FROEBEL'S 
 KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 NBW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 
 
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 MELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
FROEBEL'S 
 KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 Critically Examined 
 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM HEARD KILPATRICK, Ph.D. 
 
 >\ 
 
 ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION 
 TEACHERS COLLEGE, COLUMBIA UNIVEBSITT 
 
 Neto gork 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1916 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
.W5 
 
 OOPTBIGHT, 1916, 
 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published March, 1916. 
 
 J. 8. Gushing Co. — Berwick <fc Smith Oo. 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
 MAR 23 1916 
 )CI.A427341 
 
PREFACE 
 
 Mr. Quick, discussing Froebel in his Educa- 
 tional Reformers^ has said with a charming 
 frankness, "Where I can understand him, he 
 seems to me singularly wise," but "at times he 
 goes entirely out of sight, and whether the 
 words we hear are the expression of deep truth 
 or have absolutely no meaning at all, I for my 
 part am at times totally unable to determine." 
 Probably most students of educational theory 
 — outside the ranks of kindergartners, at any 
 rate — have felt Mr. Quick's dilemma. Amid 
 much that is clearly valuable there is much that 
 is singularly forbidding. Among the kinder- 
 gartners themselves this questionable element 
 in Froebel's thought has produced division. 
 One wing accepts pretty fully the whole origi- 
 nal body of kindergarten doctrine and prac- 
 tice, and opposes any appreciable modification 
 thereof; the other wing consciously rejects in 
 
 V 
 
PREFACE 
 
 greater or less degree certain parts of the 
 original Froebelian doctrine and seeks to im- 
 prove the kindergarten theory and practice by 
 utilizing the best thought current in the rest 
 of the educational world. The latter group 
 honors Froebel, but looks to the future. The 
 former with an almost religious zeal has all 
 but developed a Froebel cult. 
 
 In this general situation, it fell to the writer 
 to conduct a critical study of Froebel with 
 successive classes of experienced kindergarten 
 and primary students. Naturally, opposed 
 points of view manifested themselves with re- 
 gard to many of the doctrines studied. Out 
 of these conflicts has come this book. It is 
 therefore critical and not historical. It makes 
 no pretense to a complete discussion of Froebel, 
 but confines itself mainly to those disputed 
 points of kindergarten theory which, diversely 
 taken, lead to diverse practice. 
 
 The general aim of the book is to help spread 
 the reform of kindergarten theory and practice. 
 Its appeal is accordingly not only to kinder- 
 gartners and to the general student of educa- 
 
 vi 
 
PREFACE 
 
 tional theory, but as well to superintendents 
 and other directors of educational practice. 
 The complete kindergarten reform must be 
 the work of all. Until the superintendent can 
 know and properly value what goes on in the 
 kindergarten, his part in improving conditions 
 will be negligible or worse. The kindergartner 
 herself will prove efficient in bettering affairs 
 in the proportion that she can see and appraise 
 what she does. Until the general student of 
 education can place the theory of the kinder- 
 garten into its proper correlation with an all- 
 inclusive educational theory, until that time 
 will the kindergarten exist as a thing apart, ill 
 connected with other educational endeavor. 
 It is strikingly true that during the past quarter 
 century kindergarten reform has gone steadily 
 forward; but a considerable body of kinder- 
 gartners still stoutly oppose change. So long 
 as their theory remains as it is — an essentially 
 esoteric doctrine formulated in a terminology 
 peculiar to their self-contained group — just so 
 long will that doctrine lack adequate appraisal, 
 and their kindergarten will lack proper co- 
 
 vii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 ordination with the primary school. So far as 
 known to the writer no pubHcation hitherto 
 made holds up for consideration the peculiar 
 ideas of Froebel, the esoteric doctrine of the 
 conservative kindergartner. The specific aim 
 of this book then is, first, to make clear to the 
 outsider — to the general educator — just what 
 doctrines Froebel did propose for the kinder- 
 garten, and, second, to ascertain what value 
 attaches to these in the light of the best current 
 theory. 
 
 If some should feel that the criticism is too 
 largely negative, let it be remembered in con- 
 nection with the purpose of the book that what 
 all accept demands little discussion. The 
 better side of Froebel has already in larger 
 part been absorbed into the common body of 
 received educational thought; once novel, this 
 now "goes without saying." It may be added 
 correlatively that the worse aspect of Froebel 
 pervades in peculiar manner his every teaching 
 and presents, moreover, peculiar difficulties of 
 discussion. Adequate treatment must seem an 
 overemphasis. To lessen this feeling for those 
 
 viii 
 
PREFACE 
 
 readers who favor Froebel, it is suggested that 
 they begin with Chapters V and VI, and after- 
 wards go to the first. 
 
 To avoid the annoyance which many feel at 
 frequent footnotes, the sources of the quota- 
 tions used in the body of the text are indicated 
 by figures within parentheses placed in the text 
 immediately following the several quotations. 
 Thus (6 : 29) would mean that the quotation 
 just preceding is to be found on page 29 of the 
 book numbered 6 in the List of References 
 (See page 209). As English translations will 
 be more satisfactory than the German originals 
 to most of my readers, the references are made 
 to the generally used translations ; and the 
 quotations are generally given as there found. 
 Whenever, however, either accuracy or clearness 
 has demanded it, the translations have been 
 freely modified or made anew. Such changes 
 are indicated by the asterisk placed by the page 
 number, as (4:36*). For the sake of those 
 who may wish to consult the German originals 
 a Converting Table of References has been 
 prepared (see page 211), by which any page 
 
 ix 
 
PREFACE 
 
 reference to the English translation may be 
 turned into the appropriate page reference to 
 the German original. 
 
 My indebtedness in the preparation of the 
 book is first of all to my former students, 
 especially to those combative ones that were 
 hard to convince. They compelled me to ex- 
 plore the nooks and crannies of the argument. 
 After them I am indebted for most helpful sug- 
 gestions to my good friends, Dr. I, L. Kandel, 
 Professor Frank P. Graves, Professor Naomi 
 Norsworthy, and Professor Patty S. Hill. No 
 one of them, however, is to be held in any way 
 responsible for the opinions herein expressed. 
 Most of all I am indebted to my wife, who has 
 not only supplied specific knowledge of kinder- 
 garten procedure, but in many other ways has 
 
 helped me at every stage. 
 
 W. H. K. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 Preface v-x 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 The Principles Underlying Froebel's Educa- 
 tional Doctrines 1-17 
 
 Nature as divine, 1. — The universal law of de- 
 velopment, 4. — The parallelism of all development, 
 5. — The meaning of development, 8. — The doc- 
 trine of inter-connectedness, 11. — The " law of 
 opposites," 14. — Summary, 16. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 The Underlying Principles Examined . . . 18-58 
 
 Was Froebel a pantheist? 18. — Was Froebel an 
 evolutionist ? 23. — The parallelism of all develop- 
 ment, 26. — The doctrine of "correspondences," 31. 
 — Inter-connectedness, 32. — The member-whole re- 
 lationship, 38. — The " law of opposites," 42. — 
 Summary, 56. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Froebel's Educational Psychology . . . 59-108 
 
 The doctrine of development, 59. — Froebel's be- 
 lief in innate ideas, 60. — The doctrine of symbolism 
 stated, 66. — The doctrine of symbolism examined, 
 71. — "Potential symbols," 79. — Freedom in edu- 
 cation, 82. — The meaning of development in rela- 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGES 
 
 tion to freedom, 86. — A suggested doctrine of 
 freedom, 93. — Froebel's doctrine of self -activity, 
 96. — The meaning of the term play, 98. — Minor 
 psychological doctrines, 103. — Summary, 107. 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 The Kindergarten Gifts and Occupations . . 109-151 
 
 The gift series, 109. — The ball as the first of the 
 
 gift series, 110. — The symbolism of the ball, 118 
 
 The derivation of the series, 121. — Directions for 
 using the blocks, 129. — The doctrine of " sequence," 
 131. — " Forms of life," 136. — " Forms of knowl- 
 edge," 139. — Significance of the gift series, 145. — 
 Summary, 150. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 Additional Elements of the Kindergarten Cur- 
 riculum 152-194 
 
 Froebel's use of games, 152. — The " inner meaning " 
 of games, 157. — Vicarious symbolism, 162. — The 
 mother plays and the Mother Play book, 165. — Use 
 of the Mother Play book, 170. — Symbolism in the 
 mother plays, 176. — " Pattern "plays, 181. — Nature- 
 study in Froebel, 187. — School gardens, 192. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Conclusion 195-208 
 
 Unsatisfactory elements in Froebel's system, 195. 
 — The use of Froebel's writings, 200. — Strong points 
 in Froebel's system, 202. 
 
 List of References 209 
 
 A Converting Table of References .... 211 
 Index 215-217 
 
 xii 
 
FROEBEL'S 
 KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN 
 PRINCIPLES 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE PRINCIPLES UNI?ERLYING FROEBEl's EDU- 
 CATIONAL DOCTRINES 
 
 Nature as divine. — At the very entrance to 
 Froebel's educational system stands his concep- 
 tion of God. Few thinkers or writers have, in 
 the structure and in the presentation of their 
 systems, made the divine so fundamental. The 
 goal and explanation of education for him is 
 found in God and in the relationship that man 
 and nature bear to God. The note sounded in 
 the opening paragraph of the Education of Man 
 appears in every serious effort made by Froebel 
 to present the deeper aspects of his thinking. 
 To some who heard him (8 : 29) he seemed a 
 pantheist, so intimately did he refer all things 
 to God. 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 While Froebel often referred to the world as 
 the creation of God, it was not in our popular 
 sense that he conceived thiis relationship be- 
 tween the Creator and the creation. To the 
 ordinary common-sense Christian, God made 
 the world originally and still rules it ; but the 
 creation exists, as it were, outside of God, and 
 His rulership is rather after the analogy of a man 
 over his contrivances or perhaps of a father over 
 his children. To Froebel, on the contrary, the 
 world and everything in it in some mysterious 
 sense came out of God and still remains in 
 him, just as the common-sense man conceives a 
 thought to come out of the mind and yet be in 
 it. A second illustration, not one of FroebePs 
 to be sure, will perhaps make clearer the thought. 
 In algebra the expression (a -i-by gives rise to 
 a^ + S a^b + 3 ab^ -|- b^. In a true sense this longer 
 expression was implicit in the shorter and came 
 out of it; in another phrase, the longer is the 
 manifestation of the shorter. Or yet again, out 
 of the seed comes the full-grown plant, and the 
 latter both constitutes and expresses the real 
 nature and being of the seed. In some such way 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES . 
 
 — not exactly, of course, since God is infinite — 
 the world comes from within God and is the 
 manifestation of God ; and having this origin 
 and this nature the world itself is for Froebel 
 essentially divine, and is accordingly not evil 
 but good. 
 
 In thinking of this, Froebel — somewhat like 
 that early mystic, Plotinus — seems to make 
 three gradations of relationship to God. Matter 
 and physical force form one grade ; natural laws, 
 a second ; and consciousness, a third. These 
 three, however, are not to be taken as sharply 
 differentiated, but as shading into each other. 
 All things emanate from God, but consciousness, 
 particularly self-consciousness, is most nearly 
 like God ; or better, is the most adequate mani- 
 festation of the divine nature. Matter and 
 mere physical force came from God also, but 
 they very inadequately manifest him. Perhaps 
 it would be truer to say that they in themselves 
 are hardly intended to manifest him, but rather 
 to make possible, in the finite, the manifestation 
 of God through natural laws and through hu- 
 manity. " God is the sole source of all things " 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 (1:2). "The purpose of all existence is the 
 revelation of God. All existing things are only 
 through and because of the (divine) essence that 
 is in them" (1 : 151 f.). "The universe ap- 
 peared, as it were, to be drawn from within 
 him" (5:26). Force and matter are the two 
 " external conditions of form and structure " 
 (1 : 167), but " force and matter are in them- 
 selves inseparably one " (1 : 168). " In all 
 things there lives and reigns an eternal law. . . . 
 This all-controlling law is necessarily based on 
 an all-pervading, energetic, living, self-conscious, 
 and hence eternal unity. . . . This Unity is 
 God. All things have come from the Divine 
 Unity, from God, and have their origin in the 
 Divine Unity, in God alone " (1:1 f.). 
 
 The universal law of development. — From 
 this consideration of the divine element, which 
 constitutes " the essence of each thing," it is 
 but a step to the revelation of this divine essence 
 by means of development. Just as God mani- 
 fests himself by causing the universe to appear, 
 " drawn as it were from within him " {die 
 Entdusserung seines Innern), so wherever the 
 
 4 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 divine spark is present constituting the essence 
 of anything, there development takes place; 
 the essence unfolds, disclosing and manifesting 
 the divine nature. "It is the destiny and life 
 work of all things to unfold their [divine] es- 
 sence ... to reveal God in their external and 
 transient being " (1:2). '' The spirit of God 
 dwells and lives in nature, produces, fosters, 
 and unfolds everything, as the common life 
 principle " (8 : 29), There is for man, for each 
 plant, for every living thing, one "law by which 
 all things are developed and perfected, have been 
 developed and perfected, and which is supreme 
 wherever Creator and creation, God and nature, 
 are found " (1 : 20). " There is a certain course 
 and sequence in the development of all things, 
 which the Creator has followed in building up 
 the race, and which the human being must be 
 allowed to follow if he is ever to approach per- 
 fection. This course is open to every creature, 
 no matter what the stage of his development may 
 be" (9:172). 
 
 The parallelism of all development. — One 
 important aspect of this universal law of de- 
 
 5 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 velopment is found in the parallelism that 
 exists between any two instances of develop- 
 ment, for example, between man, on the one 
 hand, and organic nature, on the other. " In 
 the clear disclosures of God's spirit in Nature 
 are seen the nature, dignity, and holiness of man 
 reflected in all their pristine clearness and 
 purity " (1 : 159). So complete for Froebel is 
 the parallel between men and trees that 
 " following these silent, certainly reliable, out- 
 wardly intelligible, impersonal teachers, man 
 may not only learn from them with certainty 
 the thing to be done at every moment of life, 
 but, acting accordingly, he will surely satisfy 
 the demands made upon him " (1 : 159*). " If 
 we seek the inner reason for this high symbolic 
 meaning of the different individual phenom- 
 ena of nature, particularly in the phases of 
 development of natural objects in relation to 
 the stadia of human development, we find it 
 in the fact that nature and man have their 
 common origin in one and the same eternal 
 
 * For an explanation of the use of the asterisk in connection with the 
 reference numbers see page ix. 
 
 6 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 Being, and that their development takes place 
 in accordance with the same laws, only at dif- 
 ferent stages. Thus the observation of nature 
 and the observation of man, in comparison and 
 connection with the facts and phenomena of 
 the general development of humanity, are mutu- 
 ally explanatory and mutually lead to deeper 
 knowledge the one of the other " (1 : 160 f.). 
 
 From the law of parallelism as here stated, 
 Froebel makes certain educational deductions. 
 These at this point need only be stated ; their 
 fuller consideration belongs to the more dis- 
 tinctly educational portion of the book. The 
 doctrine of the recapitulation of the moral his- 
 tory of the race by the individual is for Froebel 
 essentially but a special case of the parallelism 
 of all development wherever found. " Child 
 development requires the same series of steps 
 for the religious life as is found in the develop- 
 ment of the human race, — that is, it must be 
 done as God himself has conducted the educa- 
 tion of the human race" (8: 190*). A further 
 instance of the law of universal parallel devel- 
 opment is the doctrine of " correspondences," 
 
 7 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 that is, " the analogy that prevails in the 
 universe between spirit and body and between 
 thought and its embodiment*' (8:212). This 
 is often, and perhaps properly, presented as 
 more fundamental than what I have called 
 the general law. If we were more concerned 
 to trace origins, it would be proper at this point 
 to show that this doctrine of " correspondences " 
 (to continue the ordinary kindergarten desig- 
 nation) is Schelling's fundamental advance upon, 
 or differentiation from, Fichte. Fichte had out- 
 raged common sense in making the ego create 
 the universe; Schelling, by the parallelism of 
 spirit and nature, sought to avoid so unaccept- 
 able a doctrine. Froebel, while caring little 
 for philosophy as such, nevertheless adopted 
 Schelling's notion, using the parallelism of mind 
 and nature as the basis of his educational 
 symbolism, which together with its correlative 
 psychology, will later prove to be a funda- 
 mental doctrine in the theory of the kinder- 
 garten. 
 
 The meaning of development. — We have so 
 far spoken of development or unfolding, as 
 
 8 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 if the meaning of this term were by consent of 
 all uniquely fixed. Such, however, is not the 
 case. The use of the word development shows 
 a wide range of meaning. Some writers will 
 speak of developing a strong character in a child, 
 although they hold that this can be done only 
 through habits enforced on it from without. 
 Others will restrict development to the dis- 
 closing, through unfolding growth, of what had 
 from the first been present, though in a latent 
 form. Still others will pursue a middle course 
 and consider that the term development is 
 properly applied to the outward shaping and 
 defining of original inner tendency. We are 
 not at present concerned to ask which use of the 
 word is proper, nor which concept best fits 
 the facts. We do wish, however, to ascertain 
 Froebel's idea on this point, especially so, as 
 certain important educational doctrines depend 
 upon his specific interpretation of the theory 
 under consideration. 
 
 In Froebel's time the old biological doctrine 
 of " preformation " was still common, namely, 
 that the germ contains the adult form in minia- 
 
 9 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 ture. Thus Oken ^ held that the " perfect seed 
 is the whole plant in miniature with root, stalk, 
 and leaf " and " in the embryo the whole animal 
 already resides in miniature as does the plant 
 in the seed." That Froebel understood Pes- 
 talozzi's educational doctrine of development 
 in the preformation sense seems fairly clear. 
 " All the child is ever to be and become, lies 
 — however slightly indicated — in the child and 
 can be attained only through development from 
 within outward " (1 : 68). " The new-born child 
 is not merely to become a man, but the man 
 already appears and indeed is in the child with 
 all his talents and the unity of his nature " 
 (4 : 49) . A still more interesting aspect of this 
 
 ^ Lorenz Oken (1779-1851), a German naturalist, was the head of the 
 school of "natur-philosophie." Kant had set German thought upon 
 the a priori road. Fichte followed with his Wissenschaftslehre, in which 
 he aimed to construct a priori the foundations of knowledge. Schelling 
 extended the method, paying particular attention to the realm of nature. 
 Oken in 1802 published his Orundriss der Natur-philosophie, which with 
 later publications put him at the head of this bizarre movement. If this 
 were the proper place, it would be both easy and interesting to show that 
 Froebel, in so far as he was scientifically inclined, belonged to this school. 
 That he got from Oken some of the most mystical and repellent elements 
 of his thinking is almost as evident. 
 
 The two quotations given in the text are taken from Tulk's English 
 translation. Elements of Physio-philosophy by Lorenz Oken; the first, 
 § 1578 ; the second, § 2332. 
 
 10 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 doctrine is found in an apparent assertion 
 that certain ideas, which later are to appear, are 
 slumbering in the child : " How could such 
 antitheses ^ . . . which only come into the com- 
 paring, considering, mature thinking mind, 
 even exist in the child's dreamlike condition? 
 We repeat here once more what we have already 
 said elsewhere, Did it not lie in the child, did it 
 not live and work in the child, did it not already 
 define the child's life, it could by no means 
 come out from it at a later period" (4:94*). 
 This doctrine of innate ideas slumbering from 
 the beginning in the child's mind is of prime 
 importance to Froebel in the psychology of 
 his kindergarten gifts and occupations; while 
 the general doctrine of development in the pre- 
 formation sense underlies the whole of his educa- 
 tional thinking. 
 
 The doctrine of inter-connectedness. — Inter- 
 connectedness is another favorite doctrine with 
 Froebel. That all things show an inter-con- 
 nectedness and organic unity consequent 
 upon their origin and continued existence in 
 
 ^ See footnote, page 61. 
 11 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 God, is a theme most frequent on his Hps. To 
 the superficial observer, indeed, nature may 
 appear " as a diversity of many and separate 
 individualities without definite inner living con- 
 nection " ; in fact, however, '* these externally 
 distinct and separate individualities are or- 
 ganically united members of one great living 
 organism, of one great intrinsically and spiritu- 
 ally coherent whole " (1 : 165). This organic 
 connectedness was conceived by Froebel under 
 several aspects, all of which, to be sure, are but 
 different ways of looking at the fundamental 
 doctrines borrowed by Froebel from Schelling. 
 Since God is a unity and since to Froebel all 
 development is but the unfolding of the divine 
 essence, it follows — in his opinion — that the 
 whole of the Unity works efficiently at every 
 point in the process. This was considered to 
 hold as well of the smaller subordinate unities of 
 the one great Unity. " The essential nature 
 of the whole plant lies in some peculiar manner 
 in each individual part of the plant " (1 : 195). 
 " As the germ bears within itself the plant and 
 the whole plant life, does not the child bear 
 
 12 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 also within himself the whole man and the whole 
 life of humanity ? " (4 : 62) . *' Does not the whole 
 tree life — indeed, the whole vegetable life — 
 work already in each germinating seed of the 
 tree? So, also, in each active child, in each 
 activity of the child, works already the totality 
 of the man's life, — indeed, of the life of hu- 
 manity " (4:94*). This aspect of inter-con- 
 nectedness, the doctrine of the Gliedganzes, 
 seems to be the foundation of Froebel's concep- 
 tion of the relation of the individual to society. 
 
 Another line of inter-connectedness found in 
 the notion of development lays the foundation 
 for Froebel's symbolism. If development is 
 merely the disclosing of what had from the first 
 been latently present, then the early stages of 
 any process of development give intimation 
 of or " point to " the latter stages of the same. 
 Since development is universal, there will every- 
 where be found "anticipations " and "premoni- 
 tions." " As the life of man in all the necessary 
 variety of its phenomena is in itself a complete 
 unity, one can recognize and consider even in 
 the first baby life, though only in their slightest 
 
 13 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 traces and most delicate germs, all the spiritual 
 activities which in later life become predomi- 
 nant" (4 : 30). And again, since all development 
 is parallel, the corresponding stages must " point 
 to " each other ; that is, the first stage of any 
 one development has a significant relationship 
 with any other first stage wherever found. 
 This type of inter-connectedness when joined 
 with the doctrine of " correspondences " forms 
 precisely the basis for Froebel's symbolism. 
 
 The " law of opposites." — Everything dis- 
 cussed so far in this chapter is dependent upon 
 one or both of two general notions : first, that 
 the universe in general, and each several organic 
 entity in particular, is divine in essence; and 
 second, that this divine essence always struggles 
 to manifest itself by unfolding outwardly what 
 had from the beginning been enfolded in- 
 wardly, all the unfoldings following the same 
 law and consequently showing the same charac- 
 teristics. The universal law itself, according 
 to which Froebel conceived the unfolding to 
 take place, next demands our attention. 
 
 " Development is due to the reconciliation of 
 
 14 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 opposites through the hnk of mediation " (6 : 
 298). " In all the phenomena of life, there is a 
 connection of antitheses or mediation of oppo- 
 sites " (4 :192). " In nature and in life a third 
 connecting appearance always shows itself be- 
 tween two purely opposite appearances " (4 : 
 232). "The law of connection is the funda- 
 mental law in the universe " (5 : 31). The reader 
 acquainted with philosophy will recognize this 
 as the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis concept of 
 Fichte and Hegel. Froebel in fact occasionally 
 uses this formal terminology (e.g. 8 : 223) ; but 
 when the connection of his doctrine with those 
 of the two philosophers was pointed out to him, 
 Froebel is quoted- as saying : *' It is both of these 
 and yet has nothing in common with either 
 of them" (1:42). We are not concerned, 
 however, with the philosophic aspect of Froebel's 
 law, but only with its educational application. 
 The references to the educational doctrine are 
 almost innumerable ; for Froebel felt, as he 
 himself said, that the law was fundamental : 
 " The whole meaning of my educational method 
 rests upon this law alone. The method stands 
 
 15 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 or falls with the recognition or non-recognition 
 of it" (8:228). It will suffice at this time to 
 present two illustrations of the working of the 
 law, and leave its further elucidation to the next 
 chapter. '* Everything . . . comes to be known 
 only as it is connected with the opposite of its 
 kind" (1:42). One thus can know hard only 
 in connection with soft; the two concepts must 
 emerge simultaneously. Again, " the sphere 
 and cube are pure opposites. . . . The law of 
 connection demands for these two opposite yet 
 like bodies ... a connecting one, which is the 
 cylinder " (5 : 204). From this consideration the 
 cylinder was added to the "gift" series. 
 
 Summary of the chapter. — In general terms 
 the more fundamental conceptions which under- 
 lie Froebel's educational doctrines are as fol- 
 lows : (i) The conception of God as the source 
 and essence of the world as a whole and of each 
 several organic thing in the world ; (ii) develop- 
 ment as the universal law whereby the divine 
 essence makes manifest and explicit what was 
 from the first implicit; (iii) the similarity and 
 parallelism of all instances of development 
 
 16 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES 
 
 wherever found ; (iv) the doctrine of " corre- 
 spondences " or the analogy everywhere sub- 
 sisting between " spirit " and body ; (v) the 
 scheme of connections which run throughout 
 the world as a result of the foregoing; (vi) the 
 doctrine of the Gliedganzes or member-whole, 
 that the whole works in each part, and (vii) the 
 law of opposities as the method by which the 
 development everywhere takes place. In the 
 succeeding chapter there will be made an evalua- 
 tion of these principles in the effort to judge of 
 their worth for present-day education. 
 
 17 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 To discuss adequately the general philosophic 
 movement to which Froebel belonged would 
 carry us far beyond the scope of this work. 
 For our purpose even Schelling's system can be 
 left unexamined, although Froebel' s connection 
 therewith is most intimate. Indeed, the more 
 philosophical of Froebel's own doctrines we shall 
 not seek to appraise, lest the whole discussion 
 seem thereby committed to some one interpreta- 
 tion of matters about which reputable thinkers 
 have differed. The main attention will there- 
 fore be given to those doctrines of Froebel's 
 which affect more directly the practice of educa- 
 tion ; and criticisms of these will be based as far 
 as possible upon considerations that are generally 
 admitted in current educational thinking. 
 
 Was Froebel a pantheist.'^ — At the risk of 
 violating the plan just laid down, it may to some 
 
 18 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 prove interesting — if not otherwise valuable — 
 to consider Froebel's conception of the relation 
 of the universe to God. His statements will 
 not appeal equally to all. Some will feel that 
 the more personal aspect of Deity is lost in an 
 all too pantheistic scheme. Others will doubt 
 whether satisfactory scientific explanation can 
 be read into the more or less vague and mystical 
 relationships described in the Education of Man. 
 This latter group will ask what scientific relation- 
 ship is meant by the statement that " the divine 
 [element] acting in each thing is the essence 
 of each thing" (1:2*). An essence, these will 
 say, as here used, is a medieval conception 
 foreign to the modern mind. Still a third group 
 will object that the author has too much to say 
 concerning ultimates, conceptions which in the 
 opinion of this group belong to bygone stages of 
 thought. 
 
 Passing by these several groups, let us inquire 
 directly, what did Froebel think about the nature 
 and person of God.^^ The answer is not easy. 
 Some of Froebel's expressions certainly imply the 
 characteristics of a person, a conscious, willing 
 
 19 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 intelligence. On the other hand, all personal 
 attributes seem at times precluded. Personality 
 seemed to be implied in such phrases as, " God's 
 fatherly kindness, love and goodness to man " 
 (3 : 177) ; "a Father who thinks for us and 
 loves us " (6 : 255) ; " God as a loving father " 
 (6 : 57) ; " self-conscious . . . unity . . . God " 
 (1:1). This last phrase, "self-conscious," on 
 the face of it points clearly to personality. The 
 others, however, are not so certain. It is very 
 easy for one of a religious temperament to use 
 the popular terminology in trying to describe a 
 force in nature assumed to be beneficent in 
 its effect. Our language is full of anthropo- 
 morphisms. Personification is almost inevitable. 
 Froebel undoubtedly had a strong religious bias, 
 which would predispose him to use this popular 
 terminology even if he felt that his interpretation 
 was not the common one. Perhaps too the 
 charge of atheism made during his later life 
 inclined him to emphasize whatever he held in 
 common with other religious people. It is in- 
 teresting to note within a single passage the as- 
 sertion of a scientific, even atheistic conception, 
 
 £0 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 and the immediate translation of this into ortho- 
 dox terminology : *' In nature, in life, and in the 
 phenomena both of nature and of life, the ever- 
 lasting force of destiny is paramount. We, as 
 Christians, call this the everlasting dispensation 
 and guidance of Providence, and when this 
 coincides with the expression of our inmost 
 thought, we . . . acknowledge in it . . . the 
 voice and the will of God" (6:23 f.). Else- 
 where Froebel refers to nature in terms generally 
 reserved exclusively for the religious attitude 
 towards God : " Nature . . . the original fount 
 of all being and life " (5 : 36), " rest in perfect 
 trust upon nature," " faith in nature," " the 
 feeling of oneness with nature" (6:16ff.). 
 More distinctly pantheistic is the following : 
 " The same law rules everwhere, the one law of 
 God, which expresses itself in thousandfold many- 
 sidedness, but in the last analysis is one, for God 
 is himself the law" (8:28). In keeping with 
 this are two passages which together come pretty 
 close to merging man's individual consciousness 
 in an all-inclusive divine mind : " The life of all 
 which is manifold and apparently isolated in the 
 
 21 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 universe, is, according to its inner nature, single " 
 (5 : 23) ; " the Divine Spirit that lives and is 
 manifest in the finite, in man, has an early 
 though dim feeling of its divine origin " (1 : 25). 
 In connection with this Froebel's denial of 
 pantheism is interesting. In answer to Froebel's 
 expression of opinion, quoted just above, that 
 " God is himself the law," a bystander said, 
 *' That is what people call pantheism." Where- 
 upon Froebel replied : " I do not say like the 
 pantheists that the world is God's body, that 
 God dwells in it as in a house. But the spirit of 
 God dwells and lives in nature, produces, fosters 
 and unfolds everything as the common life 
 principle" (8:29f.). A dispute about terms 
 does not concern us; but if Froebel had set 
 out consciously to show that he was a pantheist, 
 he probably could not have done better. There 
 need be no hesitation in concluding that in spite 
 of attributing self -consciousness to God, and in 
 spite of frequent lapses into popular religious 
 terminology, the general background of Froebel's 
 conscious theory is decidedly pantheistic, if not 
 pantheism itself. 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 Was Froebel an evolutionist? — The doctrine 
 of universal development, which next demands 
 our attention, is one of peculiar difficulty. 
 Cosmic development, or evolution as we more 
 generally call it, is too vast a topic for us to 
 enter upon. Philosophically, evolutionists have 
 divided according as they have held or denied 
 that actual novelty emerges in the process. It 
 seems safe to enroll Froebel among the latter 
 group as holding that evolution merely makes 
 explicit what was all the while implicit ; and 
 this we conclude in spite of the fact that specific 
 references — so far as cosmic development goes 
 — are lacking, and in spite of the further fact 
 that Froebel held to the endlessness of the pro- 
 cess. He thus speaks of " an eternally progress- 
 ing diversity in natural developments " (1:6), 
 and elsewhere asserts that " the spirit . . . 
 will continue ... to unfold itself ever more " 
 (1 : 157). We are, however, warranted in feel- 
 ing that Froebel's whole conscious attitude de- 
 nies the idea of emerging novelty. 
 
 If it be asked whether Froebel believed in the 
 origin of species or, more exactly, in the trans- 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 mutation of species, a clear negative may be 
 unhesitatingly given. Such a doctrine seems at 
 every point to lie outside his thought. True 
 enough, he says, that " on this earth alone " 
 there is to be found " a vast series of ascending 
 planes of development" (6:275), This series, 
 however, if indeed it refers to anything more than 
 man's cultural development, is Aristotelian not 
 Darwinian in its nature. The planes differ in 
 worth because of the different degrees in which 
 they exhibit the spirit of life or consciousness ; 
 the higher in no sense spring from the lower. 
 So far as that goes, all come with equal directness 
 from God. An example of this manner of think- 
 ing is seen in Froebel's approval (in 1827) of 
 Batsch's teaching (of 1799) " that the skeleton of 
 man should be considered as the fundamental 
 type which nature strove to produce even in the 
 lower forms of creation " (2 : 31). 
 
 That development is the general law and that 
 " all development . . . proceeds according to the 
 same law " (8 : 150) are — if we scrutinize not too 
 closely — now but commonplaces of thought. 
 Froebel belongs here to that group of thinkers 
 
 24 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 who in their philosophy anticipated certain 
 general viewpoints later to be established by 
 science. But we should err greatly if we sup- 
 posed Froebel had in mind as the " one law " 
 such a conception as Darwin's " natural selec- 
 tion." His one law was Fichte's thesis, antithesis 
 and synthesis, which the kindergartners have 
 called the " law of opposites." When we con- 
 sider that Froebel's " cosmical development of 
 the universe " and his " entire world-process " 
 have in them nothing analogous to an " origin of 
 species," and that for him all " development is 
 due to the reconciliation of opposites through the 
 link of mediation " (6 : 298) ; it is evident that 
 we should go astray to number him among the 
 evolutionists in the more ordinary biologic sense. 
 His adherence to Aristotelianism was greater 
 even than that of many of his contemporaries. 
 He was, however, a pWlosophical eyolutionist. 
 Taking the universe as a whole and humanity in 
 particular, Froebel emphasized the idea of a 
 constant rising to ever higher levels. " In 
 God's world, just because it is God's and came 
 through him, something is steadily expressed, 
 
 25 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 and it is an unbroken progressive development 
 in and through all things " (3 : 154). "Human 
 history shows the same uninterrupted develop- 
 ment as the universe " (8 : 150). 
 
 The parallelism of all development. — It was 
 pointed out in Chapter I that in Froebel's opinion 
 " nature and man have their origin in one and 
 the same eternal Being, and that their develop- 
 ment takes place in accordance with the same 
 laws only at different stages " (1 : 161). There 
 results from this a " high symbolic meaning of 
 the different individual phenomena of nature, 
 particularly in the phases of development of 
 natural objects in relation to the stadia of human 
 development " (1 : 160). This means that since 
 human development and plant development, 
 for example, are both similarly the effort of the 
 Spirit to express itself through the same laws, 
 the two developments must throw light upon 
 each other ; the corresponding stages must show 
 an immediate analogic connection. The signifi- 
 cance of this parallelism is a theme to which 
 Froebel reverts again and again. We have 
 already noted that trees are not only " certainly 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 reliable " but " outwardly intelligible," and that 
 man can *' learn from them with certainty the 
 thing to be done at every moment of life " 
 (1 : 159). Elsewhere Froebel says, " Whatever 
 we little children ask, you flowers always 
 answer" (3:186*). 
 
 It is of course difficult to demand that so 
 poetic a statement as the last shall yield a literal 
 return ; and many would accordingly say that one 
 is lacking either in imagination or in senSe of 
 humor to insist on anything further. It would 
 be a mistake, however, to suppose that Froebel 
 intends his statements to be taken in any such 
 imaginative fashion ; they are for him literal 
 scientific pronouncements. At times he uses 
 language sufficiently prosaic to disabuse any 
 mind of the poetic hypothesis. Thus at the 
 end of a long discussion of crystals, he says : 
 " In the entire process of the development of 
 the crystal . . . there is a highly remarkable 
 agreement with the development of the human 
 mind and of the human heart. Man, too, in 
 his external manifestation — like the crystal 
 — bearing within himself the living unity, shows 
 
 27 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 at first more one-rsidedness, individuality, and 
 incompleteness, and only at a later period rises 
 to all sidedness, harmony and completeness " 
 (1 : 173). Similarly, the cube as a crystalline 
 form is " the first general manifestation of the 
 great natural laws and tendencies to represent 
 each thing in unity, individuality, and diver- 
 sity ; to generalize the most particular, and to 
 represent the most general in the most partic- 
 ular ; and, lastly, to make the internal external, 
 the external internal, and to represent both in 
 harmony and union" (1:175). It is in view 
 of the foregoing that Froebel concludes : "If, 
 at the same time, we keep in mind that man, 
 too, is wholly subject to these great laws, . . . 
 these considerations will reveal to us also the 
 nature of man, and teach us how to develop and 
 educate him in accordance with the laws of 
 nature and of his being " (1 : 176*). 
 
 If the reader will have the patience to study 
 the foregoing quotations with some care, he 
 will get Froebel's view even better from these 
 unusual statements than from some less for- 
 bidding instances. Froebel likes to describe 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 development in most formal terminology. 
 *' Represent each thing in unity, individuality, 
 and diversity," this is a phrase which repeatedly 
 occurs. " To generalize the most particular, 
 and to represent the most general in the most 
 particular " occurs in one form or another not 
 less than fifty times. " Make the internal 
 external, the external internal " is found in 
 direct or indirect form more than one hundred 
 times. Such formulations Froebel calls " great 
 natural laws." The ease with which he could 
 find illustrative instances of such formal " laws " 
 seemed to Froebel proof of their validity ; 
 while in fact it works to the contrary. Two 
 extreme cases of " making the internal external " 
 will illustrate the point. First, a child in play 
 builds a block house in order that " his inward 
 desire may also appear externally " (5 : 59) — 
 a confusion of result with purpose, but let that 
 pass. Second, early animal life had its bony 
 structure outside and its flesh inside, as in the 
 crustaceans ; later animals have reversed this, 
 putting their bones inside, and the flesh out- 
 side ; *' what in lower forms was external is 
 
 29 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 now internal " (1 : 197). To include such di- 
 verse instances under one law is more like 
 punning than science; yet it is thoroughly 
 characteristic of Froebel. 
 
 With this attitude of mind Froebel seeks 
 analogies between man and lower nature. 
 Consider the case of the crystal quoted above. 
 Incompleteness, he says, is characteristic of the 
 early crystalline form and of the child, while 
 harmony and completeness are characteristic 
 of the later crystalline forms and of the fully 
 developed man. The analogy as stated may be 
 true, but what new light or suggestion has come 
 from the crystal. Immaturity was first thought 
 of in man, and later found in the crystal. So 
 in general, where nature is said to throw light 
 on man, a trait is noted first in man, then read 
 into the lower form, and finally retraced in 
 man himself. This practice appears in almost 
 every one of the well-nigh innumerable instances 
 of analogy and symbolism. Consider the parallel- 
 ism of man with trees. In what sense can it 
 be said that we learn our duty from the trees? 
 Only if we have already generalized our notion 
 
 30 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 of man's duty to such a degree that we can see 
 some analogy between the tree's struggle and 
 man's struggle. But again the thought has 
 moved from man to the tree before it moved 
 from the tree to man. The parallelism is a 
 specious affair, and well illustrates the working 
 of Froebel's mind. 
 
 The doctrine of "correspondences." — An- 
 other form of the parallelism of development 
 is the so-called law of " correspondences," the 
 doctrine that mind or spirit and nature are 
 parallel manifestations of God. Schelling ad- 
 vanced the doctrine to account for the agree- 
 ment between thinking and its objective counter- 
 part in nature, a problem which proves very 
 difficult to many philosophic schools. If, to 
 avoid philosophic controversy, we make no 
 special assumptions in the premises, we shall 
 have no objection to admitting the existence of 
 at least a working agreement between any valid 
 thought and its object. The objection comes 
 in when the agreement admitted in such cases 
 is carried over into another realm in such manner 
 as to give some sort of metaphysically exis- 
 
 31 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 tential relationship to mere analogies. Froebel 
 seems constantly to feel, though I have found no 
 specific assertion of the position, that there is 
 some intrinsic, absolutely existent connection 
 between the ball, for example, and unity ; as 
 if the ball must inherently symbolize unity. 
 Such an absolute symbolic character is neces- 
 sary before the symbol can for Froebel waken 
 to consciousness the thought germs which are 
 assumed to be slumbering in the child's mind. 
 The discussion of this practical bearing of the 
 doctrine of " correspondences " will be given 
 in Chapter III in the treatment of symbolism. 
 Here is it perhaps suflScient to say that no one 
 outside the ranks of the traditional kindergart- 
 ners accepts Froebelian " correspondences." 
 
 Inter-connectedness. — The law of inter-con- 
 nectedness, while largely a corollary of the pre- 
 ceding laws, demands separate treatment ; partly 
 because it is more general than they, and partly 
 because it has a larger number of practical 
 bearings. Further, it carries added interest 
 because it furnishes some of the most bizarre of 
 Froebel's teachings. In general this law in- 
 
 32 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 eludes all manner of eonnectedness whatsoever 
 that can subsist between any two things in the 
 universe. In a narrower sense, it includes all 
 those connections which arise from the opera- 
 tion of any one law. If any specific law be 
 conceived as cause — and Froebel seemed so 
 to conceive natural laws — the several common 
 effects of the law wherever found would furnish 
 instances of inter-connectedness. In this nar- 
 row sense of causal connection we can accept 
 with little or no modification the dictum of 
 Froebel that everything should be taught in its 
 connections. If this were all, there would be 
 no need of discussion. 
 
 Froebel's science, however, is not always 
 above reproach, so that some instances put 
 forward by him as serious cases of valuable 
 inter-connections would to-day not carry weight. 
 Most interesting of these perhaps are his studies 
 of language. His most loyal followers, even 
 those who speak with respect of his crystallog- 
 raphy, are forced to regret Froebel's incur- 
 sions into the field of philology. His general 
 position is this : " All the laws of the inner 
 D S3 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 and outer world, collectively and singly, must 
 be revealed in language, must lie in language 
 itself " (1 : 211).^ Following this general state- 
 ment is a more specific one which is evidently 
 intended to supply the basis for his plays on 
 words : "In spite of . . . imperfection and frag- 
 mentariness of our experiments and knowledge, 
 however, we cannot repress the conviction, 
 corroborated at every step, that in every lan- 
 guage — primarily in our mother tongue (Ger- 
 man) — the sounds and letters in their combina- 
 tions express definite and fixed mathematical, 
 physical, physico-psychical laws, resting on 
 inner necessity ; that the representation of an 
 object, . . . necessarily demands certain sounds 
 and letters and no others, so that each word 
 is the necessary product of certain word-ele- 
 ments, just as each material chemical product 
 is the result of the combination of certain 
 determinate elementary substances" (1:213). 
 Thus " the word ball, in our significant lan- 
 guage, is full of expression and meaning, pointing 
 
 ^ It may be remarked that the assertion contained in this quotation 
 is an instance of the law of the Gliedganzes later to be discussed. 
 
 34 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 out that the ball is, as it were, an image of the 
 All {der B-all . . . ist ein Bild des All) " (4 : 32). 
 Similarly the eight one-inch cubes when placed 
 in the form of a two-inch cube — whence they 
 were derived in the gift series — say, "as it 
 were, silently and always anew to the inventor 
 and observer ' Hab' acht! hah' acht! Take 
 notice! take notice!'" (4:131*).^ Elsewhere 
 Froebel speaks of this latter pun as " a higher 
 insight into language " (5 : 211). 
 
 Closely related to the puns are other lin- 
 guistic instances of the law of connectedness. 
 " It was more particularly a deep philosophical 
 {hohere physikalische) view of language which 
 eventually absorbed my thoughts. . . . It seemed 
 to me that the vowels . . . resembled, so to speak, 
 force, spirit, the (inner) subject, whilst the con- 
 sonants symbolized matter, body, the (outer) 
 object. But . . . one perceives within the sphere 
 of speech-tones the two opposites of subject 
 and object. For example, the sound i depicts 
 the absolute subject, the center, and the sound 
 a the absolute material object ; the sound e 
 
 1 Eab' acht means "have eight" as well as "take notice." 
 35 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 serves for life as such, for existence in general ; 
 and for individual life, for an existence nar- 
 rowed to itself alone " (2 : 98 f.). Similarly else- 
 where, *' although the laws to which letters owe 
 their origin and development have become 
 obscured, the little that is left of their first 
 rudiments seems to point unequivocally to an 
 inner connection between the form and the 
 meaning — e.g. the letter as symbol in the 
 word for the idea of absolute self -limitation, and 
 the letter S as symbol in the word for the idea 
 of a return to self " (1 : 223 f.). 
 
 One of the most mystical instances of inter- 
 connectedness is seen in number. " Arithme- 
 tic (Zahl) may be considered, firstly as the 
 outward expression of the manifestation of 
 force" (2:100). More specifically, "number 
 ... is determined by the external manifestations 
 of the directions of inner energy " (1 : 203). 
 The number five in particular *' comes fraught 
 with remarkable symbolism and significance " 
 (1 : 190). " As developed under the influence 
 of life force, it is truly the number of analytic 
 and synthetic life, representing reason, unceasing 
 
 36 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 self -development, self -elevation " (1 : 192). In 
 fact, " wherever the number five appears, 
 there is unmistakable evidence of a higher 
 phase of life" (1:193). Thus "all kernel 
 and stone-fruit trees, and all plants which be- 
 long to this family, express the number five 
 in their blossoms, as though the special enjoy- 
 ableness of these fruits lay in their law of the 
 number five running through them" (3:160). 
 To portray the significance of this number, in the 
 Mother Play book a picture is given to the 
 family of the five fingers, in which one wearies 
 counting the number of fives : five people, 
 five deer, five rabbits, etc., etc. Certainly 
 twenty-five separate groups of five appear in 
 this one picture. When it is recalled that the 
 orthodox conservative kindergartner believes 
 that these symbolic pictures have therein peda- 
 gogic effect, the limit of mystic credulity seems 
 surely found. 
 
 We may conclude this topic by putting into 
 words what has doubtless already been in the 
 reader's mind, namely, that whatever else may 
 be true of Froebel, his sense of humor was 
 
 37 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 lacking. On no other basis could these absurdi- 
 ties have been published. And, indeed, the 
 failing is characteristic of the man. We shall 
 have occasion from time to time to point out 
 instances where a principle, good or at least 
 plausible if kept within bounds, has been 
 pushed to absurd extremes. Man might, con- 
 ceivably, get a hint from the tree life as to the 
 nature of his own struggle for existence ; but 
 this is far from saying that from the tree he can 
 learn " with certainty the thing to be done at 
 every moment of life." There are laws explain- 
 ing the presence of certain letters, " Grimm's 
 law " for the mutation of consonants, for exam- 
 ple ; but to speak of the " i sound as depicting 
 the absolute subject " and " the letter o as 
 symbol in the word for the idea of absolute self- 
 limitation," — these things and the puns and 
 the symbolic significance of the number five ! 
 Inter-connectedness can go no farther. 
 
 The member- whole relationship. — The doc- 
 trine of the Gliedganzes furnishes yet another 
 instance of how Froebel could hold to a good 
 doctrine and at the same time base it on an 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 untenable principle. By Gliedganzes Froebel 
 means that each member repeats or mirrors, 
 in some sense, the whole to which it belongs. 
 This would be true of man as a member of so- 
 ciety and of a leaf as a part of a plant. Within 
 limits the Gliedganzes, member-whole concept, 
 furnishes a fairly correct statement of the re- 
 lation of the individual to society ; carried to 
 the extreme, it becomes difficult of understand- 
 ing, and impossible of acceptance. First on 
 the social side : " How and through what is this 
 feeling awakened on the part of the child of his 
 twofold relation as a part-whole .f^ . . . This 
 feeling is awakened by almost all that is done 
 for or with the child. In manifold ways he feels 
 and sees himself (especially through his op- 
 positeness to grown-up people) as a particular 
 and individual thing in contradistinction to the 
 general and collective. But . . . while with his 
 parents . . . or at least in company of real edu- 
 cators . . . the child soon feels an invisible but 
 uniting bond, which embraces all grown-up 
 people " (5:6). " At its entrance into the 
 kindergarten the child enters into a manifoldly 
 
 39 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 new relation of life, . . . first of all into relations 
 with a number of companions, and with those 
 companions as individual parts of a whole, but 
 he is himself also a part of this whole, and as 
 he has gained or lost from the whole, he has 
 also duties toward it" (5:270). As far as 
 these statements go, it would be hard to make 
 better. The individual from one point of view 
 is one, a whole — the very word individual asserts 
 this most explicitly ; from still another view- 
 point, he is but a part of the social whole, owing 
 to it his origin, his continued existence, and the 
 content of his life. He is in fact a part-whole, 
 a Gliedganzes. 
 
 But Froebel, in company with Schelling, 
 carries the doctrine farther. " That which lies 
 in a whole lies also in the smallest part of it " 
 (5:174). "The essential nature of the whole 
 plant lies in some peculiar manner in each indi- 
 vidual part of the plant" (1:195). "Each 
 successive formation presents the essential na- 
 ture of the plant in a more subtile garb, until 
 at last it seems clothed only in a delicate per- 
 fume " (1 : 194). Certain blossoms do seem 
 
 40 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 to be but leaves transformed, and probably 
 some such fact as this is for Froebel the sub- 
 stantiation of the doctrine ; but the origin of 
 the doctrine is older than Froebel's observation 
 of plants, older even than Schelling. The 
 *' essential nature " is clearly the medieval 
 " essence," which as species was to the scholas- 
 tic necessarily present in all the subsumed 
 individual members of the species. " Does 
 not the whole tree life — indeed the whole 
 vegetable life — work already in each germinat- 
 ing seed of the tree? " (4 : 94). This is a good 
 statement of medieval realism, in which logic 
 and science merge. Every tree is vegetable, 
 and, in this logic, is so by the presence of a 
 certain vegetable essence. This essence must 
 be the same wherever found, so the *' whole 
 vegetable life " (in this technical sense) is in 
 the tree. In the same way the tree essence 
 must be in the seed, for — according to this 
 logic — it is the tree essence which present in 
 the seed " forms " the "matter " (soil, etc.) 
 into a new tree of its kind. If now the vege- 
 table essence is in the tree as a part of its specific 
 
 41 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 essence, so must the " whole vegetable life," 
 as part of the tree essence, work likewise in the 
 seed. An " essence," in this realistic sense, 
 is unknown in these scientific days, so the whole 
 argument falls to the ground. We may there- 
 fore reject without further ado the doctrine that 
 " that which lies in a whole lies also in the small- 
 est part of it." The social aspect of the member- 
 whole doctrine we accept, but not for these 
 metaphysical reasons. 
 
 The law of opposites. — It was pointed out 
 in Chapter I that the law of opposites is for 
 Froebel " the fundamental law in the universe " 
 (5:31). Its educational importance was seen 
 in the explicit statement that : " the whole 
 meaning of my educational method rests upon 
 this law alone. The method stands or falls 
 with the recognition or non-recognition of it " 
 (8:228). This very strong assertion is prob- 
 ably justified if we identify Froebel's " educa- 
 tional method " with the gift series and with its 
 use as laid down by him. Whether the asser- 
 tion is absolutely true can be answered only 
 after a close examination. This will necessa- 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 rily lead us into wearisome details ; for on this 
 doctrine Froebel's thinking is unusually obscure. 
 At the outset we find difficulty in stating 
 the law in terms that admit of specific applica- 
 tion. In fact Froebel wavers between two 
 somewhat diverse conceptions of the law, with- 
 out apparent consciousness of his wavering. 
 The following rather definite statement we 
 shall call Case I : '* The fundamental law of 
 all advance, development, and cultivation (thus, 
 in general, of all education) is to proceed from 
 any given thing to the pure opposite within 
 this given thing " (5: 101). The context illus- 
 trates the meaning. A paper square has just 
 been folded along one diagonal, and opened 
 out so as to present this appearance I . I . 
 The question then arises, What step should 
 follow?^ Froebel himself folds the square so 
 as to make a horizontal line across the middle : 
 Other instances of Case I as given by 
 
 ' The writer begs that the reader will, before going farther, seek to 
 apply the law by deciding what folding of the paper is "the pure oppo- 
 site within this given thing." This question has often been proposed 
 by the writer to professed adherents of the law, but they never agree on 
 Froebel's answer. 
 
 43 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 Froebel are : *' The advance from the undivided 
 is, according to the ruling law of opposites, to 
 the divided" (5:91). Again when Lina is 
 learning to write, her mother immediately con- 
 nects therewith " its opposite," reading (5 : 12). 
 All these applications may be accepted as 
 consistent with each other and in accordance 
 with the law as enunciated in Case I. 
 
 But elsewhere Froebel speaks of *' the recon- 
 ciliation of opposites by a mediating link " 
 (6 : 275 f.) ; and again of " the conscious appli- 
 cation of the connecting third (between each 
 two things, qualities, etc., which are opposite to 
 yet like one another)" (5:31). In the law, 
 as stated in Case I, no mention was made of a 
 " mediating link " or a *' connecting third." 
 Here then is a second case (Case II), which 
 directs us as follows : When the situation 
 includes two opposed elements, seek such a 
 third as will reconcile or harmonize the two. 
 The search may be undertaken in hope, for 
 according to Froebel " in nature and in life a 
 third connecting appearance always shows itself 
 between two purely opposite appearances " 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 (4 : 232) . Two instances of this Case II will 
 suffice for illustration : The spoken word is 
 *' that which is intermediate between the purely 
 internal, invisible thought and the completely 
 external abidingly visible sign (the writing). 
 It unites in itself the nature and properties of 
 both thought and writing, and thus connects 
 them" (5:31). "The sphere and cube are 
 pure opposites. . . . The law of connection 
 demands for these two opposite yet like bodies 
 and objects of play a connecting one, which is 
 the cylinder" (5:204). 
 
 So far we have little more than statement and 
 illustration, lying principally within an appar- 
 ently artificial field of Froebel's own making. 
 We wish, however, to know the use of the law as 
 a general guide to educational thought or prac- 
 tice. It will be convenient to treat the two 
 cases of the law separately. Froebel uses Case 
 I in at least three ways : (1) in teaching such 
 opposed concepts as rough and smooth and the 
 like; (2) in arranging the blocks so as to produce 
 the " beauty forms " ; and (3) professedly in 
 ordinary educational procedure and practical 
 
 45 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 life situations. We shall take these up in 
 order. 
 
 As to the advisability of teaching simultane- 
 ously such paired opposite concepts as rough 
 and smooth, hard and soft, and the like, there 
 will be little difference of opinion. If two con- 
 cepts emerge together in the learner's conscious- 
 ness — and quite a number do — they should 
 probably receive simultaneous consideration 
 from the parent or teacher. This does not 
 mean that all " opposites " should be so treated, 
 but only such as emerge simultaneously to the 
 learner. It is possible, for example, that the 
 young child may learn under better without 
 any reference to over, in spite of the fact that 
 the two are paired opposites. While a certain 
 validity is thus granted to the law in this in- 
 stance of Case I, the law itself probably fails 
 in not discriminating as to which opposites 
 should be so taught and which not. As stated, 
 the law seems to apply to all instances of paired 
 opposites ; in practice, it applies only to a por- 
 tion of these. 
 
 Further removed from ordinary school prac- 
 
 46 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 tice is the use of the law of opposites to help in 
 the making of " beauty forms." Kindergarten 
 *' beauty forms " are those arrangements of 
 the building blocks which are designed to appeal 
 to the esthetic. As usually made, they are 
 symmetric about a center. The blocks are 
 thus put down in pairs on " opposite " sides of 
 the center or of the coordinate axes. Simi- 
 larly, from any one " beauty form " a second 
 can be made by shifting each block into the 
 *' opposite " direction {e.g. at right angles to its 
 former position). Froebel counted that these 
 two uses of the law of opposites enabled the 
 children to devise for themselves many such 
 beauty forms. That there is something in this 
 is undoubted, but how much.^* Are beauty 
 forms got in this way really worth while ? The 
 answer seems not difficult. Outside the ranks 
 of the conservative kindergarten no one seems 
 to think the game is worth the candle. No 
 drawing teacher cares to refer to the law of 
 opposites, and progressive kindergartners are 
 abandoning it. Froebel himself is more con- 
 cerned to symbolize the law by the " beauty 
 
 47 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 forms " than he is to use the " beauty forms " 
 for their own sake. Closing a discussion of 
 the subject, he says : " The illustration of this 
 universal law by means of perceptible phenom- 
 ena is, in our judgment, as important for the 
 heart and soul culture of the child as the . . . 
 inhalation of air from the atmosphere " (4 : 190). 
 The most then that can be claimed in connection 
 with the " beauty forms " is a doubtful utiliza- 
 tion of the law in an activity of no very great 
 worth. Evidently this does not go far towards 
 proving the universal validity of the law. 
 
 The third and last application of Case I of 
 the law of opposites, namely, to the direction 
 of actual school and life situations, is diflScult 
 because Froebel gives so few clear-cut illustra- 
 tions. We shall consider the three most plau- 
 sible instances. When Lina is learning to 
 write, her mother joins with writing its " oppo- 
 site," reading (5 : 12). Whether this was the 
 sole consideration in joining the two, Froebel 
 does not say. In all probability the law was 
 an afterthought. Looking back on what had 
 been done, Froebel was able to see an instance 
 
 48 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 of his favorite law. He deceived himself into 
 thinking that the law had guided him. Wholly 
 different reasons for combining reading with 
 writing are so obvious and so satisfactory that 
 we need not give any weight to the law here. 
 In another instance, Froebel advises the mother 
 to name to her children the activities in which 
 they engage. This will " heighten " the effect. 
 He then adds : " Word and form are opposite, 
 and yet related. Hence the word should al- 
 ways accompany the form as its shadow." 
 He closes the discussion with the words : 
 *' Through the name, moreover, the form is 
 retained in memory and defined to thought " 
 (4: 191 f.). This is interesting in that Froebel 
 gives a valid reason for naming the activity, 
 both before and after the reference to the law 
 of opposites. It is the more interesting to 
 know that in no less than twenty instances 
 Froebel repeats the same valid reason here 
 given, but only this once does he base the 
 practice of naming the act upon the law of 
 opposites. Thus again it is evident that the 
 moving cause is quite other than the law of 
 £ 49 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 opposites ; again Froebel looked back and 
 found his law present, and was again deceived. 
 A third instance, already referred to, is that of 
 folding the paper square. It will be recalled 
 
 that the resulting form .. ■ was professedly 
 got by the law of opposites. Froebel eventu- 
 ally shows (5 : 101 ff.) by this figure that the 
 isosceles right triangle is equal to a rectangle of 
 the same base and half the altitude. In this geo- 
 metrical reasoning, evidently, is found the cause 
 for choosing the unexpected opposite.^ The 
 conclusion seems irresistible that Froebel folded 
 his square to prove his proposition, and after- 
 wards found that he had used an opposite, — 
 I will not say the opposite. 
 
 Of the three ways of using Case I of the law 
 under consideration, only two disclose any sort 
 of support for the assumed principle, the learn- 
 ing of certain paired opposites and the finding 
 of " beauty forms." The connection between 
 these two is, however, so slight, so accidental 
 rather than essential, that we cannot call them 
 
 ^ Practically every one expects the other diagonal and not the hori- 
 zontal Une. 
 
 50 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 instances of one law unless more convincing 
 considerations can be brought forward. Further 
 study disclosed, moreover, greater weakness. 
 Recall the three instances brought forward 
 under the third application. In each of these 
 we refused to believe that the law guided ; yet 
 when they are considered in retrospect, there 
 is a seeming verification. But consider any 
 two things soever, they are " opposite " at 
 least in some respect (Froebel's own instances 
 are as far-fetched as any can be). It thus 
 happens that whatever course any one might 
 arbitrarily choose would be " going from one 
 thing to its opposite." All courses whatsoever 
 then equally fulfill the requirements of the law. 
 But a law that presents absolutely no basis for 
 prospective selection is no law at all. For it is 
 the very nature of a law that it tell us before- 
 hand what results to expect according as we 
 act one way or the other. The law of gravita- 
 tion tells me what conduct to expect of a stone. 
 If I leave it unsupported, it will fall towards the 
 earth. If I support it, pressure will ensue. 
 But what does this law of opposites (Case I) 
 
 51 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 tell me ? Not one thing. It professes to tell 
 me that I will go right if I choose my course so 
 that opposites be joined. In reality whatever 
 I do will equally join opposites. So far then as 
 Case I is concerned the law has no validity. 
 The teaching of paired opposites gains its 
 validity from certain psychological considera- 
 tions that must be considered in and of them- 
 selves. Similarly what little validity there is 
 to the building of " beauty forms " by this rule 
 is to be explained as the accidental coincidence 
 of the " law " with certain considerations of 
 symmetrical figures. In neither instance do 
 we gain by referring to the assumed law. As a 
 rule for directing general conduct it is worth- 
 less. 
 
 The discussion for Case II is different. Here 
 we should make " the conscious application of 
 the connecting third between things which are 
 opposite to yet like one another." We could 
 again point out that there are no two things 
 which are not " opposite to yet like one an- 
 other " (at least within limits no wider drawn 
 than Froebel's own) ; but other considerations 
 
 52 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 suffice. In a certain favorable light, what we 
 have here is an analysis of a problem situation, 
 namely, that where two or more opposing ele- 
 ments make diverse demands upon us, we should 
 solve the problem by some third course or point 
 of view which will reconcile the opposition. 
 This is a very formal sort of affair. Can 
 we get guidance from it.^^ On the face of it, 
 the solution sought would always be some third 
 course, other than the two opposites, which 
 reconciles them. But is this trucf^ Suppose a 
 boy guilty of some fault is debating whether 
 to acknowledge it or deny it, what is the third 
 course which shall reconcile the two opposites 
 of truth and falsehood.'^ Suppose on a journey 
 I reach an unknown fork in the road, what 
 direction will this law give me ? It seems true, 
 when a problem has arisen because diverse 
 aspects of a situation have been unwarrantably 
 opposed to each other, that some third point of 
 view will serve to reconcile the opposition. 
 Professor Dewey's treatment of the child and 
 the curriculum in an essay of that name affords 
 an excellent example. Case II of the " law " is 
 
 53 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 thus, at best, a formal description of a solution 
 to one kind of problem. To call such a descrip- 
 tion a law is to mislead, not to help. 
 
 It appears then that Froebel was sadly mis- 
 taken in saying that he based his educational 
 practice on the " law of opposites." Certain 
 artificial portions of his practice, he did in fact 
 base on the " law," and these accordingly stand 
 unsupported, as we shall later discuss. The 
 vital portions of his education, however, are 
 independent of any such mistaken principle. 
 
 Lest any one should feel that we have dealt 
 unfairly with Froebel when we have spoken of 
 far-fetched illustrations, we give a few of the 
 more remarkable : 
 
 (1) " This law [of the connection of opposites] 
 is again expressed ... in the voice sounds them- 
 selves, since the sound o connects the two purely 
 opposite sounds a and m, the first of which ex- 
 presses materiality and the second essence. . . . 
 We cannot combine the a with the u in the sound 
 of plain au without being obliged to use also the 
 sound o, so that when we say au we actually say 
 aou. . . . Language is an organic construction 
 
 54 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 of opposites, a whole which is in itself single " 
 (5:33). (2) Having got the building bricks 
 (the fourth gift) the problem arises as to the 
 character of the next gift : " Vertical and 
 horizontal lines are both straight lines. They 
 are also in their directions contrasting lines. 
 Contrasts in accordance with the universal 
 law of development imply mediation. The 
 diagonal mediates the contrasting right lines, 
 and hence is demanded by them" (4:203). 
 The triangular prism is the result. Berkeley 
 somewhere speaks of " a mind debauched with 
 learning." Surely no small degree of mental 
 debauchery would be necessary to make this 
 deduction acceptable. (3) Perhaps the most 
 extraordinary instance of all is found in one of 
 the letters : " You will remember the great 
 value I used to attach ... to the reconciliation 
 of opposites by a mediating link. I think I can 
 offer you a striking proof of the justice of my 
 views in this regard, drawn from your own life. 
 . . . You know . . . what sharply contrasted op- 
 posites we find in North and South Germany. . . . 
 You, dear Luise, are a Viennese, a South Ger- 
 
 55 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 man ; and the mediating link of my own life 
 has served to connect you with your opposite. 
 Madam Doris Lutkens, a North German, by 
 the most perfect and stable relationship. Then, 
 again, how do you become connected with 
 Madam R. B. ? . . . Is there any opposition 
 between North Germany and Hamburg? Per- 
 haps not much : but Madam B. learnt kinder- 
 garten principles in Baden, pondered over them 
 a whole month by herself. At last in stony 
 Berlin, the spark kindled into a flame, and she 
 turned towards the North, towards yourself at 
 Hamburg, to satisfy the wishes, the maternal 
 necessities, which had been borne in upon her . . . 
 in the South (Baden). . . . Acknowledge, then, 
 in these occurrences . . . the truth of the 
 kindergarten principle" (6 : 275 f.). 
 
 Summary of the chapter. — With this closes 
 our examination of the more fundamental prin- 
 ciples underlying Froebel's educational doc- 
 trine. His idealistic philosophy was passed 
 over without attempt at evaluation lest the 
 remainder of the examination should seem to 
 be based on the position there taken. While 
 
 56 
 
THE UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES EXAMINED 
 
 the term pantheism seemed appropriate to 
 Froebel, there were nevertheless departures 
 from such a position in the direction of a more 
 popular belief. As regards the doctrine of 
 development, Froebel was counted not to hold 
 to the evolution of higher biologic forms from 
 lower, which is characteristic of modern post- 
 Darwinian evolution. He did, however, hold 
 to a general cosmic development in the sense 
 that lower forms appeared earlier than higher. 
 He also held that humanity is constantly de- 
 veloping to a higher and higher plane. The 
 parallelism of man and nature which meant 
 so much to Froebel seemed, upon examination, 
 to be relatively insignificant. The doctrine of 
 " correspondences " was granted to have only 
 metaphorical validity, and not much of that. 
 So far as the law of inter-connectedness con- 
 templated the teaching of things in their causal 
 connection with relation to ends, it was granted 
 full validity. Beyond this it tended to be fan- 
 tastic in the extreme. The doctrine of the 
 Gliedganzes, or member-whole relationship, was 
 held to be a good statement of the relation of 
 
 57 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 the individual to society, but in other respects 
 either irrelevant or untenable. The law of 
 opposites, which Froebel held to be fundamental 
 to his educational system was, upon examination, 
 found to be little better than a delusion and a 
 snare. The next chapter brings us to a con- 
 sideration of the psychological doctrines more 
 intimately connected with the educational prac- 
 tice. 
 
 58 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 froebel's educational psychology 
 
 Having examined the more fundamental con- 
 ceptions in Froebel's thinking, we may now take 
 a step nearer to his educational practice, and ask 
 what psychological doctrines characterize the 
 system and what validity attaches to them. 
 
 The doctrine of development. — In the fore- 
 front is found the doctrine of development, 
 already discussed in part. Recapitulation in 
 the moral realm, one aspect of the general notion 
 of development, requires here but few words 
 in addition to what has already been said 
 (page 7). As we saw, Froebel held that " child 
 development requires for the religious life the 
 same series of steps as is found in the develop- 
 ment of the human race — that is, it must be 
 done as God himself has conducted the educa- 
 tion of the human race" (8:190*).^ And 
 
 ^ The translation given in 8 : 190 is incorrect. Froebel undoubtedly 
 means here as elsewhere to give expression to Lessing's idea as found in 
 Die Erziehung des Menschengeschlechts (1780). 
 
 59 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 again, " the observation of the development of 
 individual man and its comparison with the 
 general development of the human race show 
 plainly that, in the development of the inner 
 life of the individual man, the history of the 
 spiritual development of the race is repeated, 
 and that the race in its totality may be viewed 
 as one human being, in whom there will be found 
 the necessary steps in the development of in- 
 dividual man " (1 : 160). Since Froebel uses 
 this doctrine of moral recapitulation not other- 
 wise than as an instance of the parallelism of 
 all development, we need not here repeat our 
 discussion of that point (see pages 5 ff. above). 
 As to the validity at present allowed to the 
 theory of recapitulation, it suffices to say that 
 most competent writers now find in the doctrine 
 little of value for education.^ 
 
 Froebel's belief in innate ideas. — The phase 
 of the doctrine of development which most 
 interests us here is a more or less explicit belief 
 in the existence of innate ideas, though Froebel 
 
 ' For discussions of this point see Thorndike, Educational Psychology 
 (1913), I, 245 ff. ; Davidson, The Recapitulation Theory and Human 
 Infancy. 
 
 60 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 does not use this term. This belief of Froebel's 
 was stated in Chapter I, where it was brought 
 out that Froebel took Pestalozzi's educational 
 doctrine of development in the preformation 
 sense. " All that the child is ever to be and 
 become, lies — however slightly indicated — in 
 the child " (1 : 68). " As the life of man in all 
 the necessary variety of its phenomena is in 
 itself a complete unity, one can recognize and 
 consider even in the first baby life, though only 
 in their slightest traces and most delicate germs, 
 all the spiritual activities which in later life 
 become predominant. ... If they [the spiritual 
 tendencies] were not contained in the little child, 
 they would not be developed at all from it " 
 (4:30). That Froebel did believe in the pres- 
 ence of certain ideas slumbering in the child's 
 mind seems even more clearly indicated in the 
 following passage : " How could such antitheses ^ 
 . . . which only come into the comparing, con- 
 sidering, mature thinking mind, even exist in 
 the child's dream-like condition.'^ We repeat 
 
 1 Miss Jarvis, influenced by the evident meaning of the context, has 
 actually used the words "contrasted ideas," but I have preferred a more 
 literal translation lest I seem to assume the point I wish to prove. 
 
 61 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 here once more what we have already said else- 
 where : Did it not lie in the child, did it not live 
 and work in the child, did it not already define 
 the child's life, it could by no means come out 
 from it at a later period " (4 : 94*). The reader 
 is asked to note this strong statement, for in 
 the writer's judgment Froebel here said exactly 
 what he fundamentally believed. "Antitheses" 
 which belong normally to " the mature think- 
 ing mind," not only " exist in the child's dream- 
 like condition " ; but they " live and work 
 in the child," they " already define the child's 
 life," even in " the first baby life," as said 
 above. 
 
 The references in Froebel's writings which 
 assume this doctrine are almost innumerable. 
 Such words as " premonition," " anticipation," 
 " presentiment," " dimly perceptible," and the 
 like, all refer to the innate ideas slumbering in 
 the child's mind. The child " destined to con- 
 sciousness " is " already in anticipation con- 
 scious of his nature" (4:11). "The child 
 must bring into exercise the dim anticipations 
 of conscious life in itself " (4 : 31). " The child, 
 
 62 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 feeling himself a whole, early seeks . . . even at 
 the stage of unconsciousness, always to contem- 
 plate, to grasp, and to possess a whole " (4 : 33). 
 This last quotation is quite characteristic. 
 According to Froebel each person is ipso facto a 
 whole, and must upon reaching the state of 
 full self -consciousness recognize that fact. Con- 
 sequently this fundamental conception, the 
 recognition of his unity, must lie slumbering in 
 the child's mind — else " it could by no means 
 come out from it at a later period." If this be 
 so, the child " even at the stage of unconscious- 
 ness " must in some way " feel himself a whole " 
 — this is one of the " dim anticipations " re- 
 ferred to above. Because of this feeling, he 
 must wish " to contemplate, to grasp, and to 
 possess a whole." This " dim anticipation " 
 must be brought " into exercise " ; accordingly 
 he must be allowed some " whole " to play with, 
 by which Froebel here means the ball. The 
 full significance of bringing " into exercise " the 
 " anticipation " will appear in the later discus- 
 sion of symbolism. 
 
 Some instances of Froebel's innate ideas are 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 particularly interesting. Among these the an- 
 ticipation of unity plays an important part. 
 In the " child's first clear gaze, ... he anticipates 
 the future (though as yet deeply slumbering) 
 unity of life " (4 : 29). " A deep and significant 
 feeling of anticipation and longing aspiration 
 occupies the boy's mind in all he does during 
 this period. All he does bears a common 
 character, for he seeks the unity that unites all 
 things and beings " (1 : 126). Symbolically con- 
 nected with the concept of unity are, in Froebel's 
 mind, the sphere and the circle. These have in 
 his eyes profound interest for the child : " Chil- 
 dren are impelled by a certain anticipation and 
 dim ineffable feeling which urges them on in 
 quite a remarkable and special way to the un- 
 wearied pursuit of circular action games ; these 
 lead them towards a comprehension of the solar 
 system and the orbital motion of worlds " 
 (6:91*). Perhaps the most interesting of all 
 premonitions attributed by Froebel to children 
 is that regarding timepieces. " Children are 
 intensely charmed by everything that is like a 
 clock . . . you would say that as to a watch it is 
 
 64 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 the movement, the works, the apparent Hfe." 
 But, says Froebel, "as a rule it is certainly 
 not " this, for children have shown a similar 
 interest in the sun dial, where they saw no 
 movement. My own opinion, says he, is " that 
 at the bottom of this pleasure lies a deeply 
 slumbering premonition of the value of time 
 itself" (3:139*). 
 
 What has modern psychology to say to such a 
 doctrine .f* Froebel is evidently contemplating 
 the same phenomena that at present we include 
 under the general head of the instinctive. Is 
 the instinct a " deeply slumbering, yet already 
 active presentiment," or must we empty it of 
 this innate content .f* That there are in the 
 child unlearned tendencies is nowhere disputed ; 
 but innate slumbering ideas — what of them ? 
 The nearest to this that we can admit is found 
 in those instincts which under ordinary condi- 
 tions lead to the formation of certain correlative 
 general ideas. Thus, what has been called 
 " the instinct of ' pleasure at being a cause 
 will under favorable conditions lead to experi- 
 ences, partly individual and partly social, which 
 F 65 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 will in turn lead normally to some conception of 
 " the law of causation." That we have such 
 instincts and that they may under the suggested 
 conditions eventuate in certain predictable con- 
 ceptions may be freely admitted ; but we must 
 as truly deny that these general ideas already 
 " live and work in the child," " already define 
 the child's life." Fortunately for our ease of 
 discussion Froebel so described and illustrated 
 his opinion that we have no difficulty in apprais- 
 ing it. The child's interest in timepieces 
 does not spring " from a deep-slumbering pre- 
 monition of the value of time itself." No guess 
 could be wider the mark. Nor has the child's 
 interest in " circular action games " anything 
 to do with an innate anticipation of " the orbital 
 motion of worlds." Nor does the child's desire 
 for the whole of anything before him have 
 any connection with a dawning metaphysical 
 interest in a " whole." Such " premonitions " 
 and " anticipations " modern psychology re- 
 jects with scorn and derision. 
 
 The doctrine of symbolism stated. — Froebel's 
 psychology of innate ideas and their unfolding 
 
 66 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 is nowhere more clearly seen than in his doctrine 
 of symbolism. The importance of the topic will 
 justify a detailed consideration of the argument. 
 An illustration of typical symbolism may help 
 us to get Froebel's idea. Suppose the adult is 
 to have the full concept of the orbital motion 
 of worlds ; then by the law of development the 
 germ of this idea must at birth lie slumbering 
 in the child's mind, and this germ must soon 
 show some " anticipations " or *' premoni- 
 tions " of this concept. Again as by the law 
 of " correspondences " the adult concept " points 
 to " or expresses the actual fact of orbital 
 motion, so must the germ in the child's mind 
 point to or correspond with some analogy or 
 likeness (symbol) of the orbital motion, say, 
 running around a circle. " Children are im- 
 pelled by a certain anticipation and dim in- 
 effable feeling which urges them on in quite 
 a remarkable and special way to the unwea- 
 ried pursuit of circular action games ; these 
 lead towards a comprehension of the solar 
 system and the orbital motion of worlds " 
 (6:91*). 
 
 67 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 A diagram may help us to criticize this doc- 
 trine. 
 
 A (Idea Gebm) B (Full Idea) 
 
 A' 1 (Symbol) B' i (Thing 
 
 ! ! Symbolized) 
 
 For Froebel, the psychology of symbolism 
 assumes four elements related in the following 
 manner. The child has the germ {A) of a 
 certain idea or concept which the adult is later 
 to have in full consciousness (B). This concept 
 {B) relates to a certain counterpart {B') which 
 is symbolized by some object {^A') lying within 
 the child's range of possible experience. There 
 is indeed for Froebel a fifth element pervading 
 the other four, giving to each its essence, con- 
 stituting their correlation and mutual inter- 
 actions — namely, the " spiritual " essence 
 which is assumed by Froebel to underlie all 
 phenomena. When these relations hold, then 
 (i) the germ ^A) reaches out toward A' in such 
 a way that the child becomes interested in ap- 
 
 68 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 propriating or using the symbol {A') : and (ii) the 
 resulting activity with the symbol {A') serves 
 to " awaken " the concept germ (A), which 
 then develops towards full consciousness (B). 
 In the instance given just above, A is the 
 slumbering notion of orbital motion, which as 
 germ is destined to develop into B, the perfect 
 concept of orbital motion. A' is movement in 
 " circular action games " which symbolize actual 
 orbital motion (B'). Under these circumstances 
 (i) the child in obedience to the stirring of A 
 is ** impelled " to engage in the circular action 
 games (A'), and when the games are actually 
 engaged in, (ii) the activity " awakens " the yet 
 unconscious germ (A) which then takes on more 
 of consciousness as it develops towards a full 
 " comprehension (B) of the solar system and 
 orbital motion of worlds " (B'). 
 
 Another instance of symbolism may make the 
 idea clearer. 
 
 '* The child loyal to its human nature — at 
 whatever incomplete and dim stage of observa- 
 tion it may be — perceives in the ball the general 
 expression of each object as well as of itself as 
 
 69 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 a self-dependent whole and unity. . . . The child, 
 feeling himself a whole, early seeks and must 
 seek in conformity with his human nature and 
 his destiny, even at the stage of unconsciousness, 
 always to contemplate, to grasp, and to possess 
 a whole " (4 : 32 f.). All four elements are here 
 present. A is the germ back of and in the 
 child's " feeling himself a whole." B is the full 
 adult consciousness that he is himself " a self- 
 dependent whole and unity." A' is the ball 
 which symbolizes each such whole (B'). From 
 this it follows (i) that the child, " even at the 
 stage of unconsciousness," seeks the ball, and 
 (ii) activity with the ball brings the slumbering 
 idea germ to consciousness. " The child likes 
 to employ himself with the ball even in early 
 life, in order to cultivate and fashion himself, 
 though unconsciously, through and by it " 
 (4:32). 
 
 The two instances given are not as explicit 
 as might be desired in asserting that play with 
 the symbol awakens the slumbering idea germ. 
 Other references supply this deficiency : " These 
 images wake the soul-germs. . . . The still un- 
 
 70 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 thinking mind of the child can be awakened and 
 taught only through symbols" (8:8).^ " The 
 child's mind unconsciously seeks, must seek, 
 according to its organization, for the condi- 
 tions upon which its development depends. He 
 finds these conditions, and by degrees fulfills 
 them by the help of the things surrounding him " 
 (8:212). 
 
 The doctrine of symbolism examined. — A 
 careful study of Froebel's symbolism will, I 
 believe, convince any candid inquirer that the 
 analysis above given is an accurate statement of 
 Froebel's predominant conception. The ques- 
 tion next confronts us as to the validity of this 
 psychology and of its consequent educational 
 procedure. Four distinct inquiries present them- 
 selves : 
 
 (i) Is there present in the child's mind a 
 germ (A) which is to unfold into the concept 
 
 (ii) Is there such an inherent connection 
 between the symbol (A') and the thing signified 
 
 ^ This quotation is a formulation made by Baroness von Marenholtz- 
 Biilow, but approved by Froebel (8:7). 
 
 71 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 (B^) that the symbolism can affect the child in 
 advance of any experience of the thing sym- 
 bolized ? 
 
 (iii) Does observation support the belief that 
 the child's mind and interest (A) seize upon 
 the symbol {A') because of its symbolic con- 
 nection with the thing signified (B')? 
 
 (iv) Does observation support the belief that 
 activity with the symbol (A^) awakens the idea 
 germ (A) into fuller consciousness ? 
 
 We have discussed already the first query, 
 and have seen that modern psychology rejects 
 the doctrine of innate ideas. Logically, then, 
 queries three and four must be answered nega- 
 tively. We may well hold these two in abey- 
 ance, however, until the second has been 
 discussed. And here again we must beg the 
 reader's patience. The way is long and thorny. 
 In order to see how a symbol is connected with 
 the thing symbolized, and what if any antecedent 
 experience is necessary before one can feel the 
 symbolism involved, we must differentiate the 
 several types of symbolism. From a study of 
 symbolism in education for the purpose at hand 
 
 72 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 three fairly differentiable types of symbolism 
 appear : 
 
 1. The symbolism of signs. One thing (the 
 symbol or sign) may be so associated with another 
 that the presence of the symbol (sign) to con- 
 sciousness calls the other thing to mind. Such 
 association may be (a) between any two things 
 of ordinary experience, as the sugar bowl means 
 sugar to the child, or (6) by connection in liter- 
 ature, as the trident recalls Neptune, or (c) 
 by arbitrary convention, as the letter b indicates 
 a certain sound. 
 
 2. The symbolism of imaginative play. A 
 child " makes believe " that a stick is a horse, 
 and behaves with the stick in some such fashion 
 as he thinks a man behaves with a horse. The 
 symbol — if such a term be fitting — allows in 
 this case behavior on the part of the child similar 
 to that attributed by him to one who possesses 
 the " real " thing. Imaginative play consists 
 of such whole-souled reproductions in miniature 
 of the broader surrounding life. A certain 
 approach to animism often serves to heighten 
 the effect. 
 
 73 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 3. Figurative symbolism. When an analogy 
 or remote connection is noted or assigned be- 
 tween one thing more immediate or more 
 tangible (more " concrete ") and another less 
 tangible (more " abstract "), the more tangible 
 may be said to symbolize the less tangible ; 
 as, for example, the lily symbolizes purity. 
 
 It is not claimed that these groups are always 
 mutually exclusive, nor indeed that every case 
 of symbolism can be satisfactorily assigned to 
 one or another ; still for the purpose at hand 
 these groups may be taken as showing the three 
 typical ways in which symbolism has been con- 
 ceived in discussions of the educational doctrine. 
 
 Let us now consider what kind of experience 
 precedes the perception of symbolic relation- 
 ship. As to the first type, it is clear that the 
 association must have been made in the mind by 
 experience. The sugar must be known as sugar, 
 the bowl as bowl, and perhaps "pari 'passu, 
 possibly later, the two associated in experience. 
 In narration, the same conditions would hold. 
 In the case of conventional connection, the 
 thing symbolized must be at least partially 
 
 74 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 known and organized in experience before the 
 symbol (sign) can stand for it. At no time can 
 this symbol (sign) stand for any more of the ob- 
 ject than is comprehended in the relationship 
 of knower to thing known.^ 
 
 In the " symbolism of imaginative play," 
 the child is stimulated by the thought of the 
 symbolized behavior or by the symbol as making 
 this possible, and responds by his dramatic 
 reproduction in the little of what he conceives 
 the " real " thing to be in the large. He must 
 have some antecedent knowledge experience 
 of the thing represented, else there could be 
 neither stimulation to act nor appropriate 
 direct response. There may result increased 
 clearness of conception with reference to the 
 adult life represented — this must result if the 
 activity be educationally justifiable — but the 
 initial stimulation and correlative response arose 
 from antecedent organization of knowledge 
 experience in the field represented. Here as 
 elsewhere, experience precedes the symbolism 
 
 ^ The use of what some have called "potential symbols" is given on 
 page 79 ff . 
 
 75 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 and gives to the symbol whatever power it 
 has as stimulus. 
 
 The case of figurative symbolism is somewhat 
 more complicated. Several steps may be dif- 
 ferentiated, though they need not be chronologi- 
 cally distinct. Take the lily as symbolizing 
 purity. There must be some knowledge ex- 
 perience of the lily in a non-figurative con- 
 nection, including a consciousness of the homo- 
 geneity (purity) of its whiteness. On the other 
 hand, there must have been sufficient moral 
 experience for the concept of purity as a virtue 
 to be present, at least partially. Under these 
 conditions the analogy may be felt between the 
 spotlessness of the lily and the moral spotless- 
 ness of purity. In the pleasurable interplay of 
 the mind back and forth between symbol and 
 thing symbolized, each may become clearer in 
 its relation, each may be enriched by elements 
 from the other. Evidently in this type of sym- 
 bolism there must be antecedent experience not 
 simply of the more tangible (symbol), but par- 
 ticularly in the moral or spiritual (" abstract ") 
 realm with which the symbolism deals. 
 
 76 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 So with each of the three types, the symboHe 
 force springs always from experience — personal 
 knowledge experience of the thing symbolized as 
 well as the symbol itself. The symbolic connec- 
 tion comes always from experience antecedent to 
 the perception of the symbolism. With symbol- 
 ism as everywhere else, experience precedes per- 
 ception. The future is suggested only in terms 
 of the past.^ 
 
 We are now ready to return to the four in- 
 quiries propounded on page 71 above. 
 
 (i) Is there present in the child's mind an 
 idea germ, which is to unfold into a fully con- 
 scious concept .f^ 
 
 1 The student of comparative psychology might ask whether there 
 are not sign connections made in the brain by heredity, and whether after 
 all this is not what Froebel had in mind, failing to make plain his mean- 
 ing only because he speaks the language of the Schellingian philosophy 
 rather than that of modern science. Undoubtedly such sign connections 
 are known ; the smell of the dog may incite the kitten to spit and scratch, 
 fighting as it were her hereditary foe. And probably Froebel was in- 
 fluenced in his thinking by known instances of such inborn connections. 
 Our question, from this point of view, would be whether there are such 
 innate connections available in the case of man; and, if yes, whether 
 Froebel's educational procedure was such as to utilize them. Both 
 questions may be answered unhesitatingly. While there are in the case 
 of the baby many inborn connections, they are not of a kind to support 
 any practice of symbolism, still less would they support the involved 
 figurative symbolism of Froebel. Chapters IV and V will elaborate the 
 bases for the last made assertion. 
 
 77 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 The answer is, no. A concept is an organiza- 
 tion of experience for guiding future experiences. 
 In Froebel's sense of a germ (which contains 
 latently what is subsequently to appear), he is 
 mistaken; there are no idea germs in the child's 
 mind. To change the meaning of germ to fit 
 modern psychology is to reject exactly the whole 
 of Froebel's theory on this point. 
 
 (ii) Is there such an inherent connection 
 between the symbol and the thing signified 
 that the symbolism can affect the child in ad- 
 vance of experience with the thing symbolized ? 
 
 The answer is, no. The connection in each 
 case of symbolism is made by and in experi- 
 ence ; and the more metaphorical the symbolism, 
 the wider is the necessary antecedent experi- 
 ence. 
 
 (iii) Does observation support the belief that 
 an idea germ seizes upon the correlative sym- 
 bol because of the latter's connection with the 
 thing symbolized or with the concept of this 
 thing ? 
 
 The answer is a twofold no. There are no 
 such idea germs, and the symbol is not con- 
 
 78 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 nected with the thing symbolized in advance of 
 experience in the field symbolized. 
 
 (iv) Does observation support the belief that 
 activity with the symbol awakens to fuller 
 consciousness the correlative idea germ ? 
 
 The answer is, no. There are no such idea 
 germs. Besides in most of the cases cited by 
 Froebel there is for the child no perception of 
 symbolism. For the child such symbolism 
 simply does not exist. 
 
 We thus have no difficulty in concluding that 
 Froebel's symbolism, in so far as it postulates 
 innate idea germs and in so far as it assumes a 
 symbolism effective antecedently to experience, 
 is baseless. We found instances of such baseless 
 symbolism in the running games and in the 
 connection of the ball with the conception of 
 a whole. The reader already familiar with 
 Froebelian symbolism will recognize these as 
 in fact typical. Succeeding chapters will show 
 how much of Froebel's educational practice 
 is based upon such symbolism. 
 
 " Potential symbols." — To the discussion 
 just given it is proper to add a word with ref- 
 
 79 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 erence to " potential symbols," a measurably 
 defensible use of signs in advance of the ex- 
 perience which is to give the significance. We 
 have a common instance in the fact that a child 
 often hears to advantage a word before he has 
 the experience which must give to the word its 
 proper content. That the unwise use of the 
 practice is a hindrance to the child's mental 
 growth has been for many years a commonplace 
 in educational thought. It is none the less 
 true that within limits a designation for a specific 
 kind of experience given in advance may help 
 in distinguishing and fixing the experience. A 
 child learning to paint has noticed the name 
 ultramarine ; when she meets the color, the name 
 already more or less associated helps her to fix 
 in mind this particular shade of blue. More 
 exactly, the word ultramarine was experienced 
 under such circumstances as to show that it 
 referred to color and possibly to a blue. The 
 partially identified name may then remain in 
 mind as a query : Just what kind of blue is 
 ultramarine .f^ A general interest in color work 
 thus may be so directed that when opportunity 
 
 80 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 offers, experience definitive of ultramarine is 
 gladly attended to and the definition and con- 
 nection accordingly the better made. 
 
 The proper limitations of this use of " poten- 
 tial " symbolization are implied in the discus- 
 sion given. Where a child's interest and ex- 
 perience are such as to cause him to seize upon a 
 new term and give to it a partial meaning from 
 the connection in which it was met, he will 
 then normally adopt an expectant attitude with 
 reference to this term and will utilize the op- 
 portunity of fixing more definitely its meaning. 
 In a sense, the symbol has preceded and pre- 
 pared for the experience of the thing signified. 
 More exactly, however, it has been a movement 
 from a partial meaning based on partial ex- 
 perience to a fuller meaning based on fuller 
 experience. Thus explained and thus grounded 
 in normal growth attending interest, the practice 
 is good. When pushed upon a child against 
 interest and in spite of non-apperception, no 
 practice could be more deadly. 
 
 The discussion of " potential symbolism " 
 has then but rounded out the appraisal of Froe- 
 Q 81 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 belian symbolism. It has pointed out in another 
 set of terms the weakness and danger of allowing 
 signs to precede initial experience; it has, 
 finally, indicated the proper fmiction of a sign 
 as partial organization of antecedent experience 
 to serve as guide and controller of subsequent 
 experience. With added experience the sign 
 gains in definition and in consequent efficiency. 
 All of which is but a statement, as far as it goes, 
 of the process of normal mental growth. Cer- 
 tainly no support is here found for Froebel's 
 distinctive symbolism. 
 
 Freedom in education. — Closely connected 
 with the doctrine of development, under which 
 symbolism has been discussed, is Froebel's 
 conception of child liberty as a pre-condition 
 of proper education. " Education . . . , originally 
 and in its first principles, should necessarily 
 be passive^ following (only guarding and protect- 
 ing), not prescriptive, categorical, interfering " 
 (1:7). Taking into account the full context, 
 the argument runs somewhat as follows : "It 
 is the destiny and life work of all things to unfold 
 their essence, hence their divine being." Edu- 
 
 82 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 cation is in fact but the process of securing such 
 an enfolding of what was from the first divinely 
 enfolded. Moreover, the germ contains and is 
 an exact and proper plan of what the adult form 
 should be. Under such conditions, that educa- 
 tion is best which fosters most completely the 
 full and unhampered unfolding of the original 
 germ. The business of the teacher is to suppb 
 the conditions demanded by the innate plan, anc 
 to ward off any influence which might hinder its( 
 unfolding. The curriculum consists exactly o^ 
 those conditions called for by the germ. It is 
 in view of these considerations that education 
 should be '' passive, following . . . not interfering." 
 " Indeed," says Froebel, in immediate con- 
 nection, " in its very essence, education should 
 have these characteristics; for the undisturbed 
 operation of the Divine Unity is necessarily 
 good — cannot be otherwise than good. This 
 necessity implies that the young human being — 
 as it were, still in process of creation — would 
 seek, although still unconsciously, as a product 
 of nature, yet decidedly and surely, that which 
 is in itself best ; and moreover in a form wholly 
 
 83 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 adapted to his condition, as well as to his dispo- 
 sition, his powers and means" (1 : 7 f.). This 
 may be taken as a sort of idealized statement of 
 Froebel's chosen position. In accordance with 
 it we should follow the child's wishes because he 
 will choose best. Froebel hastens to say that 
 " nature, it is true, rarely shows us now that 
 unmarred natural state " (1:9*). 
 
 Taking together all of Froebel's pronounce- 
 ments on this topic, it is diflScult to lay down one 
 consistent or satisfactory statement of his posi- 
 tion. He would hold to the original statement 
 given above if he could ; and his departures 
 from it are made only under direst compulsion. 
 It seems, however, that after the kindergarten 
 procedure was devised he at times tends to 
 show more regard for this his latest creation, 
 the son of his old age, than for his first-born. 
 " Without rational, conscious guidance, childish 
 activity degenerates into aimless play instead 
 of preparing for those tasks of life for which it 
 is destined" (8:67). "In the kindergarten 
 they [the children] are guided to bring out their 
 plays in such a manner as really to reach the 
 
 84 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 aim desired by nature, that is, to serve for their 
 development. Does it disturb the plant in its 
 growth when the gardener protects it, prunes it, 
 waters it, takes the best care he can of it? " 
 (8 : 68.) Here Froebel is evidently afraid to 
 " follow " the child at all times lest his " aimless 
 play " not " really . . . reach the aim desired 
 by nature," hence " in the kindergarten they are 
 guided." Clearer love for his youngest born, 
 the kindergarten procedure, is seen in the state- 
 ment that " the knowledge of the cube form is 
 so important . . . that its form, its comprehen- 
 sion, and its management cannot be too early 
 or too urgently brought before the child " 
 (5 : 210). He elsewhere states of the same cube 
 that it is " at first only after oft-repeated show- 
 ing and perception that the child strongly wishes 
 to see its nurse produce now one, now another 
 position of the cube " (4 : 83). There is a wide 
 range of possible positions between the two 
 extremes of " urgently " bringing an undesired 
 play gift before the child, and believing that 
 the child will seek " decidedly and surely that 
 which is in itself best, and ... in a form wholly 
 
 85 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 adapted to his condition." While Froebel oc- 
 cupies at one time or another all the possible 
 positions, there can be no doubt that in theory 
 he inclines all the time towards the extreme of 
 greater freedom, but in practice, increasingly 
 towards the element of external guidance. 
 
 The meaning of development in relation to 
 freedom. — It is quite worth our while to exam- 
 ine the basis of Froebel's belief in freedom. We 
 have already seen that for him freedom is the 
 necessary condition to the full realization of the 
 original divinely implanted germ. If we grant 
 that the child at birth is such a germ as Froebel 
 conceives it to be, then the doctrine of liberty 
 follows as an easy, and perhaps necessary, 
 corollary. What are the facts .'^ Is the child 
 the germ of the man in the preformation sense ? 
 As regards the body in its principal outward 
 and visible characteristics, we may answer yes, 
 and accept, in a sense, the corollary of liberty. 
 We can do little if anything with the body 
 besides giving it freedom to grow. The food, 
 sunshine, fresh air, sleep, rest, and exercise, 
 demanded by it (as interpreted, however, by 
 
 86 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 our best study of it, not by its immediate in- 
 clination), furnish the best regimen for its growth. 
 In the main, the final and good result was con- 
 tained with a certain uniqueness in the original 
 germ. Our part is to furnish the favorable 
 conditions for its realization. 
 
 But when we come to the psychological, the 
 situation is quite otherwise. Here conscious, 
 intentional human guidance and redirection are 
 necessary in far greater degree in order to reach 
 a result fitted to meet the inevitable demands 
 of life. We may take two cases as typical of 
 all others, to show the part necessarily played 
 by society in " developing " the child. A 
 baby's prattle contains many varied sounds ; 
 some one of these will by chance approximate 
 " mama." This sound will be noted by the 
 mother, and the child will receive approval 
 accordingly. The repetition of this satisfaction 
 with the accompanying disregard of the *' mere 
 prattle " will fix the word as one of the child's 
 accomplishments. Now this word evidently 
 came from the child's original stock of tendencies; 
 in this sense it has been " developed." But it 
 
 87 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 was not uniquely contained in that stock. It 
 survived from among very many possibilities ; 
 all of which were equally contained in the original 
 stock. In a true sense, there was a struggle for 
 existence among these many babbling sounds. 
 The word mama survived through no intrinsic 
 worth or merit in it, but solely by reason of 
 outside selection. This is what " development " 
 means in this case. Nature furnished a variety 
 of possibilities ; society selected the one suited 
 to its purpose. In this way any language, as 
 English or French, is " developed " from the 
 child's native stock of responses; but clearly 
 we cannot say that either language or any 
 language was present in that original stock. 
 
 The second instance shows the action of social 
 disapproval, the psychology, however, being 
 much the same in both cases. A child has, 
 among other reactions to an annoying situation, 
 that of anger. The careful parent sees to it that 
 this reaction is left unsatisfied, at the same time 
 satisfying other more approved forms of reac- 
 tion. By the law of habit formation, this re- 
 jected reaction tends to be called into play 
 
 88 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 less often, until in the " well-bred " person, 
 anger has small place. Here anger was con- 
 tained in the original stock — probably as a very 
 strong natural predisposition — but was not 
 allowed to reach its maximum possible strength, 
 because in existing social conditions the child 
 was counted to be better off without it. These 
 two instances may be taken as typical of all 
 learning, and consequently of all *' develop- 
 ment " in the mental and moral realm. 
 
 To sum up the whole discussion, the word 
 *' development," as applied to the child, covers 
 a wide range, the extremes of which while 
 differing perhaps only in degree can still be 
 easily differentiated. At the one extreme, the 
 bodily, are certain elements so fixed in the orig- 
 inal germ that they will, if permitted by pas- 
 sively favorable conditions, unfold with a mini- 
 mum of guidance into their full and proper 
 realization. Such, for example, are all those 
 things that distinguish man as an animal from 
 other animals. So far as these are functional, 
 they are concerned, largely at any rate, with our 
 survival on the animal plane. According to 
 
 89 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 biological evolution, the elements at this ex- 
 treme represent our oldest inheritance. At 
 the other extreme are those elements, and their 
 arrangement in our psychical make up, which 
 have to do with adaptation to the most recent 
 part of our social inheritance. The latter ele- 
 ments have been fixed in our several individual 
 characters by the action of our social environ- 
 ment in selecting from among our native reac- 
 tions those which best fit us to utilize and con- 
 trol this environment. At the one extreme, 
 " development " is an outward unfolding of 
 what was from the first uniquely (relatively so, 
 at any rate) implicit in the germ. We may say 
 of this that the directing agency in the growth, 
 for ordinary environments, is within the germ. 
 At the other extreme, *' development " means 
 no more than that the growth has been at each 
 successive stage derived from the preceding 
 by an outward selection and elimination. Of 
 this, it is misleading to say that the outcome was 
 implicit in the original stock, unless we at the 
 same time make clear that the actual outcome 
 is simply one of very many possible outcomes 
 
 90 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 which owes its priority and survival solely 
 to some outside agency. Of this same extreme, 
 we may in a sense say that there are successive 
 stories of selected reactions in the structure 
 of our mental houses. The bottom story is 
 nearest to original nature, the topmost story 
 shows most of the external element. Between 
 the two extremes herein differentiated both 
 nature and nurture enter in a degree de- 
 termined by proximity to one or the other of 
 extremes. " Development " is thus a word of 
 shifting meaning when applied to the genesis 
 of human beings, the element of external 
 selection constantly increasing the farther away 
 we get from mere bodily growth. 
 
 On the basis of this discussion, it is easy to 
 criticize those who insist that " education is a 
 development from within." The assertion is 
 ambiguous. If, however, as with Froebel, it 
 is asserted that " the new-born child is not 
 merely to become a man, but the man already 
 appears and indeed is in the child with all his 
 talents and the unity of his nature" (4:49), 
 then the ambiguity is resolved, and the assertion 
 
 91 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 is unjustified and misleading. It is not true in 
 the sense in which it was meant to be taken. 
 Further, we have no difficulty in appraising 
 a doctrine of liberty based upon the doctrine of 
 development. If reference be had to bodily 
 growth in the matter of gross anatomy, liberty 
 should prevail. To bind the feet or head can 
 probably result only in harm. If reference be 
 had, however, to the building of a character 
 suitable for present conditions of civilization, 
 then we cannot allow that the element of selec- 
 tion lies entirely within the child. To affirm 
 this is to reject the worth of the social environ- 
 ment. A purely " following " education would 
 lead either to mere brutism or to barbarism and 
 anarchy. 
 
 Before leaving the doctrine of development 
 entirely, we may instance one respect in which 
 the original nature furnishes most valuable 
 guidance to those who have in hand the educa- 
 tion of the child. Since original nature shows 
 wide individual differences and since our 
 social structure calls for differentiation of func- 
 tion (division of labor), we may unhesitatingly 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 approve the utilization of natural individual 
 preference in the endeavor to find suitable 
 life work for the individual. Such utilization 
 wisely directed undoubtedly makes for greater 
 individual happiness and for greater social 
 efficiency. 
 
 A suggested doctrine of freedom. — The word 
 utilization as used above furnishes the key to 
 the solution of the problem of liberty — at 
 least from the external point of view. For the 
 doctrine of proper child liberty in matters edu- 
 cational has a much firmer basis than a mistaken 
 doctrine of development. While a purely " fol- 
 lowing " education is impossible, it should not 
 be hastily concluded that education consists 
 even largely in repression. An appraisal of 
 Froebel's psychology is not the place for a 
 lengthy presentation of an opposed point of 
 view, but a short sketch may not be out of place. 
 If we recall the illustrations given above of the 
 child's learning to say mama, and learning to 
 leave off his anger, we see three essential elements 
 in this learning process : (1) the varied charac- 
 ter of the child's responses to a situation, (2) the 
 
 93 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 selecting effect of the social environment, and 
 (3) the psychology of habit formation by which 
 the child grows to the use or disuse of a partic- 
 ular response. Each of these elements either 
 calls for or allows a certain amount of freedom 
 to the child. As to the first, a varied response 
 to any environment is, as a rule, the key to 
 progress whether of the individual or of the 
 group. Observation makes clear that, other 
 things being equal, the regime of personal 
 freedom, of individual responsibility, is the one 
 in which there is most fertility of response. With 
 reference to the second, if the social environment 
 is to make wise selection, it will utilize to the 
 maximum of feasibility the natural responses. 
 This means, on the one hand, that the in- 
 stitutional life (social demand) should be in 
 reality the means to the maximum expression 
 of human nature; and on the other, that the 
 less redirection necessary with any natural im- 
 pulse, the greater the utilization of its strength. 
 The history of education shows within the past 
 hundred or so years an ever greater utilization 
 of the natural response; or what is the same 
 
 94 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 thing, an ever increasing freedom of self-ex- 
 pression to the child. As to the third element, it 
 is fairly evident that of all possible means of 
 selecting from among the child's responses, that 
 which take place as a by-product of normal life 
 conditions has all the while been the principal 
 agency in education, even though teachers 
 and parents have not generally so understood it. 
 This suggests that we now send to the scrap 
 heap so much of our educational machinery as 
 prevents us from using to the fullest possible 
 this natural selective agency of normal life. 
 To put this more plainly, we have too many 
 rigid desks, too many mechanical promotion 
 schemes, too much conventional knowledge in 
 the curriculum. We have relied overmuch on 
 " do this " and " don't do that." We need to 
 give our children more opportunity to live free, 
 healthy, happy, normal lives. The Froebelian 
 kindergarten has had a worthy part in preparing 
 the public mind for this conception. With a 
 sounder and more consistent doctrine of freedom, 
 the kindergartner can join to her efforts those 
 of the elementary teachers, so that with a united 
 
 95 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 front substantial progress can be made all 
 along the line. 
 
 Froebel's doctrine of self -activity. — In closest 
 connection with the preceding are self -activity 
 and play. So close indeed is the connection 
 that a few words will here suflSce. Self -activity 
 implies inner impulse towards outer action as 
 the means of self -development. " Above all 
 outside stimulation is the child's strong impulse 
 towards the unfolding of his inner being . . . 
 which manifests itself in his whole life activity " 
 (3 : 121*). Here the inner impulse seems initial ; 
 in other cases, the impulse waits for some 
 awakening stimulus : " The mother's influence 
 thus resembles that of the spring sun, which by 
 warmth awakens the life (the impulse, the power, 
 the self-activity and the self-determination) in 
 each seed kernel" (5:16). Elsewhere we are 
 told that the activity of the child is "usually, 
 indeed, excited from without, but yet actually 
 and formally determined by the innermost 
 workings of the soul" (5:57). These state- 
 ments may at first glance appear somewhat 
 contradictory, but the situation as described — 
 
 96 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 with no claim for a purposive element in native 
 responses — is just what is accepted in current 
 biological psychology. No organism will act 
 unless stimulated, but there can be no stimula- 
 tion in the absence of a prior arrangement within 
 the organism to receive just that kind of stimu- 
 lus. Further the organism's particular " set " 
 or " attitude " (either temporary or permanent) 
 is an element in the working of the stimulus. 
 If the '* set " be peculiarly favorable, a very 
 slight amount of stimulation suffices. In one 
 sense the activity starts from within, in another 
 it starts from without. 
 
 More interesting to us in this doctrine of 
 self-activity is Froebel's anticipation of a later 
 doctrine of self-expression. Froebel identifies 
 self -active endeavor with the absence of external 
 compulsion (1 : 222). In criticizing a certain 
 contemporaneous school practice, Froebel says, 
 "Children till now were too little employed, or 
 not judiciously — that is to say, not self -ac- 
 tively or freely enough " {nicht selhst- und frei- 
 thdtig genug) (4 : 161). This is clearly the same 
 as saying that self-activity is the opposite of 
 H 97 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 compulsion, and that we have self-activity 
 when the child identifies the proposed line of 
 conduct with his self and its demands. This 
 aspect of the doctrine is exactly Professor 
 Dewey's doctrine of interest and self-expression. 
 
 Play is said to be a form of " self -activity " 
 (freithdtig) (1 : 55), which, so far as it goes, is 
 an excellent statement. Perhaps more sig- 
 nificant are the words that play " at first is 
 simply natural life " (1 : 54). This allows us 
 to say that play is exactly the free activity 
 advocated above in the discussion of child liberty 
 in the schoolroom. And certainly few accounts 
 of actual playing could be more attractive than 
 that given by Froebel in the Education of Man 
 (p. 105 ff.). If only he had not departed from 
 the beauty of this early practice when he had 
 devised the kindergarten ! Let us for the mo- 
 ment leave Froebel, and examine more closely 
 the concept of play in general. 
 
 The meaning of the term play. — Any student 
 of the subject is struck by the varying meanings 
 attached currently to the word play. Hardly 
 elsewhere is there so great a tendency to slide 
 
 98 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 from one meaning to another. Play is at times 
 defined in terms of the mental attitude towards 
 the activity, being contrasted with work, labor, 
 and drudgery. When the satisfaction inherent 
 in a specific activity sufiices to keep that activity 
 going, the experience is commonly called play. 
 If, however, some external compulsion or con- 
 sideration is necessary to the continuance of 
 the activity, some one of the other terms is 
 considered more appropriate. At other times, 
 play is distinguished from work in that the 
 latter brings a useful result which is desired 
 possibly for its exchange value, while play leads 
 to no such result. In typical cases either 
 way of defining might suflSce, but many trouble- 
 some border-line instances present themselves, 
 particularly in dealing with the growth of 
 children ; for children progress from a stage 
 where play is admittedly proper to a stage where 
 work is supposed to rule. In order to deal with 
 these transitional cases it becomes necessary to 
 take a closer account of play. 
 
 A kitten " plays " with a spool. The satis- 
 faction of the activity itself leads to the con- 
 
 99 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 tinuance of the activity. So a young child 
 will " play." The operation of playing with 
 the spool is very simple. Its characteristic is 
 repetition, the unit element being a very short 
 simple act. Preyer's child, for example, took off 
 a box top and put it back on 79 times in suc- 
 cession. The kitten has no other kind of play ; 
 the child will grow to use more complex activi- 
 ties. Instead of the indefinite repetition of a 
 very simple act, each repetend in the case of 
 the child will become with increasing age more 
 and more complex until finally mere repetition 
 will disappear, swallowed up in a single elaborate 
 process. The conscious use of tools, as scissors, 
 paste, etc., enters ; planning and devising are 
 involved. The " end " of the process may be 
 days, even weeks ahead. With the adult, the 
 interval may be one of years, even decades. 
 The simple act, many times repeated for its 
 own sake, is clearly play. So also is the more 
 elaborate act, if only the activity spring from 
 the child's (or the man's) own interest, if he is 
 completely identified in interest with the process 
 as a whole and with each part of the process. 
 
 100 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Such a complex act need not be simply play, 
 it may also be work. It will be work, if there be 
 in it a serious utilization of one's available 
 inner resources. If the activity be engaged 
 in simply for the exchange value of the product 
 and not at all for the satisfaction therein in- 
 volved, then the activity is work alone, and not 
 play. Labor, rather than work, then becomes 
 the suitable term. If labor be arduous and 
 fatiguing, it is called toil. If it be very disagree- 
 able, performed only under constraint of some 
 quite extraneous need, it has become drudgery.^ 
 When we turn from the general discussion to 
 Froebel an adequate consideration is not easy. 
 That Froebel valued play is undoubted. It 
 occupied a large place in his pre-kindergarten 
 thinking, as we have already stated. " The 
 games directly influence and educate the boy 
 for life, awaken and cultivate many civil and 
 moral virtues" (1:114). There are not lack- 
 ing intimations that Froebel saw the trans- 
 forming effect of the play attitude upon work. 
 
 ' The definitions here given of labor, toil, and drudgery are taken 
 from Dewey's Interest and Effort in Education, p. 78. 
 
 101 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 " If activity brought joy to the child, work now 
 gives dehght to the boy " (1 : 102). "The time 
 has now come to exalt all work into free ac- 
 tivity. ... At the present time art alone can 
 truly be called free activity" (8:238). The 
 proper education " restores to work its high 
 significance" (5:40). In the kindergarten, we 
 find an institution, for the first time, based on 
 play. The world undoubtedly owes much of 
 its present sense of the educative value of play 
 to the kindergarten as an actual living institu- 
 tion. Jean Paul Richter preceded Froebel in this 
 field, and even surpassed him in the statement 
 of his theory,^ but Froebel's institution has 
 been the efficient cause in spreading the idea. 
 It must be confessed, however, that Froebel's 
 kindergarten play is too often — even too gener- 
 ally — the means of presenting in symbolic 
 form to early childhood certain quasi-meta- 
 physical ideas. " I am convinced," says Froebel, 
 '* that the exalted and often ecstatic delight of 
 children in their simple movement plays is 
 
 ^ Richter, Levana (Bohn Library), pp. 177 ff. Froebel read and ad- 
 mired Richter (see 9 : 38). 
 
 102 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 by no means to be explained through the exer- 
 tion of mere physical force — mere bodily ac- 
 tivity. The true source of their joy is the dim 
 premonition which stirs their sensitive hearts 
 that in their play there is hidden a deep signifi- 
 cance ; that it is, in fact, the husk within which 
 is concealed the kernel of living spiritual truth " 
 (4:260f.). In immediate connection he asks, 
 " May not their delight in these encircling move- 
 ments, for example, spring from the longing and 
 effort to get an all-round or all-sided grasp of an 
 object ? " (4 : 260.) How the gifts utilize sym- 
 bolism in their derivation, and expect symbolism 
 in their use will be discussed in the next chapter. 
 There we shall have cause to regret that Froebel 
 so largely used kindergarten play as a quasi 
 sugar-coating process ; but in spite of these 
 faults no one can deny the great influence of 
 Froebel in bringing about the ever increasing 
 appreciation of all kinds of play. 
 
 Minor psychological doctrines. — To take up 
 in detail the many respects in which Froebel' s 
 naive psychology enters into his education 
 would but weary the reader to no great purpose. 
 
 103 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 He adopted, for example, the Pestalozzian 
 fallacy that a logical simple is ipso facto a psycho- 
 logical simple. If the cube appears to the child 
 " as too large a whole, and composed of too 
 many kinds of parts, the child's view of it 
 must be clarified by single perceptions " (4 : 84 f .). 
 The mother will first clasp the cube so as to show 
 one face only ; then later two faces, etc., and 
 finally all ; so that the child will come in time 
 " to a complete comprehension of the cube." 
 Froebel further holds, contrary to present opin- 
 ion, that " the child appropriates the words 
 more easily by frequent hearing than by fre- 
 quent repetition, for hearing impresses the 
 mind more than repetition " (5 : 102 f.). Again, 
 Froebel accepts, naturally without question, 
 the doctrine of general training. '* I have dis- 
 covered . . . that the powers of memory and 
 imagination are considerably increased " by 
 the kindergarten training, — and " that the 
 power of perception and comprehension is 
 sharpened " (5 : 137 f.). 
 
 An interesting idea is Froebel' s notion of 
 " normal forms." The cube is " the normal 
 
 104 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 form of a great part of all that is solid and 
 occupies space" (4:86). "It is highly im- 
 portant for the human being that early in life, 
 and even as a child, something normal be given 
 to him ... in order that he may recognize a 
 generality and a unity for all that is particular 
 and individual " (4 : 96). Thus when the child 
 has become familiar with the cube, his attention 
 is called to other rectangular bodies, as the book 
 and the box, and their lines, surfaces, points, 
 etc., " so all that the cube united in itself 
 can be perceived separately in different objects 
 surrounding the child" (4 : 98). Of many com- 
 ments that might be made, two will suffice. 
 First, there seems no sufficient reason to demand 
 that the child be on the lookout for lines, sur- 
 faces, rectangular solids, etc. Some kindergart- 
 ners have carried this to an unwarranted ex- 
 treme. Second, the " generality and unity " here 
 referred to had better come under more usual 
 conditions, as generalizations from actual life 
 situations. The child has no trouble in getting 
 the concept " round " from actual situations 
 of roundness. No " normal form " need give 
 
 105 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 even the most conscientious kindergartner a 
 serious thought. 
 
 A much more valuable practice on Froebel's 
 part is the naming of anything with which he 
 wished the child to become familiar. " All 
 perceptions should be connected with words, 
 that thereby they may be more clearly defined 
 in thought" (4:207). This is sound psychol- 
 ogy. The only criticism is that Froebel expects 
 too much of it. He is even willing to use it 
 when the child is so young that the words are 
 "as yet incomprehensible." Even then, says 
 Froebel, the " impression on the child " is not 
 without " abiding results " (4 : 82) . Here, as fre- 
 quently, was Froebel using an otherwise good 
 practice to get before the child ideas far in 
 advance of his childish need. No mother need 
 trouble that her baby get concepts of space, 
 time, the " self-contained," or " the in-itself- 
 reposing." ^ Her singing should be put to 
 better use. 
 
 1 Froebel would have the mother show her baby during "the second 
 half of the first year" that a sphere in all its positions remains the same : 
 "I turn and wind and as I go. 
 The sphere in form I always show " (4 : 74). 
 
 106 
 
FROEBEL'S EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY 
 
 Summary of the chapter. — We thus finish 
 our examination of Froebel's educational psy- 
 chology. His doctrine of cultural recapitulation 
 has a modern ring, but is now considered to have 
 little or no value to us. The doctrine of slum- 
 bering germs of innate ideas we decline to con- 
 sider seriously, although we thereby reject a 
 chief foundation stone of Froebel's educational 
 theory. The extended consideration of sym- 
 bolism disclosed (1) the assumed existence of 
 idea germs in the sense rejected above; and 
 (2) a belief that the symbol has eflSciency as 
 such in advance of any experience of the thing 
 symbolized. This was upon examination dis- 
 allowed, and the whole of Froebel's peculiar 
 doctrine of symbolism fell to the ground. Of 
 considerable value was Froebel's doctrine of 
 educational liberty, although its assumed basis 
 in the doctrine of development was rejected. 
 This led to a restatement of the meaning of de- 
 velopment and a consequent restatement of 
 educational liberty. Froebel's doctrines of self- 
 activity and play were found to be valuable an- 
 ticipations of the best current thought. Froebel 
 
 107 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 was credited with being the principal single in- 
 fluence in bringing the modern appreciation of 
 the educational value of play. Several minor 
 items closed the chapter, chief of which was 
 Froebel's doctrine of " normal forms." This 
 seemed to contravene current conceptions of 
 the nature and function of general ideas. On 
 the whole, Froebel's psychology is strong in 
 proportion as it comes from his sympathetic 
 regard for the child, and weak in proportion as 
 it originates in his general philosophical system. 
 His feelings are truer than his theory. 
 
 108 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 The core of the kindergarten curriculum as 
 devised by Froebel is the gift series. In Froe- 
 bel's own words, " A course of training and oc- 
 cupations for children, answering to the laws of 
 development and the laws of life, demanded a 
 thoroughly expressive medium in the shape of 
 materials for these occupations and games for 
 the child ; therefore to meet this want, I ar- 
 ranged a series of play materials under the title 
 of 'A complete series of gifts for play ' " (6 : 250). 
 
 Our first inquiry will be as to how this *' series 
 of gifts " is derived from these " laws of de- 
 velopment " and the " laws of life." That 
 there is one definite order of individual develop- 
 ment was to Froebel clear : " There is a certain 
 course and sequence in the development of all 
 things, which the Creator has followed in 
 building up the race, and which the human being 
 
 109 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 must be allowed to follow " (9 : 172). Whether 
 the derivation of the gift series is based upon 
 logical, or psychological, or social considera- 
 tions need not be considered. To Froebel 
 there is one " certain course and sequence in 
 the development of all things." The series 
 might be derived from any one or all three 
 of these considerations, the result would be 
 the same. " In the choice of these . . . first 
 playthings ... we have on the one side quite 
 strictly followed the requirement of the thought, 
 of the idea, and, on the other hand, the free life 
 of the child and the requirements of that life, 
 and so have come to one and the same result " 
 (5:204f.). 
 
 In another place Froebel says that the kinder- 
 garten principles are not " arbitrarily decreed, 
 but such as must arise by logical necessity 
 (Notwendigkeit) from the child's mental and 
 bodily nature, regarding him as a member of 
 the great human family" (6: 251). Here all 
 three considerations are present, but the words 
 " must arise by logical necessity" are suggestive. 
 
 The ball as the first of the gift series. — At 
 110 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 the head of the gift series stands the ball or 
 sphere. *' The ball is just as absolutely given 
 as the first plaything for the . . . developing child 
 ... as the spherical form of the world is to the 
 satisfactory insight into the system of the world " 
 (5 : 187 f.). The reasons assigned by Froebel for 
 this priority of the ball are so many and so varied 
 that for convenience, we group them under 
 seven heads: (1) The ball has symbolic value, 
 (2) it has value as the " counterpart " of the 
 child, (3) it has geometrical value as " the 
 germ of all other forms," (4) it trains the 
 mind, (5) it trains the body, (6) it socializes 
 the child, (7) the child likes it. 
 
 Among these the symbolic value is the es- 
 sential one, the others largely follow either as in- 
 stances of or as corollaries from the symbolic. 
 The ball symbolizes chiefly the three related con- 
 cepts of unity, an inclusive whole, and the All. 
 "What symbol does my ball offer to the child.'' 
 That of unity" (8: 211). "The child . . . per- 
 ceives in the ball the general expression of each 
 object ... as a self-dependent whole and unity " 
 (4 : 32). " Even the word ball, in our significant 
 
 111 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 language, is full of expression and meaning, 
 pointing out that the ball is, as it were, an image 
 of the All {der B-all ist ein Bild des All) " 
 (4 : 32) . The general theory of Froebelian sym- 
 bolism, already presented, will explain why 
 Froebel chose a symbol of the all-inclusive Whole 
 and Unity as the first element of his series. 
 The argument in Froebel's mind runs substan- 
 tially as follows. Education is essentially the 
 unfolding of the child germ. To this end the 
 child must play with the symbol or symbols 
 of the mental content implicit in the germ. 
 The end of education is the full knowledge of 
 the all-inclusive Unity, God. This knowledge 
 must in implicit form be present at birth in 
 the mind germ. The child must accordingly 
 begin his education with a symbol of this 
 all-inclusive Unity, and must continue his de- 
 velopment by using other symbols which them- 
 selves develop from the first symbol. The ball 
 furnishes the initial symbol of the all-inclusive 
 Unity, and is at the same time the germ from 
 which the other gifts are derived. Further, as 
 the child's mind moves in its normal growth from 
 
 112 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 an undifferentiated (unconscious) unity to a 
 differentiated unity, so must the parallel series 
 of symbols move from undifferentiated unity 
 through differentiation and integration to a 
 differentiated unity. The entire gift-occupa- 
 tion series accordingly consists of (1) the homo- 
 geneous sphere as the symbol of an undifferen- 
 tiated unity, (2) the cube, brick, surface, and 
 point (to name the typical steps only), which 
 are implicit in the sphere and are derived there- 
 from by analysis, (3) the *' occupations " (typi- 
 cal only), as pricking (making points), sewing 
 (connecting points into lines), weaving (forming 
 surfaces out of lines), peas work (constructing 
 hollow solids by sticks stuck into peas or cork), 
 which thus represent the integration of the 
 general elements reached previously by analysis, 
 and (4) finally an (approximate) sphere con- 
 structed, e.g. by peas work.^ The gift-occu- 
 
 ' The arguments here ascribed to Froebel are so scattered throughout 
 his published works that the reader's patience would not suflSce for the 
 necessary examination were they adequately assembled. The interpre- 
 tation may be accepted, however, without hesitation as true to Froebel ; 
 since the most widely divergent interpreters of Froebel, while differing 
 toto ccelo as to the worth of the symbolic series, agree substantially that 
 this is Froebel's idea. It should be added that professed followers of 
 
 I 113 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 pation series is thus essentially symbolic, as a 
 whole and in its parts ; and inherent in its sym- 
 bolism is the specific symbolism of the ball. 
 Whatever pedagogic value may be allowed to 
 the series, clearly the ball is, for Froebel's pur- 
 pose, " absolutely given as the first plaything 
 of the . . . developing child." The examination 
 into the validity of the symbolism is postponed 
 for the time until we have considered the other 
 reasons assigned by Froebel for choosing the 
 ball as the first play gift. 
 
 The ball is valued as the *' counterpart " of 
 the child in accordance with the so-called laW 
 of opposites, which demands that the child 
 *' cultivate and fashion himself " by means of 
 an object " which is his opposite and yet re- 
 sembles him" (4:32). After our discussion 
 and rejection of this " law " of opposites, we 
 have no hesitation in dismissing this plea for 
 the ball as without merit. As for the ball's 
 being the germ of other forms, our contem- 
 porary geometers will be surprised to hear any 
 
 Froebel differ widely as to their actual use of the occupation series with 
 the children. Many, for example, hardly use peas work at all, although 
 Froebel himself has a good deal to say about it. 
 
 114 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 such opinion. It will be news to them that 
 the sphere is " the primitive form, the unity 
 from which all earthly and natural forms and 
 structures are derived " (1 : 168), or that it is 
 " the germ ... of all other forms, which can 
 therefore logically be developed from it in con- 
 formity with fixed simple laws " (4 : 33). While 
 the sphere is in fact as much contained in the 
 cube as the cube is in the sphere, and while 
 geometry knows nothing of the sphere as " the 
 primitive form," we readily see why Froebel 
 should hold to such a position. His symbolism 
 demanded that the sphere begin and end his 
 series ; the cube and other forms were needed 
 from other and less symbolic considerations. 
 Under these circumstances, Froebel puts the 
 latter into the sphere in order that he might 
 later draw them out, and thus symbolize his 
 favorite doctrine of development. 
 
 The statement that the ball " trains " the 
 mind needs more consideration. We have al- 
 ready discussed the idea of " normal forms." 
 In this the ball is *' the particular image of all 
 individual (spherical) things" (4:33). The 
 
 115 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 psychology of " normal forms " did not appeal 
 to us as sound. No child of ordinary intelli- 
 gence needs special training with the ball in 
 order to perceive the roundness of an apple. 
 His incidental experience with apples will suf- 
 fice. Nor can we grant any special virtue to 
 the ball as a means of " nourishing " either the 
 child's attention or his " free independent ac- 
 tion " (4:35). A rubber doll or any other 
 attractive plaything would serve just as well. 
 More interesting, if not more valid, is the claim 
 that the ball gives certain important " percep- 
 tions of object, space, and time," " of being, 
 having, and becoming" (4:37), "of present, 
 past, and future " (4 :38). The worth of these 
 notions to the thought world need not be dis- 
 puted. If the ball had unique value in bringing 
 them, we should probably grant it a unique 
 place in the curriculum. But in point of fact, 
 so far as the ball can serve to give these notions, 
 they will come as by-products of ordinary child- 
 ish play, that is, incidentally without special 
 consideration from any one and without special 
 apparatus. Among these concepts those of 
 
 116 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 space and time are especially interesting. It 
 is a capital fallacy, apparently characteristic 
 of the school to which Froebel belonged, to sup- 
 pose that because the objects of the material 
 world are known to the critical mind in space 
 and time, therefore the concepts of space and 
 time must precede a knowledge of things in 
 order that the child's mind may have suitable 
 pigeon-holes in which to place material objects 
 as they become known. So worthless is static 
 logic as a guide to genetic psychology ! This 
 same criticism we shall later apply to other 
 aspects of the gift series. 
 
 That the ball affords opportunity for bodily 
 exercise and for social activity cannot be doubted. 
 But no peculiar value attaches to the ball in 
 these regards. That the child likes to play 
 with the ball is also true, but there is no suffi- 
 cient reason to suppose the ball occupies any 
 unique place in the young child's esteem. 
 
 We have now examined cursorily the principal 
 reasons assigned by Froebel for making the ball 
 the first of a gift series. The claims that the 
 ball is the " counterpart " of the child or that it 
 
 117 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 is the germ of the other geometrical forms, we 
 dismiss as too baseless for serious consideration. 
 That the ball affords certain training for mind and 
 body, and that it is an attractive plaything for 
 the child, we admit, but not in any peculiar 
 sense or degree. In none of these claims, 
 apart from the symbolic, yet to be examined, 
 is there found sufficient reason — even in slight 
 degree — for giving the ball a unique place in 
 child development. Nor do these even tend to 
 support a plea that might be urged from other 
 considerations. If reason there be in Froebel's 
 writings for placing the ball uniquely first in a 
 gift series, that reason must be found solely in 
 symbolic considerations, and nowhere else. 
 
 The symbolism of the ball. — The question 
 then is on the validity of the symbolism of the 
 ball. This has meantime become the key to 
 the larger question of the validity of the gift 
 series as Froebel devised it. Our original dis- 
 cussion of symbolism would suffice here. We 
 should be entirely warranted in dismissing the 
 series without further ado, by reason of its basis 
 in Froebelian symbolism ; but it may not be 
 
 118 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 out of place to make the specific application to 
 the question at issue. In the symbolism of the 
 ball four propositions are implied : (1) the child's 
 mind is a germ, as yet unconscious, but " des- 
 tined " to unfold into full consciousness ; (2) the 
 unfolding of the germ is mediated by material 
 symbols of its implicit content ; (3) the implicit 
 content of the child mind includes the destined 
 conscious knowledge of an all-inclusive unity ; (4) 
 the ball and its included forms constitute suitable 
 symbols of this implicit content. Let us take 
 these propositions in the reverse order. Is the 
 ball a symbol of all-inclusive unity ? If one so 
 sees it, yes. If one does not so see it, no. The 
 ball as such has no inherent symbolism. Few, if 
 any, accept this symbolism except as part of a 
 dogmatic system. The writer has found no 
 others. Those who accept it do not explain 
 how a homogeneous sphere can symbolize any 
 especially laudable kind of unity. Numerical 
 unity a ball shares with anything else that can 
 be counted ; but there is no unique claim here. 
 As for organic unity, or social unity, or an 
 " all-inclusive unity," what has a homogeneous 
 
 119 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 sphere to do with these ? So far as the writer 
 can see, the fourth proposition fails : the ball 
 is not the symbol of the desired inclusive unity, 
 not even of an undifferentiated unity. 
 
 What about the third proposition? Is the 
 normal human being destined by innate en- 
 dowment to a conscious knowledge of an all- 
 inclusive unity? Whether there even be such 
 a unity is a question of current philosophic 
 discussion, with wide difference of opinion ; 
 but, philosophic dispute aside, as a matter of 
 practical affairs, we need not hesitate to say 
 that the fewest number of even the best educated 
 people ever give a thought to such a notion of 
 unity. Outside of kindergarten arguments, the 
 term (in this sense) is never mentioned in 
 practical education. To base a curriculum on a 
 concept which belongs to a sect of metaphysi- 
 cians, which practical people care little or noth- 
 ing about, would seem far from necessary. 
 The third proposition is at best doubtful. 
 
 The first and second propositions need not oc- 
 cupy our attention. This ground was fully cov- 
 ered in our special discussion of symbolism. The 
 
 120 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 child's mind is no such germ as Froebel's symbo- 
 lism calls for ; the law of mental growth is alto- 
 gether different. Further, no symbolism as such 
 can appeal to or influence a child before experi- 
 ence with the thing symbolized ; and where is 
 the partisan bold enough to claim that the ball 
 can appeal to the child — consciously or uncon- 
 sciously — as a symbol of unity ! What then 
 is the conclusion? A strong negative. The 
 concept of an inclusive unity is one that most of 
 us care little or nothing about. If we did, the ball 
 does not symbolize it. If the ball did symbolize 
 it for the adult, it would not for the child. And 
 the child's mind is no such germ as symbolism 
 demands. The symbolic value of the ball may 
 thus be dismissed as utterly without foundation. 
 The derivation of the series. — Before taking 
 up the gifts seriatim we may note one or two 
 significant statements. '* This whole of plays 
 and employments, being founded on fact, ac- 
 tually develops in the purest logical sequence, 
 and necessarily from the sphere and ball " 
 (5:123). "Each successive gift in the series 
 . . . must be indicated in and demanded by the 
 
 121 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 gifts already considered. We need therefore 
 only to discover their process of development in 
 order to discover what must be the character 
 of their next successor" (4:203). These quo- 
 tations lead us to expect a derivation of the gift 
 series, based not immediately on child psy- 
 chology, but on an assumed parallel, namely, 
 the a priori demand of certain (quasi) logical 
 laws. What then are the laws governing the 
 unfolding of the gift series considered in and of 
 itself ? The answer to this inquiry will be found 
 in the discussion of the successive gifts as 
 presented by Froebel.^ 
 
 " What is now to be the indispensably neces- 
 sary advance to the next plaything," the cube? 
 
 *' These are the opposite properties which the 
 next solid used for play must show " : 
 
 " The sphere has one surf ace, . . . a curved one. 
 The contrast must have straight surfaces and 
 several of them. The sphere has no corners 
 and no edges ; the contrast must have corners 
 and edges." 
 
 ^ It will be evident to those familiar with Froebel's gifts that I am not 
 following all the intricacies of the series, but rather the most important 
 steps. 
 
 122 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 " Now for similarity : the sphere has three 
 siniilar directions or axes, reciprocally inter- 
 secting each other at right angles. . . . The next 
 solid used for play must necessarily have these 
 like properties together with the above-named 
 oppositions. But this can only be the cube . . . , 
 therefore the cube is with indispensable necessity 
 the third ^ developing, educating playmate of 
 the child" (5:194f.). 
 
 Two motives appear in this derivation of 
 the cube from the sphere, first, to illustrate or 
 utilize the " law " of opposites ; second, to lead 
 to certain mathematical concepts. Lest any 
 think that the " law " of opposites is here used 
 simply that the adult may understand the deri- 
 vation of the gift, and not at all for the child, 
 I hasten to quote Froebel's words in connection. 
 " It is important that this law be now brought to 
 childish simple notice and perception in a child- 
 like way even at an early stage of the child's 
 development. The necessity of this require- 
 ment and of quiet obedience to this requirement 
 
 1 The first of these consists of six colored wool balls ; and the second 
 is the solid wooden sphere. Froebel's numbering, however, is not always 
 consistent. 
 
 123 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 very soon reveals itself. . . . The child's first 
 pure incitement to comprehend and carry out 
 all that is great and good in life is his pleasure 
 in so doing " (5 : 196). In other words the con- 
 trasts between sphere and cube not only serve 
 their direct purpose of bringing to the child's 
 consciousness the contrasted geometrical proper- 
 ties, but at the same time they act, as do all 
 (Froebelian) symbols, in awaking into activity 
 certain implicit but dormant soul powers, here 
 the law of opposites itself, which is, in Froebel's 
 conception, the conscious basis of *' all that is 
 good and great in life." When the reader learns 
 that such things " will give pleasure even to 
 the child who is scarcely half a year, or at least 
 not a whole year old" (4:78), he is better 
 prepared to believe that Froebel had in mind the 
 indirect (shall we call it occult ?) effect of sym- 
 bolism rather than the direct psychological in- 
 fluence which the scientific observer can witness. 
 The second motive, that of giving or awaking 
 certain mathematical concepts, as " form, size, 
 and number," we can best discuss in connection 
 with the effect of the gift in leading the child 
 
 124 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 " in a childlike manner into the fundamental 
 
 ideas of physics and mechanics" (5:199). 
 
 Which of these *' fundamental ideas " Froebel 
 
 had in mind can be gathered from the following 
 
 rhymes (4 : 78 ff.)> which are meant to be sung 
 
 to the child when he is " not a whole year old " 
 
 (4 : 78) : 
 
 " Cube presses down your hand, my dear ; 
 Press it, or it will fall, I fear." 
 
 (Pressure of opposed gravity.) 
 
 " Cube to the ground will quickly fall 
 If by the hand not held at all. " (Falling through gravity.) 
 
 "The sphere takes up the space, you see. 
 So where it is cube cannot be. " (Concept of space.) 
 
 Of all these, we repeat the remark made above : 
 If these conceptions are given early to the 
 child, because of their supposed logical priority 
 in an explanation of the material universe, we 
 must seriously object. The order of learning is 
 not the order of logical arrangement. General 
 conceptions never precede. The notions selected 
 by Froebel for the young child are so universally 
 of this general and anticipatory character that 
 we feel compelled to judge him guilty of this 
 fallacy in its worst form. Let the reader note 
 
 125 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 the following typical instance of what Froebel 
 expects from play with the sphere and cube: 
 "It is important for him that he himself in 
 play, even as a child, by play should per- 
 ceive within and without how from unity 
 proceed manifoldness, plurality, and totality, 
 and how plurality and manifoldness finally 
 are found again in and resolve themselves into 
 UNITY, and should find this out in his life " 
 (4 : 98) . The italics and capitals here are Froe- 
 bel's. Could anything violate child psychology 
 more thoroughly? 
 
 Our next object of study is the divided cube. 
 Froebel names three principles of development 
 which must characterize the derivation of the 
 gift series. First, " each new gift fulfills and 
 interprets its predecessor by making explicit 
 what it implied." Second, " each object shall 
 appear to the child as a self -included whole, and 
 at the same time ... as a part of a greater whole." 
 Third, " all knowledge and comprehension of 
 life are connected with making the internal 
 external, and the external internal" (4:174). 
 The third characteristic is especially illustrated 
 
 126 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 in the divided cube. '* The child between the 
 ages of one and three years," after he has handled 
 an object, " now tries to pull it apart." If he suc- 
 ceeds, " he then tries to put the parts together 
 to form the whole which he at first had. . . . 
 Thus after comprehending the outside of the 
 object, the child likes also to investigate its 
 inside: after a perception of the whole, to see it 
 separated into its parts'" (4:117f.). We are 
 thus led to a division of the original solid cube 
 into eight equal cubes. With this the child 
 " can make the inner outer and outer inner,'* 
 an " important perceptible fact " (4 : 119). 
 Froebel thus states the function of the divided 
 cube : *' By the use of this gift are recognized, 
 comprehended, and represented, gradually and 
 increasingly, the general in the particular (for 
 example, in the center of each particular surface, 
 the center of every square surface); the most 
 general in the most particular (for example, in a 
 particular corner point of the cube, the point in 
 and of itself) ; unity in the individual (for 
 example, in that particular cube, the properties 
 and nature of bodies which occupy space) ; 
 
 127 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 the simple and unital in the various and mani- 
 fold "... (4 : 120 f.). That eight small cubes 
 furnish good play for the child is undoubted ; 
 but how could anybody, even Froebel, expect a 
 child under three, or of any age for that matter, 
 to " comprehend " in any degree or fashion 
 the " general in the particular " or " unity in 
 the individual".'^ And could anything be worse 
 than the geometrical instances here given ? Is 
 it too much to say that Froebel totally mis- 
 conceives the genesis and function of general 
 ideas ? 
 
 There is no need to discuss the remaining 
 gifts in detail. The next (fourth) consists of 
 the original cube divided into eight equal brick- 
 shaped blocks. The fifth gift consists of the orig- 
 inal cube divided into twenty -seven small cubes, 
 three of which are divided diagonally into halves, 
 and three diagonally into quarters, the rest 
 undivided. Consideration for the reader forbids 
 my quoting at length the delightful mathemati- 
 cal derivation of this fifth gift. As a sample of 
 its tone I present about one tenth of the whole : 
 
 "Vertical and horizontal lines are both straight 
 128 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 lines. They are also in their directions contrast- 
 ing lines. Contrasts in accordance with the 
 universal law of development imply mediation. 
 The diagonal mediates the contrasting right 
 lines and hence is demanded by them " (4 : 203). 
 
 This completes our consideration of the deri- 
 vation of the gift series. The reader has seen 
 enough to convince him that Froebel in devising 
 this series was influenced principally by sym- 
 bolic considerations, secondarily by a desire to 
 develop in the child certain mathematical, 
 physical, and logical concepts of a most general 
 character. These, it was expected, would give 
 the child a comprehension of the world of 
 nature. We need not repeat our discussions of 
 the value of these. That the symbolic as 
 here found is wholly worthless, and that the 
 general conceptions are for the tender years 
 almost equally so, will be readily granted. Be- 
 fore making a final valuation, however, we will 
 consider the manner in which the gifts should be 
 used ; for this must enter into our judgment. 
 
 Directions for using the blocks. — When the 
 child begins his play with one of these divided 
 K 129 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 cubes, the gift is handed to him in an individual 
 box. He is to turn the box on its top, " draw 
 out the cover and raise the box with a steady 
 hand," thus leaving the whole cube with its 
 parts well arranged standing before him. This 
 will bring the child " much inner profit." First, 
 " it is well for him to receive his playthings 
 in an orderly manner." Second, " it is good 
 for the child to begin his play with the percep- 
 tion of a whole, a simple self-contained unit, 
 and from this unity to develop his representa- 
 tions " (4:205). The first of these sugges- 
 tions makes for neatness and order, though one 
 would not care to insist upon any far-reach- 
 ing transfer. The second is again symbolic. 
 Froebel has an obsession for " a self-contained 
 unit." We dismiss this instance along with the 
 rest of his symbolism. 
 
 In each construction with the materials of 
 any one gift there is for Froebel " one per- 
 manent and indispensable condition " (4 : 219), 
 namely, that " the whole of the materials must 
 be used up ; or at least each separate piece 
 must be arranged so as to stand in some actual 
 
 130 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 relation to the whole. While this awakens the 
 thinking spirit, it also strengthens and elevates 
 the imagination ; because, amidst so much 
 variety, the underlying unity is made visibly 
 apparent, and the invisible law is felt " (6 : 72). 
 Again the symbolic interest in unity. This 
 time in rather a vicious form, because it tends to 
 distract attention from the inherent unity of 
 the child's plan in favor of an artificial and ex- 
 ternal unity of the material. In the same way, 
 the thinking by which a child fits in a left-over 
 block relates to an artificial problem set for 
 him from the outside. Both aspects of Froebel's 
 aim in this rule are in direct opposition to his 
 really vital principle of self -activity. Each new 
 instance makes clearer the fact that Froebel's 
 symbolism is essentially destructive of natural 
 healthy childhood. 
 
 The doctrine of sequence. — In the use of 
 the gifts there is yet another rule, that of " se- 
 quence," which regulates the succession of forms 
 constructed from the blocks. Of such forms 
 Froebel holds that, "it is above all important 
 that they be developed one from another. Each 
 
 131 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 form in the series should be a modification or 
 transformation of its predecessor. No form 
 should be entirely destroyed. It is also essential 
 that the series should be developed so that 
 each step should show either an evolution into 
 greater manifoldness or variety, or a return 
 to a greater simplicity " (4 : 224 f.). It is im- 
 portant to Froebel that the child see " how one 
 object springs from another, and can be turned 
 into another; for example, a table into a table 
 and two benches ; these into four benches, 
 etc." (4:180). In Froebel's opinion "the an- 
 ticipation of a certain necessary inner coherence 
 in the thing, whether it be in its form or in its 
 purpose — this manifold perception of a certain 
 inner life throughout — not only awakens, but 
 fosters and forms the life of the child. Isolation 
 and exclusion destroy life; union and parti- 
 cipation create life " (4 : 180). Once again does 
 Froebel's practice defeat his purpose. Where is 
 the " necessary inner coherence " when a table 
 and two benches " spring from " a table ? The 
 purpose of " sequence " is, of course, to sym- 
 bolize development ; but unfortunately for Froe- 
 
 132 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 bel, it illustrates a false development ; benches 
 do not evolve from tables. Fortunately for 
 the child, on his part, the symbolism is all 
 wasted. This " sequence " has no worse effect 
 on him than any other sort of clog. The 
 child's natural play is merely hampered ; that 
 is all. 
 
 If it be urged with Bormann that the child in 
 this sequence is learning " care and patience, 
 and a respect for the existing state of things . . . 
 rather to build up the new from the old in an 
 orderly way, than to hope for new things out of 
 the ruins of the old " (9 : 210), we note that this 
 was said during the sharp reaction in Prussia 
 following the attempted revolution of 1848. 
 Even Bormann's favorable report could not 
 prevent the prohibition of the kindergarten 
 throughout Prussia. The words of this report 
 are meant to quiet a startled conservatism, to 
 set at ease intrenched privilege fearful of change, 
 which indeed wishes " patience and a respect 
 for the existing state of things." Froebel him- 
 self, the Froebel of 1826, was more democratic. 
 But " the respect for the existing state of things " 
 
 133 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 as seen in the child's building is symbolic only. 
 Its only effect is to prescribe external limita- 
 tions. We do wish the child to learn *' pa- 
 tience," but not the patience of submission. We 
 do wish him to utilize the old, i.e. the available, 
 but for reasons of prudential husbanding of 
 resources, not because it is old. If this sequen- 
 tial building had any effect on the child save 
 handicapping his natural endeavor, if the sym- 
 bolism did work, its legitimate result would be 
 to develop a blind respect for whatever is, — an 
 unreasoning conservation of the old. This we 
 do not desire. Again, the effect of " sequence " 
 is bad. 
 
 A third aspect of " sequence " is seen in the 
 exemplification of another favorite " law " of 
 Froebel's. In making the " beauty forms '* 
 with the blocks of the fourth gift (brick-shaped) 
 two forms appear, the " radiate " and the 
 *' circular." " These forms are counterparts. 
 The appearance of forms which are at once 
 antithetic and related calls for mediation or 
 transition. . . . Hence the radiate form must be 
 connected by intermediate forms with the circu- 
 
 134 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 lar. . . . These transitional forms demand a fresh 
 mediation " (4 : 187). Some not well acquainted 
 with Froebel's writings may inquire whether 
 the writer has not unfairly selected for comment 
 mere chance excrescences of Froebel's kinder- 
 garten system. That such is not the case will 
 appear from Froebel's explicit statement regard- 
 ing this particular sequence, that " in the visible 
 connection of the pure antitheses lies the forma- 
 tive and instructive influence of this (the fourth) 
 gift for the child " (4 :190) . Some of us watching 
 children at play with their blocks may have 
 thought that the value to them lay nearer at 
 hand ; but Froebel's opinion is far otherwise. 
 In this " visible connection of the pure antith- 
 eses . . . the child early anticipates, perceives, 
 and recognizes how intimately the finite and 
 infinite, necessity and freedom, law and free 
 will, are connected with another." The reader is 
 asked to note the words, " early . . . perceives 
 and recognizes, . . . the finite and infinite. . . ." 
 Could symbolism claim more.^^ As if in very 
 denial of any unfair emphasis upon symbolism 
 and the law of opposites, Froebel continues : 
 
 135 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 " The illustration of this universal law by means 
 of perceptible phenomena is, in our judgment, as 
 important for the heart and soul culture of the 
 child as . . . the inhalation of air from the at- 
 mosphere " (4 : 190). The simple truth is that 
 Froebel's conscious formulation of the kinder- 
 garten and of its practice are based in the 
 larger part upon these two mistaken principles 
 of " opposites " and symbolism ; and it is 
 high time that the entire kindergarten world 
 should recognize this fact.^ 
 
 " Forms of life." — A more defensible use of 
 the gifts is seen in the so-called " forms of life," 
 considered apart from the practice of " sequence." 
 These " forms of life " involve a symbolism 
 which we must distinguish sharply from the 
 symbolism designed to wake innate ideas. In 
 our discussion in Chapter III (page 73) we re- 
 ferred to the symbolism of childish imaginative 
 play, in which the object, or symbol, permits on 
 
 ' It is not too much to say that the fundamental difference between 
 "conservatives" and "progressives" in the kindergarten ranks is exactly 
 upon the acceptance or rejection of these two doctrines. Those who 
 reject feel the consequent necessity for a thoroughgoing remaking of the 
 kindergarten program and procedure. 
 
 136 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 the child plane an activity normally belonging 
 to adult life. A mud pie, for instance, allows 
 the child to be first cook and then hostess, in 
 imitation of what she has seen in adult life. 
 Here the child reproduces, acts out, " tries on " 
 what she has observed in the home. In so doing 
 an element of make-believe enters. Is coffee 
 desired, clear water can take its place. The 
 coffee pot may even be entirely empty ; but 
 if only the pouring be simulated, hostess and 
 guest will drink with all seriousness from empty 
 cups. This imaginative element seems a benefi- 
 cent counterpart of childish helplessness, for it 
 disappears with advancing years through the 
 various stages of empty cup, pure water, coffee- 
 colored water, some actual drink prepared by 
 the child, and finally coffee prepared by the 
 cook. As the counterpart of childish inability 
 to procure the actual objects of adult life, this 
 power to make-believe more than supplies the 
 deficiency. Not only is the imitated activity 
 thereby allowed to proceed in all its im- 
 agined fullness, but the very act of imagining 
 supplies additional zest. The psychologist, how- 
 
 137 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 ever, sees that the act of imagining is most 
 pleasurable only when it is naturally subordinate 
 as means to the portrayal of mimic life initiated 
 self -actively by the child itself. When Froebel 
 uses the child's fondness for the imaginative as 
 motive to secure the manipulation of concept 
 giving blocks, apart from child initiated play, 
 then the child's imagination has been turned 
 aside from its true function ; and sentimental- 
 ity is the result. In one paragraph (4 : 98 f .) 
 Froebel mentions twenty things that the cube 
 can represent to the child, and even then not 
 content adds " innumerable other things." He 
 explains that " the child will be early led through 
 this representation to perceive and comprehend 
 one thing under many points of view " ^ (4 : 99). 
 Clearly here Froebel is concerned not that the 
 child express himself through play, but that 
 the cube may teach the logical concept of " the 
 one and the many." If the child in the course of 
 his own self -initiated play wishes to use a block 
 for now one thing and now another, even up to 
 twenty times, good only and not harm has 
 
 ' The italics as elsewhere are Froebel's. 
 138 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 resulted. But if the kindergartner, in her de- 
 termination that the child attain some external 
 end that she has set, have him imagine that a 
 cube is, in order, a table, a stool, a chair, a hearth, 
 a chest, a bureau, a house, etc., etc., then is 
 the natural function of imagination so perverted 
 that the child becomes blase, sl result that the 
 kindergarten critics have more than once pointed 
 out. The use of the blocks and other elements 
 in the gift series to represent " forms of life '* 
 is one of the most fruitful of Froebel's contri- 
 butions ; but the pleasure inherent in this 
 must not be used as sugar coating for " nasty " 
 metaphysical pills. Fortunately, a better soul 
 physic has seen that the metaphysical pills 
 are not good, or at best useless, for children, 
 so that we may now prescribe real play from real 
 child motives, resting assured that out of such 
 will come the best results. 
 
 " Forms of knowledge." — We have several 
 times referred to " forms of life " and '* forms 
 of beauty." " Forms of knowledge " com- 
 plete the trio. These three terms refer to three 
 diverse uses or purposes of the gifts. Life 
 
 139 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 forms refer to those uses of the gifts or occu- 
 pations which represent things of social hfe, 
 as table, chair, bird, wagon, etc. Beauty forms 
 are such arrangements of this material as are 
 intended to appeal to the esthetic appreciation. 
 These are usually made symmetrical with re- 
 spect to a center. Knowledge forms are those 
 arrangements which are designed to teach facts 
 of arithmetic or geometry. In these three uses 
 of the gift, the forms of life should be given 
 first, then the forms of knowledge, and last the 
 forms of beauty. " I consider it very im- 
 portant," says Froebel, " to retain this transi- 
 tion in general" (4:186), although elsewhere 
 he possibly contradicts himself by apparently 
 approving a transition " from use to beauty, 
 and beauty to truth" (4:219). Enough has 
 previously been given about *' life forms " 
 and " beauty forms " ; but so far little has 
 been said of " knowledge forms." 
 
 The use of knowledge forms begins with the 
 "child from one to three years old" (4:138), 
 and includes some fractional concepts that we 
 of the present generally postpone to a later 
 
 140 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 age. For instance, with the eight small cubes, 
 the nurse sings : 
 
 "Look here and see ! One whole, two halves ; 
 One half, two fourths ; two halves, four fourths ; 
 One whole, four fourths ; 
 Four fourths, eight eighths ; 
 Eight eighths, one whole. 
 
 Here are many, here are few ; 
 
 It's a magic way to do " (4 : 139). 
 
 " Now what is the aim of all this ? " asks Froe- 
 bel, and he answers that: " It is ... by no means 
 intended . . . with the so-called forms of learning, 
 that the child should already definitely compre- 
 hend relations of size and number, but that a 
 certain tone be always connected with a certain 
 perception, and the tone, when it is again heard, 
 may recall a certain perception, and so anything 
 indefinite or empty may never come near the 
 child " (4 : 141). Some of us would think that 
 nothing more " indefinite or empty " than such 
 songs as these could be brought before the 
 child of from one to three years of age.^ 
 
 The knowledge forms " adapted to children 
 three and four years of age " (4 : 185) are more 
 
 * Possibly under two years of age. See Pedagogics of the Kindergarten, 
 p. 141. 
 
 141 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 geometrical in character. The play is now 
 
 with the fourth gift (eight brick-shaped blocks 
 
 forming a cube). After many similar plays and 
 
 songs, this is sung : 
 
 "Now I will give you something new, 
 Something you will like to do : 
 Twice as long and half as wide, 
 Half as long and tivice as wide, 
 The same size are we two" (4 : 185). 
 
 Froebel in immediate connection says of such 
 exercises that " their contemplation and com- 
 prehension are perfectly suited to the life, mind, 
 and spirit of children three and four years of 
 age, and so wholly adapted to actual free play " 
 (4 : 185). It is unnecessary to say that the whole 
 world of educators, Froebelians and non-Froe- 
 belians alike, are in opposition to the judg- 
 ment here expressed. We may add that 
 Froebel, never content to leave things on a 
 matter-of-fact basis, says that " such exer- 
 cises, moreover, give the child a presentiment 
 of the inner harmony of nature and life " 
 (4 : 185 f.). How such may be true, this writer 
 does not know. 
 
 When we come to the fifth gift, a cube com- 
 142 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 posed of twenty -one small cubes, six half cubes, 
 and twelve quarter cubes, the proposed knowl- 
 edge forms become truly appalling. Although 
 the child is to be allowed " entire freedom in 
 developing from a given point of departure," we 
 find Froebel saying: "Thus proceeding from the 
 rectangular prism the child may, according to his 
 own impulse, develop the rhomboidal prism to the 
 trapezoidal prism. These forms lead on to the 
 hexagonal and pentagonal prisms" (4:208). 
 If this were simple manipulation, it would not be 
 as bad as it sounds ; but the child must know 
 the forms he is building. His " representations 
 must be lifted into the clearness and precision 
 for which he longs (sic) and finally his produc- 
 tions must be clearly defined in words " (4 : 210). 
 As might have been foreseen, Froebel sees 
 development symbolized in this construction. 
 " Here as everywhere the point of prime im- 
 portance for its formative influence is the de- 
 velopment of one form from another " (4 : 212). 
 Although the symbolic value is " here as 
 everywhere the point of prime importance," 
 the pure geometry involved is not to be over- 
 
 143 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 looked. Thus, having made a trapezoid, the 
 
 child is taught to sing : 
 
 " Blunt angles on the shorter side we see ; 
 Sharp angles on the longer sides must be" (4 : 210). 
 
 Or again the child having built, under direction, 
 
 a triangular right prism and next a quadrangular 
 
 right prism of half the height and twice the base, 
 
 he is taught to sing : 
 
 "Four corners you can bring to view, 
 While only three I show to you. 
 Twice as tall I am as you, 
 Just as long, and it is true 
 That, as we cover equal ground. 
 Our contents equal must be found" (4 : 218). 
 
 Enough has been given of the '* forms of 
 knowledge " to show that Froebel does not ade- 
 quately adapt the selection of " knowledge " 
 to the child plane. Granting that the normal 
 child could be led, under skilled direction, 
 through these exercises, two insuperable ob- 
 jections would still remain. Such exercises 
 contradict the demand for spontaneous interest 
 (" self -activity "), and they seek to convey in- 
 formation that cannot function vitally in the 
 child life. To call such didactic activities by 
 
 144 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 the name of play is to degrade the term. To 
 find educational value in them one would be com- 
 pelled to accept some unwarranted disciplinary 
 theory. This, of course, is what Froebel did, 
 both in his symbolism and in his doctrine of 
 logical anticipation. Because all material ob- 
 jects have mathematical volume, therefore the 
 child must antecedently learn of volume in order 
 to comprehend the material world. From every 
 point of view then we feel compelled to reject, 
 in Froebel's direct intent, these " forms of 
 knowledge " as unsuited to the early curricu- 
 lum. 
 
 Significance of the gift series. — To prolong 
 further our review of the gift series and its use 
 would unduly weary even the most patient 
 reader. We have seen that Froebel's purpose 
 in devising the series was to secure the develop- 
 ment of the child by means of suitably chosen 
 occupations and games. Passing by the error 
 of conceiving development as mere unfolding, 
 we must see in Froebel's endeavor one of the 
 most original and most valuable suggestions 
 yet made for the education of the child. Never 
 L 145 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 before had an elaborate regime of early educa- 
 tion been devised independently of prescribed 
 intellectual tasks. True, Jean Paul Richter 
 had written of such, and Wilderspin had de- 
 vised an institution in which the child had more 
 joy and freedom than theretofore ; but Jean 
 Paul achieved neither device nor institution, 
 and Wilderspin's effort was substantially but a 
 sugar coating for formal learning. Froebel, 
 on the contrary, intended to supply, largely 
 from observation of actual child life, those ac- 
 tivities in and through which the child might 
 attain his destined growth and development. 
 In furtherance of this, he first (before 1826) 
 seized upon building and representation in 
 general, as a valuable exercise for the child, 
 believing that in play the child should, " at 
 least mentally repeat the achievements of man- 
 kind, that they may not be to him empty, dead 
 masses, that his judgment of them may not be 
 external and spiritless " (1 : 282). For these 
 building purposes Froebel (in common with 
 Wilderspin) used blocks of various shapes, from 
 one to twelve inches in length. The most 
 
 146 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 numerous, " at least five hundred " in number, 
 were brick shaped, 2 X 1 X J inches (1 : 283 f.). 
 It is interesting to note that the fourth gift 
 was years later to consist exactly of eight of 
 these bricks. Subsequently, in 1836, Froebel 
 tells us, " the ball, the sphere, and the cube, 
 as the earliest toys of childhood were discovered 
 and worked out, but still in the same remark- 
 able retrograde fashion, from the cube proceed- 
 ing to the sphere" (6:107). The order of 
 genesis in his own mind seemed thus to have 
 been (1) blocks one inch square, one to twelve 
 inches long (1 : 283), (2) the brick-shaped 
 blocks^ (fourth gift), (3) the cube, (4) the 
 sphere. It is worthy of comment how near 
 this is to the reversed order of the final series. 
 Even during the earlier period (before 1826) 
 Froebel had stressed the intellectualistic. When 
 the boy had built, he must describe in words 
 exactly what he had done : *' I have built a 
 vertical wall with vertical ends, a door, and two 
 windows at equal distances, etc." (1 : 284). 
 
 ^ It is possible that these first two stages were simultaneous, or even 
 reversed. 
 
 147 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 In bringing each step thus to clear conscious- 
 ness Froebel was quite possibly influenced by 
 his master, Pestalozzi. Some, Froebel says, 
 were " inclined to doubt the utility of these 
 exercises" (1:282). For himself he thought 
 " this instruction [building, drawing, model- 
 ing, etc.] addresses itself equally to the senses 
 and through them to the power of thought, and 
 to external manual activity" (1:294). 
 
 It is instructive, though sad, to reconstruct 
 the successive steps in Froebel's thinking. 
 The intellectualistic end, implied here, ex- 
 plicit elsewhere in the Education of Man, came 
 to dominate more and more. When he gave 
 up teaching older boys for the study of in- 
 fancy, he must, as he saw it, in some way 
 compass it that the young child get the ideas 
 logically prior to an explanation of the universe. 
 To this end there must be selected and arranged 
 a hierarchy of ideas ; the most inclusive to be 
 appropriated first by the child, and so on in 
 descending order of importance.^ Among these 
 
 * " . . . My general method of development and nm-ture . . . which de- 
 scends from the universal to the particular" (4 : 237). See also 8 : 210 £f. 
 
 148 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 ideas unity stood first as most important, be- 
 cause most inclusive. How shall the child get 
 this hierarchy? For some of the ideas not too 
 high in the scale, such as space and time, and 
 geometric concepts, ordinary experience — Froe- 
 bel thought — would suffice, if suflSciently re- 
 peated. For the more inclusive ideas higher 
 up in the hierarchy, which clearly transcend 
 child experience, the doctrine of innate ideas 
 and symbolic awakening of these was seized 
 upon. When this stage has been reached in 
 Froebel's thinking, the simple wooden blocks 
 would no longer suffice. Other gifts and occu- 
 pations must be devised in accordance with the 
 demands of symbolism, and the whole arranged 
 to meet these demands, including particularly 
 the illustration of the law of opposites. The 
 purpose of the now complete series was thus to 
 give to the child this hierarchy of ideas : unity, 
 unity in diversity, plurality, mediation of op- 
 posites, the general and the particular, Glied- 
 ganzes, space, time, being, becoming, sundry 
 geometrical and numerical facts, etc. For this 
 the reliance was, primarily, on symbolism — 
 
 149 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 powerful enough to work in ways no mortal 
 can understand — and, secondarily, on many 
 times repeated experience which can cope with 
 the less difficult ideas, though even here Froebel 
 goes far beyond sober observation. 
 
 This then is the genesis of Froebel' s later 
 theory and practice, a sad degeneration from 
 his own earlier and better thinking. Having 
 accepted symbolism and believing that the 
 mediation of opposites is in very truth the fun- 
 damental fact in the universe, he bases on these 
 practically the whole procedure of his new in- 
 stitution, the kindergarten. How the kinder- 
 garten in spite of these fundamental errors 
 has in it, nevertheless, some tremendously 
 vital elements, — this is a question later to be 
 discussed. 
 
 Summary of the chapter. — In the meantime 
 we conclude of Froebel's gift and occupation 
 series : (1) that its immediate purpose of giving 
 to the child a hierarchy of all-inclusive ideas is 
 an error based on a confusion of logic and psy- 
 chology ; (2) that the primary means of ac- 
 complishing this purpose, namely, by symbolism, 
 
 150 
 
KINDERGARTEN GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS 
 
 is founded on a false and misleading psychology ; 
 and (3) that the secondary means, namely, habit- 
 uation to certain abstract ideas, is derived from 
 a mistaken observation of child activity. From 
 another point of view we further conclude 
 (4) that there has as yet appeared no suflScient 
 reason for seeking a specific and definite series 
 of materials for the education of the young 
 child ; (5) if such were demanded, the (quasi) 
 logical method of devising it is in total violation 
 of child psychology ; (6) Froebel's proposed 
 series is unwarranted in theory and unjustified 
 in practice ; (7) the further use of Froebel's 
 series as such obstructs the scientific search for 
 a better curriculum, handicaps the intelligent 
 kindergartner, and violates the child's right to 
 enjoy the best known tuition. 
 
 151 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 ADDITIONAL ELEMENTS OF THE KINDERGARTEN 
 CURRICULUM 
 
 While the gift series makes up the most defi- 
 nite part of Froebel's kindergarten curriculum, 
 there are other elements which demand con- 
 sideration. Among these none now stands 
 out more strikingly than the use of games. 
 What then was Froebel's purpose in regard to 
 these ? 
 
 Froebel's use of games. — The play of 
 earlier childhood is by Froebel distinguished 
 from the play of boyhood in that " activity as 
 such " is the characteristic of the former, while \ 
 the latter includes " a definite conscious pur- 
 pose " (1 : 112). The latter is found chiefly in 
 games, where the social element is the pro- 
 nounced characteristic. The good results to 
 flow from boys' games could hardly be bet- 
 ter stated : " justice, moderation, self-control, 
 
 152 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 truthfulness, loyalty, brotherly love, and yet also 
 strict impartiality . . . courage, perseverance, 
 resolution, prudence . . . forbearance, considera- 
 tion, sympathy and encouragement " (1 : 113*). 
 At a later date, Froebel, discussing the games 
 seen by him in Pestalozzi's school, says that 
 " the higher symbolic meaning of games had 
 not yet dawned upon me " (2 : 82). Just when 
 this " symbolic meaning of games " did come, 
 we cannot say, but it proved with the advanc- 
 ing years an increasingly important factor in 
 his discussion of the subject. 
 
 In the making of games for the kindergarten 
 Froebel followed at least a partially inductive 
 method of procedure. " A large majority of 
 our games I have obtained, just as they are, 
 simply by watching children at play, then re- 
 casting their games in the spirit of my whole 
 system" (6:94*). The social value of such 
 games is evident. " Combined games for many 
 children . . . train the child, eager by his very 
 nature for companionship, in the habit of asso- 
 ciation with comrades " (6 : 253), a statement 
 evidently in thorough accord with the best 
 
 153 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 current psychology. Most of our schools of 
 all grades would do well to utilize this general 
 conception in a far more thoroughgoing manner. 
 While the jflexibility of Froebel's daily program 
 is in many respects open to question, in the 
 matter of games he is explicit. What he pre- 
 sents are " just samples of what may be done 
 . . . the true kindergartner will listen to the 
 suggestion of the children and will be guided 
 by circumstances" (9:177). It may be re- 
 membered by some that on one occasion, at 
 least, the games divided the time equally with 
 building (6 : 55). 
 
 The physical aspect of games likewise in- 
 terested Froebel. In one place he speaks of 
 " little games arranged to exercise the limbs 
 and senses of the child" {6:'^5'2,). Elsewhere 
 he asserts that in his games are embodied " all 
 the main exercises of gymnastics " (6 : 64) ; 
 and in the Pedagogics of the Kindergarten (p. 
 272 f.) he gives a number of physical exercises 
 in connection with the ball games. There are 
 moreover a number of references to exercise in 
 the " open air " (4 : 250), including running 
 
 154 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 races (4:265). Readers of Froebel will recall 
 in this connection his opinion that " every 
 town should have its common playground " 
 (1 : 114) ; and how at another time he plans 
 to train playground directors (6: 162). 
 
 An examination of the movement games 
 described by Froebel (4 : 237 ff .) discloses a 
 number that are very attractive to children : 
 " The child likes to walk " (played in a ring), 
 " We all like to walk " (this may mean an actual 
 visit in the neighborhood), " The snail " (in 
 which a line of children winds itself into a spiral 
 and then unwinds), " The wheel " (in which the 
 children make up a turning wheel), and various 
 other circling games. If these are well played 
 with lively songs and apt rhythmic movements, 
 they greatly delight the children. In the actual 
 utilization of such games Froebel made a great 
 and permanent contribution to early education. 
 So far as I know he deserves entire credit for 
 doing thoroughly pioneer work along this line. 
 Others had written of it, still others had en- 
 couraged games as enjoyable recreation. Froe- 
 bel first utilized them for their educative value. 
 
 155 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 The school of the future will make even more 
 thoroughgoing use of games and play. 
 
 The superior value of these games to some 
 other of Froebel's kindergarten activities is due 
 partly to the fact that in these his peculiar 
 doctrines — while present in theory — have less 
 effect on practice. The reader will recall that 
 the games collected by Froebel were recast 
 " in the spirit of his whole system." He speaks 
 thus of the " inner spirit " of the games (6 : 82) 
 and of their " inmost deepest meaning " (6 : 83). 
 Knowing Froebel, we are not surprised to hear 
 that he has "little songs ... to lay bare the 
 inner meaning of the game " (6 : 253 f.), nor 
 to learn that " the comprehension of the games 
 to be arrived at later on by the growing mind 
 of the child is the main thing to aim at " (6 : 88). 
 So insistent is Froebel on this meaning aspect 
 that he goes so far as to assert that " we have 
 here no childish or one-sided play, but games 
 which represent true thoughts and ideas of 
 adult and cultivated men" (6:86 f.). Even 
 Froebel, lover of children as he was, could not 
 get entirely away from the age-old conception 
 
 156 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 that the child life is real only to the degree 
 that it prepares for the (supposedly) real life 
 of the adult. 
 
 The "inner meaning" of games. — To ex- 
 plain this " inner meaning of the games " 
 which must be " laid bare," several points are 
 brought out by Froebel. The child should be 
 questioned as to what he has seen in his walk- 
 ing games that he may learn " not to pass by 
 objects without observing them " (4 : 246), and 
 " praise is awarded to most acute observation " 
 (4 : 250). Whatever value attaches to this is 
 at best incidental rather than inherent in the 
 games as such ; we may therefore pass it by. 
 Certain open-air games have to do with flowers 
 and plants. " The object of such games ... is 
 to draw the children to the observation of natu- 
 ral phenomena, and at the same time to sym- 
 pathy with the pure, eternal, unresting, ever 
 peaceful, helpful life of nature" (6:94). To 
 what extent the second aim of nature study 
 here expressed is desirable and feasible, in- 
 dividual interpreters of child life will differ. 
 To wish this and to seek it is, however, 
 
 157 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 thoroughly characteristic of the Froebehan 
 position. 
 
 The " inner meaning " so dear to Froebel is 
 as elsewhere in kindergarten practice most 
 closely associated with the ball and circle. 
 Strangely enough Froebel even insists that *'the 
 ball has furnished incitement and type " for 
 the movement games described above, although 
 the ball was in no wise used (4:269). In 
 another kind of game where the ball is used, 
 he says, " the movement of the ball seemed 
 to affect the children magnetically" (4:269). 
 Perhaps — some carping critic may add — the 
 same thing is true in a modern football match. 
 Again Froebel speaks of the " almost magic 
 effects obtainable by ball games, especially 
 with sickly rather stupid children." That he 
 is describing what he has seen is pathetically 
 evident : these " remain uninterested for a 
 length of time together. At last you see pleas- 
 ure rise, as if from a deep grave, and smiles 
 spread over their faces, and their little arms 
 seem to acquire life for the first time " (6 : 101). 
 But we are by this time thoroughly accustomed 
 
 158 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 to Froebel's extravagant claims in behalf of the 
 ball. The symbolized conception of a whole 
 and of unity is always dear to him. We referred 
 above to " the snail " as an attractive play for 
 the child. Froebel approves it as the closing 
 game of a series, because " it unites all the 
 children in one whole of living activity, and 
 finally yields the form of the circle which is 
 symbolic ^ of wholeness " (4 : 256). 
 
 But of all childish activity, circular action 
 games have most significance. " The games in 
 a circle hardly ever make the children tired. 
 The reasons of this fact lie very deep, to my 
 thinking." These reasons are thus set out : 
 
 *' This kind of play is the symbol of a triple 
 life. First it is the symbol of the individual 
 life ; . . . for all our actions tend, like those 
 of the children in their games, to some one 
 invisible fundamental . . . longing of the soul. 
 
 " Second, it is the symbol of the life of 
 
 * The word "symbolic" which Miss Jarvis here uses does not occur 
 in the original, but is perhaps fairiy to be inferred. A literal translation 
 would be that the snail is "in every respect adapted" (gam geeignet) 
 to close a series of games, "because it unites all the playfellows into a 
 lively and in the end completely formed whole, the circle" (14 : 346). 
 
 159 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 nature, where, as . . . with the planets, all 
 revolves about a midmost unity. . . . 
 
 *' And thirdly, it is a symbol of the collective 
 life of mankind in general, whose ultimate . . . 
 union rests also on the invisible midmost unity 
 of all life . . ." (6:61). 
 
 Does the reader in defense reply that these 
 ideas concern the kindergartner only ? Froe- 
 bel answers, in immediate connection, " I 
 hold it certain that a child yearns (ahnet) for 
 such symbolized relations of life." And he 
 continues, " if, as opportunity offers, they are 
 awakened, and raised up to become an inward 
 and spiritual intuition, the child will be 
 strengthened for that demand later to be 
 made upon him, that he shall hold fast to the 
 invisible unity of life amidst the ceaseless 
 changing play of phenomena " (6 : 61). 
 
 Other concepts besides unity are involved in 
 the circular movement games. A large circle 
 of children is broken up into several small 
 circles, and these are later recombined. '* In 
 this way," says Froebel, " the particular, the 
 individual, and the universal are shown in 
 
 160 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 gradation and harmony " (4 : 280). To whom, 
 do you ask, are these general ideas shown? 
 Froebel adds : " Through experiences of this 
 kind the child is prepared to recognize the 
 relationship of particular and universal in 
 nature and in life, and finally to realize the 
 significance of these relationships in the struc- 
 ture of the universe" (4:280). Whether the 
 reader can accept this statement or not, Froebel 
 thoroughly believed it. The Festival on the 
 Altenstein, arranged by Froebel in 1850, and 
 described by him at length (7:24-66), was 
 based exactly on such psychology. The motto 
 of the occasion was a quotation from Schiller : 
 
 " Deep meaning often lies in childish play " (8 : 109). 
 
 First a large circle was formed of all the 
 children, " all the faces were turned toward the 
 middle of the circle, and thus each surveyed the 
 whole. ... In this way was to come to each 
 participant the most efiicient and highest per- 
 ception of the life, . . . the outwardly invisible 
 unity determining the whole, here the invisible 
 center which yet determines the circle " 
 
 M 161 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 (7:29 f.). Then eight concentric circles were 
 formed. " This classification expressed that 
 . . . the bearing in mind of one idea does not 
 exclude the formation of subordinate wholes " 
 (7:31). As the children sang "See us all in 
 union here," the circle moved alternately to the 
 right and to the left, to show that one idea can 
 prevail in spite of that " which is opposite in 
 outward appearance " (7 : 31). Each circle now 
 broke and joined with the others in such way 
 as to form a spiral, the leader stepping to the 
 center. " The invisible middle had become 
 visible in its attracting and uniting power " ; 
 and as they marched, " the whole developed 
 again from the center, like the plant from the 
 germ" (7:32). So far we have seen sym- 
 bolized in this festival the all-inclusive direct- 
 ing unity, the member-whole relationship, the 
 mediation of opposites, and the concept of 
 development. To Froebel " it seems almost 
 impossible that the aforesaid perceptions should 
 have no effect on the life of the child " 
 (7:37). 
 
 Vicarious symbolism. — As if considering 
 162 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 possible objections to the symbolic use of 
 games, Froebel admits that he does not " in- 
 tend that such meanings should come to con- 
 sciousness in the child in the extent " that the 
 songs used would suggest. He then directs 
 that " the loving kindergartner should retain 
 the meaning as clearly as possible. This clear 
 perception of the meaning of the play by the 
 kindergartner acts on the child's mind as the 
 clear sunshine and warm air act on the germs, 
 buds, and blossoms in the spring, warming, 
 developing, forming for the child, into thought- 
 fulness, intelligence, rationality, understanding 
 of life and union " (7 : 41). 
 
 Much has been made of this vicarious sym- 
 bolism by certain followers of Froebel. As a 
 rule these realize the futility of expecting the 
 symbolism to affect the child directly, yet are 
 loath to give up a doctrine so essential to their 
 system. They accordingly take refuge in Froe- 
 bel's suggestion quoted above, and give the 
 kindergarten novitiate an even more thorough 
 grounding in symbolism in the hope that from 
 her effluence the child may after all receive the 
 
 163 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 desired beneficent results. If any one has 
 heretofore thought that straight FroebeUan 
 symbohsm was the limit of obscurantism, what 
 will he say to this naive psychology which 
 thinks that symbolism merely held in the 
 kindergartner's mind can bring to the child 
 such results as Froebel promises? Leaving so 
 impossible a doctrine to fall of its own weight, 
 we turn from the effects on the child to the effect 
 on the teacher. In the main our previous dis- 
 cussion of the baselessness of symbolism for 
 the child holds here as well. The kindergarten 
 novitiate can, it is true, appreciate symbolism 
 in cases where the child cannot. Such in- 
 stances, if worth while, belong largely to poetry, 
 which does not use the Froebelian psychology. 
 In those other cases where the young kinder- 
 gartner can intellectually catch some glimmer- 
 ing of the Froebelian symbolism involved, the 
 result is as worthless as can well be imagined. 
 What waste of time could, for instance, be 
 greater or more inane than that of having girls 
 in the training school point out all the sym- 
 bolism put by Froebel's direction into the 
 
 164 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 original pictures of the Mother Play book? 
 Yet this practice is to be found even now. 
 
 Still more serious is the obstacle that such a 
 use of symbolism puts in the way of scientific 
 psychology. If the kindergartner selects games 
 from the point of view of symbolism and directs 
 her pupils accordingly, she is directing by that 
 which is essentially untrue to child psychology, 
 and she must in consequence fail to make the 
 best use of her time and efforts. It is like 
 beating tom-toms to avert pestilence. Atten- 
 tion and faith being directed to the useless, not 
 only is the immediate situation not met but 
 progress in scientific method is the longer post- 
 poned. Symbolism administered to the teacher 
 does less harm than when given directly to the 
 child. Its immediate effects at any rate are 
 less pernicious. But looking to the future, one 
 would almost prefer that the symbolism were 
 given directly to the children and with all its 
 extravagances. Common sense would then re- 
 coil and banish it utterly, root and branch, 
 from kindergarten education. 
 
 Mother plays and the Mother Play book. — 
 165 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 It is but a step from games to the Mother 
 Play. No other of Froebel's books has 
 occasioned so much dispute. It is described 
 by Froebel himself as a " book for mothers 
 and families for the very first training of the 
 child, that is, for mere babyhood " (6 : 250*). 
 One group of kindergartners while tenacious of 
 the Froebelian tradition has made small use of 
 the Mother Play, apparently deeming that it 
 properly belongs to the pre-kindergarten age. 
 Another group has made it practically the core 
 of the kindergarten procedure. Still a third 
 has used it but little, holding that other better 
 material is available. It is impossible not to 
 feel some sympathy for those Froebelians who 
 defend the book. It contains as adequate an 
 account of Froebel's essential position as we 
 have. The Education of Man, in many respects 
 Froebel's masterpiece, was written before he 
 had any special interest in very young children. 
 The collections of articles found in the Peda- 
 gogics of the Kindergarten and Education by 
 Development tend to be expository and dry, 
 often descending to wearisome details. The 
 
 166 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 Mutter und Kose Lieder by contrast concern 
 the young child especially and are never 
 mechanically expository. They represent the 
 height of Froebel's interest in the child, pictured 
 to us at the child's most attractive age — baby- 
 hood. There can be no doubt that Froebel 
 presents here, as few elsewhere have done, the 
 movement of maternal instinct. Said Froebel 
 to the young mother, " these songs, games, and 
 stories . . . are to help you get a firm hold 
 over the earliest life of childhood, while your 
 child is a baby in arms" (3:124*). The 
 first verses in the book describe " a mother's 
 feelings on seeing her first-born child." The 
 first of the plays is the " Kicking Song." 
 
 " When happy Baby moves his arms and feet ; 
 In mother stirs the love of play most sweet " (3 : 12). 
 
 The appeal of the book is thus first of all to 
 one of the deepest emotions, especially deep in 
 those who elect to be kindergartners. No 
 wonder that rejection on merely rational 
 grounds should provoke antagonism on the 
 part of those who have not clearly differentiated 
 the nature of the appeal. A second motive is 
 
 167 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 the mystical ; fewer feel this, but they feel it 
 strong. Those kindergartners in whom this 
 attitude is pronounced find ever increasing 
 satisfaction in Froebel's writings — so sure is he, 
 and so intimately has he entered into mysteries 
 that ever draw them on. For them Froebelian 
 doctrine becomes a religion. The Froebel cult 
 accordingly appears. 
 
 If we confine our attention to the general 
 statement of Froebel's thought and idea, the 
 pedagogical purpose of the Mother Play book 
 is sound. It is essentially an effort to note the 
 child's instinctive reactions and to utilize these 
 to the realization of the social ideal. Play, the 
 natural play of childish nature and endeavor, 
 is to serve as medium both for discovering to the 
 observer the natural interests and for leading 
 these to their proper social goal. No statement 
 of educational method — at least for the tender 
 years — could be sounder or more attractive. 
 So pleasant would be the task of elaborating the 
 many valuable ramifications of the doctrine that 
 one could wish this were an idea new to the educa- 
 tional world to be treated here for the first time. 
 
 168 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 But when we ask how Froebel meant the 
 book to be used in furtherance of this general 
 purpose, the prospect changes. Doubts and 
 uncertainties arise. Froebel says the book is 
 " for the very first training of the child, that is, 
 for mere babyhood ; influencing and training 
 the child's body, his limbs and senses, as well 
 as his soul, his mind and his whole inner 
 nature " (6 : 250). An examination of the book 
 itself will disclose many evidences of this pur- 
 pose. The many finger plays point to infancy. 
 *' Pat-a-cake " goes back to the babe in arms. 
 In the play of the " Weathercock " (repre- 
 sented by the baby's outspread hand), it is 
 specifically stated that " your child cannot 
 speak yet" (3:132). We may agree then — 
 as all do — that in one of its aspects the book 
 is designed for " mere babyhood." 
 
 But it contemplates also older children. 
 Froebel hoped, even while the book was pre- 
 paring, that it might be " handed down from 
 mother to children's children as the book of the 
 family " (6 : 123). He meant that it should be 
 a picture book for the child at the age *' where 
 
 169 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 he enjoys passing from anything to the picture 
 of it " (3 : 124). Just how old Froebel thought 
 this would be is not easy to say, but from 
 many considerations we need not hesitate in 
 supposing that the book is designed to in- 
 fluence children appreciably beyond the kin- 
 dergarten age. 
 
 Use of the Mother Play book. — What rela- 
 tion has the book to the kindergarten? In 
 practice, as stated above, orthodox Froebelians 
 have differed. Some have in effect eliminated 
 the *' mother plays " from kindergarten pro- 
 cedure. Others have made them the basis of a 
 large part of the kindergarten program. What 
 was Froebel's purpose? The name and his 
 well-nigh universal reference make the book one 
 for mothers rather than for kindergartners. 
 He did say that the book should form " the 
 basis of kindergarten teaching " (6 : 311) ; but 
 this probably means no more than that the same 
 principles hold of earliest childhood as of the 
 kindergarten age. Its use in American kinder- 
 gartens has probably been due to the feeling 
 that the homes did not supply the nurture 
 
 170 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 contemplated in the Mother Play book, while, 
 besides, the games suggested in it supply an 
 important element otherwise scantily provided 
 in the Froebelian program. 
 
 Froebel's proposed method of using the book 
 can be illustrated by the ** Weathercock," one 
 of the better plays. When the child is yet a 
 babe in arms, unable to talk, he is taught to 
 flatten his hand and hold his thumb up so as to 
 represent the cock of the German weather- 
 vane. This may seem a very simple game 
 " yet it gives your child pleasure — fresh pleas- 
 ure every time, and it is a long time before it 
 ceases to do so. . . . Only see with what 
 pleasure, but with what seriousness he moves 
 his small hand when you invite him by saying, 
 * show me what the weathercock does ! ' " 
 (3:132). 
 
 What now is Froebel's purpose in this play.f^ 
 " Have you not noticed," asks Froebel, " that 
 when you move an object before a child so 
 that the motive power is somewhat distant 
 from the object, it gives the child more pleas- 
 ure to seek the cause of the movement than to 
 
 171 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 look at the moving object ? " In Froebel's 
 opinion, "it is the same thing here ; it is the 
 feehng and controlUng the reason of a conse- 
 quence, the cause of an effect, which makes 
 your child look so serious as well as so happy. 
 . . . He is giving a practical representation 
 . . . that a moving cause, a moving power, is 
 the secret of the object's moving at all." This 
 then is Froebel's purpose, namely, that the 
 babe come to the conclusion that " a living, 
 lively, and enlivening force is at the bottom of 
 the living, lively object " (3 : 132 f.). 
 
 We may for the moment postpone the use 
 of the " Weathercock " for older children, 
 while we look at the psychology of this ac- 
 count as given by Froebel. That the child 
 will acquire and enjoy such movements is too 
 well known for any one to question. That he 
 does also look in a childish way for causes of 
 movements and does himself enjoy — later on — 
 being the cause of a movement, — these are 
 undoubted. It is further quite certainly true 
 that the child's experience in seeing objects 
 move and in himself initiating movements 
 
 172 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 furnishes essential conditions in the formation 
 of his concept of a living body. In this partic- 
 ular case we may well question whether the 
 babe's pleasure in moving his hand at request 
 is the same as his later pleasure in causing 
 effects. So that we question whether this par- 
 ticular infant play, in the way here explained, 
 is tending very directly to develop in the child's 
 mind the concept of a living force at the bottom 
 of manifestations of life. But let this objec- 
 tion pass, suppose that it does so act. And let 
 us not stop to question the scientific accuracy 
 of the concept sought by Froebel. We may, 
 however, very properly question whether the 
 mother or the kindergartner need at the tender 
 years before six trouble to direct the formation 
 of such concepts. In so far as such concepts 
 are desirable they will most probably take care 
 of themselves in an ordinarily rich child life. 
 Upon the concepts thus incidently formed may 
 be later built whatever more conscious formu- 
 lations are then necessary. If the child — 
 without our conscious direction — never got 
 the notion of animate creatures sufficient for 
 
 173 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 his needs and for later development, then by 
 all means we should take pains to see that he 
 has the opportunity. His associations with 
 humans will, however, pretty well supply all 
 that is needed. Playing with pets and watch- 
 ing other animate life will do the rest. Such 
 opportunities the child should have. Greater 
 consciousness on the part of mother or kinder- 
 gartner of what concept formation is taking 
 place along this line might be dangerous, es- 
 pecially so if she has the Froebelian idea 
 that the more she is conscious of the ulti- 
 mate concept to be attained by the child, the 
 better he will attain it. The danger is that the 
 greater consciousness in the older mind will 
 manifest itself in pushing adult formulation 
 upon the child's mind. Priggish precocity 
 would under such circumstances naturally, if 
 not inevitably, result. 
 
 But the " Weathercock," as other '* mother 
 plays," concerns also older children. " On a 
 rather windy, almost boisterous day," says 
 Froebel in words addressed to the mother, 
 " your dear children go with you to the drying 
 
 174 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 ground in front of your house. Here they 
 see, as the picture shows, many manifestations 
 of the power of the wind. The vane on the 
 church tower creaks ; the Hnen hung out to dry 
 flaps in the wind ; a pennant improvised by the 
 boy waves on high; the windmill claps noisily. 
 * Mother ! isn't the wind very strong to-day ? 
 . . . Where does the wind come from, that 
 moves everything in this way ? ' The mother 
 answers, ' . . . There are many things, my child, 
 which we can certainly perceive, but cannot see. 
 . . . Your hand moves, but you cannot see the 
 power that moves it ,. . . later you will see more 
 and more where it comes from ' " (3: 133 f.). 
 
 Clearly Froebel is suggesting to the mother 
 to use the ordinary phenomena of life as the 
 basis of concept formation. As so stated, no 
 better outside direction can come to children. 
 The pictures in the Mother Play book are evi- 
 dently designed to guide the mother as well as 
 the child to the study and utilization of such 
 phenomena. The general notion is most ex- 
 cellent. The particular conceptions that Froe- 
 bel wishes to bring to consciousness in the 
 
 175 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 child's mind may, however, be open to question. 
 Some are better than others. Scientifically, 
 we may question in the case at hand whether 
 we wish to say much about " forces " back of 
 phenomena. The terminology belongs rather 
 to the past. To those, however, who conceive 
 of God in this spiritualistic fashion, this par- 
 ticular concept will appeal more strongly. 
 
 Symbolism in the mother plays. — To many 
 it will seem that Froebel has in the different 
 mother plays, as elsewhere in his writings, made 
 too much of the symbolic and metaphoric. 
 The lamp and the oil mill in the " Kicking 
 Song," too involved to be explained here, are 
 particularly bad. The baby's representation 
 of the weathervane has no very justifiable 
 pedagogic connection with winds in spite of 
 the evident adult association. So the child's 
 waving in " All gone " is made the text of a 
 lesson to the older children that " if people 
 want to keep things, they must be economical 
 and careful wherever those things are con- 
 cerned " (3:135). The waving "all gone" 
 may be all right for the baby; and care is 
 
 176 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 good for the older child ; but the connection 
 between the two is certainly not the kind to 
 be sought in children's thinking. So the 
 " Taste Song," which begins with tasting ripe 
 plums and sour apples, includes in the com- 
 mentary " especially the improvement of the 
 sense of taste in its transferred moral meaning 
 as well." " Who likes to be accused of having 
 * common and low taste ' ? " (3 : 136.) *' Tick- 
 tack," which consists of the child's using his 
 arms for a pendulum, is announced as being 
 *' a movement for the arm and its formation " ; 
 but Froebel adds that we will " use our little 
 limb games for the purpose of training our dear 
 child to heed time" (3:139). No one would 
 question that for the babe swinging the arm is 
 a good enough exercise ; and certainly the babe 
 grown older needs to *' heed time," but to put 
 these two things together is little short of atro- 
 cious. Of course Froebel could do it because he 
 believed, as he says in connection, that at the 
 bottom of the child's interest in timepieces lies 
 " a deeply slumbering premonition of the value 
 of time." An absolutely astounding belief ! 
 N 177 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 One of the worst of the metaphorical in- 
 stances is *' The fish in the brook." This is 
 represented in the baby stage — "its outer 
 form " — by a child's imitating the swimming 
 of fishes by the movement of his fingers. The 
 movement is probably a good one for the fingers. 
 To name it to a baby as the " swimming of 
 fishes " may be doubtful, but let that pass. 
 This simple movement game leads to the as- 
 tonishing assertion that a child tries to catch 
 the flying bird and swimming fish in order to 
 *' gain from both the free and eager power of 
 moving himself, and guiding himself in what is 
 clean and clear." Such catching, however, will 
 be in vain. "It is from within that freedom 
 must be won. . . . Try, Mother, to bring this 
 near to your child, even though it be at first as 
 the faintest notion. . . . To this end use your 
 child's early delight in what is clean and clear, 
 and in joyful excitement and merry movements." 
 Could anything be worse .'^ A child is joy- 
 fully running and skipping. He tries to catch 
 a bird in the air or a fish in the brook. The 
 mother must seek to use this in such way as 
 
 178 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 to give him a notion — faint though it be — ■ 
 " that from within alone can the fresh and 
 pure atmosphere be attained " ! (3 : 144.) 
 
 Nor is this all. In the picture accompany- 
 ing this in the Mother Play book " crooked and 
 straight " is a pronounced feature. " The fishes 
 are swimming straight and bent, the water is 
 flowing straight and curved, the tree is grow- 
 ing straight and bent, and round the straight 
 slim Arum lily (calla) the serpents are dismally 
 wreathing." Does the reader wonder what all 
 this may mean ? "If you have thus early given 
 your little child an abiding impression of the 
 difference between straight and crooked, of drear- 
 iness in the feeling of crookedness, and of com- 
 fort in the feeling of straightness in action and 
 life, in thought and speech, then directness 
 and all that goes with it will be the mark of 
 all he does, and he will move freely and joy- 
 fully in the right use of his well-developed 
 strength, . . . just like the merry fish in the 
 brook"! (3:145). 
 
 ^ Let no apologist claim that such extreme positions of Froebel have 
 no effect on his orthodox followers. It is no uncommon task for these 
 
 179 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 In practice the kindergartner who uses the 
 Mother Play makes a combination of the baby- 
 aspect of the several plays with the parts meant 
 for the older children. The children use the 
 finger play meant for the baby and sing the 
 song meant to " adumbrate " the meaning. 
 The kindergartner then, according to her train- 
 ing and insight, makes application of the " prin- 
 ciples " found in Froebel's explanations. By a 
 very curious oversight Froebel failed to arrange 
 the plays according to the order of child de- 
 velopment, or even according to any discover- 
 able order. Moreover some few of the mother 
 plays discuss topics which American kinder- 
 
 to have their students in training study the Mother Play pictures for 
 all their symbolism. One such student has told me of her failure, con- 
 fessed at the time, to connect with the rest of the picture a little open 
 pod lying at the bottom of the fourteenth picture. When her paper was 
 returned, it had been marked off severely for this failure; and she her- 
 self was sternly taken to task for speaking "flippantly" of the "germinal 
 seed" whence had sprung a vine important in the picture. In this par- 
 ticular school two years of study is put on the Mother Play. As a further 
 instance of the same attitude, a kindergartner told me how she used the 
 mother plays, illustrating with the "Light Bird" (a reflection of sunlight 
 cast by a small mirror). Several children tried in vain to catch the 
 light. Finally one little fellow gladdened her heart by saying, "We 
 catch it by looking at it." This she felt had been a triumph. Such 
 precocity is the result aimed at and approved by those who follow the 
 mother plays in the Froebelian spirit. 
 
 180 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 gartners as a rule do not care to bring before 
 their children. So that selection and arrange- 
 ment are necessary in the utilization of the 
 plays. Froebel's oversight in these regards 
 doubtless brings painful questioning to the ex- 
 tremest followers of the cult, but the oversight 
 is there and will not be explained away. 
 
 " Pattern " plays. — Closely connected with 
 the problem of the Mother Play is the question 
 of the so-called " pattern " or typical plays. 
 Into the rather heated discussion over this 
 question one hesitates to enter, especially since 
 Froebel himself seems not to have thought of 
 his plays in quite this fashion. But the conten- 
 tion of the " pattern play " advocates is so 
 thoroughly Froebelian in spirit that the topic 
 cannot be entirely disregarded. When Froebel 
 made his collection of games he naturally used 
 materials at hand, only modifying them to suit 
 his theories (6 : 94) . Many of the games thus 
 utilized were so closely connected with the life 
 of the times as to afford to the children playing 
 them an appreciable insight into the conditions 
 of adult life about them. In so far they met 
 
 181 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 an essential demand of educative play. When, 
 however, the kindergarten was brought from 
 conditions of German peasant life to its new 
 home in the cities, particularly of England and 
 America, institution and situation were no 
 longer related in the same close fashion. Plays 
 that in Germany had been vitally connected 
 with everyday life now found no explanation 
 in what the children saw in the home or on the 
 street. Notwithstanding this altered relation- 
 ship, the relatively static and conservative char- 
 acter of the kindergarten tradition prevailed, 
 and many of the original plays were continued 
 with a minimum of modification. This was 
 especially true of those activities associated 
 with the " mother plays." In time, however, 
 serious question arose as to the wisdom of using 
 the German games, and not a few kinder- 
 gartners frankly advocated games founded on 
 materials furnished by the immediate environ- 
 ment of the city. 
 
 To this the traditionalists made answer, 
 partly from conservatism, partly from Froe- 
 belian theory, that the plays in question, while 
 
 182 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 they did by chance come from the small Ger- 
 man village of a half century or more ago, 
 nevertheless were general and typical, and 
 hence could best introduce the child into the 
 complex life which had developed from the 
 simple life exemplified in the plays. Thus the 
 city child who in mimic motion rakes the hay, 
 feeds the cattle, and milks the cow is from this 
 point of view being introduced by type and 
 symbol into an appreciation of the economic 
 interdependence pervading our complex modern 
 society. 
 
 It is impossible not to sympathize in some 
 measure with both sides of the controversy. 
 On the one hand, the presumption is certainly 
 against expecting much social insight to come 
 from plays where the life conditions represented 
 have not been rendered vital by at least some 
 first-hand contact. The fundamental law of 
 apperception forbids. If the child has never 
 seen a knight nor heard understandingly of 
 knights, playing knights will afford no valuable 
 introduction to knighthood nor to any later 
 development from it. He may enjoy the game, 
 
 183 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 and enter into it with zest; but the knightly 
 element is lost on him. A child will sing 
 " Oats, peas, beans, and barley grow," and 
 play the game with great enthusiasm ; but he 
 is getting no insight into agriculture as the 
 mainstay of the economic world. In fact he 
 will transmute the original agricultural state- 
 ment into " Old sweet beans and barley grow " ; 
 but what cares the child ? It is the singing and 
 the game he wants, not the meaning of the 
 words and even less the adult significance of 
 the game. 
 
 On the other hand, there are games that 
 come nearer to giving an understanding than 
 those mentioned just above. The reference 
 to the cow and the hay is an example. A child 
 who has never seen hay nor a cow may be led 
 by picture, description, and dramatic gesture 
 a certain way along the road of understanding 
 the chain which connects farmer and hay with 
 baby brother and pasteurized milk. Words 
 and other such signs of experience may and 
 often do prepare the way for a later apprecia- 
 tion ; but the procedure requires careful con- 
 
 184 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 sideration. To give the sign before a knowl- 
 edge of the thing signified, while to a degree 
 possible, is so easy a sin that from Comenius 
 to now no shortcoming has more required to be 
 preached against. It may well be called the 
 besetting sin of teachers. 
 
 The conclusion then regarding " pattern 
 plays " seems clear. If they are attractive to 
 children, their " pattern " character need not 
 damn them. It will probably do no harm. 
 They stand or fall as other mere games. If, 
 however, they are introduced in the hope that 
 the child will, through them, apart from pre- 
 vious apperceptive experience, be led by the 
 symbolism to a later appreciation of the social 
 significance involved, then we may seriously 
 question their worth. Learning for later ap- 
 preciation is so easy to be overdone that careful 
 educators are chary of encouraging it. If, 
 besides, the kindergartner strongly believes in 
 such anticipatory symbolic learning, she is 
 almost certain to anticipate conclusions for the 
 child. The meanings will be pushed upon him. 
 Adult formulations will be sought and ap- 
 
 185 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 plauded when got. Results got under such 
 conditions are more likely to savor of glibness 
 and conceit than of real growth. Froebel him- 
 self encourages the kindergartner in such faults. 
 In a pertinent discussion he says explicitly, 
 the child " must have some anticipation of the 
 thing itself [i.e. of the deeper meaning supposed 
 to be present], or the game would give him no 
 pleasure" (3:146*). Merely to label such a 
 statement as false and absurd is not sufficient. 
 A book which teaches such a doctrine should 
 be most carefully used ; and games based 
 merely on the principle under discussion should 
 be eliminated. Every " pattern play " is peril- 
 ously near the danger line ; nice scrutiny of 
 purposes is necessary in order to choose the 
 good and reject the bad. 
 
 We may conclude then of the Mother Play 
 book as a whole that it is not a safe book to put 
 in the hands of mothers or of kindergarten 
 novitiates. They would surely be misled if 
 they followed its teachings, either in letter or 
 in the spirit intended by Froebel. Symbolism 
 and the outre metaphorical are too inextric- 
 
 186 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 ably interwoven with the better elements of the 
 book for us to hope that any learner could dis- 
 entangle them. That the kindergarten has got 
 profit from the book may well be admitted ; 
 that the intelligent kindergarten leader may yet 
 get suggestion from it is possible, but it seems 
 reasonably clear that the rank and file of prac- 
 tical kindergartners had better spend their 
 time exclusively on more valuable books. 
 
 Nature study in Froebel. — The study of 
 animals and plants, of out-of-doors nature in 
 general, has nowadays come to be an im- 
 portant part of school life. Nothing lay closer 
 to Froebel's heart. His advocacy of school 
 gardens is well known. While he devised no 
 specific procedure for developing an interest in 
 animal life, he was nevertheless much con- 
 cerned that the child should know and love 
 animals, and should grow in and through his 
 play with them. The " Bird's nest," as an 
 instance, is generally counted the most success- 
 ful of the mother plays. But it was to plants 
 that Froebel's heart especially inclined. No- 
 where was he more a mystic than here. Pa- 
 
 187 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 thetic is the account given by himself of the 
 shy little motherless boy finding under the 
 hedge the little flower with its five petals and 
 five golden points. For some unknown reason 
 it " riveted my attention more than all the 
 rest ; for when I looked down into its coronet, 
 and between the little golden stars, I could 
 fancy I was looking down into endless depths. 
 I have looked into it for hours at a time, dur- 
 ing months and years " (3 : 125). In Froebel's 
 mind this looking was not in vain : " Now, 
 fifty years later, I can see clearly why, as a 
 thoughtful boy, I used to look so longingly into 
 the flower's depths, and it was the Genius of 
 Life who let me dimly see life's depths in it, 
 life's law, and life's meaning " (3 : 126). 
 
 We may be prepared then to find in Froebel's 
 discussion of nature study both mysticism and 
 common sense. It would not be fair to let the 
 presence of the one blind us to the worth of 
 the other. The Education of Man, Froebel's 
 first extended book, gives both points of view. 
 What could be saner, more akin to modern 
 prose than this suggestion for boyhood ? " Par- 
 
 188 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 ticularly helpful at this period of life is the cul- 
 tivation of gardens owned by the boys and cul- 
 tivated for the sake of the produce " (1 : 111). 
 In this way the boy would have a definite 
 objective standard for judging his activity, 
 which should teach him the connection between 
 environment, effort, and result ; "he would see 
 his work bearing fruit in an organic way, deter- 
 mined by logical necessity and law — fruit 
 which, although subject to the inner laws of 
 natural development, depends in so many ways 
 upon his work and upon the character of his 
 work " (1 : 111). And " if the boy cannot have 
 the care of a little garden of his own, he should at 
 least have a few plants in boxes or pots, filled not 
 with rare and delicate and double plants, but 
 with common plants that have an abundance of 
 leaves and blossoms, and thrive easily" (1: 112). 
 If Froebel has had no part in creating our 
 current practice, he certainly anticipated it. 
 
 Two additional points of view are given in 
 the same discussion : *' The child, or boy, who 
 has guarded and cared for another living thing, 
 although it be of a lower order, will be led 
 
 189 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 more easily to guard and foster his own life." 
 In a day when extent of transfer from one 
 activity to another is under closest scrutiny, 
 this consideration will not carry as much 
 weight as will the next one : " The care of the 
 plants will gratify his desire to observe other 
 living things, such as beetles, butterflies, and 
 birds, for these seek the vicinity of plants " 
 (1 : 112). In more modern phrase " motiva- 
 tion " and direction of effort are secured by the 
 problem relation of animal and insect to the 
 more immediate object of interest. 
 
 In Chapter I we considered the law of the 
 parallel development of all life ; and it was 
 there pointed out that plants are of peculiar 
 value for Froebel for the light they throw on 
 man and his unfolding. " The pure spirit of 
 God not only is seen more clearly and distinctly 
 in nature than it is in human life, but in the 
 clear disclosures of God's spirit in nature are 
 seen the nature, dignity, and holiness of man 
 reflected in all their pristine clearness and 
 purity. . . . Among all objects of nature, none 
 seem in this respect truer, clearer, more com- 
 
 190 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 plete, and yet simpler — because of their calm 
 thoughtful aspect and clear unfolding of their 
 inner life than plants, especially trees " (1 : 159). 
 Such considerations led Froebel to say else- 
 where that " from every object of nature and 
 life there is a way to God " (1 : 202), and " the 
 things of nature form a more beautiful ladder 
 between heaven and earth than that seen by 
 Jacob " (1 : 203). To enter thus into the king- 
 dom of God, *' man — particularly in boyhood 
 — should become intimate with nature, not so 
 much with reference to the details and the 
 outer forms of her phenomena as with reference 
 to the spirit of God that lies in her and rules 
 over her " (1 : 162). The educative value of 
 communion with nature may not be equally 
 evident to all, but the caution against mere 
 details of nature study is always wise. Froebel 
 follows this up more wisely yet. Teachers 
 " should at least once a week take a walk with 
 each class — not driving them out like a flock 
 of sheep, nor leading them out like a company 
 of soldiers, but going with them as a father with 
 his sons, or a brother with his brothers, and 
 
 191 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 acquainting them more fully with whatever 
 the season or nature offers them " (1 : 163). 
 
 School gardens. — The foregoing has con- 
 cerned the youth, not the small child ; but 
 Froebel is equally explicit when he comes to the 
 kindergarten. *' The kindergarten . . . neces- 
 sarily requires a garden, and in this, necessarily, 
 gardens for the children " (5 : 218). A number 
 of reasons are assigned for this, some better 
 than others. Nature is to be considered as 
 " the direct manifestation in action of God, 
 the first manifestation of God." This is, in 
 Froebel's opinion, of especial importance as 
 affording a comparison between the growth and 
 development of nature and the growth and 
 development of man — the parallelism of 
 nature previously discussed. " If now this 
 comparative study is important for man, it is 
 especially important for the embryo man — 
 the child " (5 : 217). But there are also 
 *' reasons of social and citizen collective life." 
 The child must be treated not only as an in- 
 dividual, but also as a member of a greater 
 collective life. " This reciprocal activity be- 
 
 192 
 
OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM 
 
 tween one and a few, a part and a whole, is 
 nowhere more beautifully, vividly, and definitely 
 expressed than in the associated cultivation of 
 plants" (5:218). To carry this out fully, 
 there should be a general garden, which the chil- 
 dren cultivate in common, and individual beds, 
 the care of several children. In this connec- 
 tion Froebel suffers one of the worst of his 
 lapses into symbolism : The *' respective beds 
 of the children must be surrounded by the 
 garden of the whole, as the particular always 
 rests protected in the general, and the general 
 protectingly surrounds the particular " (5 : 219). 
 But pass this by. In the outlined plan we find 
 a number of very sane suggestions. 
 
 *' The children . . . should by no means be 
 introduced by this garden into the totality of 
 the vegetable world ; but only into the part 
 which most closely touches human needs " 
 (5 : 220) . Both table vegetables and flowers 
 should be included. Personal responsibility 
 is fixed by the provision that " in their own 
 little beds the children can plant what and how 
 they will, also deal with the plants as they 
 o 193 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 will, that they may learn from their own in- 
 judicious treatment. . . . This will be shown to 
 them by the plants in the common bed, which 
 they must observe carefully " (5 : 221). The 
 seeds and plants should be so compared and 
 discussed that the children may learn to recog- 
 nize them readily. Seeds preserved for the next 
 planting should be kept in little paper boxes 
 previously made by the children themselves. 
 The beds should be so labeled as to name 
 plant and child. Through this the child is not 
 only carried along the road towards reading, 
 but receives " the merited silent praise or 
 blame," according as his work has been. Wild 
 plants may be used each third or fourth year 
 to increase the child's knowledge of these. 
 
 While many would differ, on this point or 
 that, from Froebel's presentation of nature 
 study, it must be admitted, on the whole, that 
 the good preponderates, and the useless is easily 
 dropped out. The spirit of the discussion is 
 distinctly good. It seems impossible to doubt 
 that here as truly as anywhere else Froebel has 
 helped to bring better things to the child life. 
 
 194 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 We have now passed in review the chief of 
 Froebel's kindergarten teachings. Good and 
 bad elements have been found. In order that 
 the detail of argument followed may not obscure 
 the conclusions reached, it will be well to as- 
 semble in compact form the principal of these 
 conclusions. For the purpose at hand the more 
 philosophical aspects of Froebel's doctrine need 
 not be reconsidered. We are here concerned 
 with those elements of his system which more 
 immediately ajffect the practice of his followers. 
 The final conclusion may be more satisfactory, 
 if we begin with the rejected elements of 
 Froebel's system. 
 
 Unsatisfactory elements in Froebel's sys- 
 tem. — The " law of opposites " we found to 
 be for Froebel " the fundamental law of the 
 universe " and the foundation of the " whole 
 
 195 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 meaning of his educational system." Neither 
 of these positions could we allow. The scien- 
 tific student of the universe knows no such law ; 
 and Froebel's method — save in its indefen- 
 sible aspects — is in fact independent of this 
 pretended principle.^ Far better that the prac- 
 tical kindergartner never so much as heard of 
 the " law." Its usefulness is nil or worse. 
 
 Of much greater worth is Froebel's discus- 
 sion of development. Although he erred in 
 considering this merely as the unfolding of a 
 content all the while present in the germ ; still 
 even in this erroneous form the doctrine marked 
 a distinct advance. In accordance with this 
 point of view, the early period of the child's life 
 must be considered as uniquely necessary to 
 the full realization of his potentialities. Ac- 
 cordingly the young child must be allowed to 
 live out fully this period and on the child plane. 
 As so stated the theory proves attractive, 
 especially in contrast with the opinion then 
 widely prevalent that the child is naturally 
 
 ^ The simultaneous teaching of certain paired opposites is only an 
 apparent exception to the statement just made. 
 
 196 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 bad and must be repressed. The difficulty Is 
 that Froebel's theory values the child's life 
 not because it is life, but because it alone leads 
 to life. Our best thought now values the early 
 period from both considerations. In itself, 
 childhood is life ; as a part of the whole it pre- 
 pares for what is to follow. A further and more 
 evident objection to Froebel's theory of de- 
 velopment is that it places the element of selec- 
 tion within the child's native endowment in- 
 stead of in the social situation. Many of the 
 child's natural impulses in their direct form are 
 not immediately suited to present-day social 
 life. Society must select ; but to this selection, 
 development as mere unfolding must funda- 
 mentally object. In thus criticizing develop- 
 ment we criticize Froebel's doctrine of child 
 liberty ; for the two, as he treats them, are but 
 obverse sides of the same process. It is true 
 that Froebel admitted and advocated guidance, 
 and this is nothing but social selection. But 
 this selection is opposed to *' complete " un- 
 folding, so Froebel merely held to both without 
 reconciling the antagonism. Froebel's position 
 
 197 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 on development is at best a halfway house. 
 It marks an advance upon the preceding prac- 
 tice of repression; it values childhood, but 
 rather as preparation and promise. It fails to 
 provide adequately for selection and hence 
 leaves us without a guide in the difficult matter 
 of child liberty. 
 
 A most striking corollary of Froebel's notion 
 of development is his doctrine of innate ideas : 
 " Did it not lie in the child, did it not live and 
 work in the child, did it not already define the 
 child's life, it could by no means come out from 
 it at a later period " (4 : 94). Some of Froebel's 
 most unacceptable statements appear as illus- 
 trations of this belief, especially in connection 
 with symbolism for which the innate idea fur- 
 nishes the basis. The child is later to know 
 himself as a unified spiritual whole; the dim 
 presentiment of this idea accordingly lies al- 
 ready at work in his mind and inclines him to 
 play with the ball because this symbolizes the 
 whole. We found a belief in the efficacy of 
 such symbolism — strange as it may be — 
 permeating the whole of Froebel's kindergarten 
 
 198 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 procedure. The gift series is symbolic through 
 and through ; purpose, derivation, method of 
 use, supposed effect — all are based so com- 
 pletely on symbolism that if this be rejected, 
 the series crumbles, and its prescribed use 
 becomes hardly more than a superstition. The 
 very movement games were arranged for sym- 
 bolic efifect — fortunately the child can ignore 
 it. The mother plays are almost as thoroughly 
 symbolic as the gift series. Even the morning 
 circle and the garden beds cannot escape. Every 
 specific kindergarten activity, as devised by 
 Froebel, is in some way symbolic ; and the more 
 numerous such connections, the more valuable 
 in his eyes. 
 
 We conclude with reference to Froebelian 
 symbolism that every vestige of it must be 
 eliminated from the purpose of the kinder- 
 garten ; and his original practice thoroughly 
 made over to meet the demands of a sound 
 psychology. The gift series as such must ac- 
 cordingly go, and with it most of the gifts and 
 occupations. Some of the materials will re- 
 main, changed in size and form. The use will, 
 
 199 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 on the whole, be very different. Children will 
 play with these and other toys in childish ways 
 for personal purposes and not from dictation. 
 The ball will never be thought of in connection 
 with unity, nor the cube with multiplicity. 
 That the block occupies space will be no con- 
 cern of the kindergartner. The child will use 
 this fact, but he will never think about it — 
 still less name it. His imagination will come 
 into play to meet a difficulty, and not be arti- 
 ficially called out as an exercise in faculty 
 psychology, nor as sugar coating for the con- 
 sideration of an otherwise uninteresting " gift." 
 No regard for Froebelian *' sequence " will ever 
 again cause the White House to develop from 
 the Capitol. The very idea of this formal 
 sequence will be utterly abhorrent. Nor need 
 all of the given material be joined in one con- 
 struction ; a truer unity of purpose will dis- 
 place such a mechanical conception. 
 
 The use of Froebel's writings. — Because 
 Froebel's writings are so filled with symbolism 
 and other mistaken psychology, we conclude 
 that the wise training teacher will no longer 
 
 200 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 use them as textbooks. Froebel's name will 
 properly be honored, and his memory will be 
 revered ; but only carefully selected passages 
 from his books can be assigned, and this rather 
 for the older students. Such an opinion will 
 doubtless be more difficult of acceptance than 
 the other conclusions here reached. The train- 
 ing teacher, because she has got so much of her 
 own preparation from lectures on the Mother 
 Play, will wish to continue its use. But she 
 forgets that the instruction given her in this 
 way was in greater part first read into the Mother 
 Play, and then deduced for her benefit. Shorn 
 of their infallibility, Froebel's books will be 
 less well adapted to such treatment. To the 
 emancipated mind the crudities will continually 
 increase. The opinion here expressed seems 
 the inevitable conclusion. 
 
 It may well be asked how a system such as 
 we have just rejected could have made so great 
 a stir in the world. Has the investigation been 
 really impartial .^^ Can the judgment expressed 
 be accepted as final ? Several things may be 
 said. First, the review is not yet complete ; 
 
 201 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 a better side remains to be told. But many 
 have praised Froebel because they could accept 
 all, even what has here been rejected. They 
 have known too little of other educational 
 thought. Again, partial Froebelians, accept- 
 ing and applying his doctrine of development, 
 have read back into his time everything sub- 
 sequently achieved. By the further step of 
 giving him personal credit for what was in the 
 Zeitgeist, they thus deduce from him all our 
 educational progress. Ignorance, error, and par- 
 tiality thus explain much of Froebel's reputa- 
 tion. But after every subtraction has been 
 made, the principal foundation of Froebel's 
 fame still remains in the actual contribution 
 made. Much of this has been so thoroughly 
 accepted as now to excite no comment, and con- 
 sequently to lack that availability for discus- 
 sion which is found either in novel theory or in 
 widely accepted error. There was a time, how- 
 ever, when Froebel's contribution was to the 
 popular mind novel in the extreme. 
 
 Strong points in Froebel's system. — Froebel's 
 strength is perhaps greatest in his love for and 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 sympathy with childhood. Rousseau in theory 
 advocated the same, but his personal practice 
 was far different. Pestalozzi perhaps stands 
 next to Froebel, but still below him. More 
 than any other of his time Froebel respected 
 the individuality of the child. Against the 
 common public opinion he rejected entirely the 
 doctrine of total depravity. For him the child's 
 natural interests are proper and worthy of 
 all fostering. Play in his system first got 
 practical educative standing. Following this, 
 manual and constructive activities were em- 
 phasized. Initiative received special attention. 
 Intimately associated with this is his doctrine 
 of self-activity, which, divested of his peculiar 
 metaphysics, comes wonderfully close to the 
 best modern doctrine of interest. If " impres- 
 sion " was given its rightful place by Pestalozzi, 
 it was Froebel who first emphasized " expres- 
 sion": "For what man tries to represent or to 
 do he begins to understand" (1: 76). As con- 
 scious means to this end he utilized building, 
 drawing, modeling, and singing. 
 
 One of Froebel's strongest positions is his 
 203 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 insistence upon social relationship. On this 
 Rousseau had gone widely astray. Pestalozzi 
 was better ; but Froebel's grasp was far supe- 
 rior. For him the child has a natural inclina- 
 tion to social intercourse, and can reach his 
 ** destiny " only in and through social rela- 
 tions. The kindergarten and school must 
 take these facts into account and consciously 
 provide opportunity for growth in sociality 
 through actual participation in social life. Even 
 before the child should come to the kindergarten, 
 the family had furnished the first social group, 
 babe and mother in this respect being alike 
 objects of Froebel's thought. The kindergar- 
 ten and school, in fact, were but to continue on 
 a broader plane the child's social life already 
 begun in the family. Here, as everywhere else 
 with Froebel, unity and continuity were to rule. 
 Froebel's appreciation of the esthetic ele- 
 ments in human life found practical expression 
 in the kindergarten program long before the 
 ordinary primary school had dreamed of such 
 a thing. His interest in nature study and school 
 gardens preceded our modern practice. His 
 
 204 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 rejection of formal religious and catechetical 
 instruction put him ahead of his country, even 
 to this day. His conception of an educational 
 program not based on books is most instructive. 
 Even rejecting the gift series, it still remains 
 that Froebel saw education in far larger terms 
 than the mere memorizing of set intellectual 
 tasks or even the acquiring of the formal school 
 arts. As the embodiment of this vision, the 
 kindergarten will remain a permanent monu- 
 ment to an epochal step in the history of educa- 
 tion. 
 
 Perhaps the most valuable of all is the prac- 
 tical demonstration which Froebel through the 
 kindergarten has given the world of how happy 
 a group of children can be when engaged in 
 educative activity. The older notion and prac- 
 tice denied the general possibility of such a 
 thing. True enough, in every age there had 
 been exponents of a gentler treatment, but the 
 common practice was all the while sternly 
 prescriptive. For Alcuin, "it is the scourge 
 that teaches children." With him Dr. Johnson 
 agrees : " My schoolmaster beat me most un- 
 
 205 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 mercifully, else I had done nothing." The last 
 named thus lays down the then controlling 
 theory : " Children being not reasonable can 
 be governed only by fear. To impress this 
 fear is therefore one of the first duties of those 
 who have the care of children." How markedly 
 does Froebel stand in contrast to all this. We 
 need not accept his discussion of the divine 
 effluence ; we can reject his theory of develop- 
 ment ; but as a definite tangible example of 
 how children can and do work happily, Froebel's 
 kindergarten stands as " a city set on a hill." 
 This is not to claim that his predecessors did 
 nothing. They too deserve praise. However, 
 let one but contrast the " infant school " of 
 the early nineteenth century with the kinder- 
 garten, and the difference between Froebel and 
 his forerunners will be made evident. In the 
 infant school the lot of the child was happier 
 than beforetimes it had been, but note Wilder- 
 spin's admonition, " it must not be counted a 
 sin for a lively girl to laugh on the playground " ; 
 and the superiority of the kindergarten stands 
 clear. Recall too the song used by the girls in 
 
 306 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 certain American infant schools as they marched 
 into the schoolroom each morning : 
 
 " We'll all take our places, and show no wry faces. 
 We'll all say our lessons distinctly and slow. 
 For if we don't do it, our teacher will know it ; 
 And into that corner we surely must go." 
 
 They sang as they marched in, and that was 
 an improvement ; but note the " wry faces " 
 which had to be forbidden, the lessons recited 
 by rote memory, the stern eye of the teacher, 
 the punishment corner, and the general back- 
 ground of conscious opposition between pupil 
 and teacher. The spirit of the kindergarten 
 is immeasurably superior. And the point is 
 that Froebel made an institution which could 
 be multiplied at will, and still show the same 
 joyous activity on the part of the children, and 
 the same tender care on the part of the kinder- 
 gartner. While this institution has been (so 
 far) confined to children below six, it is still 
 not too much to say that in Froebel education 
 made a complete about face. 
 
 Will the institution of such vision and such 
 possibilities be able to slough off its old shell 
 
 207 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 of symbolism, fixed " gifts," prescribed pro- 
 gram ; and live with finer democracy a better 
 life of spontaneity and child mindedness? 
 Can the kindergarten consent to lose a separate 
 life in order to find again a wider life in one 
 common educative process? Will the kinder- 
 garten, if the need come, be willing to give up 
 even its distinctive name ? Already have kin- 
 dergartners, neither few in number nor weak in 
 influence, answered these questions in the affirm- 
 ative. Merged with the elementary school, 
 the kindergarten will give to the primary grades 
 the best of its spirit. But in thus losing sepa- 
 rate existence, Froebel's kindergarten will con- 
 tinue to live yet more abundantly. 
 
 208 
 
LIST OF REFERENCES 
 
 1. Froebel, Friedrich : ^(^Mca/ion o/ilf an. Translated 
 
 by W. N. Hailman. New York. 1896 (1887). 
 
 2. Froebel, Friedrich : Autobiography. Translated 
 
 by Emilie Michaelis and H. Keatley Moore. Lon- 
 don. 1901 (8th ed.). 
 
 3. Froebel, Friedrich : Mutter und Kose Lieder. 
 
 Translated by Frances and Emily Lord. London. 
 1895. 
 
 4. Froebel, Friedrich : Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. 
 
 Translated by Josephine Jarvis. New York. 1896 
 (1895). 
 
 5. Froebel, Friedrich : Education by Development. 
 
 Translated by Josephine Jarvis. New York. 1905 
 (1899). 
 
 6. Froebel, Friedrich : Letters on the Kindergarten. 
 
 Translated from Kindergarten-Brieje, herausgegeben 
 von Hermann Posche, by Emilie Michaelis and H. 
 Keatley Moore. Syracuse. 1896. 
 
 7. Froebel, Friedrich : Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. 
 
 (Third and last volume.) Translated by Josephine 
 Jarvis. St. Louis. 1904. 
 
 8. Marenholz-Bulow : Reminiscences of Friedrich 
 
 Froebel. Translated from Erinnerungen an Fried- 
 rich Froebel von B. von Marenholz-Bulow, by Mrs. 
 Horace Mann. Boston. 1877. 
 
 9. Froebel, Frieprich : The Kindergarten System. 
 
 Translated and adapted from Friedrich Froebel, Die 
 P 209 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 Entwickelung seiner Erziehungsidee in seinem Leben 
 von Alexander B. Hanschmann, by Fanny Franks. 
 London. 1897. 
 
 10. Froebel, Friedrich : Autohiographie und kleinere 
 
 Schriften {Friedrich FroebeVs Gesammelte pddago- 
 gische Schriften, herausgegeben von W. Lange, I. 1.). 
 Berlin. 1862. 
 
 11. Froebel, Friedrich: Pddagogik des Kindergartens 
 
 {Friedrich FroebeVs Gesammelte padagogische Schrif- 
 ten, herausgegeben von W. Lange, II.). Berlin. 
 1862. 
 
 12. Froebel, Friedrich : Mutter- und Kose-Lieder von 
 
 Friedrich Froebel, herausgegeben von F. Seidel. 
 Wien und Leipzig. 1883. 
 
 13. Froebel, Friedrich: Menschen-Erziehung {Pdda- 
 
 gogische Klassiker, XI. Band, herausgegeben von F. 
 Seidel unter der Redaction von G. A. Lindner). Wien 
 u»d Leipzig. 1883. 
 
 14. Froebel, Friedrich : Kindergartenwesen {Pdda- 
 
 gogische Klassiker, XII. Band, herausgegeben von F. 
 Seidel unter der Redaction von G. A. Lindner). 
 Wien und Leipzig. 1883. 
 
 15. Froebel, Friedrich : Kindergarten-Brief e, heraus- 
 
 gegeben von Hermann Posche. Wien und Leipzig. 
 1887. 
 
 16. Marenholz-Bulow : Erinnerungen an Friedrich 
 
 Froebel von B. von Marenholz-Bulow. Kassel. 
 1876. 
 
 17. Froebel, Friedrich : Die Entwickelung seiner Erzie- 
 
 hungsidee in seinem Leben von Alexander B. Hansch- 
 mann. Eisenach. 1874. 
 
 210 
 
A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES 
 
 A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES 
 
 (For the explanation of how to use the table see pages ix f.) 
 
 Page 
 
 • English 
 
 German 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 
 German 
 
 Translation 
 
 Origin Ai. 
 
 Translation 
 
 Original 
 
 1 
 
 8:29 
 
 16:20 
 
 20 
 
 3:177 * 
 
 12:182 
 
 4 
 
 1:2 
 
 13: 1 
 
 
 6:255 
 
 15 : 194 
 
 
 1 : 151 f. 
 
 13:95 
 
 
 6:57 
 
 15:47 
 
 
 5:26 
 
 11:334 
 
 
 1:1 
 
 13:1 
 
 
 1:167 
 
 13: 106 
 
 21 
 
 6 : 23 f. 
 
 15:20 
 
 
 1:168 
 
 13 : 107 
 
 
 5:36 
 
 11:340 
 
 
 1:1 f. 
 
 13: 1 
 
 
 6:16ff. 
 
 15 : 14 f. 
 
 6 
 
 1:2 
 
 13:1 
 
 
 8:28 
 
 16:19 
 
 
 8:29 
 
 16:20 
 
 22 
 
 5:23 
 
 11:333 
 
 
 l:2t) 
 
 13: 15 
 
 
 1:25 
 
 13:18 
 
 
 9:172 
 
 17 : 324 
 
 
 8 : 29 f. 
 
 16:20 
 
 6 
 
 1:159 
 
 !3:100 
 
 23 
 
 1:6 
 
 13:6 
 
 
 1:159* 
 
 13:101 
 
 
 1:157 
 
 13:99 
 
 7 
 
 1 : 160 f. 
 
 13:101 f. 
 
 24 
 
 6 : 275 
 
 15:210 
 
 
 8 : 190 * 
 
 16:124 
 
 
 2:31 
 
 10:56 
 
 8 
 
 8 : 212 
 
 16 : 138 
 
 
 8:150 
 
 16:99 
 
 10 
 
 1:68 
 
 13 : 39 f. 
 
 25 
 
 6:298 
 
 15 : 229 
 
 
 4:49 
 
 14:53 
 
 26 
 
 3: 154 
 
 12:158 
 
 11 
 
 4:94 * 
 
 14 : 145 
 
 
 8: 150 
 
 16:99 
 
 12 
 
 1:165 
 
 13 : 104 f. 
 
 
 1:161 
 
 13: 102 
 
 
 1:195 
 
 13:129 
 
 
 1:160 
 
 13:101 f. 
 
 13 
 
 4:62 
 
 11:47 
 
 27 
 
 1:159 
 
 13:101 
 
 
 4:94* 
 
 14 : 145 
 
 
 3:186 * 
 
 12:191 
 
 14 
 
 4:30 
 
 14:39 
 
 28 
 
 1:173 
 
 13:110 
 
 15 
 
 6 : 298 
 
 15 : 229 
 
 
 1:175 
 
 13: 112 
 
 
 4:192 
 
 14 : 220 
 
 
 1 : 176 * 
 
 13: 112 f. 
 
 
 4:232 
 
 14 : 254 
 
 29 
 
 5:59 
 
 11:352 
 
 
 5:31 
 
 11 : 337 
 
 30 
 
 1:197 
 
 13:131 
 
 
 8:223 
 
 16:145 
 
 34 
 
 1:211 
 
 13:143 
 
 
 1:42 
 
 1 
 
 
 1:213 
 
 13:144 
 
 16 
 
 8 : 228 
 
 16:148 
 
 35 
 
 4:32 
 
 14:40 
 
 
 1:42 
 
 13:28 
 
 
 4:131 * 
 
 14 : 187 
 
 
 5:204 
 
 14 : 26 f. 
 
 
 5:211 
 
 14:30 
 
 19 
 
 1:2* 
 
 13:1 
 
 36 
 
 2 : 98 f . 
 
 10: 113 f. 
 
 ^ A quotation introduced by the translator, for which the original was 
 not found. 
 
 211 
 
FROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES — Con^mMed 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 
 German 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 
 German 
 
 Translation 
 
 Original 
 
 Translation 
 
 Original 
 
 36 
 
 1 : 223 f. 
 
 13 : 155 f. 
 
 64 
 
 1:126 
 
 13:79 
 
 
 2:100 
 
 10:114 
 
 
 6:91 * 
 
 15:76 
 
 
 1:203 
 
 13:136 
 
 65 
 
 3 : 139 * 
 
 12:142 
 
 
 1:190 
 
 13:126 
 
 67 
 
 6:91 * 
 
 15:76 
 
 37 
 
 1 : 192 
 
 13:127 
 
 70 
 
 4 : 32 f . 
 
 14 : 40 f. 
 
 
 1:193 
 
 13:127 
 
 
 4:32 
 
 14:40 
 
 
 3: 160 
 
 12:164 
 
 71 
 
 8:8 
 
 16:5 
 
 39 
 
 5:6 
 
 11 : 323 
 
 
 8:212 
 
 16:138 
 
 40 
 
 5:270 
 
 11:502 
 
 
 8:7 
 
 16:5 
 
 
 5:174 
 
 14:9 
 
 82 
 
 1:7 
 
 13:6 
 
 
 1:195 
 
 13 : 129 
 
 84 
 
 1 : 7 f . 
 
 13 : 6 f. 
 
 
 1:194 
 
 13:129 
 
 
 1:9* 
 
 13:8 
 
 41 
 
 4:94 
 
 14 : 145 
 
 
 8:67 
 
 16:45 
 
 42 
 
 5:31 
 
 11 : 337 
 
 85 
 
 8:68 
 
 16:45 
 
 
 8 : 228 
 
 16:147 
 
 
 5:210 
 
 14:30 
 
 43 
 
 5:101 
 
 14 : 272 
 
 
 4:83 
 
 14 : 186 
 
 44 
 
 5:91 
 
 14 : 265 
 
 91 
 
 4:49 
 
 14:53 
 
 
 5:12 
 
 11 : 326 
 
 96 
 
 3:121 * 
 
 12:123 
 
 
 6 : 275 f. 
 
 15:211 
 
 
 5:16 
 
 11:329 
 
 
 5:31 
 
 11:337 
 
 
 5:57 
 
 11:352 
 
 45 
 
 5 : 232 
 
 14 : 254 
 
 97 
 
 1 : 222 
 
 13:155 
 
 
 4:31 
 
 11:337 
 
 
 4:161 
 
 14:117 
 
 
 5 : 204 
 
 14 : 26 f. 
 
 98 
 
 1:55 
 
 13:33 
 
 48 
 
 4:190 
 
 14:218 
 
 
 1:54 
 
 13:33 
 
 
 5:12 
 
 11:326 
 
 
 1 : 105 ff. 
 
 13 : 66 ff. 
 
 49 
 
 4:191f. 
 
 14 : 220 
 
 101 
 
 1: 114 
 
 13:71 
 
 50 
 
 5:101 ff. 
 
 14 : 272 ff. 
 
 102 
 
 1 : 102 
 
 13:64 
 
 55 
 
 5:33 
 
 11 : 338 f. 
 
 
 8 : 238 
 
 16 : 154 f. 
 
 
 4:203 
 
 14 : 232 
 
 
 5:40 
 
 11:343 
 
 56 
 
 e : 275 f. 
 
 15:211 f. 
 
 103 
 
 4 : 200 f . 
 
 14 : 349 
 
 59 
 
 8:190* 
 
 16 : 124 
 
 
 4:260 
 
 14 : 349 
 
 60 
 
 1:160 
 
 13:101 
 
 104 
 
 4 : 84 f. 
 
 14 : 137 f. 
 
 61 
 
 1:68 
 
 13 : 39 f. 
 
 
 5 : 102 f. 
 
 14 : 272 
 
 
 4:30 
 
 14:39 
 
 
 5:137f. 
 
 14 : 295 
 
 62 
 
 4:94 * 
 
 14 : 145 
 
 105 
 
 4:86 
 
 14: 138 
 
 
 4:11 
 
 11:9 
 
 
 4:96 
 
 14: 146 
 
 
 4:31 
 
 14:39 
 
 
 4:98 
 
 14:147 
 
 63 
 
 4:33 
 
 14:41 
 
 106 
 
 4:207 
 
 14 : 235 
 
 61 
 
 4:29 
 
 14 : 37 f . 
 
 
 4:82 
 
 14 : 135 
 
 212 
 
A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES 
 
 A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES — Continued 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 
 German 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 
 German 
 
 Translation 
 
 Original 
 
 Translation 
 
 Original 
 
 106 
 
 4:74 
 
 14 : 129 
 
 132 
 
 4:180 
 
 14:211 
 
 109 
 
 6:250 
 
 15 : 190 
 
 133 
 
 9:210 
 
 17 : 421 
 
 110 
 
 9:172 
 
 17 : 324 
 
 135 
 
 4:187 
 
 14:216 
 
 
 5 : 204 f. 
 
 14:27 
 
 
 4:190 
 
 14:218 
 
 
 6:251 
 
 15 : 190 
 
 136 
 
 4: 190 
 
 14 : 218 
 
 111 
 
 5 : 187 f. 
 
 14:17 
 
 138 
 
 4 : 98 f . 
 
 14 : 163 
 
 
 8:211 
 
 16:137 
 
 
 4:99 
 
 14 : 163 
 
 
 4:32 
 
 14:40 
 
 140 
 
 4:186 
 
 14:215 
 
 112 
 
 4:32 
 
 14:40 
 
 
 4 : 219 
 
 14 : 244 
 
 114 
 
 4:32 
 
 14:40 
 
 
 4:138 
 
 14:192 
 
 115 
 
 1:168 
 
 13 : 107 
 
 141 
 
 4: 139 
 
 14 : 193 
 
 
 4:33 
 
 14:41 
 
 
 4:141 
 
 14 : 195 
 
 
 4:33 
 
 14:41 
 
 
 4:185 
 
 14 : 215 
 
 116 
 
 4:35 
 
 14 : 42 
 
 
 4:141 
 
 14 : 195 
 
 
 4:37 
 
 14:44 
 
 142 
 
 4:185 
 
 14 : 214 
 
 
 4:38 
 
 14:44 
 
 
 4:185 
 
 14:215 
 
 121 
 
 5:123 
 
 14 : 286 
 
 
 4 : 185 f. 
 
 14 : 215 
 
 122 
 
 4 : 2^", 
 
 14 : 232 
 
 143 
 
 4:208 
 
 14 : 236 
 
 123 
 
 5:194f. 
 
 14 : 21 
 
 
 4:210 
 
 14 : 237 
 
 124 
 
 5:196 
 
 14 : 22 
 
 
 4 : 212 
 
 14 : 239 
 
 
 4:78 
 
 14 : 132 
 
 144 
 
 4:210 
 
 14 : 237 
 
 125 
 
 5:199 
 
 14:24 
 
 
 4:218 
 
 14 : 243 
 
 
 4 : 78 ff. 
 
 14 : 132 f. 
 
 146 
 
 1 : 282 
 
 13 : 215 
 
 
 4:78 
 
 14 : 132 
 
 
 1 : 283 f. 
 
 13:216 1 
 
 126 
 
 4:98 
 
 14 : 150 
 
 
 6:107 
 
 15:88 
 
 
 4:174 
 
 14 : 206 
 
 
 1:283 
 
 13:216 
 
 127 
 
 4:117f. 
 
 14 : 176 f. 
 
 
 1:284 
 
 13:217 
 
 
 4:119 
 
 14 : 178 
 
 148 
 
 1:282 
 
 13:215 
 
 128 
 
 4 : 120 f. 
 
 14 : 179 
 
 
 1:294 
 
 13 : 229 
 
 129 
 
 4:203 
 
 14 : 232 
 
 
 4:237 
 
 14 : 330 
 
 130 
 
 4:205 
 
 14 : 233 f. 
 
 
 8:210ff. 
 
 16:137ff. 
 
 
 4:219 
 
 14 : 244 
 
 152 
 
 1:112 
 
 13:69 
 
 131 
 
 6:72 
 
 15:60 
 
 153 
 
 1:113 
 
 13:70 
 
 132 
 
 4 : 224 f. 
 
 14 : 248 f. 
 
 
 2:82 
 
 10 : 100 
 
 
 4:180 
 
 14:211 
 
 153 
 
 6:94 * 
 
 15:78 
 
 ^ The editor of this edition, Herr Seidel, has here changed the original. 
 For the basis of the quotation see Froebel's Gesammelte pddagogische 
 Schriften, herausgegeben von W. Lange (Berlin, 1863), I. 2. 249. 
 
 213 
 
PROEBEL'S KINDERGARTEN PRINCIPLES 
 
 A CONVERTING TABLE OF REFERENCES — Continued 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 Translation 
 
 German 
 Original 
 
 Page 
 
 English 
 Translation 
 
 German 
 Original 
 
 153 
 
 6:253 
 
 15 : 192 
 
 167 
 
 3 : 124 * 
 
 12:126 
 
 154 
 
 9:177 
 
 17 : 342ni 
 
 
 3:12 
 
 12: 14 
 
 
 6:55 
 
 15 : 46 
 
 169 
 
 6:250 
 
 15 : 189 f. 
 
 
 6:252 
 
 15:191 
 
 
 3:132 
 
 12:135 
 
 
 6:64 
 
 15:53 
 
 
 6:123 
 
 15:101 
 
 
 4 : 272 f . 
 
 14 : 358 f . 
 
 170 
 
 3 : 124 
 
 12:127 
 
 
 4:250 
 
 14 : 340 
 
 
 6:311 
 
 15 : 240 
 
 155 
 
 4 : 265 
 
 14 : 353 
 
 171 
 
 3:132 
 
 12:135 
 
 
 1 : 114 
 
 13:70 
 
 172 
 
 3 : 132 f. 
 
 12:135 
 
 
 6:162 
 
 15 : 133 
 
 175 
 
 3 : 133 f. 
 
 12:136 
 
 
 4 : 237 ff. 
 
 14 : 329 ff. 
 
 176 
 
 3: 135 
 
 12:138 
 
 156 
 
 6:82 
 
 15:69 
 
 177 
 
 3:136 
 
 12:139 
 
 
 6:83 
 
 15:69 
 
 
 3:139 
 
 12 : 143 
 
 
 6 : 253 f . 
 
 15 : 192 
 
 179 
 
 3:144 
 
 12 : 148 
 
 
 6:88 
 
 15:73 
 
 
 3: 145 
 
 12:149 
 
 
 8 : 86 f . 
 
 15 : 72 
 
 181 
 
 6:94 
 
 15:78 
 
 157 
 
 4 : 246 
 
 14 : 336 
 
 186 
 
 3: 146* 
 
 12:150 
 
 
 4 : 250 
 
 14 : 340 
 
 188 
 
 3 : 125 
 
 12:128 
 
 
 6:94 
 
 15:78 
 
 
 3:126 
 
 12:129 
 
 158 
 
 4 : 269 
 
 14 : 356 
 
 189 
 
 1:111 
 
 13:68 
 
 
 4:269 
 
 14 : 356 
 
 
 1: 111 
 
 13:68 
 
 
 6:101 
 
 15:83 
 
 
 1 : 112 
 
 13:69 
 
 159 
 
 4:256 
 
 14 : 346 
 
 190 
 
 1 : 112 
 
 13:69 
 
 160 
 
 6:61 
 
 15:51 
 
 191 
 
 1:159 
 
 13 : 100 f. 
 
 
 6:61 
 
 15:51 
 
 
 1:202 
 
 13:136 
 
 161 
 
 4 : 280 
 
 14 : 366 
 
 
 1:203 
 
 13:136 
 
 
 4:280 
 
 14 : 366 
 
 
 1:162 
 
 13 : 103 
 
 
 7 : 24-66 
 
 11 : 527-55 
 
 192 
 
 1:163 
 
 13:103 
 
 
 8:109 
 
 16 
 
 72 
 
 
 5:218 
 
 14 : 405 
 
 162 
 
 7 : 29 f. 
 
 11 
 
 531 
 
 
 5:217 
 
 14 : 404 
 
 
 7:31 
 
 11 
 
 532 
 
 193 
 
 5:218 
 
 14 : 405 
 
 
 7:31 
 
 11 
 
 532 
 
 
 5:219 
 
 14 : 405 
 
 
 7:32 
 
 11 
 
 533 
 
 
 5:220 
 
 14 : 406 
 
 
 7:37 
 
 11 
 
 536 
 
 194 
 
 5:221 
 
 14 : 407 
 
 163 
 
 7:41 
 
 11 
 
 539 f. 
 
 198 
 
 4:94 
 
 14 : 145 
 
 166 
 
 6 : 250 * 
 
 15 
 
 189 f. 
 
 203 
 
 1:76 
 
 13:45 
 
 1 It is not clear that Froebel used the words attributed to him by the 
 translator in 9 : 177. 
 
 214 
 
INDEX 
 
 Alcuin, referred to, 205. 
 Altenstein, Festival on the, 161 f. 
 Aristotelianism, ascribed to Froebel, 
 24, 25. 
 
 Ball, child's interest in, 69 f., 158 f. ; 
 symbol of unity, 32, 34 f., 69 f., 
 79, 111 ff., 118 ff., 200; first of 
 the gift series, 110 fif. 
 
 Batch, referred to, 24. 
 
 "Beauty forms," 47 f., 50, 52, 134 f., 
 140. 
 
 Blocks, use of, 129 ff., 146 f. ; all 
 material to be used, 130 f., 200. 
 See also Sequence. 
 
 Borman's report on the kinder- 
 garten, 133. 
 
 Box, use of the, 130. 
 
 Circle games, 64, 66, 67 ff., 159 ff. 
 "Correspondences," doctrine of, 
 
 stated, 7 f., 14 ; discussed, 31 f. ; 
 
 referred to, 57, 67. 
 Crystals, 27 f., 30, 33. 
 Cube, 104, 147, 200 ; derived from 
 
 the sphere, 113, 122 ff. ; the 
 
 divided cube, 126 ff., 128 f., 129, 
 
 142 f. 
 Cylinder, 16, 45. 
 
 Darwinism, referred to, 24, 25, 57. 
 
 Davidson, referred to, 60 n. 
 
 Development, universal law of, 4 ff., 
 12, 13, 14, 23, 26; meaning of, 
 8 ff., 57, 196; discussed, 59 ff., 
 86 ff . ; education as development, 
 91 f. 
 
 Dewey, referred to, 53, 98, 101 n. 
 Dictation, 200. See also Freedom 
 
 in education. Guidance. 
 Divine. See Nature as divine. 
 
 Education as development, 91 f. 
 Esthetic, Froebel's interest in, 140, 
 
 204. See oZso "Beauty forms." 
 Evolution, Froebel's position on, 
 
 23 ff., 57. 
 
 Fichte, referred to, 8, 10 n., 15, 25. 
 
 "Fish in the Brook" (mother play), 
 178 f. 
 
 Five, the number, 36 f. 
 
 "Following" education. See Free- 
 dom in education. 
 
 Freedom in education, 82 ff., 86, 
 93 ff., 107. 
 
 Froebel's writings, use of, 186 f., 
 200 f. 
 
 Games, 152 ff. ; inner meaning of, 
 
 157 ff. 
 Gardens. See School gardens. 
 General and particular, 28, 127 f., 
 
 149, 161, 193. 
 General ideas, 125, 148 ff. 
 Germs of ideas. See Innate ideas, 
 
 doctrine of. 
 Gift series, 42, 109 ff . ; derivation 
 
 of, 121 ff., 147; significance of, 
 
 145 ff., 150 f. ; fourth gift, 128, 
 
 142; fifth gift, 128 f., 142 f. 
 Gliedganzes, doctrine of, referred 
 
 to, 12 f., 12 n., 57 f. ; discussed, 
 
 38 ff. 
 
 215 
 
INDEX 
 
 God, relation of, to world, 1 S. ; 
 
 Froebel's idea of, 18 ff. 
 Grimm's law, 38. 
 Guidance, 84 &., 88 ff. 
 
 Hegel, referred to, 15. 
 
 Imaginative play. See Play. 
 
 "Infant school," 206 f. 
 
 Innate ideas, doctrine of, referred 
 
 to, 11, 66 ff., 71 f., 77 ff., 107, 112, 
 
 121, 177 f. ; discussed, 60 ff ., 198. 
 Inner and outer, doctrine of, 29 f., 
 
 35. 
 Interconnectedness, doctrine of, 
 
 referred to, 11 ff., 57; discussed, 
 
 32 ff. 
 
 Interest, doctrine of, 98, 205. 
 
 Jarvis, referred to, 61 n., 159 n. 
 Johnson, Dr. Samuel, referred to, 
 205. 
 
 Kant, referred to, 10 n. 
 Knowledge, forms of, 139 ff. 
 
 Language, Froebel's conception of, 
 
 33 ff. 
 
 Lessing's Menschengesehlechts, re- 
 ferred to, 59 n. 
 
 Letters, meaning of, 35 f., 54. 
 
 Liberty in education. See Freedom 
 in education. 
 
 "Light Bird" (mother play), 180 n. 
 
 Life, forms of, 136 ff., 139 f. 
 
 Matter, 3. 
 
 Mediation of opposites. See Law 
 
 of opposites. 
 Member- whole relationship. See 
 
 Gliedganzes. 
 Mother Play book, 165 ff. ; use of, 
 
 170 ff., 186 f., 201. 
 Mother plays, discussed, 170 ff., 
 
 181 ff. ; symbolism of, 176 ff., 199. 
 
 Naming to fix ideas, 49 f., 106, 143, 
 
 147. 
 Natural state, 84. 
 Nature, as divine, 1 ff., 21 ; as 
 
 paralleling spirit, 5 ff. 
 Nature study. 187 ff., 204. 
 Natur-philosopkie movenient, 10 n. 
 Normal forms, 104 ff., 108. 
 Number, meaning of, 36 f. 
 
 Occupations, 113, 113 n. See 
 
 Gift series. 
 Oken, referred to, 10; as leader 
 
 of Natur-philosophie movement, 
 
 10 n. 
 "Opposites," law of, stated, 14 ff. ; 
 
 referred to, 25, 58, 114, 122 f., 
 
 134 ff., 150, 195 f.; discussed, 
 
 42 ff. 
 Opposites, paired, 16, 46, 50, 196 n. 
 
 Pantheism, ascribed to Froebel, 1 ; 
 was Froebel a pantheist? 18 ff. ; 
 referred to, 57. 
 
 Paper folding, referred to, 43 f., 50. 
 
 Parallelism of man and nature, 
 26 ff., 57. 
 
 Parallelism of development, stated, 
 5 ff . ; discussed, 26 ff. ; referred 
 to, 57, 192. 
 
 "Pattern" plays, 181 ff. 
 
 Peaswork, 113, 114 n. 
 
 Pestalozzi, referred to, 10, 61, 104, 
 148, 153, 203. 
 
 Physical training, 117, 118, 154 f. 
 
 Pictures, mother play, 37, 164 f., 
 175, 179, 179 n. 
 
 Play, referred to, 96, 107, 109, 126, 
 128, 129, 152, 159, 168, 203; dis- 
 cussed, 98; imaginative play, 
 73, 75, 136 ff., 146; guidance in, 
 84 f. ; the meaning of, 98 ff., 
 144 f. See also Games, Mother 
 plays. Pattern plays. Self- 
 activity. 
 
 216 
 
INDEX 
 
 Playgrounds, public, 155. 
 Plaything. See Gift series. 
 Plotinus, referred to, 3. 
 Potential symbols, 79 S. 
 Preformation, doctrine of, 9 f., 61, 
 
 86. 
 Premonitions. See Innate ideas, 
 
 doctrine of. 
 Puns, Froebel's use of, 30, 35, 38. 
 
 Recapitulation, doctrine of cultural, 
 
 7, 26, 59 f., 107. 
 
 Religious teaching, 1, 176, 190 f., 
 
 205. 
 Kichter, Jean Paul, referred to, 102, 
 
 102 n., 146. 
 Rousseau, referred to, 203. 
 
 Schelling, referred to, 8, 10 n., 12, 
 18, 31, 40, 41, 77 n. 
 
 Schiller, referred to, 161. 
 
 School gardens, 188 S., 192 ff. 
 
 Self-activity, 96 £F., 107, 131, 144, 
 203. See also Freedom in educa- 
 tion. Play, Games. 
 
 Self-expression, 96. 
 
 Senses, training of, 169. 
 
 "Sequence," 131 ff., 200. 
 
 Simple, logical, 104. 
 
 Social relationship, 13, 38 ff., 57 f., 
 152 ff., 192 f., 197, 204. 
 
 Sphere, 64, 122. See also Ball. 
 
 Symbolism, doctrine of, referred to, 
 
 8, 13, 14, 26, 30, 32, 36, 37, 38, 
 
 47 f., 63, 64, 102 f., 124, 127, 129, 
 130, 131, 132, 135, 136, 143, 145, 
 186, 193, 198 ff., 208; stated, 
 66 ff.; examined, 71 ff., 77 ff., 
 107, 149 f. ; types of symbolism, 
 73 ff., 136 f. ; potential symbols, 
 79 ff. ; symbolism of the ball, 
 111 ff., 118 ff., 158; symbolism 
 of games, 153, 158 ff. ; vicarious 
 symbolism, 162 ff. ; symbohsm 
 in the mother plays, 176 ff., 181 ff. 
 
 Thorndike, referred to, 59 n. 
 
 Time, children's interest in, 64 ff. 
 
 Training, general, 104. 
 
 Tree, analogy of man to, 6, 26 f., 
 30 f., 190 f., 192. See also 
 Parallelism of development. 
 
 Tulk, referred to, 10 n. 
 
 Unity, Froebel's interest in, 4, 11 f., 
 64, 69 f., 112 f., 119 ff., 130, 131, 
 149, 158 ff., 200. See also Ball, 
 Circle games. 
 
 Von Marenholtz-Bulow, 
 to, 71 n. 
 
 referred 
 
 ' ' Weathercock ' ' (mother play) , 
 
 171 ff. 
 Wilderspin, referred to, 146, 206. 
 Work and play, 101 f. See also 
 
 Play. 
 Writing, Lina's, 44, 48 f. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America. 
 
 217 
 
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