FROEBEL AS A PIONEER
IN MODERN PSYCHOLOGY
BY
E. R. MURRAY
Author of “A Story of Infant Schools and Kindergartens”
BALTIMORE Md.
WARWICK & YORK, INC.
1914
(All rights reserved)
Some day Froebel will come to his own, and the carefulnessof his observation, the depth of his thought,the truth of his theories, and the success of his actualexperiments in education will all be acknowledged.
There are few schools nowadays so modern as theshort-lived Keilhau, with its spirit of freedom andindependence and its “Areopagus” in which the boysthemselves judged grave misdemeanours while themasters settled smaller matters alone. There are fewschools now which have such an all-round curriculum,including, as it did, the mother tongue as well asclassics and modern languages; ancient and modernhistory; Nature study and Nature rambles; schooljourneys, lasting for two or three weeks and extendingas far as Switzerland for the older lads, while theyounger boys visited German towns and were madeacquainted with peasant life; definite instruction infield-work, in building and carpentry, etc.; religiousteaching in which Middendorf endeavoured “to showthe merits of the religions of all nations”; physicaltraining with the out-of-doors wrestling ground andshooting stand and gymnasium “for every sparemoment of the winter,” and organized games; anddramatic teaching where “classic dramas” and otherplays were performed, and for which the boys builtthe stage and painted the scenes. There was evenco-education, “flirtation being unknown,” becauseall had their heads so full of more important matters,[vi]but where free intercourse of boy and girl “softenedthe manners of the young German savages.”
The purpose of this book is to show that all thesethings, besides the Kindergarten and the excellent planfor the Helba Institute, did not come into being bychance, but were the outcome of the deep reflectionof a man who combined the scientific with the philosophictemperament; and who, because his ideal as ateacher was “Education by Development,” had madea special study of the instinctive tendencies, and therequirements of different stages of child development,as I have tried to prove in Chapters VI and VII.
I should like to explain one or two points, first, thatthough for all quotations I have referred to the mostcommonly used translations of Froebel’s writings, yetI have frequently given my own rendering when theother seemed inadequate; secondly, that I haveendeavoured to give the context as often as possible,and have also given the actual German words, that Imight not be accused of reading in modern ideas whichare not really in the text; and, lastly, that I havepurposely repeated quotations rather than give myreaders the trouble of turning back to another page.
In conclusion may I take this opportunity of payinggrateful thanks first to Miss Alice Words and to MissK. M. Clarke, without whose kind encouragement Ishould never have completed my task, and also toProfessor Alexander for several