Froebel, Friedrich(1782–1852)
Friedrich Froebel, the German philosopher of education, was born at Oberweissbach in Thuringia. He studied forestry and related fields at the University of Jena, came in contact with Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi in 1808, and participated as a volunteer in the war of liberation against Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1816 he established a school, which soon was moved from Griesheim to Keilhau, and in 1837 he founded his first kindergarten at Blankenburg in Thuringia, which became the model of many similar institutions. However, these institutions had to be closed in Prussia in 1851 because the government, as well as the clergy, suspected Froebel of liberal political and religious leanings. The prohibition lasted for ten years, but afterward the kindergarten movement spread rapidly throughout the European countries.
Froebel's whole educational theory and practice was determined by his conviction of the ultimate oneness of life, of nature and spirit. According to him it is the destiny of all things to unfold their divine essence and to reveal God in their transient being.
As Froebel's autobiography shows, he was, as a child, deeply troubled by the contrast between "spirit" and "the flesh" in the Christian supernaturalism and moralistic dualism of his father, a pastor, until he discovered the pervasive beauty of nature and the mystery of sex life in the whole creation. His conviction about the inner unity of the cosmos was confirmed by his scientific studies, his reading of the Zend-Avesta, and his acquaintance with Friedrich Schelling's philosophy of identity.
In conformity with his metaphysics, Froebel conceived of education as a continuation of the world's unceasing evolution on the level of consciousness, with the child's play being the first sign of life's urge toward purposeful activity. Thus, he wrote in The Education of Man (pp. 1ff.), "Education consists in leading man, as a thinking, intelligent being, growing into self-consciousness, to a pure, unsullied, conscious and free representation of the inner law of divine unity, and in teaching him means thereto." Out of respect for the "inner law of unity" or for life as an "unbroken whole in all its operations and phenomena" (The Education of Man, p. 238), the educator should organize the instructional process in such a way that the order of the subjects to be taught supports the learner's inner development, while the whole program of studies should help the student to realize the reflection of the unity of life in the unity of knowledge.
Froebel's educational principles may be summarized as follows:
- That the development of nature reveals itself in the development of the individual mind should be demonstrated in the teaching of science, the humanities, and religion.
- Education should be structured to harmonize with the natural inner development of the pupil.
- Education should unfold the whole man in each person. Religion should be taught in order to cultivate the emotions, nature should be studied because it is the self-revelation of God, and mathematics should be appreciated as the symbol of universal order. Language, too, connects man with the order and rhythm of things and should therefore take its part in education.
- The arts should be taught, for art is a general human talent and conducive to the harmonious unfolding of a person's inner life.
The central theme in Froebel's educational work is most evident in The Education of Man, which presents a unique attempt to provide an ontological explanation of the process of human learning.
Historically, Froebel must be understood as being in the tradition of John Comenius, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Pestalozzi. His ideas have been criticized for many and sometimes contradictory reasons: for their pantheistic naturalism, their romanticism, their individualism and neglect of discipline, their sentimentality and their one-sided emphasis on early childhood. But there can be no doubt that the work with which his name is mainly connected, the kindergarten, has been an inestimable blessing to humankind, and many of his psychological insights, like those of Pestalozzi, have been increasingly confirmed by modern psychology.
Art, Value In; Comenius, John Amosgerman Philosophy;; Pestalozzi, Johann Heinrich; Schelling, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Von; Philosophy of Education, History Of; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques.
Bibliography
Froebel's Gesammelte pädagogische Schriften was edited by Richard Lange (Berlin, 1862–1874). Of the many translations of this work, the following are most important: Froebel's Chief Writings on Education, translated by S. S. F. Fletcher and J. Walton (New York, 1912); Education by Development, translated by J. Jarvis (New York: Appleton, 1899); and The Education of Man, translated by W. N. Hailmann (New York: Appleton, 1887).
For literature on Froebel, see Robert Ulich, History of Educational Thought (New York: American Book, 1950), and his Three Thousand Years of Educational Wisdom (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1954).
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