Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 15
General
Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 15
Literature -- Collections
Froebel's educational creed cannot here be cited at length, but some
of its fundamental articles are:--
The education of the child should begin with its birth, and should be
threefold, addressing the mental, spiritual, and physical natures.
It should be continued as it has begun, by appealing to the heart and
the emotions as the starting-point of the human soul.
There should be sequence, orderly progression, and one continuous
purpose throughout the entire scheme of education, from kindergarten
to university.
Education should be conducted according to nature, and should be a
free, spontaneous growth,--a development from within, never a
prescription from without.
The training of the child should be conducted by means of the
activities, needs, desires, and delights, which are the common
heritage of childhood.
The child should be led from the beginning to feel that one life
thrills through every manifestation of the universe, and that he is a
part of all that is.
The object of education is the development of the human being in the
totality of his powers as a child of nature, a child of man, and a
child of God.
These principles of Froebel's, many of them the products of his own
mind, others the pure gold of educational currency upon which he has
but stamped his own image, are so true and so far-reaching that they
have already begun to modify all education and are destined to work
greater magic in the future. The great teacher's place in history may
be determined, by-and-by, more by the wonderful uplift and impetus he
gave to the whole educational world, than by the particular system of
child-culture in connection with which he is best known to-day.
Judged by ordinary worldly standards, his life was an unsuccessful
one, full of trials and privations, and empty of reward. His
death-blow was doubtless struck by the prohibition of kindergartens
in Prussia in 1851, an edict which remained nine years in force. His
strength had been too sorely tried to resist this final crushing
misfortune, and he passed away the following year. His body was borne
to the grave through a heavy storm of wind and rain that seemed to
symbolize the vicissitudes of his earthly days, while as a forecast of
the future the sun shone out at the last moment, and the train of
mourners looked back to see the low mound irradiated with glory.
In Thuringia, where the great child-lover was born, the kindergartens,
his best memorials, cluster thickly now; and on the face of the cliffs
that overhang the bridle-path across the Glockner mountain may be seen
in great letters the single word _Froebel_, hewn deep into the solid
rock.
[Signature: Nora Archibald Smith]
THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD
From 'Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel,' by Baroness B. von
Marenholtz-Buelow. Copyright 1877, by Mary Mann. Reprinted by
permission of Lee & Shepard, publishers, Boston.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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