalozzi's experience principles which Pestalozzi himself could not deduce. And " Froebel, the See also:

PUPIL (Lat. pupillus, orphan, minor, dim. of pupus, boy, allied to puer, from root pm- or peu-, to beget, cf. "pupa," Lat. for " doll," the name given to the stage intervening between the larval and imaginal stages in certain insects)

pupil of Pestalozzi, and a See also:

GENIUS (from Lat. genere, gignere)

genius like his See also:

MASTER (Lat. magister, related to tnagis, more, as the corresponding minister is to minus, less; the English form is due partly to the O. Eng. maegister, and partly to O. Fr. maistre, mod. maitre; cf. Du. meester, Ger. Meister, Ital. maestro)

master, completed the reformer's See also:

SYSTEM

system; taking the results at which Pestalozzi had arrived through the necessities of his position, Froebel See also:

DEVELOPED

developed the ideas involved in them, not by further experience but by See also:

DEDUCTION (from Lat. deducere, to take or lead from or out of, derive)

deduction from the nature of See also:

man, and thus he attained to the conception of true human development and to the requirements of true education " (See also:

Schmidt's Geschichte der Padagogik). Holding that man and nature, inasmuch as they proceed from the same source, must be governed by the same laws, Froebel longed for more knowledge of natural science. Even Pestalozzi seemed to him not to " See also:

HONOUR (Lat. honos or lwnor, honoris; in English the word was spelled with or without the u indifferently until the 17th century, but during the 18th century it became fashion-able to spell the word " honor "; Johnson's and Webster's Dictionaries stereoty

honour science in her divinity." He therefore determined to continue the university course which had been so rudely interrupted eleven years before, and in 1811 he began studying at See also:

GOTTINGEN

Gottingen, whence he proceeded to Berlin. But again his studies were interrupted, this time by the See also:

king of See also:

Prussia's celebrated See also:

CALL (from Anglo-Saxon ceallian, a common Teutonic word, cf. Dutch kallen, to talk or chatter)

call " to my See also:

PEOPLE

people." Though not a Prussian, Froebel was See also:

heart and soul a German. He therefore responded to the call, enlisted in See also:

LUTZOW, ADOLF, FREIHERR VON (1782-1834)

Lutzow's See also:

CORPS (pronounced as in French, from which it is taken, being a late spelling of tors, from Lat. corpus, a body; cf. " corpse ")

corps, and went through the See also:

CAMPAIGN

campaign of 1813. But his military ardour did not take his mind off education. " Everywhere," he writes, " as far as the fatigues I underwent allowed, I carried in my thoughts my future calling as educator; yes, even in the few engagements in which I had to take part. Even in these I could gather experience for the task I proposed to myself." Froebel's soldiering showed him the value of discipline and See also:

UNITED

united See also:

ACTION

action, how the individual belongs not to himself but to the whole See also:

BODY

body, and how the whole body supports the individual. Froebel was rewarded for his patriotism by the friendship of two men whose names will always be associated with his, Langethal and Middendorff. These See also:

young men, ten years younger than Froebel, became attached to him in the field, and were ever afterwards his devoted followers, sacrificing all their prospects in life for the See also:

SAKE

sake of carrying out his ideas.

At the See also:

peace of See also:

FONTAINEBLEAU

Fontainebleau (signed in May 1814) Froebel returned to Berlin, and became See also:

CURATOR (Lat. for " one who takes care," curare, to take care of)

curator of the museum of See also:

MINERALOGY

mineralogy under See also:

PROFESSOR (the Latin noun formed from the verb profiteri, to declare publicly, to acknowledge, profess)

Professor See also:

WEISS, BERNHARD (1827– . )

Weiss. In accepting this See also:

APPOINTMENT, POWER OF

appointment from the See also:

government he seemed to turn aside from his work as educator; but if not teaching he was learning. More and more the thought possessed him that the one thing needful for man was unity of development, perfect See also:

EVOLUTION

evolution in accordance with the laws of his being, such evolution as science discovers in the other organisms of nature. He at first intended to become a teacher of natural science, but before See also:

long wider views dawned upon him. Langethal and Middendorff were in Berlin, engaged in tuition. Froebel gave them See also:

REGULAR

regular instruction in his theory, and at length, counting on their support, he resolved to set about realizing his own See also:

IDEA (Gr. Ibia, connected with i&eiv, to see; cf. Lat. species from specere, to look at)

idea of " the new education." This was in 1816. Three years before one of his See also:

BROTHERS, RICHARD (1757-1824)

brothers, a clergyman, had died of See also:

FEVER (Lat. febris, connected with fervere, to burn)

fever caught from the See also:

French prisoners. His widow was still living in the parsonage at Griesheim, a village on the Ilm. Froebel gave up his post, and set out for Griesheim on See also:

FOOT

foot, spending his very last groschen on the way for See also:

BREAD

bread. Here he undertook the education of his See also:

ORPHAN

orphan niece and nephews, and also of two more nephews sent him by another brother. With these he opened a school and wrote to Middendorff and Langethal to come and help in the experiment. Middendorff came at once, Langethal a year or two later, when the school had been moved to Keilhau, another of the Thuringian villages, which became the See also:

MECCA (Arab. Makkah)

Mecca of the new faith.

In Keilhau Froebel, Langethal, Middendorff and Barop, a relation of Middendorff's, all married and formed an educational community. Such zeal could not be fruitless, and the school gradually increased, though for many years its teachers, with Froebel at their See also:

head, were in the greatest straits for money and at times even for See also:

food. After fourteen years' experience he determined to start other institutions to work in connexion with the See also:

PARENT, SIMON NAPOLEON (1855– )

parent institution at Keilhau, and being offered by a private friend the use of a See also:

castle on the Wartensee, in the See also:

canton of See also:

Lucerne, he left Keilhau under the direction of Barop, and with Langethal he opened the Swiss institution. The ground, however, was very See also:

ill chosen. The See also:

CATHOLIC (Gr. KcaBoXuK6s, general, universal)

Catholic See also:

clergy resisted what they considered as a See also:

PROTESTANT

Protestant invasion, and the experiment on the Wartensee and at Willisau in the same canton, to which the institution was moved in 1833, never had a See also:

FAIR

fair See also:

CHANCE (through the O. Fr. cheance, from the Late Lat. cadentia, things happening, from cadere, to fall out, happen; cf. " case ")

chance. It was in vain that Middendorff at Froebel's call left his wife and family at Keilhau, and laboured for four years in See also:

SWITZERLAND

Switzerland without once seeing them. The Swiss institution never flourished. But the Swiss government wished to turn to See also:

account the presence of the great educator; so young teachers were sent to Froebel for instruction, and finally Froebel moved to See also:

BURGDORF (Fr. Berthoud)

Burgdorf (a Bernese See also:

TOWN

town of some importance, and famous from Pestalozzi's labours there thirty years earlier) to undertake the See also:

ESTABLISHMENT (0. Fr. establissement, Fr. etablissement, late Norm. Fr. establishement, from O. Fr. establir, Fr. etablir, Lat. stabilire, to make stable)

establishment of a public orphanage and also to superintend a course of teaching for schoolmasters. The elementary teachers of the canton were to spend three months every alternate year at Burgdorf, and there compare experiences, and learn of distinguished men such as Froebel and See also:

BITZIUS, ALBRECHT (1797-1854)

Bitzius. In his conferences with these teachers Froebel found that the See also:

SCHOOLS

schools suffered from the See also:

state of the raw material brought into them. Till the school age was reached the children were entirely neglected. Froebel's conception of harmonious development naturally led him to attach much importance to the earliest years, and his great work on The Education of Man, published as early as 1826, deals chiefly with the See also:

child up to the age of seven.

At Burgdorf his thoughts were much occupied with the proper treatment of young children, and in scheming for then a graduated course of exercises, modelled on the See also:

GAMES, CLASSICAL

games in which he observed them to be most interested. In his eagerness to carry out his new plans he See also:

GREW, NEHEMIAH (1641-1712)

grew impatient of See also:

OFFICIAL (Late Lat. QJicialis, for class. Lat. apparitor, from officium, office, duty)

official restraints; so he returned to Keilhau, and soon afterwards opened the first See also:

KINDERGARTEN

Kindergarten or " See also:

GARDEN (from O. Fr. garden, mod. Fr. jardin; this, like our words " garth," a paddock attached to a building, and " yard," comes from a Teutonic word for an enclosure which appears in Gothic as gards and O. H. Ger. gart, cf. Dutch gaarde and Ger. .garten)

Garden of Children," in the neighbouring village of See also:

BLANKENBURG

Blankenburg (1837). Firmly convinced of the importance of the Kindergarten for the whole human See also:

RACE

race, Froebel described his system in a weekly See also:

paper (his Sonntagsblatt) which appeared from the See also:

MIDDLE

middle of 1837 till 184o. He also lectured in great towns; and he gave a regular course of instruction to young teachers at Blankenburg. But although the principles of the Kindergarten were gradually making their way, the first Kindergarten was failing for want of funds. It had to be given up, and Froebel, now a widower (he had lost his wife in 1839), carried on his course for teachers first at Keilhau, and from 1848, for the last four years of his life, at or near Liebenstein, in the Thuringian forest, and in the duchy of See also:

MEININGEN

Meiningen. It is in these last years that the man Froebel will be best known to posterity, for in 1849 he attracted within the circle of his See also:

INFLUENCE (Late Lat. influentia, from influere, to flow in)

influence a woman of great intellectual See also:

POWER [WILLIAM GRATTAN] TYRONE (1797-1841)

power, the baroness von Marenholtz-See also:

Bulow, who has given us in her Recollections of Friedrich Froebel the only lifelike portrait we possess. These seemed likely to be Froebel's most peaceful days. He married again in 1851, and having now devoted himself to the training of See also:

WOMEN

women as educators, he spent his time in instructing his class of young See also:

FEMALE

female teachers. But trouble came upon him from a See also:

QUARTER (through Fr. from Lat. quartarius, fourth part)

quarter whence he least expected it. In the great year of revolutions (1848) Froebel had hoped to turn to account the general eagerness for improvement, and Middendorff had presented an address on Kindergartens to the German See also:

PARLIAMENT (Anglo-Lat. parliamentum, Fr. parlement, from parler, to speak)

parliament. Besides this, a See also:

NEPHEW

nephew of Froebel's, Professor Karl Froebel of See also:

Zurich, published books which were supposed to See also:

TEACH [THATCH OR THACH], EDWARD (d. 1718)

teach See also:

SOCIALISM

socialism.

True, the uncle and nephew differed so widely that the " new Froebelians " were the enemies of " the old," but the distinction was overlooked, and Friedrich and Karl Froebel were regarded as the united See also:

ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF

advocates of some new thing. In the reaction which soon set in, Froebel found himself suspected of socialism and irreligion, and in 1851 the " cultus-See also:

MINISTER (Lat. minister, servant)

minister " Von See also:

RAUMER, FRIEDRICH LUDWIG GEORG VON (1781–1873)

Raumer issued an See also:

EDICT (Lat. edictum, from e, out, and dicere, to say, speak)

edict forbidding the establishment of schools " after Friedrich and Karl Froebel's principles " in Prussia. This was a heavy See also:

BLOW, JOHN (1648-1708)

blow to the old man, who looked to the government of the "Cultus-staat"Prussia for support, and was met with denunciation. Whether from the worry of this new controversy, or from whatever cause, Froebel did not long survive the See also:

DECREE (from the past participle, decretus, of Lat. decernere)

decree. His seventieth birthday was celebrated with great rejoicings in-May 1852, but he died on the 21st of See also:

JUNE

June, and was buried at Schweina, a village near his last See also:

ABODE (from " abide," to dwell, properly " to wait for ," to bide)

abode, Marienthal, near See also:

BAD, BCD

Bad-Liebenstein. " All education not founded on See also:

religion is unproductive." This conviction followed naturally from Froebel's conception of the unity of all things, a unity due to the See also:

ORIGINAL

original Unity from whom all proceed and in whom all " live, move and have their being." As man and nature have one origin they must be subject to the same laws. Hence Froebel, like Comenius two centuries before him, looked to the course of nature for the principles of human education. This he declares to be his fundamental belief: " In the creation, in nature and the See also:

order of the material See also:

WORLD

world, and in the progress of mankind, See also:

God has given us the true type (Urbild) of education." As the See also:

CULTIVATOR

cultivator creates nothing in the trees and plants, so the educator creates nothing in the children,—he merely superintends the development of inborn faculties. So far Froebel agrees with Pestalozzi; but in one respect he went beyond him. Pestalozzi said that the faculties were developed by exercise. Froebel added that the See also:

FUNCTION

function of education was to develop the faculties by arousing voluntary activity. Action proceeding from inner impulse (Selbsttatigkeit) was the one thing needful.

The prominence which Froebel gave to action, his See also:

DOCTRINE

doctrine that man is primarily a doer and even a creator, and that he learns only through "self-activity," has its importance all through education. But it was to the first See also:

STAGE (Fr. 6/age; from Lat. stare, to stand)

stage of life that Froebel paid the greatest attention. He held with See also:

Rousseau that each age has a completeness of its own, and that the perfection of the later stage can be attained only through the perfection of the earlier. If the See also:

INFANT (in early forms enfaunt, enfant, through the Fr. enfant, from Lat. infans, in, not, and fans, the present participle of fari, to speak)

infant is what he should be as an infant, and the child as a child, he will become what he should be as a boy, just as naturally as new shoots See also:

SPRING (from " to spring," " to leap or jump up," " burst out," O. Eng., springau, a common Teut. word, cf. Ger. springer, possibly allied to Gr. QnrFpxecOac, to move rapidly)

spring from the healthy plant. Every stage, then, must be cared for and tended in such a way that it may attain its own perfection. Impressed with theimmense importance of the first stage, Froebel like Pestalozzi devoted himself to the instruction of mothers. But he would not, like Pestalozzi, leave the children entirely in the mother's hands. Pestalozzi held that the child belonged to the family; See also:

Fichte, on the other See also:

hand, claimed it for society and the state. Froebel, whose mind delighted in harmonizing apparent contradictions, and who taught that " all progress lay through opposites to their reconciliation," maintained that the child belonged both to the family and to society, and he would there-fore have children spend some See also:

HOURS, CANONICAL

hours of the See also:

day in a common life and in well-organized common employments. These assemblies of children he would not call schools, for the children in them ought not to be old enough for schooling. So he in-vented the name Kindergarten, garden of children, and called the superintendents " children's gardeners." He laid great stress on every child cultivating its own See also:

plot of ground, but this was not his See also:

REASON (Lat. ratio, through French raison)

reason for the choice of the name. It was rather that he thought of these institutions as enclosures in which young human plants are nurtured.

In the Kindergarten the children's employment should be See also:

PLAY

play. But any occupation in which children delight is play to them; and Froebel invented a See also:

SERIES (a Latin word from serere, to join)

series of employments, which, while they are in this sense play to the children, have nevertheless, as seen from the adult point of view, a distinct educational See also:

OBJECT

object. This object, as Froebel himself describes it, is "to give the children employment in agreement with their whole nature, to strengthen their bodies, to exercise their senses, to engage their awakening mind, and through their senses to bring them acquainted with nature and their fellow creatures; it is especially to See also:

GUIDE (in Mid. Eng. gyde, from the Fr. guide; the earlier French form was guie, English " guy," the d was due to the Italian form guida; the ultimate origin is probably Teutonic, the word being connected with the base seen in O. Eng. witan, to know)

guide aright the heart and the affections, and to See also:

lead them to the original ground of all life, to unity with themselves." Froebel's own See also:

WORKS

works are: Menschenerziehung (" Education of Man "), (1826), which has been translated into French and See also:

ENGLISH

English; Pddagogik d. Kindergartens; Kleinere Schriften and Mutter- and Koselieder; collected See also:

EDITIONS

editions have been edited by Wichard See also:

Lange (1862) and Friedrich Seidel (1883). A. B. Hauschmann's Friedrich Frobel is a lengthy and unsatisfactory See also:

BIOGRAPHY (from the Gr. (3ios, life, and yp&4 , writing)

biography. An unpretentious but useful little See also:

BOOK

book is F. Froebel, a See also:

BIOGRAPHICAL

Biographical See also:

SKETCH (directly adapted from Dutch schets, which was taken from Ital. schizzo, a rough draft, Lat. schedium, something hastily made, Gr. oxE&os, sudden, off-hand, axeb6v, near by; Ger. Skizze and Fr. esquisse are from the same source)

Sketch, by See also:

Matilda H. Kriege, New See also:

York (Steiger). A very good account of Froebel's life and thoughts is given in Karl Schmidt's Geschichte d. Pddagogik, vol. iv.; also in See also:

Adalbert See also:

Weber's Geschichte d.

Volksschulpad. u. d. Kleinkindererziehung (Weber carefully gives authorities). For a less favour-able account see K. Strack's Geschichte. d. See also:

DEUTSCH, IMMANUEL OSCAR MENAHEM (1829-1873)

deutsch. Volksschulwesens. Fran von Marenholtz-Bulow published her Erinnerungen an F.Frobel (translated by Mrs. See also:

HORACE [QuINTus HORATIUS FLACCUS] (65-8 B.C.)

Horace See also:

MANN, HORACE (1796-1859)

Mann, 1877). This See also:

LADY (0. Eng. hlaefdige, Mid. Eng. ldfdi, lavedi; the first part of the word is hldf, loaf, bread, as in the corresponding hldford, lord; the second part is usually taken to be from the root dig-, to knead, seen also in " dough "; the sense development fr

lady, the See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief interpreter of Froebel, has expounded his principles in Das Kind u. sein Wesen and See also:

Die Arbeit u. die neue Erziehung. H. See also:

COURTHOPE, WILLIAM JOHN (1842— )

Courthope See also:

Bowen has written a memoir (1897) in the " Great Educators " series. In See also:

England See also:

MISS

Miss Emily A. E.

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