This is National Kindergarten Day, named on this day due to this also being the birthday of the man who invented Kindergarten. Did you know that original Kindergarten was not just a class before first grade in which you were to be tested and forced into a regimen of reading and math?
It was actually much more than that and was actually invented by Friedrich Froebel. If you’re lucky you’re of the older sort and remember Kindergarten as a time of play. My mother was a Kindergarten teacher trained long before things got out of whack in American education. During conferences with parents she would advise, when your child comes home from school and you ask, “what did you do today?” and they answer, “play”, that’s the right answer, for it’s through play that learning is at its best. The mess made of education at all levels is that the powers that shape education took all the fun out of it. And the spirit of play is a vital force in learning at all levels. Play is not just important to children, but to teachers as well.
Friedrich Froebel, inventor of Kindergarten was born on April 21, 1782 so if he were alive today, he would be 242 years old. His ideas, having grown out of favor are still young. In the early 1840's he was walking over the crest of a mountain pass with fellow educators and proclaimed, "Eureka! I know what to name my youngest child! Kindergarten!" A garden of children. It was a place in which children would be offered the right conditions for their growth, growing from patterns inherent within.
Gliedganzes was a term that Froebel combined from two German words glied meaning member and ganzes meaning whole. Advocates of progressive education talk about the education of the whole child... that education should not only be concerned with teaching a child to read and do math, but to also to become engaged as a creative member of society.
Froebel's odd word gliedganzes was devised to show simultaneous concern for both directions education must proceed at exactly the same time. Froebel's gifts were designed to illustrate this. For example, the gift number 3 consisting of a cube shaped box, containing a larger cube composed of 8 smaller ones illustrates that while each cube is complete in itself, it is also a member of a larger form, just as the child itself is a member of a larger form.
The purpose of Kindergarten was to help children discover their own unique characters and capacities and discover their interconnectedness with family, community, human culture and nature. These may seem divergent, but are actually brought together in Froebel's concept, gliedganzes.
Happy Birthday Mr. Froebel.
You've not been completely forgotten. This video should be widely shared. https://youtu.be/qC91n3Yl80w
I wrote a book about making Froebel’s Gifts, a guide to teachers, parents and grandparents for making educational toys to benefit both hands and minds, and even the minds of those who want to make them for others. You can find it on Amazon here.
You can find a video about the Clear Spring School’s giant Froebel blocks here.
You’ll find a video about my work here.