When Friedrich Froebel came up with the idea of a kindergarten for children, he could not have envisaged that it would become such a household word around the world.
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It was a word that was adopted under the German name that Froebel gave it.
He wanted to create a garden for children, a place where they could develop their intelligence by playing games, singing and engaging in other activities appropriate for little children.
It was a big idea when Froebel thought about the first kindergarten in 1837, grounded in “play and activity” and the nurturing of creativity through the systematic deployment of a sequence of “gifts”, such as coloured balls, geometrical building blocks and mosaic tiles. Froebel was using nature as the model of perfection to educate children. He wanted to teach children how to learn, observe, reason, express and create through play, employing philosophies of unity and interconnectedness.
The kindergarten that many grown-ups remember is one of songs, games, playing with blocks, finger painting and nature walks.
In his book Inventing Kindergarten, Norman Brosterman points out that the inspiration for much of modern art and architecture can be linked to the invention of the kindergarten.
With a history of caring for young children Froebel moved to Blankenburg, Germany, in 1837 where he set up his school, that later he named a kindergarten. Froebel called for German women to support the kindergarten. Because he described children as plants and teachers as gardeners, the term kindergarten emerged, kinder meaning child and garten meaning garden. In his school, Froebel emphasised play.
His books were burned by the German community. They did not believe children needed to play in order to learn. They thought his theories were outrageous.
Different countries have their own ideas about kindergartens and develop those ideas each year.
The book Sydney and the Bush, which the Department of Education published in May 1980, quotes Froebel as saying that his system was based on the principle that education practices should be suited to the nature of children.
The Arthur Mee Children’s Encyclopedia, which I received as a little boy, said Froebels was inspired by John Henry Pestalizzi. Froebels was dull and lonely but soon developed an education system that encouraged others to adopt his new kindergarten system.
Very few words have attached to kindergarden. We can all understand the German word kindergarten, no matter what part of the world we are in. A garden for children.
