Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychologyMurray, E. R. (Elsie Riach)
Science
Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychology
Murray, E. R. (Elsie Riach)
Fröbel, Friedrich, 1782-1852; Psychology
And in his “Education of Man,” in a long and eloquent passage on the need
for continuity of training from the tiniest of beginnings, he says:
“It is highly pernicious and even destructive to consider the
stages of human development as distinct, and not as life shows
them, continuous in themselves, in unbroken transitions.”--_E.,
p. 27._
The analysis of mind which Froebel recognizes, is the still commonly
accepted “tri-partite,” but he never fails to refer to this as a unity or
a tri-unity. Indeed, his constant harping upon this string becomes almost
wearisome, in spite of the ingenuity with which he continually varies his
terms.
“The early phenomenon of child-life, of human existence in
childhood, is an activity, one with feeling and perception
(Wahrnehmen).”--_P., p. 23._
“That the nature of man shows itself early in the life of
the child, as feeling, acting and representing, thinking and
perceiving, and that in this tri-unity is included the whole of
his life utterance and activity, we have said repeatedly, and
it lies open for any one to notice.”--_P., p. 122._
Disguised as Love, Life, and Light, this trinity is made the connection
of man, on the one side with Nature, on the other side with God. God--who
is Life, Love, and Light, the All--shows Himself in Nature, in the
universe as life (energy), in humanity as love, and in wisdom or in the
spirit as light. Energy or life man shares with Nature; by love he is
united with humanity; and by light or wisdom he is at one with God.
For his “gift plays” Froebel claims that they “take hold of the child in
the tri-unity of his nature”:
“As now each of the single plays separately considered takes
hold of the child early, in the tri-unity of his nature, as
doing, feeling, and thinking, so yet more do the employments as
a whole.”--_P., p. 56._
And a forcible passage runs:
“Only if the child is treated through fostering his instinct
for activity in the tri-unity of his nature, as living, loving,
and perceiving, in the unity of his life, only thus can he
develop as that which he is, the manifold and organized, but in
himself single, whole.”--_P., p. 12._
This development of the threefold yet single nature constitutes
the “harmonious development,” reiterated _ad nauseam_ and without
explanation, in Kindergarten text-books. It is also the key to much that
seems to us useless detail as to the toys and games of early childhood.
The mother is told that:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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