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
“It is of the highest importance for the nurse to consider the
earliest and slightest traces of the organization (Gliederung)
within itself of the child’s mind as bodily, emotional and
intellectual, that in his development from mere existence
to perception and thought, none of these directions of his
nature should be fostered at the expense of the other … the
real foundation, the starting-point of human development is
the heart and the emotions, but cultivation of action and
thought (die Ausbildung zur That und zum Denken) must go side
by side with it, constantly and inseparably: and thought must
form itself into action, and action resolve and clear itself
into thought; but both have their roots in the emotional
nature.”[7]--_P., p. 42._
The first part of the following quotation from a letter written in
1851 towards the close of Froebel’s life might almost be taken from a
text-book of the present day:
“We find also three attitudes, spheres of work, and regions of
mind in man:
“(1) the region of the soul, the heart, Feeling;
“(2) the region of the mind, the head, Intellect;
“(3) the region of the active life, the putting forth to actual
deed, Will.
“As mental attitudes these three divisions seem the wider apart
the more we contemplate them; as spheres of work and regions
of mind they seem quite separate and perfect opposites. But
the highest and most absolute opposition is that which most
needs, and necessitates reconciliation; complete opposites
condition their uniting link. The need for the uniting link
appears in almost every circumstance of life.… To satisfy that
need is the most imperative need now set before the human
race, … you will realize that the strengthening of character
which we all agree to be a necessity of the age, is to be
gained not only by stimulating and elevating the soul and
the emotions, but by raising the whole mind, by training the
intellect and the will.… Then the heart would acknowledge and
esteem the intellectual power, just as the intellect already
recognizes feeling as that which gives true warmth to our
lives; and life as a whole would make manifest the soul which
quickens existence, and gives it a meaning, as well as the
intellect which gives it precision and culture. _Intellect_,
_feeling_ and _will_ would then unite, _a many-sided power_,
to build up and constitute our life. In the room of the
unstable character which must result from the mere cultivation
of the one department of emotion; in the room of the doubt,
or, I might say empty negation, which too often proceeds from
the mere cultivation of the intellect; in the room of the
materialism, animalism, and sensuality which must come from the
mere attention to the body, and physical side of our nature;
we should then have the harmonious development of every side
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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