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S
INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SERIES
Wilhel.: v celotne
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL'S
EDUCATION
BY DEVELOPMENT
THE SECOND PART OF THE
PEDAGOGICS OF THE KINDERGARTEN
TRANSLATED BY
JOSEPHINE JARVIS
NEW YORK
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY
1899
undergraduate
Boxery
1158
J 383
BUHR
COPYRIGHT, 1899,
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY.
ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED
AT THE APPLETON PRESS, U. S. A.
SCHUDDEREDUCATION
FEB 1441
Transfer
to UGL
AUG 2 5 1978
I. EDITOR'S PREFACE.
TOGRAD
7-28-10
In the former volume * nearly one half of the
essays brought together by Wichard Lange in a
volume entitled The Pedagogics of the Kinder-
garten have already been printed, in Miss Jarvis's
translation. Those essays relate more especially
to the plays and games, although in several articles
the gifts are discussed with some degree of thorough-
ness. In the present volume the educational prin-
ciples underlying the gifts are more thoroughly
discussed. Again and again in the various essays
Froebel goes over his theory of the meaning of the
ball, the sphere, the cube, and its various sub-
divisions. The student of Froebel has great advan-
tage, therefore, in reading this volume, inasmuch
as Froebel has cast new light on his thought in each
separate exposition that he has made. Sometimes
the briefest mention may prove the most illuminat-
* No. XXX of the International Educational Series.
vi
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ing, and certainly every brief summary helps to
understand the extended treatise.
Froebel proceeds from the solid to the surface
through tablets and stick-laying, and finally reaches
drawing. He returns to the solid through paper
folding and the constructing of outlines of the regu-
lar solids by means of sticks joined by means of
soaked peas.
The essays on the training school for kinder-
gartners and the method of introducing children's
gardens into the kindergarten are very suggestive
and useful. In fact, there is no other kindergarten
literature that is quite equal in value to the contents
of this present volume. The remaining essays in
Lange's volume not yet translated are mostly of an
ephemeral character, treating of occasions like the
play festival at Altenstein (No. 29), a speech at the
opening of the first kindergarten in Hamburg (No.
28), a sketch of the constitution of a proposed educa-
tional society (No. 25), and two other papers of like
character (Nos. 23 and 24).
With the publication of the present volume a
complete list of the original works of Froebel in
English translation has been provided in this series,
namely:
EDITOR'S PREFACE.
vii
Froebel's Education of Man, Vol. V.
The Mottoes and Commentaries of Mother-
Play, Vol. XXXI.
The Songs and Music of the Mother-Play, Vol.
XXXII.
The Pedagogics of the Kindergarten, Vols.
XXX and XLIV.
Besides these, the series furnishes other helpful
volumes for the understanding of Froebel, namely:
Miss Blow's Symbolic Education, Vol. XXVI,
and Letters to a Mother, Vol. XLV.
Mr. Hughes's Froebel's Educational Laws, Vol.
XLI.
W. T. HARRIS.
WASHINGTON, D. C., January 14, 1899.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I.-THE SPIRIT OF THAT TRAINING OF THE HUMAN
BEING WHICH EDUCATES BY DEVELOPING DEMON-
STRATED BY THE WAY IN WHICE LINA LEARNED
TO READ . . . . . . . .
II.-THE CHILD'S LOVE OF DRAWING . . . . 55
III.—GUIDE TO PAPER-FOLDING . . . . . 89
IV.-STICK-LAYING . . . . . . . . 118
no V.-FROEBEL'S FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES OF EDUCA-
TION, HIS MEANS AND MODES OF EDUCATION AS
WELL AS EDUCATIONAL AIM AND OBJECT, IN
RELATION TO THE TENDENCIES AND REQUIRE-
MENTS OF THE TIME—REPRESENTED BY HIM-
SELF · · · · · · · · · 161
VI.—THE FATHER'S CRADLE SONG . . . . . 215
VII.—THE CHILDREN'S GARDENS IN THE KINDERGARTNERS
VIII.-TRAINING SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTNERS . . 228
IX.-ADDRESS BY FROEBEL BEFORE THE QUEEN OF
Saxony. . . . . . . . . 241
X.—THE CONNECTING SCHOOL. . . . . . 268
XI.—COMPENDIOUS DESCRIPTION OF THE KINDERGARTEN
GIFTS AND OCCUPATIONS . . . . . 306
217
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS BY THE
TRANSLATOR.
I. Spirit of Education by Development: (p. 1) Froebel requested
to make an understandable written statement of his system, and its
means, methods, objects, and aim; his attempt to do so not quite
satisfactory ; his desire to find cause of failure; (2) verbal state-
ments understood, recognized as true, and partially carried out;
cause of misapprehension ; verbal statements accompanied by an
object; foundation of his educational whole; (3) object connected
with explanation; How Lina Learns to Read; (4) significance of
child's impulse to learn to write and read ; child feels itself a part-
whole; (5) good results of education depend on this feeling ; (6) it
is the starting-point of the kindergarten ; how awakened ; writing
and reading a connecting bond; (7) connects the single with the
general ; letter-writing ; (8) answers to questions about life and
education ; (9) total result; Pestalozzi and Froebel compared ; all-
sided life-union; (10) aim and goal; evils of overleaping inter-
mediate steps; (11) means of avoiding this error; (12) Lina's
. mother our teacher; direct natural attraction; (13) means provided
suited to child's powers; (14) teaching founded on Lina's wish;
(15) developed from her feeling of personality ; (16) problem of de-
veloping education solved ; (17) error in education ; foundation of
developing education ; (19) child's personality a means of percep-
tion ; (20) series of development repeated ; (21) nature of Creator
made known by creation ; (22) development implies something to
develop; what? (23) education must be faithful to laws of develop-
ment; what are they? Lina's mother answers; (24) consequence
of child's feeling itself a part-whole; what has a developing influ-
ence also a part-whole; what is to be developed in child ? (25) what
are the laws of development? how God revealed his nature; (26)
the creation to manifest the divine; impulse and attraction ;
child's impulse to represent his own nature; education a part-
xi
xii
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
whole; consequence of this; (27) effect of misconceptions on educa-
tion; Nature a touchstone ; Nature and the free spirit; means of
criticism ; (28) why laws of Nature and the spirit explain one an-
other; the touchstone for developing education ; (29) touchstone of
correct following of training; (30) mother complies with Lina's
wish to learn to write; first step ; second step ; (31) what is speak-
ing? the word ? third step; secret of developing education ; law of
connection ; (32) training continued ; child led to find out different
sounds; (33) man connects Creator and creation; language, man,
and things; elements of speech also connections ; law of connection
essential ; (34) and practical ; (35) nature of education by develop-
ment; what and how to develop; (36) means of testing laws of
education; law of opposites; (37) what can be done by means of
law of connection? four answers; fifth, education suited to the
time; (38) sixth, with what education is connected ; seventh, to
what it corresponds; it unifies; (39) eighth, law of the triune life;
ninth, how developing education is suited to the time; (40-41)
personality the point of germination of developing education ; (42)
starting-point for all education ; this poing resembles a seed; it
constitutes the nature of developing education ; (43) unity and uni-
versality opposites; (44) effect of closely uniting them; union of
opposites made objective ; effect of name; (45-46) aim of develop-
ing education ; of the kindergarten ; germinating point recognized ;
(47) the other developing laws follow; fact in back-ground of
mother's management; law of the original unit; lies in man ;
divineness of his nature; (48) means of testing named ; education
a science; an art; a living fact; (49) how to obtain all this by de-
veloping education ; practical understanding; education a finished
whole ; how to apply in developing education the laws before ex-
plained ; (50) the particular conditioned by the general ; child in
combination with the great life-whole ; each of its actions not iso-
lated ; (51) three purposes of education; meaning of all done by
and with child ; first attention to him linked with development of
his limbs, etc. ; (52) he strives for free use of his members ; his
imitation promoted by the mother; activity of limbs, etc. ; (53)
effect of word heightened by rhythm and tone; Mother-Play and
Nursery Songs; (54-55) a test of this book.
II. Man a Creative Bcing: (p. 56) man in interdependence with
Nature; what this view gives to education ; (57) how God reveals
himself; how man makes known his being; man determined to
create ; (58) a young child's spontaneous expressions of life ; child a
creative being; therefore related to his Creator ; (59) reason for his
1
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
xüi
activity; he invests with life all he sees ; (60) more proofs that he
is related to God ; bis desire for representing ; how he shows his
creative power; (61) first object of his tendency to activity; char-
acter of his other first playthings; use of these a proof of his
creative impulse ; his efforts to draw important; in second or third
year, bulky solids replaced by other things; (62) these things
named ; child's creative representations advance as his means of
play become less material; (63) illustrations; what man recognizes
in and by the spirit; effect of fostering child's creative power; (64)
child's desire for typical representation ; object of first part of this
chapter; foundation of child's activity up to his seventh year;
(65) upon what his action depends; his slight power no obstruc-
tion to his impulse toward creative activity ; his effort to strengthen
this impulse not to be disturbed ; (66) he seeks material with which
to gratify it; outward fostering of this impulse indispensable ;
parents to give their children what Nature gives hers; (67) why
painting and drawing attract the child; his choice of material
shows him in harmony with Nature's doings; (68) child's efforts
to prove he is a creative being are sacred; he thus shows himself
also a member of the great whole; what he is destined to do; (69)
why he proves himself a creating being, especially by his drawing;
education ; (70) effect of omitting drawing; development of child
portance ; (72) what it makes possible ; symmetrical development
required ; effect of a free position of child's body; fostering of feel-
ing of pleasantness ; (73) also of that of the right essential to culti-
vation of child as a creative being; character of the drawing; (74)
sequence of lines drawn; drawing of lines connected with the
movements of the limbs; (75) reasons for connecting word and
deed ; illustrated by the drawing; the way lines originate to be con-
sidered ; (76) effect of adding the loving tone to the word ; lines,
material for representation ; illustrations; (77) child tries to draw
a house ; demands upon him made by such drawing ; (78) the eye
a measure ; drawing in the network; (79) the shortest line the
measure ; longest line five times as long as shortest; how to make
the network; (80) distance of parallel lines from one another ;
conscious drawing begins with the straight line; sequence of such
lines; more directions; effect of the network; (81) way to make
sion of child's activity ; (82) drawing conditioned in his nature;
to what this first drawing leads; laws of formation ; next require-
xiy
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ment; (83) effect of employing the rule experienced by child ; laws
of formation now shown, higher than those before stated; each
form suggests the next; capacities aroused in child by his desire
for signs; how he feels the growth of his creative power; (84) to
what use he turns the law of development; inventiveness a proof
of creative power; what child learns by looking at objects; the
progress he has made at this stage ; (85) effect on him of drawing
simple lines; (86) how to develop his power of creating by draw-
ing; the most important result of drawing; child's conscious ad-
vance from the straight to the curved line; round and straight
compared ; (87) what child represents by the drawing; why he is
set in the midst of the life-whole; (88) first condition for his de-
velopment; his cultivation for creative drawing ; point of refer-
ence of true education; kindergarten leads to this; nature of
kindergarten.
III. Paper Folding: (p. 89) what it is; beneficent property of
paper folding ; (90) A, guide to means of employment in general ;
means of development conditioned in child's nature; (91) develop-
ment and employment connected ; third to sixth gifts ; tablets ;
what they form; (92) for what they are adapted ; sticks; their use ;
(peas work); interlacing ; jointed slat; (93) intertwining; weav-
ing; dividing and recombining material; form changed, quantity
unaltered; modeling; folding ; (94) thread game ; cutting; (95)
what this review shows; (96) from what paper folding proceeds ;
square preferred to triangle; B, paper folding a means of em-
ployment; how the square may be made; what the results of
this work should show; squares formed from rectangles ; (98)
reader to do the work ; (98–99) directions; (100) squares material
for folding; development of forms; children make their own
squares ; aim of folding ; geometric surfaces named according to
the number of their sides, etc. ; (101) directions for fundamental
forms; law at the foundation of all education ; (102) directions;
child to do and hear; (103) why; perceptions of form and size
gained by the folding ; examples ; (104) this is play to the child ;
double meaning of phrase "right angle" ; facts cleared by repeti-
tion ; (105) from what the eighth (geometric] perception proceeds ;
fact stated in the opposite way; (106) more perceptions; (107)
more directions; (108) perceptions; (109) twofold meaning of
"right angle" ; (110) the right angle a measure of angles ; a per-
ception; child perceives many facts ; eye and mind developed ;
(111) directions ; double truth derived from results of folding;
what doing the thing proves ; a perception twice shown ; (112) di-
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
XV
rections ; (113) perceptions; concluding statement; (114) opposite
square ; perceptions; kindergartner gives the word for child's per-
ception ; (115) concluding directions; (116–117) final perceptions.
IV. Stick Laying: (p. 118) the whole of plays and occupations
not arbitrarily originated; by what called ; how grown; what it
is ; what comes from it; (119) developing education the funda-
mental effort at present; stage of child's development required for
stick laying ; (120) result of bringing it forward too soon; from
what the sticks proceed ; (121) tablets split into sticks; effect;
later develops from earlier ; development of sticks in play-whole;
(122) from what the sticks, etc., result; three principal directions;
(123) how they appear in ball, etc. ; sticks a means of cultivation;
ball compared to the germ of a tree; (124) to a flower bud; what
this is to show; importance of early leading the child into the link-
ings of life; (125-126) stage of cultivation required for use of
sticks; (127–128) what is gained by this presentation of the stick
play ; (129) connecting laws united in the stick ; it has the essen-
tial properties of all objects; (130) its relations to other objects ; its
possible positions ; cause of its charm for the child ; (131) what it
is for him; author and reader enter a kindergarten; number of
children there ; their greeting ; that of kindergartner; (132) Froe-
bel's answer; her apology for the simplicity of the intended stick-
play ; the manifold goes forth from the simple ; illustration ; (133)
questions about shape and position of stick asked and answered ;
it is compared with other objects; (134) she gives each child a stick;
tells what her own is like, and lays it on table ; each child does the
same; she repeats the names given to the sticks; (136) children
show where each imagined object is.; what the children do and say
proves that manifoldness proceeds from the single; the children's
joyousness; (137) their mutual sympathy; effect; farewell song;
what Froebel learned in the kindergarten ; (138) permission to
come again ; reader's desire to return shows interest in the subject;
(139) he has thought of it constantly since visiting the kindergar-
ten; Froebel's experience similar; (140) sticks compared to mag-
net; (141) attraction of each part of the play-whole explained ;
(142) effect of inner power abiding in Nature ; (143) innermost ua-
ture of relation between kindergartner and children ; author and
reader enter the kindergarten ; sticks again ; attention song ; each
child has one stick ; (144) is given another; effect of visitors join-
ing in the play; influence of the invisible ; (145) no activity with-
out effect in the kindergarten ; result of kindergarten fostering;
children name their stick forms; reasons for laying the forms
xri
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
on the table; (146) kindergartner makes angles by beckoning;
(147) three kinds of angles; their names; children make angles by
beckoning; kindergartner lays angles with sticks; children do the
same; (148) angle song; other stick forms; visitors asked to test
kindergartner's knowledge; (149) they do so; she names kinds of
angles in some of the stick forms ; elasticity play with sticks; re-
sult of play rhymed; (150) play repeated ; vertical and horizontal
illustrated by steel yard made with sticks; the use of former gifts
gave knowledge of angles; why ways are given for gaining this
knowledge by stick-laying ; (151) everything in a double relation
to the child ; reason why kindergarten material satisfies the child ;
(152) recognition of inner phenomena shows the true nature of kin-
dergarten; simple material best liked ; deeper insight into rela-
tions between child and material required ; (153) advice to mothers,
etc. ; (154) reader derived benefit from the kindergarten; inner
connection of forms made by the children ; (155) what these forms
show; that which is invisible yet perceptible ; (156) visitors look
at children's stick forms ; children name forms; different names
for the same form; (157) why allow children to make foris not
much like the real objects; kindergartner counts formas, children
look closely at them; sticks taken up; each child remakes what
forms it can remember ; (158) effect of this; aim of kindergarten ;
(159) connecting power in children's minds differs ; objects made
are named by kindergartner in a stick story; effect of such story
telling; (160) harmony originated in youth, re-presented in later
life; farewell to the children ; taking up the sticks, a reward ;
farewell song.
V. Principles of Education: (p. 161) man drawn to observe the
phenomena and facts of his own time; attention to its character ;
a view of the whole; education characterizes the time; (162) cause
of this; periodicity recurs with humanity viewed as a whole; a pe-
riod of development begins now; neglect to give it special atten-
tion; (163) this neglect explained by analogy; neglect of develop-
ment has painful results; how the understanding of life is cleared ;
in what it expresses itself; man's whole life one of education ; by
what does the present time prove itself a time of education? (164)
facts on which the answer to this question rests; (165) universality
and consciousness of endeavors required; both present in this period
of time; individual requirements of this period ; (166) first demand
which characterizes the time as educational ; to what it appertains;
(167) to what pressure toward self-comprehension has given rise;
man's effort to raise to consciousness his tendency to activity; man
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
xvii
thinking, feeling, and acting ; second demand ; (168) the mother
to be first raised to recognition of her dignity, etc.; third and
fourth demands; (169) fifth and sixth demands; relation of espe-
cial to general most important; to what it leads; (170) the State an
educational institution ; seventh and eighth, by what and why the
present time is characterized as educational; (171) thought and idea
afford what life and man require ; how onward development of the
individual as a part-whole is obtained ; keystone of the whole-
ninth ; (172) in what man's vocation lies ; effect; these strivings
the most essential of the new period of life; all are present at the
same time; (173) all must be fulfilled at the same time; this prob-
lem to be solved in the same way as a gardener educates his plants;
from what this manner of treating the child proceeds ; (174) two
facts derived from observation of life; these facts give two of the
maxins on which true education is founded; third maxim; (175)
what these two limitations give as a product; fourth law of educa-
tion ; those who acknowledge the truth of these principles must be-
gin to carry them out; woman's instinct to be raised to conscious-
ness ; (176) women the first trainers of the human being; man has
no less part in this training; this co-operation to begin in child-
hood ; why; humanity composed of opposites ; child to be treated
in accordance with the spirit of this system ; (177) where the source
of genuine development is; when and how it finds nourishment;
how nurses quiet a young child; how child lulls itself; (178)
rhythm and song connected with child's expressions of life; so they
belong to a healthy education of man; effect of song on child ;
Mother Play and Nursery Songs mostly accompanied by song; ef-
fect; singing tone added to word ; (179) with such development,
child needs an object by which to develop himself; human being's
nature requires a counterpart; effect of not providing one ; (180)
whither the images of fancy lead ; what kind of object to provide
for child's activity ; what he chooses; what girls like; (181) why;
weight the first expression of attraction; what the object must be ;
(182) why ball is best liked ; (183) play engendered by the opposite
like; (184) how ball can be used ; in what form and relations ; (185)
ball an all-sided means of development; child seeks for plurality;
human gardener to bring to unfolding child's longing for plural-
ity; why; child seeks in plurality the connecting unity; this is
given by the colors of the balls; (186) how different number and
like form, size, etc., of ball increase with child's increasing age;
(187) fact that ball is child's true first plaything disputed ; proofs
of fact; (188) ball a means of moral preservation ; (189) what child's
xvii
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
activity proves ; sphere the opposite like of ball, and so child's next
plaything; it is compared with ball; (190) progress in material in ac-
cordance with Nature; meaning of last phrase ; the germ of the later
must lie in the earlier ; (191) requirements of education explain
one another; this proves the truth of the whole; sphere not to
supplant ball; each gift extends the use of the preceding one;
(192) use of sphere has much in common with ball play; how
sphere may be moved by string; each plaything a whole ; each has
its task to do in child's education ; task of sphere; why we need
clear perceptions of unity in life ; (193) effect of leading the child
to this ; proof of the divine in life ; how sphere is to benefit child;
effect of rhymed, song in child's education ; (194) effect of using
white and black spheres ; next plaything must be a contrast to the
sphere; (195) cube the third plaything; its contrasts to the sphere;
law of connection approached with ball; (196) it now shows itself
to be a law of life ; for what it is later essential; how it is to be
brought to child's notice; another respect in which the perception
of such a law is important; (197) what we, as true educators, must
give again ; why; return to cube ; to what it leads by its form;
how it may be introduced ; (198) form, etc., important; also the
sure gaze; why and how the child should be early introduced into
the perception of form, etc.; cube leads to relations of number;
(199) third way of viewing the cube ; why it is especially suited for
play; man born for research ; to what cube leads and introduces
the child ; (200) with what his delight in the object of play is con-
nected; what takes place within him is developed during the play;
kind of plaything which the child likes best; (201) what gives
value to the representation plays; what they are; these represen-
tations a whole, though incomplete ; how to complete it; value of
modes of play, etc., here demonstrated ; (202) reasons for this
value; the peace which Jesus leſt must become a fact; what he said
must be true ; (203) these remarks applied to child life ; what has
been said about the cube, the keystone to the kindergarten system;
law of connection the most important law of the universe ; child to
be treated in accordance with the highest laws of life ; child is life;
his plays, etc., represent life ; (204) cylinder the connection between
cube and sphere, and fifth object of play; child life proves the truth
of this last ; (205) requirements followed in the choice of these
three early playthings give the same result; what experience
proves with regard to them ; by what the use of the cylinder is de-
termined ; sphere, cylinder, and cube, a whole; what they form ;
they point toward the phenomena of art life; example ; (206) tri-
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
xix
partite character of the columnar orders ; purpose of bringing out
this fact here; (207) what must be done if human beings are to
unite in truth; spirit of union compared to the sun; (208) how to
gain all-sided life union; we must have a clear idea of the nature
of our subject before we can safely go on; the object of play was
always a whole; three objects considered as wholes, form another
whole ; (209) they are therefore part-wholes; the property of being
a part-whole, important for the child; he can not too early be led
to observe it; this is done by next plaything; instinct of mother
and that of child lead to this ; child desires a separable whole; the
next gift is a cube divided into eight equal cubes; (210) knowledge
of cube form important for life ; illustrations; (211) the attraction
these eight cubes have for children proved by experience; (212) a
few lines will serve for guidance to those who are urged by deep
earnestness to test all that is revealed for child's education; separa-
tion requisite for the observing intellect and the outwardly repre-
senting life ; apparent separation is inner union ; why the man can
not learn to live in life ; (213) the comprehension of the original
unit fostered and observed in the child's life in the way of educat-
ing children which lies before us; the second and third gifts fulfill
this requirement perfectly, yet meet with the most hostility; what
proves that they develop child life most judiciously; the most strik-
ing proof of the comprehensiveness of this genuine training ; (214)
answer to the reproach that children are earnest in kindergarten;
why children should rejoice over Froebel's plays.
VI. The Father's Cradle Song (p. 215); (216) song concluded.
VII. The Children's Garden in the Kindergarten : (p. 217) ac-
quaintance with Nature the sure foundation of successful educa-
tion; Nature the direct manifestation in action of God; Nature's
growth and development to be compared with man's; (218) the
child to have opportunity for this comparison in the children's
garden; why the kindergarten requires a garden; child to prove
himself by action an indvidual member of a greater life; (219) the
children's beds in their garden to be surrounded by the garden of
the whole; aim of children's garden; child compares the plants in
it; (219–221) suggestions for its general arrangement; (221–226) par-
ticular arrangement; (226) retroactive effect and influence on the
child of such fostering of plants ; (227) even the tending of a win-
dow garden benefits the child.
VIII. Plan for Training School : (p. 228) what kindergartens
are ; 1, general aim of the institution ; (229) 2, aim of the institu-
tion in particular; (230) 3, forming plays for the designated aim ;
XX
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
(231) 4, age of those who enter; 5, stage of cultivation of those who
enter; (232) 6, duration of the training course ; 7, the attainment
of the aim of cultivation ; (233-235) 8, division of time during the
training course ; (236–238) 9, a few more essential particulars and
the keystone of the training course ; (238) 10, outside conditions of
entrance ; 11, beginning of the course ; (239-240) 12, concluding re-
marks; (240) 13, reference.
IX. Address in Dresden : (p. 242) in Nature, all is in that inner
coherence which leads to God ; facts of Nature and life demonstrate
this ; in Nature, the manifestation of God, all is intuition and life;
this coherence deeply grounded; (243) what living in this coher-
ence gives man; since those highest ideas of life are represented in
Nature, should not man strive to live in, and to lead the children
into, harmony with this coherence? (244) what the earnestness of
this question caused Froebel to do; if there is coherence in Nature
and life, each individual must be a whole and a part of a whole;
(245) why child is such a part-whole; how is he to rise to the antic-
ipation, etc., of this coherence? how he should be treated from the
first; he is in coherence with God, Nature, and humanity ; errors
in regard to this threefold comprehension of child injure his un-
folding; this triune conception of child, our first problem ; second,
to what he is to be led ; (246) what the foundation of all develop-
ment is; child's life expresses itself by activity ; point at which a
satisfactory education begins; activity threefold ; in what it ap-
pears ; child's life to be treated according to this triplicity ; Nature
leads child to this; apple a part-whole ; (247) Nature too near to
and too far from the human being; a connecting third needed ;
ball fulfills the conditions of this third ; to what it corresponds;
how; (248) ball the representative of all which exists; foundation
of ball's connecting child and Nature ; what man must do to under-
stand Nature ; Froebel's plays a means of introduction into Nature ;
ball unites opposites in itself; it is an introduction into the knowl-
edge of Nature and man; (249) it is a mirror of all; what this inti-
mation about ball's nature justifies; the inflexible proceeds from
the movable; sphere and cube come from ball ; (250) what sphere
and cube show; three principal directions in sphere and ball the
key to recognition of every form, etc. ; three activities in cach ob-
ject; importance of this observation of a coherent three ; (251) the
ends of the three principal directions are surfaces in cube ; cube's
surfaces and corners postulated in its interior; all directions alike
in size in sphere and ball, different in cube; (252) it makes its in-
side externally visible; what the outside of the sphere is ; the great
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
xxi
law of Nature and life; why it is important to express this law ;
the highest aim of man's activity ; (253) child to be guided to this
in his play; ball the means of introduction into the general, cube
into the particular ; illustration ; (254) child-fostering, the repre-
sentation of knowledge of Nature; why child thankfully recognizes
such fosteriug; why retain for recognition the fountain, etc., of
the phenomena of life ; aim of consideration of Nature and genuine
child-fostering ; (255) object of giving sphere and cube to child as the
next plaything ; each of these subjects important for the fostering
of child's life ; indivisibility requires the divided ; child shows this;
(256) requisites for next plaything met by third gift; attention
given to the eighth part-cubes ; opposites to appear united; the one-
sided a development of all-sidedness; how does the third gift cor-
respond to child's nature; (257) tendency of intelligence and heart
in early and later life compared ; form which can be separated and
united is demanded by life and furnished by the divided cube;
this makes it possible to comprehend the child as feeling, thinking,
and creating; forms which can be made with third gift are either
those of knowledge, of beauty, or of life ; (258) to what this corre-
sponds; the three principal directions in sphere and cube com-
pared ; (259) these directions to become abiding and different; how
this is done; effect of this division on formation ; forms made with
fourth gift are of the same kinds as those of the third ; (260) how
each series is extended ; effect of having the three directions differ
in size in the building stones ; child impressed by what he can do
with these small means ; deduction ; (261) effect of such impres-
sions; each form admits of several perceptions; why these observa-
tions are important for the child ; effect of these plays; (262) gen-
eral law exemplified; this law as important as its opposite ; child
led by Nature and play to recognize it ; what he perceives and to
what he is led ; (263) why the twice divided cube is the next
(fifth) gift; difference of kind in its parts as well as increase in
their number required; how this is done ; (264) correct comprehen-
sion of the right important for the child ; the former plays sought
to confirm Nature's impressing of the right; oblique and inclined
also important; examples ; to what these plays train the child ;
what this gift does; (265) kinds of forms made with it; these forms
compared with those of the former gifts ; (266) Pythagorean prob-
lem illustrated with this gift ; special importance of this gift for
the child ; its opposite (sixth gift); character of the forms made
with the latter ; why the demonstration of these plays closes here;
what it was possible for Froebel to do; (267) the progress and con-
xxii
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
clusion of the whole ; application of these plays; Nature the foun-
dation of human education; what would be possible if Froebel's
wish were fulfilled.
X. The Connecting School : (p. 268) Emma wants to know how
to manage a connecting school ; different stages of child's develop-
ment; childhood separated into the baby and family stages; (269)
how child develops in the latter; kindergarten the second stage ;
the human training of the kindergarten; here a child comes to a
plurality of objects; (270) what they become to and teach the child ;
third stage, connecting school; kindergarten acquirements; the
training stage of kindergarten sharply bounded ; abstract knowl-
edge first entered upon in connecting school; (271) name shows
nature; it combines kindergarten and school for learning; result
of kindergarten ; with what connected ; child comes to the percep-
tion of manifoldness in unity; child introduced into the science of
the general and special laws of life ; (272) why Emma's perception
of the stage of kindergarten training must be decided ; law of devel-
opment counteracts impulse to destruction ; result of this develop-
ing activity ; to what stick laying, etc., leads; surface laying pre-
ceded that of sticks; to what the former leads; what it teaches;
kindergarten nature, etc., to be reproduced in an organic manner;
(274) the being right and the whole kindergarten based on mathe-
matical proofs ; two more perceptions of life begin in kindergarten;
an important fact in relation to even and uneven numbers; where
number first finds its true recognition ; (275) what feeling should
be strengthened in Emma; what is demonstrated by “How Lina
Learns to Read” ; effect of clearly producing this subject; (276)
what exercises belong in connecting school ; what completes kinder-
garten cultivation ; (277) nature of kindergarten, school, and con-
necting school ; (278) what the latter forms; comprehension of its
nature, etc., not easy; why ; length of connecting school training
course; why such schools are so rare; with . what such a school
connects and what it gives ; (279-280) examples; into what con-
necting school leads; reference to “Education of Man," etc. ; the
most important means of passing from kindergarten to school;
(282) keystone of kindergarten employment; box of fourteen solids;
such forms to be made in clay, etc. ; use of this box in kindergarten;
with what education by development begins; why complete de-
velopment of limbs, etc., is needed; what the child is to learn to
know; why ball serves this purpose ; to what it leads; (284) what
ball demands; what sphere requires; of what sphere and cube are
the expression ; cylinder shows the connection between the two;
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
xxiii
employment with the fourteen solids is connected with the second
gift; objects of this gift the four first solids ; (285) what these ob-
jects have shown the child ; inner law of change results from law
of connection ; where this law came forth ; into what contempla-
tion of the fourteed solids introduces the child ; (286-287) manner
of making the transition from cube to octahedron ; (288) transition
from cube to dodecahedron; their places in the box; (289) by what
the three surface directions of the cube lead to the sphere; effect of
suppressing corners ; places in box of new solids and their complet-
ing forms; these six new solids close the course in kindergarten ;
reverse course also given there ; (291) outlined forms important at
the kindergarten stage ; children made the outlined square, etc. ;
from what the outlined cube results ; how the next solid originates
within the cube; the outlined octahedron ; (292) outlined tetra-
hedron; all these to be represented in the cube ; comparison of
these with each other and with the solids gives an intimation of
garten, starting point of connecting school ; (293) list of opposites;
child skilled in these contrasts; (294) they are to be brought to his
notice in sequence; leading direction not lacking; germ for each
development provided ; connecting school develops child from
unconsciousness to consciousness; nature of connecting school; ex-
amples ; (295) general result; what determines the form of a body;
introduction into the science of space, etc. ; (296) with what con-
sideration of the fourteen solids is connected ; analysis of cube;
instruction in number to be carried from the stage of perception to
that of conception; (297) also instruction about the form and size
of solids, etc. ; to what perception of figure leads; consideration of
the outer world ; to what it leads; (298) province of language;
with that of the surface of the earth ; illustrations ; (299) helps in
geography; examples; what is connected with this; (300) why
observation of plants is important for connecting school child ;
(300-301) this importance shown by Bible texts; plant world im-
portant to Germans; cultivated fruit trees; what they are; (302)
human being to be the same; how he can become so ; from and
into what he can pass with this anticipation ; what the connecting-
school teacher must have before her eyes; it is doubtful if she can
fully apply to her school what has been said ; (303–304) Froebel
convinced of possibility of connecting school; places in box of the
fourteen solids and their completing forms; (305) into what these
solids lead ; their principal divisions.
xxiv
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT. .
XI. Kindergarten Means of Employment: (p. 306) man a sen-
tient being; with what and by whom connected ; the child a mem-
ber of a family; the foundation of his development; what position
he obtained by such fostering, etc. ; (307) how the mother appears
through such fostering; with whom and what she connects her
child ; how she must act with regard to all these connective offices;
why they are of equal importance; (308) child to develop himself
at a future time; how and between what he is to mediate ; by
What means he first develops himself; what mediation presup-
poses; (309) child and Nature opposite yet alike; child a part of
Nature ; how he must develop ; difference between man and
Nature; care for child's health the first duty of mother or nurse ;
(310) when he is healthy; why he is given a body; limbs and
senses are contrasts; so are arms and legs; (311) between what the
hands are a connection ; to what the senses correspond ; physical
treatment of the child ; what limbs and senses require ; what to ob-
serve in reference to child's development; (312) development of
his impulse to activity ; this impulse soon requires an object; the
retroactive effect on the child a twofold one ; what the first play-
thing must be; (313) these requirements met by the ball; what
essential properties of objects are represented by it; of what it is a
means ; development produced by ball play ; (314) play with ball
as a type; go back to earliest childhood ; what child's increased
power requires ; the opposite of the sphere described ; sphere and
cube opposite yet alike; (315) connection required ; cylinder de-
scribed ; cone required and described; why these four form a
whole ; (315-316) comparison of these solids ; (317) mode of play-
ing with them ; results of moving them; effect on child ; to what
the play with them leads; into what it introduces the child ; of
what these objects are the source; (318) why this gift has been
opposed ; what Froebel considers it; he offers to prove his asser-
tion; return to development of gifts ; playthings hitherto undi-
vided ; child likes opposites; (319) why his impulse to create
must be fostered ; next plaything the divided cube ; how and by
what required ; (320) by what third gift plays are conditioned ;
two rules for its use ; threefold character of forms made with it;
what these forms are called ; this distinction important; repre-
sentations connected with word and melody if possible; (321) guid-
ance for the use of this gift; what the three principal directions are
in this, and what they must be in the next gift; (322) how the fourth
gift results from the third ; variety of forms made with fourth gift;
forms also of three kinds ; (323) fifth gift compared with third in
ANALYSIS OF THE CONTENTS.
XXV
regard to the oblique line of direction and the number of divi-
sions; (324) forms made with fifth gift also of three kinds; their
effect; sixth gift parallel to fifth ; shape and number of blocks in
sixth gift; its peculiarity ; its likeness to the fifth gift; seventh
gift results from fifth ; (325) what all its parts put together form ;
oblique surfaced equal parts ; polyhedrons represented as devel-
oped from the cube ; eighth gift related to seventh ; first series of
children's plays ; first and second series of children's playthings;
(326) third and fourth series ; conception of surface as independent
of the solid appears in the last-named series ; four series of tablets ;
(327) derivation of these plays from the preceding, clear to the
thinker ; laws prominent in forms of beauty; their starting-point,
means of progress, and return; contrasts developed from connec-
tion ; (328) three kinds of forms made with tablets ; exercises in
color added; division of tablets gives sticks; these are embodied
lines, attract the child, and form a new division of the means of
play, etc. ; first and second kinds of play with them ; (329) third
kind ; (330) stick plays train the eye ; laws of development from
within ; fourth kind of stick play ; (331) fifth kind ; recapitulation
of kinds of stick plays ; points of connection for the singing tone,
etc. ; (322) why the leader of children must have a clear idea of all
this; over what this remark extends; from what points come and
what they form ; objects used to represent them ; point of connec-
tion for the collection of natural products as means of play; (333)
analysis of solid into surface, line, and point, compared to the devel-
opment of a tree ; hence we must return on our path to the first
unity ; separation requires coherence; this is obtained by the
pricking ; materials described ; (334) connection of points to lines ;
the pricking sheet; its peculiarity; three series of pricking
sheets ; for what and how the last is a preparation ; letters con-
nected with the pricking; (335) color connected with pricking;
why the results of the pricking should be used as presents ; lines
combined to form surfaces and solids; interlacing ; intertwining;
(336) weaving; how the results of it may be used ; importance of
children's giving ; (337) the making of mats and baskets con-
nected with the weaving ; peaswork used to make surface forms,
outlined solids, and furniture, etc. ; (338) the development of
forms from the preceding and finally from the original form ; why
this occupation is important; with what the cutting from wood
of sleds, etc., is connected ; what can be made by these employ-
ments; what results ; (339) children's making presents ; combina-
tion of surfaces; paper surfaces folded into boxes; how to lasten
xxvi
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the sides ; (340) cardboard modeling; a new division of children's
employments; form changed but not quantity; thread lines ;
stick lines ; paper folding; modeling; form changed, quantity
diminished; cutting from squares ; (341) the form made with
straight lines, curved lines, both; free-hand cutting ; cutting out;
what unfolding takes place here ; child uses all his powers; why
the busying of children at this stage of development ends here ; by
what this is shown; (342) change of solids made of soft material;
here again is a close; the cutting of solids connected with undi-
vided spheres; divided ones; they are divided in three ways;
(343) cylinder divided in four ways; cone also; what proceed from
the connection of round and straight; (344) provinces connected
with the modeling; what proceeds from all this; collecting of
pebbles, leaves, etc. ; its effect on the child ; to what the collecting
of plants, bugs, etc., leads; effect of all this on parents, etc. ; (345)
children the most enjoyable playmates of a child ; why; nature of
children's plays; what the child does by means of them; (346)
aim of this play-whole ; what child discovers in the plays; their
effect; foundation of child's impulse to imitation ; (347) what are
revealed to the child in the mirror of his plays.
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
THE SPIRIT OF THAT TRAINING OF THE HUMAN BEING
WHICH EDUCATES BY DEVELOPING, DEMON-
STRATED BY THE WAY IN WHICH LINA LEARNED
TO READ.
I HAVE often been requested to give a written
statement of the fundamental truths and principles
of my system of fostering and training childhood
statement in such a manner that it can be easily
understood. A further request has been made that
I should include in this statement an account of the
means and methods, object and aim, of this system
of training which I call an educational whole, that
educates by developing.
I have several times attempted to meet this de-
mand, which seemed to me a just one; but my
attempt has never given complete satisfaction to
those who desired the statement.
A man generally likes to make himself intelli-
gible concerning that which is the business of his
1
fred
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
life, and which he has at heart, as soon as it be-
comes of importance to the public. I have there-
fore tried to discover the cause of this non-satis-
faction, especially as my verbal communications
concerning the subject in question have been under-
stood by my hearers.
Indeed, they have told me, times without num-
ber, that they fully recognized the truth of my
statements, thought about them earnestly, and even
partially carried them into practice, though with
less clear insight, a smaller degree of perfection,
and less understanding of the logical connection.
Aided by such precise statements, I could not
fail to find the cause of misapprehension in the
different effect which a verbal communication has
as compared with a written one. The former is
always connected with an object which brings me
and my hearers together, and serves as a symbol
that helps them to understand my statements. For
the thought becomes perceptible, and so at once
full of life, by the use of such an object.
This fact shows in a remarkable manner that
not only the training and development of children
and young people, but that of mankind in general,
is (especially in early life) connected not merely
with that which is perceptible, but with that which
is, at the same time, perceptible and symbolic.
The educational whole here presented receives its
deep human foundation—a foundation which is
THE SYMBOLIC.
also natural and all-embracing—from the impor-
tant statement just made. That is, the spirit, ever-
lasting but invisible, is made perceptible and rec-
ognizable by means of the material through the
sense (Sinn) and the symbol (Bild), through the
symbolic (Sinnbildliche) as the connection between
the spirit and the material.
Now, in order to give an intelligible explana-
tion resting upon this foundation, and which can
be generally understood by the people, it is neces-
sary to find out such a general connecting object-
such a symbol, as it were. This object is speech
as connected with visible signs (symbols made per-
manent)—it is learning to write and read. For
the ability to read and write is now universal (at
least in Germany), and therefore what is said about
reading and writing must necessarily be univer-
sally intelligible to the people—at least I believe
and hope so.
Therefore I now choose the presentation in the
preceding chapter, "How Lina learns to write and
read," * as the connecting and intermediate object
of contemplation of my present communication
about my educational whole. This selection is the
more appropriate as the desire to learn to read and
write is a direction of the awakening impulse to-
* See chap. xv, Pedagogies of the Kindergarten, vol. XXX,
International Education Series.
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ward employment and culture, which shows itself
quite early in each German child. An educa-
tional whole which claims to be comprehensive
and to meet the needs of mankind in general must
proceed from something which belongs to all hu-
manity. I therefore begin the presentation of the
fundamental ideas and principles of this educa-
tional whole with this question, What is the signifi-
cation of the child's peculiar impulse to learn to
write and read? and what is the general signifi-
cance of this impulse in the child and for the child?
It is, in general (according to the stronger or
weaker feeling of personality attained by the child),
the effort to busy itself in this personality like the
observant adults around it; the effort to prove that
it also is a member of the great general life-whole,
and, as far as possible, to introduce itself into and
show itself in this life-whole. This same feeling
urges the child on to wish to help its father (and
still more its mother, who more fully enters into
this wish) whenever circumstances allow. This
feeling is twofold, for the little one feels itself at
the same time a self-poised whole and a part de-
pending on the great whole or totality of life which
it perceives around it, and which it divines in itself.
This feeling, or, in other words, this presenti-
ment of itself as a part-whole, certainly does stir
in the child, however slightly. I consider the ob-
servation, acknowledgment, and fostering of this
UNITY WITH THE WHOLE
5
feeling to be the foundation, the starting point-I
might say, the germinating point—the heart and
fountain of the true, developing, educating culti-
son of the child and of the human being; or,
renerally and in a single phrase, the
man in general.
oyununue good results of all true education depend
on the careful notice, fostering, development,
strengthening, and cultivation of this feeling on
the part of the child that he is a whole, and yet also
a part of all life; and on the avoidance of every
violation, clouding, disturbance of it. It is the
point of union of all things, and of each thing
which is to be attained through education. In-
deed it, singly and alone, first makes possible a
true human, all-sided, life-united education. But
through it such an education does become possible;
for through it the child recognizes itself directly
in the two relations of independence and depend-
ence without needing to be instructed by any out-
ward means. Without the direct recognition of
those relations there is no genuine human educa-
tion, as, in nature, no healthy, complete develop-
ment is possible without observation of those two
relations, and without the mute, unconscious living
in accordance with these relations. The great, in-
visible working gardener of the universe, of na-
ture, and of humanity shows us this in the educa-
tion of all his children, as the active plant gardener

6
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
does in tending the smallest pot garden. Therefore
this twofold feeling or anticipation is the starting
point, the vital point of the true kindergarten. It
is also the vital point of the developing educational
training of the child, of the youth, of, the phone
being, and of humanity up to all-side
Such training, verified by the kindergarten, is the
all-sufficing way leading at once to completeness; or
at least preparing for the possibility of, and enter-
ing upon the path which leads to completeness.
Through all this the second question obtrudes,
How and through what is this feeling awakened
on the part of the child of his twofold relation as
a part-whole—a feeling which at first slumbers
deeply within him, of which so much has been said,
and which has been seen to be so important.
This feeling is awakened by almost everything
that is done for or with the child. In manifold
ways he feels and sees himself (especially through
his frequent oppositeness to grown-up people) as a
particular and individual thing in contradistinction
to the general and collective. But this all-effective
feeling is especially awakened when the child is
encouraged to self-activity and to a developing
busying of himself while with his parents (espe-
cially his mother), or at least in the company of real
educators. In such company the child soon feels
an invisible but uniting bond, which embraces all
grown-up people, and even things. He feels a bond

READING AND WRITING A SOCIAL BOND. 7
which surrounds and unites all things for which he
asks. But besides that invisible bond he soon re-
marks a visible and still more effective bond which
connects the farthest as well as the nearest. This
is the wonderful art of writing and reading, mute
yet speaking, moving men in many ways, and
bringing to them joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain,
laughter and weeping.
Thus the perception of his twofold relation is
aroused in the child by his seeing and perceiving
that writing and reading are a means of connecting
the separate and single with the general, a means
of uniting the single parts with each other. Letter
writing especially awakens this perception in the
child. What child does not like to write letters?
How often the request, “ Please, please give me
some paper, dear father” (or “ dear mother"), “I
want to write a letter.” George is now just three
years old. Some time ago he sent to his father the
scribbled or merely folded pieces of paper which
he imagined to be letters. When his mother also
was obliged to take a journey which would keep
her away from him for a long while his most
earnest request was, “Mother, write me a little let-
ter.” The kind mother agreed to do so, and sent
folded sheets like little letters, on which the child's
fancy read what suited him and what he expected,
as if it were in the letter. This actually took place.
Therefore our Lina's desire in the former chapter,
1
8
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
11
“ Please, please, dear mother, give me some paper,
I will also write, a letter," is in harmony with the
great laws of development and education.
Now, what is symbolically expressed in the life
picture just brought forward as an answer to the
questions before us concerning life and education?
First, the child feels early through his whole
being what he is, and, through that which comes
to pass around him and exerts an influence as a
self-dependent, individual, and separate being, and
as an active member of a great life-whole, he di-
vines himself as a part-whole.
Second, he feels in like manner that he can
exist only in this life-whole; can develop only
through this; can become what he is to be only
in life-union with this.
Third, therefore his desire and effort are to
show himself as such a part-whole; he wishes and
begs to be permitted to occupy himself as such.
Fourth, it is thus the spirit of the surrounding
life which acts on the slumbering qualities and
capacities (germs, heart centres, and starting points)
in the child, as the sun's light, the earth's warmth,
the materials of life and nourishment in the air
and water act in spring on the seeds, germs, and
sprouts of the plants. In the case of Lina in our
little story it is the mother's loving fostering, the
father's thoughtful notice, and the uncle's require-
ments and helpful sympathy.
THE CHILD IN THE SOCIAL WHOLE.
9
Total result, the child will and must be recog-
nized as a member of the great life-whole. He is
to be tended, developed, educated, trained, and
treated as such in all-sided union of life. His
wishes and expressions, all his indications of life,
point toward this view of the child, which is also
the meaning of the wish “ Teach me to write."
Reference has been made to Pestalozzi's Influ-
ence of the Home. He places this influence at the
summit of his educational means as the first requi-
site. My educational means have been brought into
comparison with those of Pestalozzi. Comparisons
are always favorable to the promotion and applica-
tion of truth. I will therefore state, in respect to
the point mentioned, that, as Pestalozzi claims for
his child the influence of the home, so do I
claim for mine the powerful might of all-sided
life-union which accompanies it from childhood.,
Thus life-union consists of the management of the
child and the observation of the human being in
and according to all the relations of life—to the
whole life-power—following the pattern of Nature,
who treats the smallest seed and the least plant like
the entire world-process and realizes God's image in
nature.
I return to our Lina and to her learning to
read and write in order in this also to perceive
(symbolically) what is here stated.
With the feeling of the particular and the gen-
10
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
eral, of the personal independence and of the de-
pendence on the whole, and with the efforts thereby
called forth to give itself up to this whole and to
this general (as our Lina did by writing, indeed by
the writing of a letter), the goal appears before the
child at the same time with the wish, and is pos-
sessed of attraction and charm. This is proved
by the fact that the child overleaps all limitations
(means, way, and manntr) in order to reach this
goal.
That man, in looking toward the aim of his
wishes and desires and keeping it in mind, fre-
quently overlooks the proper means, the right path
toward, and the best manner of attaining this aim,
is a phenomenon and an experience proceeding, in-
deed, from the child world, but confirmed by all
education of individuals as well as of nations and
of humanity.
But this hurrying (from the germ to the fruit,
from the wish directly to the fulfillment, from the
desire to the aim, springing over all the necessary
conditions which should be previously fulfilled)
has had the saddest and most pernicious results in
life in the education of the individual as well as
in that of whole communities, in the education of
the nations as well as in that of the human race
even in that of all humanity. This haste has had
such sad results for the individual that he could
not overcome them in the whole course of his life.
S
SAD RESULTS OF HASTE.
Yet we see communities, nations, the human racem
yes, all humanity—up to this instant suffering from
this single error, which, by its pernicious results,
inexorably brings chastisement to man. This is
one of the most injurious errors, if not the most in-
jurious one, in the education of the individual as
well as of all men..
Yet though it is one of the most dangerous, it
is, alas, also one of the least clearly recognized
errors in education. But the means to avoid this
error (so hurtful in its consequences in the educa-
tion of children, of individual human beings, as
well as of whole nations) are far less recognized
and applied. And yet the means are so simple,
being the opposite of the error—that is, stability.
What is it that teaches us to know this means
in its application, to avoid this error in human edu-
cation (when recognized) which leads to a constant
chronic disease, and is, at the same time, so uni-
versally extended? It is the opposite here as al-
ways which instructs us by the connection it re-
quires. Thus the opposite of human education,
which is the constantly developing education of
Nature, teaches us to avoid this error. And how?
In Nature the impulse, the arousing and striving,
the goal or aim, are always quite near to one an-
other. * The way from the striving to the nearest
* Impulse and goal or aim are opposites. The arousing and
striving form the connection.—TR.
12
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
goal, from the impulse to the nearest aim, is al-
ways very short. For means and aim, way and
goal, lie always very close together in the education
of Nature; indeed, to the unpracticed eye they
often seem to coincide.
Now, who teaches us to employ this means of
constant development in human education? Lina's
mother, who herself follows thoughtfully as well
as consciously the constantly developing education
of Nature. She shows us this education in the way
in which she teaches writing and (immediately con-
necting its opposite with it) reading to her little
daughter Lina.
First of all, she makes the child notice in a
manner which is intelligent and capable of truth
that in order to reach a goal or attain an aim con-
ditions must be fulfilled, powers developed, and
means appropriated, and that the employment of
these means must be practiced beforehand in the
right way. All are mere expressions of the mother,
repeated and often confirmed to the child by the
smallest, first, and best of its own actions and
wishes (directly founded on fact). Having this
confirmation, the child is not relegated to a remote,
uncertain future in which the discovery is certain
to come to it.
It is quite essential here to notice that with this
matter of direct natural attraction, which is so im-
portant for the child's life, the mother (or the edu-
LINA'S METHOD.
13
cator in general) meets with aid the endeavors eve
of the smallest child. For with many things
which move before the child (for example, the ball
which swings by a thread or string to and fro be-
fore it) the child looks (not constantly, but for a
very short time) at the appearance of the swinging
ball, but it seeks and looks for the cause of this
swinging appearance—for the moving hand. This
fact supplies the proof (even in the smallest child),
arouses and shows (even in the child itself) the an-
ticipation, that man is a being who questions and
investigates the causes and origin of appearances
and things. This fact is yet further confirmed by
several phenomena and facts of the simple instinc-
tive acts of children, about which I will say more
by and by when we notice further these spontaneous
actions.
We will now go further in our observation of
the thoughtful way in which Lina's mother pro-
ceeded. We see that her fostering motherly feel-
ing also goes further. She not only places means
and object, way and aim, etc., as nearly as possible
by one another, but she also makes the means so
easily handled, so suited to the powers of the child,
to its developing use of limbs and senses, that the
employment of these means gives the child but
little trouble (easily overcome by inclination and
pleasure), since will and deed can thus coincide
directly in one action.
14
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
All is just as easy for the child to remember
as to do, because, according to the already often-
mentioned first law of cultivation in nature, here
also in the art of writing, as in all art, the complet-
est opposites are to be combined with one another
—the living, sounding word and the dead, mute
stick; the will of the child and the manageableness
of the stick which is without will; the spirit and
the material.
The little girl, anticipating all this, although
as yet dimly, makes joyously her request, “ Mother,
teach it to me!”
But from this request (after appropriating the
means) the little girl's gaze-confirming our re-
mark made above-springs immediately to the aim,
the object. “If any one could only read what
I write," says the child sadly, having in view only
the aim and object of the writing. “An experi-
ment will test it, the doing will show it," answered
the mother simply; thus instructing, educating the
child by word and object, deed and explanation,
by neither alone, but, as before remarked, by the
opposites which are most intimately connected in
the whole contemplation and perception, where the
immaterial and material again present themselves
in the recognition of what has been done in the
reading as in all art.
With what does the mother again connect her
instruction by word and deed? Or, rather, from
LINA'S SELF-ACTIVITY.
15
what does the mother derive her instruction? Or,
yet more precisely, how and from what does she
develop the instruction desired by the child herself?
First of all, she founds such instruction on the
wish of the little girl, and lets it, as it were, grow
out of that wish.
Even this taking up and noticing the child's
wish by the mother is very important for answer-
ing our question. Therein lies the imitation of the
above-asserted constancy of Nature (the constancy
of the education of Nature in the field, the prov-
ince of human education and for education). The
mother now resembles here in her action the sun,
which in spring awakens the slumbering power in
seeds and buds, which slowly rousing further
nourishes and strengthens itself. And so it is to
be with all human education.
Further, the mother develops this instruction,
so much desired by Lina, not only from that which
is personally experienced by the child, but also
from and by means of her own direct feeling of
personality. The mother connects her instructions
with that which directly arouses this feeling in each
human being. She demands the name of one fa-
miliar and beloved, the name of the father, lastly
the little girl's own name, and so particularly con-
nects the instruction with the child herself. She
develops from the child's innermost nature, thus
from the point, from the fountain where desire
16
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and fulfillment coincide, from the power of the
soul, in which will and action are one. Therefore
the will and deed of the little girl are in harmony
with the wish and the requirement of the mother.
For here Lina's mother has solved for us clearly
and consciously, and thus completely (as each
mother does instinctively with more or less obscu-
rity, greater or less imperfection), the most impor-
tant problem, the as yet little recognized secret of
true developing education and genuine instruction,
and she has at once practically applied this solution.
"She has drawn out both education and instruction
in all-sided life-union from the life, the impulse,
the wish and the will, the power and the individ-
ual activity of the child, as well as from the little
girl's self-reliance and self-determination, and has
done this by means of the child's own action.
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, arouses in it the
impulse to unfold according to its natural capa-
cities that which lies in it by its own activity and
all-sided union with Nature. It is enough to say
that Lina's mother has solved with a word the
problem and revealed the mystery. She has
also put the solution immediately into practice.
She has transformed the education and instruc-
tion, which before were foreign to the child,
SELF-EDUCATION.
17
into self-education and self-instruction for her
daughter Lina.
Lina's mother here solves with clearness and
precision the problem and reveals the mystery of
genuine education and instruction, since she turns
them into self-education and self-instruction for
her child. She has previously shown the harm-
fulness of springing from the wish to the aim with-
out paying any attention to the intermediate links
and requirements, and by observing the constancy
in the education of Nature, has disclosed the means
for avoiding that harmfulness in human education.
She here shows us still further another of the great-
est and most injurious failures and wants of our
methods of education and instruction up to the pres-
ent time. Education and instruction, discipline
and school, seek, as a rule, the grounds for deter-
mining their requirements and their management
either wholly outside of the life of the children or, ,
even if within the life of the human being, yet
derived from a time which is, in respect to the
child (the little charge, the pupil, the scholar), so
remote, so far in the future, as to have for him no
power at all of attraction, of arousing, and of devel-
opment. That which the child, the pupil, is tot
do and learn must proceed from its power of will
and action inwardly united to a doing, to a desire,
by means of the direct, instantaneous effect of the
total life united in itself.
18
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
☆
Certainly this is shown by almost all our sub-
jects of instruction, especially as applied to the mass
of people. Our instructions in reading and writing,
as also in counting and speaking, arithmetic and
language, are especially feeble, as they mostly be-
gin with the abstract with which instruction should
close; hence the few abiding results of this instruc-
tion in life.
Therefore what is to have true, abiding and
blessing, instructive and formative effect on the
child as pupil and scholar, and as a future active
man-viz., independent employment-must not
only be founded on life as it actually appears, must
not only be connected with life, but must also form
itself in harmony with the requirements of life, of
the surroundings, and of the time, and with what
they offer. It must especially have an arousing
and wakening effect on the inner life of the child,
and must thus spontaneously germinate from that
life. This is the nature of the developing educa-
tional training of man, to follow and practice
which I regard as the indispensable demand of the
time (founded on the laws of Nature and the world,
on the necessary laws of all the formations of life),
and the maintenance of which I recognize as the
demand of life. I hold it in its general compre-
hensive application as so highly important to the
life of humanity and of the nations, that its reali-
zation and accomplishment (in proportion to the
THE METHODS OF LINA'S MOTHER.
19.
degree in which it is connected with simple, un-
changeable laws) should be the task of all educa-
tors, in all relations of life, and under all circum-
stances. These methods of education and training
the kindergartens also represent consciously, and
true kindergartners have this object firmly in view,
carry it lovingly in their hearts, and strive for it
in all that they do.
Let us now further observe the course of train-
ing which Lina's mother followed and which was
founded on what has been before stated. Pro-
ceeding with womanly tact from that which is
manifoldly double-sided, the name, the personality,
which unites in itself person and thing, creating
and receiving (writing and reading), self-employ-
ment and learning, etc., becomes again to the child
in its manifold double-sidedness a type of herself
while she thinks and speaks it, speaks and hears
it, hears and writes it; having written, sees and
reads it, makes it again audible, and so again leads
back to the thought in the mind. We see here the
spiritual and corporeal united in one body, and
using it as a symbol we comprehend and recognize
all which exists and lives. Here the progress has
been from existence and life as such, from the
spirit, which then as a sequence leads back again
to the recognition of existence and life as such, and
of the spirit of all which has appeared and is ap-
pearing.
SS
20
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
And now we see with what deep womanly
thought Lina's mother found her course of train-
ing not only in a name, but in the name of the
child itself, and discovered how the way of train-
ing entered upon by herself and the child's own
course of development coincide; how the laws, limi-
tations, and requirements of the one are at the same
time those of the other, and therefore the require-
ments of the mother are easy for the child to com-
prehend and to fulfill.
We further see how the mother has found in
the name a means of perception, a symbol, as it
were, by which to make the child recognize that
the spirit is perceptible in the corporeal, and as it
is perceptible in the corporeal can come forth from
it and become active.
Through this course of proceeding the mother
has also (which is of like importance with the pre-
ceding) obtained a means of bringing the child to
conceive, perceive, and understand the working of
the spiritual upon the spirit, and of even making
it perceptible in itself (going through the corporeal,
the body, as it were, from the body, acting again
upon the spirit, and being felt and recognized by
the spirit as spiritual). This takes place when the
series of developments before given (that of the
awakened thought visibly appearing in written,
formed words; from this again come forth to per-
ceptible spiritually reawakening thought) is several
NATURE REVEALS GOD.
times carried through with the child audibly and
visibly (comparing inner cause and outer appear-
ance, outer appearance and inner effect), as was
the case with Lina in her repeated letter writing.
But now what is the further natural necessary
result in simple continuous development of this
course of training pursued by Lina's mother? The
works speak, the things speak, the nature makes
itself known from the form; by the form the
spirit manifests itself.. By that which has been
produced and created the nature and spirit of the
producer and creator make themselves known., As
the world, the universe appears to be always becom-
ing and constantly creating, it also appears to have
become, to be created, it appears as a creation. It
must therefore necessarily express, reveal, and man-
ifest the nature of its original cause the spirit of
its Creator. If we now listen to the one great ac-
cord of the world, resolving in itself all distances,
it sounds “good!” But good, in its completeness
and perfection as it appears in the universe, as the
harmony of the world, includes in itself the beau-
tiful, the true, and the right. Therefore goodness
in itself, and, as it were, complete in itself, must
necessarily be the nature of the Creator of the
world and of the universe. Nature therefore
makes known the being of God; it renders his na-
ture clear and perceptible to us. Thus Nature,
being in itself single and also living by its own
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
power, shows and testifies that, in all its rest, it is
living; with all its changing existence, it is exist-
ing; with all its manifoldness, it is, in itself, sin-
gle, and is thus the complete expression of the
goodness of its Creator.
How highly important for life are these say-
ings! What deeply grasping life-comprehending
truths! How they begin with the simplest and
close with the highest! They therefore correspond
to the anticipations of the child's mind, as well as
satisfy the investigating nature of the man's spirit.
They can be developed for the thoughtful child
from the nearest, even from its name (as we are
taught by our examination of Lina's learning to
read and write), and at the same time also show
the germinating points of deeper knowledge to the
thinking adult.
Indeed, for ourselves the starting point for
showing the nature and spirit of the developing,
educational training of man and the demonstra-
tion of its possible realization comes out by this
consideration from symbolic perception. For if
there is to be development there must be some-
thing to develop; if there is to be education there
must be something to draw out, to educate; if
there is to be cultivation there must be something
to cultivate. The question, therefore, is first, What
is there in the child to develop, to educate, to cul- .
tivate? That which develops and cultivates itself
LAWS OF DEVELOPMENT.
only according to limitation—that is, according to
laws. But education is intertwined with develop-
ment and cultivation; therefore it must also corre-
spond to the laws of development and cultivation
of the one who shapes it. Those who educate must
therefore inevitably not only know, but act in con-
formity with and be faithful to these laws of de-
velopment of the one who is to be formed by edu-
cation. A further question, therefore, is, What are
the laws of development and cultivation, and what
is the test of their being rightly followed ?
The course of cultivation followed by Lina's
mother gave and gives us in a symbolic view, by its
result, the answer to all this and the solution of all
this. Ít showed and taught us that all created
things bear within themselves the nature of the
Creator; but the Creator is in himself good; the
child is also a creation, and therefore also bears
within him the nature of his Creator—goodness.
And further it taught us how the Original Cause of
all life is one and single, bearing life in himself
and creating life from himself. So also the life
of all which is manifold and apparently isolated
in the universe is, according to its inner nature,
single. And each individual being as it is in ap-
pearance a whole in itself is also, in accordance
with its nature, a part of the uniform life of crea-
tion, therefore at the same time a part and a whole
-a part-whole which, even in its slightest detail,
(
24
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
as a separate being, not only feels itself as a part-
whole and lives as such, but also shows in its sepa-
rate existence the life of the whole world and of
all Nature. We recognize even in the beginning
in Lina's request that the child early felt herself as
a part-whole, occupied herself as such, and made
claims as such. From this comes the great—that
is, all-comprising, and therefore highly important,
sequence: As each individual and separate being is
a part-whole of the all-life, so also its laws of de-
velopment are those of the whole world and the
whole of life; only they will be manifested in pe-
culiar separate ways and limits, determined by the
separateness of the separate being.
But all which is individual, which exerts a de-
veloping and thus educating influence upon any
separate being in Nature and the creation, in the
whole world and in all life, is likewise a whole and
a part of the whole of the world and of all life.
Consequently, as it bears within it the nature and
life of this whole, it develops and acts according to
the laws of this whole; but only in its special pe-
culiar way, therefore also according to the laws of
development of each individual, deducting that
which is determined by its separateness and pecul-
iarity.
And after this the above-stated questions can
be answered as simply as precisely:
1. What is that which is to be developed, to be
SELF-ACTIVITY GOD'S REVELATION.
25
educated, to be cultivated in the child? It is the
nature of the Creator, who is also the Creator of
the child; it is the divine nature as it appears lim-
ited by creation, world, and Nature, by humanity
and the human race, by much separateness, espe-
cially by the separateness of personality and indi-
viduality.
2. What are the laws of development and for-
mation according to which man is to develop by
education? They are the laws of development and
cultivation which have their cause and their source
in God as the Creator of the world, by which and
according to which the world was created, by which
and according to which Nature, being and life,
goodness and love, reveal themselves and still make
themselves known in humanity, in the human race,
and in the individual human being, and which
therefore appear in each newborn child, living and
working anew as essence.
But in order to speak like the child in a child-
like, and, as a German and a man, in a German,
manlike way, since He who is in himself single
and good (in which words, as I have before said,
are comprised all the other qualities which are rec-
ognized as divine, such as love, life, etc.) revealed
his nature from inner self-determination, outward-
ly demonstrated, and declared, and disclosed his
nature as single and good, living and loving. That
is, as the Creator of the world created and creates
26
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
from himself, created the universe, the world, and
so the creation, the universe appeared, as it were, to
be drawn from within him. Therefore the crea-
tion, Nature, and even the human being should
from inner self-determination make known and
manifest the divine that is, the nature, being,
and life of the Creator of each. And so a feeling
single in itself, indeed, but dual in appearance (as
each individual, being dual, is opposite to the sin-
gle), the feeling of impulse and attraction grew in
each separate existence, and so above all in man,
as a sign and testimony, as it were, that he has his
source and origin in the single, is born from the
single as individual, and is to feel himself at
the same time a part and a whole. Therefore,
according to this, the child's slumbering im-
pulse to develop and represent his nature by his
own choice and his own determination requires
from without the educating attraction to waken
and arouse this impulse. This fact is the founda-
tion of the natural, original, reciprocal relation of
pupil and educator, which is here only intimated.
But since the developing educator is, as well as the
pupil, a manifold part-whole of the all-life, etc.,
he, as such, carries within him (though in a manner
peculiar to himself) the general laws of the whole,
and especially the laws of development of the
whole, and hence brings them to his own recogni-
tion and consciousness. He can consequently un-
PUPIL AND TEACHER.
27
derstand his undeveloped pupil in the laws of his
development. He can stand encouragingly and
testingly beside his pupil so much the better as
both are beings of one kind, both are human beings,
and he (the educator) is conscious of the fact.
The nature and the general laws of develop-
ment of the whole are expressed in educator and
pupil, although in each in a separate way. For
this reason misunderstandings and misconceptions
will come in with the influencing of the educator
and the achieving of the pupil, in spite of honest
effort on both sides. The pupil, as well as the
educator, is, as a part-whole, a separate being. So
the influence which educates by developing and
which is as free as possible from errors requires a
higher scrutiny lying beyond the changing, sepa-
rate life and the misconceiving separate nature.
But to the thinking educator who has become con-
scious of this vocation and its requirements Na-
ture is a part-whole, is a toạchstone, facing him
in his separate existence. A sure means of criti-
cism which is given to him by Nature is its mute,
but yet clearly speaking laws of development and
formation, which are necessary, not free, but
changeless and indeed eternal. A second means
of criticism is afforded by the free spirit which has
become conscious of itself in its laws of thought,
which are likewise eternal, but spiritual. Both the
laws of Nature and the spirit's laws of thought
28
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
IL
reciprocally explain, confirm, and complete one an-
other because they have their common, final cause
in the original nature and original life in the eter-
nal and single goodness—in God.
We should be now already in the position to
answer the question, What is the touchstone for
the kind of training which educates the human be-
ing by developing him? Yet in its nature, as well
as in its results, this question is so important for
the human race, humanity, and the nations that it
requires not only earnest examination, but also the
provision of a touchstone (or test) which lies within
its reach. For as Nature develops in constantly
equal, quiet, and inviolable necessity and uniform-
ity, so does humanity develop in continual change
from dependence, freedom, attainment of conscious-
ness and independent choice which lead to the dis-
covery of that which is right and necessary. This
change is effected by erring and failing, by igno-
rance and imperfection, by that which has taken
place and is taking place to the discovery of that
which is right and necessary. But that which has
taken place and is taking place (which latter imme-
diately again becomes the former) refers either
more to the inner, the mind, the nature, or it refers
more to the outward, the relations, and positions.
But that which has taken place in this double-
sidedness as the history of the inner and of the outer
life shows in its results, limitations, and laws of de-
TEST OF THE TRUE METHOD.
velopment how it exerts a cultivating influence in
and by means of these results while developing
itself in accordance with necessary laws and refer-
ring to these laws. Therefore we now also see
humanity, the human races, and the nations secur-
ing the right that the results of history, as well in
its separation as inner and outer history as in its
union (history as such), should go side by side with
and test the education of their children.
And so then it is also possible for us in reference
to our subject (the kind of training of the human
being which educates by developing) to give to the
third and last question (What is the touchstone of
the correct following of training?) a complete an-
swer which meets the question on all sides. First-
ly, and first of all, Nature in its necessary, change-
less laws of development and formation, then the
intellect in its unchanging, logical laws of thought,
and finally history (the history of the inner and
invisible, as well as of the outer life) in its actually
manifest results.
The decision of such tests is to be trusted wher-
ever such tests appear, and this so much the more
as they coincide in the same decision. We now
see at the end of our contemplation what is to be
expected of the future in this respect.
Let us now return to the course of training
employed by Lina's mother, and let us follow it
observantly in order to perceive in it more of the
30
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
nature and requirement of the training which edu-
cates by developing.
Lina wishes to learn to write. The mother
complies with the child's wish, knowing what writ-
ing is—namely, a memory, a thought (therefore
originally purely internal and invisible) afterward
as spoken word audible (therefore perceptible,
though vanishing on the instant it is perceived) con-
nected with a visible, abiding sign. We now see
the mother act in conformity with this knowl-
edge, and proceed from this sure foundation. As
has been frequently mentioned, she connects her
action with the name of the child. What does
she wish to obtain by this connection beyond what
we have already noted? First of all, she requires
the child to feel and to think of its own personal-
ity. She reminds it of its name. She thus re-
quires the child to feel itself to be the precise per-
son named, and to think of itself as such. All
this is in reference to the child, and is done by the
child inwardly and invisibly. This is the first
step. But the child desires to write its name; it
desires to connect its internal, invisible personality
with that which is outwardly visible, and therefore
a pure opposite of the former. This is the second
step. What does the mother do to attain this?
She lets the child speak its name, which was first
thought of inwardly and invisibly, and which it de-
sires to represent outwardly and visibly (to write).
THE NATURE OF THE WORD.
What is speaking? Making an inward thought out-
wardly perceptible in such a way that it vanishes
again the instant it is perceived. Now, what is
the word according to this statement? It 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 the properties of both thought
and writing, and thus connects them. For the
word, being only audible, is invisible, like the
thought, but it is, however, outwardly perceptible
through one of the senses, that of hearing, as the
writing is through that of sight. This is the third
step. Lina's mother has found another secret of
that training of the human being which educates
by developing, and a further sure foundation for
the accomplishment of that training as well as for
the attainment of a training which meets on all
sides the demands of the human being by clear per-
ception, knowledge, and recognition, as well as by
the conscious application of the connecting third
(between each two things, qualities, etc., which are
opposite to, yet like one another). The law of
connection is the fundamental law in the universe,
the fundamental law of the visible and the in-
visible, of the spiritual and of the corporeal world.
The presentiment of this law was to man the first
sign and seal of his nature and of his worth. Man
and humanity are the representatives of this law,
32
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
for man and humanity stand in the universe be-
tween God and the creation. They are to recog-
nize both God and the creation, and are able, des-
tined, and called to act as God acts in their life-
course in and through the creation, because they
themselves are created and creators.
For confirmation of what has been above stated
(without appealing further to the severe but just
criticism above named), let us follow further the
way of training of our much-mentioned mother.
She now requires the child (after it has recognized
itself as a person and felt itself to be such) to
speak its name plainly, and listen to it attentively.
Let us also listen to the child as she says, L-i-n-a,
and like mother and child we also hear the sounds
i-a. “But your name is not formed only of
these two sounds, so say it again attentively, and
let us see what else it contains.” “L-i-n-a," says
the child again, and mother and child find that
the name contains the articulations L—’n, be-
sides the pure voice sounds (vowels). Indeed, in
the course of their way of training the mother
and child find that what is spoken also contains
such sounds as b and p, d and t, g and k. The
mother lets the child feel and anticipate that speech
itself, the result of the thought and intellect of
man, also contains sharply defined opposites, the
tones, or voice sounds (a, o, u, i, etc.); the toneless
b, p, d, t, etc.), the so-called close sounds or mutes;
LANGUAGE THE MIDDLE TERM.
33
and the continuants (1, n, r, m, etc.), which connect
the two former, resembling each other in some re-
spects.
Thus our mother's course of training shows us
how man is a connection between the Creator and
the creation in the universe. It shows us how
language is a connection between man and things,
between the thought of man and his action. Thus
speech itself, in its first and most exterior elements,
impresses the law of connection. Indeed, this law
is again expressed in the elements of speech, in the
individual parts (to cite but one example out of
many possible ones), in the voice sounds themselves,
since the sound o connects the two purely oppo-
site sounds a and u, the first of which expresses
materiality, and the second the essence. In the na-
tional dialects the a like the u passes easily into o.
We can not combine the a with the u in the sound
of plain "ow” (au in German] without being
obliged to use also the sound o, so that when we
say au we actually say aou, although the sound
0, which is unavoidably used between the others,
is but little heard, and still less noticed. Lan-
guage is an organic construction (Bau) of oppo-
sites, a whole which is in itself single, a finished
whole.
But language is a result of the thinking mind.
Consequently the law of connection is an essential
law in the human mind. From the narrow point
34
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
of view, and within the narrow limits of teaching
writing and learning to write, this must here suffice
to clearly demonstrate why the law of connection
is also the fundamental law of the kind of train-
ing of the human being which educates by devel-
oping. The individual man, like all humanity, is
surrounded by the manifestations of the law. As
then he represents this law in many ways, and is,
becomes, effects, and creates that which he is, be-
comes, effects, creates, and does, etc., only by apply-
ing and using this law, so a kind of human educa-
tion which gives such peace, joy, and freedom as
satisfy man's nature on all sides is possible only
through this law, as has been already said.
As we now see at once, this law is a practical
one—that is, one which primarily has its determin-
ing conditions, its seat, in each essence—but only
man himself can become conscious of it in all the
directions and references recognized by him. First,
by means of this law man rises from the con-
ditions of natural necessity (to which the creatures
below him constantly remain subjected) to that of
intellectual freedom of will and self-determination.
Second, this law, in its true recognition and in-
sight, is not only acknowledged, but even practiced
and applied, because it exactly coincides with the
nature of man. Indeed, as we already saw and
stated, by means of this law man first actually be-
comes a human being—that is, recognizes and ac-
TRUE METHOD LEADS TO FREEDOM.
35
knowledges himself in his essence, nature, and vo-
cation—and in this acknowledgment acts, works,
and creates according to this law and so must act,
work, and create. In other words, he determines to
act freely from himself, as this law requires, with-
out, however, recognizing it in its great generality
and as a law of the world, as it were. It is illus-
trated by the most peculiar phenomena in human
life, which hitherto, so far as I know, have not been
comprehended, still less acknowledged.
The law of connection has been put into action,
especially in the Western countries, and particular-
ly in the German nation. When recognized and
acknowledged as a directly practical law (because
only in connection is man's existence full of life)
it gives to man, as an individual and in communi-
ties, that for which (based on his human nature)
he yearns, hopes, and strives; since the proofs of
it, as well as the conditions of it, are not outside of,
but just in the man himself.
By means of the course of training which Lina's
mother employed and by the actual inner nature
of this training there now lies plainly before us
also the nature of our training of the child and
man—a training which educates by developing.
We know what is to develop in the child and
man; it is the godlike in natural, earthly, human
manifestations. ·
We have learned that what is to be developed
1
36
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
by education must be developed by educating in
accordance with laws.
We have found that an infallible way and
means of testing must be given for the correct ap-
plication of these laws of education, and we have
recognized them in Nature, in their original cause,
in the original fount of all being and life, in man
as a thinking being, in the laws of man's thought
and reason, in the results and evidences of the in-
ternal and external history of the human race and
in history in general.
We found even at the beginning that the first
condition and, consequently, really the first law of
all phenomena whether past or present, is the law
of opposites, and that this law is, as it were, the por-
tion of each being that has entered into existence,
(therefore especially of man, who is called to
thought and research, to comparison and reflection,
to the knowledge of his nature and to conscious-
ness) and conditioned even with man's appearance
on earth as a child. Indeed, we find that man, even
in his earliest childhood as a manifold part-whole,
reveals and demonstrates this law by and in himself.
But we find the law of.connection given at the
same time as the law of opposites. The former is
precisely the one which we recognize and main-
tain to be the inalienable law of all true education,
consequently the fundamental law of the kind of
training of the human being which educates by
WHAT THIS METHOD ACCOMPLISHES.
37
developing (our way and manner of educating).
Finding it impressed in Nature, and instinctive
(that is, determined by the impulse of life) in the
life of man, and especially practiced by the mother,
we wish to rise to clearly conscious, constant ac-
knowledgment of the fact in life:
First, by means of this law the child is thor-
oughly comprehended in his nature and in con-
formity with that nature.
Second, by means of this law man, even as a
young child, is recognized and acknowledged to be
in the central point of all the relations of life, and
the possibility is given to him to fulfill the require-
ments of these relations.
Third, by means of this law man obtains an
evident, sure aim and a satisfactory object of edu-
cation, and at the same time the suitable medium,
ways, and means of attaining this aim and this
object.
Fourth, this law and the manner of educa-
tion founded upon it are, as already above pre-
sented, of a purely practical nature—that is, press-
ing at once toward accomplishment and application.
Indeed, in reference to life in general, and also in
reference to the nature and the requirement of the
child as a whole and also a part of a greater whole,
and therefore also in reference to the relations sur-
rounding the child and to those surrounding the
man.
38
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Fifth, this education (as it presses on all sides
directly toward practice and application, and also
not only shows, but even gives means, nature, and
ways for this practice and application) is directly
suited to the time, as well as to the space, and
therefore to the space of time—that is, it is wholly
suitable for exactly the present relations of the re-
quirements of the present time and to the present
stage of cultivation. For our time is a purely
practical time—that is, it has now finally come to
the point of introducing into life and applying in
life that which has been hitherto recognized and
which has also been everywhere sufficiently con-
firmed by experience.
Sixth, like the air and water of life, this method
of education (just because it is thoroughly prac-
tical, as it exists at the same time with the life and
natural relations of the child) also closely connects
itself with each age of life, with each stage of de-
velopment and each relation of the life of the child,
as well as of his parents and of families, with which
latter again it is intimately united.
Seventh, this method of education corresponds
wholly by its fundamental law to the requirement
of the present time as a time of separation, of iso-
lation, opposition, and contrariety. Indeed, this
method of education appears unconditionally (hence
required, we might say generated, by itself) as an
education of unification, and consequently of the
LAW OF THE TRIUNE LIFE.
39
actual agreement which is needed for all the rela-
tions of life, as well as for the innermost nature
and outward existence of the individual human
being. For it has indeed proceeded from the
knowledge of the state of being inwardly united,
of unity, of the opposite (the opposition) and con-
nection (as the first law of life). This fact is viv-
idly and beautifully and truly expressed in each
perfect family, and it is also clearly and precisely
expressed in that of our Lina as the law of the
triune life of father,-mother, and.child.
Eighth, the law of the triune life has been
hitherto little understood, but, on the contrary,
much misunderstood, and yet it lies directly near
to the life of man in many ways. It can only be
brought to clearness, to perception, and to the ne-
cessity of consciously applying it' by the repeated
observation and demonstration of the law of con-
nection. The high importance of this law for life
in general, and especially for education (the devel-
oping education of the individual human being as
well as that of humanity), requires that it should
be thus brought to clearness, etc. It is also a need
of the time and of life to present in life itself the
practicality of this law for everyday life.
Ninth, this method of educating is suited to the
times, for as it is practical (that is, creating) and
closely connected with all the relations of life it
develops man even at an early age for a future
A
T
40
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
securing of his subsistence, without early deadening
him to a machine among machines, and without
diminishing his enjoyment of his childhood and
youth. It does so not only because it unfolds,
strengthens, and exercises the qualities of the child
to the point at which he can maintain himself, but
also teaches him to know and treat the necessary
material according to its nature, and furnishes and
shows the means and ways to do this. It therefore
shows and gives (to connect what has been said
with a word used at the present time) the means for
lessening proletarianism. It restores to work its
high significance, since it calls forth experience and
insight from the creating activity, from the inven-
tive and judiciously accomplished work; requires
the cultivation of the capacity for thinking, and
thought itself; effects the cultivation of the reason
together with that of the power of will and action;
lays the true foundation for the training of charac-
ter and of self-determination (in and by means of the
life in the social whole), which is needed by us all
and by the world, by each individual human being.
The effect of such education on Lina already
shows all this, although only by slight intimations
here and there. Its further demonstration, how-
ever, by means of our mother's course of training
is the problem which we are yet to solve.
Let us therefore continue to observe the mother
in the course of training her daughter. She first
THE FEELING OF SELF AND NOT-SELF. 41
connected her developing instruction (and conse-
quently education), as has been already brought
forward, with the personal feeling, with the ob-
servation and recognition of the personality and
selfhood of the one to be educated and instructed
—of her daughter. The source as well as the
object, the issue as well as the aim, coincide in the
child. And this, including what are in them-
selves opposed within a still primitive unit (which
we remark in the educating and instructive action
of the mother in reference to her daughter Lina), is
precisely the point of germination, and forms the
actual nature of our way of training human beings
and guiding children—the method of educating by
development. For from this personal feeling (the
feeling of self in contrast with the outer world
around) proceeds all human education, all educa-
tion of the child as a human child directly upon
his entrance into the outward visible world (as a be-
ing belonging to it, and yet again different from
it). This double feeling, this keeping quiet pos-
session of that which is one's own and that which
is foreign to one, of the united and the separated,
is the germ and, at the same time, the original
principle of the germ and root of the training of
man upward and outward to a person, to a charac-
ter-suffice it to say, to a man in the full meaning
of the word. For the perfect (vollkommen *) feel-
* Literally fully come.-TR.
y
42
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ing of self immediately requires the complete (voll-
endete *) feeling of the all.
Through this observation of the course of train-
ing which Lina's mother followed, and the con-
clusions derived from it, we have now found what
we missed in the education of man up to this time
-as entered into in clear consciousness, and carried
out and accomplished with clear consciousness-an
unchangeable fixed point of union and starting
point for all education. This point, bearing within
itself the fundamental laws of all education, con-
tinues to develop and cultivate itself by this law
in accordance with the laws of life, organically in
and with all, from all, and by all which takes place
with it, from it, and for man. So developing,
this point of union and starting point resembles a
seed, the innermost part bearing within itself the
whole tree, which develops constantly and in ac-
cordance with its own laws and those of Nature
during hundreds and thousands of years.
This eternally sure and fixed, as well as clearly
defined starting point now actually constitutes the
nature of our way of training human beings and
guiding children—the way of educating by devel-
oping—as such a way of training is only possible
through this starting point. For it can only ap-
pear as a whole in consequence of the fact that the
* Literally fully ended.-TR.
UNION OF OPPOSITES.
43
limitation of plurality, multitude, manifoldness,
universality, already lies in unity as such, and that
an outward and the outward is at the same time
given in and with the inward. Unity and univer-
sality, inward and outward, are pure opposites; but,
as a creation becomes possible only through the inti-
mate union of both opposites, so only by that inti-
mate union of both becomes possible the continuous
development of all creatures, and, above all, the
clearly conscious developing, educational, training
(in accordance with outlet, purpose, and aim) of
man as an individual, as well as of the human race
and of humanity (again as a whole which is in itself
single). All that is required for perfection and
completion by the education and training so often
mentioned is at once given by this intimate union
of opposites from which it necessarily proceeds. So
also does the further instructive treatment of the
mother, guided by which (as by a red thread) we
now continue to advance in the presentation of our
way of educating and training.
The mother does not let the general perception
given by the union of opposites continue to be only
a dim feeling; but, as has been already several
times mentioned, makes the perception objective to
the child by its name. Yet, as was already said
in the beginning, the name belongs to the complete
realization of the individual as a person and as a
character—to the education of man. It also again
44
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
directly and intimately unites the opposites in itself;
for as it separates (isolates) man, so just in and by
means of this isolation it places him again in the
center of the great whole of life, and, first of all,
in the center of the lesser whole of men and nations.
The name makes the man able to turn toward each
human being while retaining his personality. So
again each individual human being, as well as all
human beings, can again turn to him. Hence the
name, first of all, lies exactly between the indi-
vidual and the universal. Therefore the stage of
development and the epoch of humanity now newly
begun lays such great stress on the name man.
“Be a man!” is the starting point, as well as the
goal, of the demand of the present time. Hence
the training of the German people and the national
training lays such high importance on the con-
sciousness of being “German "_"a German.”
“Be a genuine German" is now the principal de-
mand in each German-born individual, whether
child or adult, as is the above demand, “Be a
man," upon each human-born individual. “Im-
press complete humanity upon the German charac-
teristics ! ” is therefore the uniting demand of edu-
cation-a demand which is now addressed to us
with such manifold clearness, and which it is so
indispensable that we should readily obey if we
would not deny ourselves to be men and Germans
-German men. To attain to this ready obedience
POINT OF DEPARTURE OF EDUCATION. 45
and to avoid that denial is the principal effort, the
aim and the object of the kind of training of the
human being which educates by developing (a kind
of training which we introduced). Such is also
the aim of that which proceeded from and is found-
ed upon this training with equally inevitable ne-
cessity—the kindergarten.
With a deep, motherly, natural impulse the
mother has felt through all this, and (by following
the instinctive motherly impulse) has at the same
time presented the starting point, the source of our
way of training which develops by educating, and
has made it known, so that it may be scrutinizingly
observed, that life may be in accordance with it,
and that it may be represented.
All that has durability and firmness bears a
reference to a certain internal or external point,
and, as it were, rests on this point. This is espe-
cially the case with all that is to show existence
by life and continuous development. All such
must bear within itself a point of vigorous life.
Lina's mother's course of training has plainly dem-
onstrated to us that the genuine education of the
human being in childhood, as well as in later years
-an education abounding in results—must like-
wise proceed from a fixed, precise, healthy point
of germination, and indeed from the point of com-
plete union-the opposites--which reciprocally so
penetrate one another and so coincide with one
1
/
46
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
another that even the gaze of the innermost spirit-
ual eye perceives no difference, and which again
freshly sprouts forth from this point of union, as a
point of life.
And that training of the human being which
educates by developing also recognizes this point,
just as bearing within itself the conditions and
fundamental laws of the appearance of life, of the
disclosure and manifestation of life, and the onward
course of life from it in accordance with its nature
as the starting point and source of all genuine edu-
cation, such as leads to the aim and attains the ob-
ject. For it can proceed (free from doubt and ar-
bitrariness) only from a point which bears within
itself at the same time the limitations, cause, and
laws of all following development appearances and
requirements. · Also education, if it is to rest on a
firm foundation, must be subjected to the funda-
mental law of life and existence, of Nature and of
the world. It must start from a precise point from
which (as existing in and at the same time with it,
in accordance with fixed and sure laws of develop-
ment and formation in which necessity and free-
dom appear to have an equal right) all the rest
proceed in reciprocal balance.
And thus (as the training which educates by
developing appears thereby to be the only one cor-
responding to the nature of man and to child na-
ture) is also gained the first changeless base, the
POLARITY THE DIVINE LAW.
47
sure starting point, and the pure source from
which, like a clear stream, the further developing
laws of education—the laws of opposites, of the
part-whole of life, of connection, of triune life-
quietly flow forth (neither disturbing nor clouding
the others), all of which Lina's mother's course of
training shows us perceptibly and actually. For
—and this is the further highly important fact
which lies in the background of the mother's whole
style of management, which starts from the instinc-
tive and rises to clear consciousness, as well as to
clear insight, and from this manner of manage-
ment also definitely speaks—all these laws, re-
quirements, and conditions form actually one and
the same law (though they appear different and are
perceived and comprehended as different)-name-
ly, the law of the original unit--of the being and
life which has its source in Him who by himself,
in himself, through and from himself is good —
God. This law declares and reveals itself as divine
in the whole and in each individual being of the
all, as the creation of God. This law, above all, lies
in the blossom and fruit disclosed before our eyes,
in the man who is to be consciously educated to
consciousness, and, with and by means of natural
necessity, is to be educated to freedom. By this
law are given for the subject the “divineness of
the nature of man” (as the object of that training
of the human being which educates by develop-
48
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ing), at once clearly and with precision, the stated
laws, conditions, and requirements of its develop-
ment and cultivation. But quite pre-eminently
the infallible means and ways of testing are also
given, that they may be employed. These means
are: Nature, the laws of decay, existence, develop-
ment, and formation of and in the universe, in the
creation; the spirit (in its eternal laws of thought
and in accordance with them) and that which is
recognized in it and by means of it, namely, his-
tory in its results and laws of life perceived as sepa-
rate, in the history of the outward and of the in-
ward life, or as history of the whole, joint, united
and single, inward and outward life. By means
of all this, and this is shown to us even by Lina's
mother's way of management, education has again
become (or is now actually for the first time by
means of that training of the human being which
educates by developing) what it should be--a sci-
ence, a genuine science of education, an education
with clear knowledge of the subject, of its aim and
purpose, of the means and ways, etc. It becomes
an art, a genuine and true art of education, de-
pendent on a vivid, all-comprising idea of education.
It is, above all, a simple, practical (that is, easily
and clearly practiced and practicing) living fact,
which grows forth to a genuine life of education
leading toward the aim—the educational life of the
individual, of the family, and of the people—which
EDUCATION AS LIFE, ART, SCIENCE.
49
rises from the instinctive impulse of Nature and
life, an impulse which (as a true daughter of Na-
ture) leads us to virtue, etc., to self-stability, mo-
rality, union with God. By such an education life
in all relations and endeavors is satisfied.
It only remains for us to point out in general
how all this also is realized and obtained by that
training of the human being which educates by
developing
The question here is, first of all, practical un-
derstanding. Without entering further into the
division of education just indicated for the clearer
comprehension of and the deeper search into the
subject-viz., the division into the life of educa-
tion, the art of education, and the science of edu-
cation--let us now turn rather to education as a
finished whole, single in itself, pervaded by life,
art, and science in equal measure, as, in the just-
mentioned arbitrary and artificial separation itself,
either may be predominant by catching the eye
before the other. In order to solve our before-
mentioned problem, we will now show how we ap-
ply the laws, conditions, and requirements recog-
nized and explained in the preceding pages in the
representation of that training of human beings
and children which educates purely by developing,
always with an explanatory retrospective glance
at the way in which Lina is comprehended by her
mother in the course of training pursued by the
50
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
latter. As we now consider our child, the little
one whom we are to cultivate and train, as an in-
dividual and particular thing which is conditioned
and demanded by the whole and general, and
which bears within itself the limitation of its exist-
ence, of its development and cultivation in recip-
rocal action with the life-whole, we look upon each
of its expressions of life and activity as a purely
personal expression of its own life, but (even in the
smallest of its expressions) constantly in combina-
tion with the great whole of life and with the All-
life, standing in relation to it, in two respects—once
in reference to its outward appearance and effect,
its influence, and again in reference to its inner
origin, to its original source in its own nature.
Helpless, indeterminate, and weak as the child
seems in all his expressions of life from his first
entrance into life, he does not perform a single
action which is to be isolated, and is not to bear
within itself at the same time the three relations of
individual and personal life, of life in the whole
(in Nature), and of the united nature of both;
consequently there is actually no action which is
not a triune one. For all expressions refer con-
stantly to his personal existence in conflict (of com-
prehending and doing) with the outer world, a con-
flict which is mediated and removed by the spirit-
ual union of both.
So now also our way of training, which edu-
EDUCATION HAS THREE PHASES.
51
cates by developing, comprises from birth each
phenomenon in the life of the child—first, for
the securing of his existence as a personal and
separate being; second, for grasping and han-
dling, for understanding the outside world around;
and third, for the arousing and fostering of the
presentiment of an individual and uniting nature..
All three of these have been done hitherto even by
each simple mother guided by her natural impulse
as a human mother, so especially—which perhaps
seems wholly unfounded and strained to many—
by her talk to and with the child from the first
instant of his claiming and appropriating, on
through childhood. What has hitherto been done
(and always, even by the mother) as a natural im-
pulse we now raise to action with clear conscious-
ness and true insight and circumspection.
By this comprehension of the child, by defi-
nitely bringing out this comprehension (which is
needed) and by placing it in a clear light, all which
is done and is to be done by and with the child re-
ceives its true significance, even the bodily tending,
the providing of food, and the motherly petting.
This view and treatment also blend with all that is
done with Lina and with the way in which it was
done. That first attention to the child in its triune
life by bodily tending, by food, by the offering of
nourishment and by motherly petting, is connected
with the development of the limbs, senses, and
52
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
mind of the child as a triune being. For, as soon
as anything particular is brought near the child's
eye, which arouses his innermost life and will, we
see immediately that the development of the senses
acts on the thinking powers, and at the same time
on the will, the use of the limbs, and the bodily
activity. How hand and foot strive for suitable
activity and right use!
The child between the ages of six and nine
months strives already for the free use of his mem-
bers—first of all, for that of his arms and hands.
But since now the child is an observing and imi-
tating being, we see how he when not yet nine
months old imitates little movements with his
hands (turning the hands, clapping, moving the
fingers). But as this imitation is by no means
merely mechanical, a merely external copying, as
it were, it is evident that the promoting of the
child's play by the mother, her talking to him, her
entreating wishes, are essentially effective. We
recognize from this statement (connected by lan-
guage) how with the slightest definite activity of
the child's limbs his power of thought and the
power of his senses are also active. We see here
again three activities united in one, and we also
see in general the alluring charm, the retroactive
impulse, and the comparing activity (which three
form an action in itself single).
The influence of the word is yet more height-
MOTHER-PLAY AND NURSERY SONGS. 53
ened by the law of movement (the rhythm) and by
the singing tone (the mother's way of singing), be-
cause, in this way, the word has an influence on
the mind, on the thought, by means of the feeling.
The early, harmonious, joint comprehension
and this treatment of the child which educates by
developing find in the Mother-Play and Nursery
Songs their living expression and actual produc-
tion, which are proportioned to the different stages
of childhood, and at the same time explain and
point out the inward spirit in the outward appear-
ance. The Mother-Play and Nursery Songs pro-
ceeded directly from my observing the actual life
of mother and child. The understanding of this
book was therefore supposed to be easy and the
work was committed to family life without intro-
ductory words. But as often as the life of the
mother and child and the reciprocal life of both
is repeated with each newborn child in each fam-
ily experience has shown that the life of the child
in relation to the whole family through all condi-
tions of life is, alas, only too little observed. Hence
the Mother-Play and Nursery Songs, just named
(although a pure demonstration and necessary con-
tinued development of actual life), has been hith-
erto so little understood, so little acknowledged,
and still less brought into the family and used
there. After our own diversified use of it for
many years, and especially after it has been used
.
54
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and tested in many ways by thoughtful mothers,
we must, without regard to its authorship, recog-
nize and acknowledge that it in fact not only in-
dicates the actual starting point and source of the
true conscious training of children and human be-
ings which educates by developing—necessarily re-
quired by the present stage of the cultivation of
man—that it not only shows the means, way, and
manner, the object and aim, of such training, but
also actually produces, at its most important pe-
riod a family life which fosters childhood in such
a way.
How Lina Learns to Read is a continued devel-
opment of the earliest observation and management
of child nature. May this chapter, in connection
with what has been before stated and demonstrated,
serve as a test of the Mother-Play and Nursery
Songs by means of the observing of the life of
mother and child separately, as well as in connec-
tion with one another in its inner foundation, in its
fostering, and explaining the actual life of the
child and family, and in its effect upon and result
in the education of childhood as well as of man
in general. Such a test would at least aid in the
true understanding of the above-named book, and
also in the thoughtful use of it in the family. For
through the comprehension of the training of the
human being which educates by developing, and
which is founded on and presented in the above-
RESULTS OF THE TRUE METHOD.
55
named book, the child enters into his right relation
to himself as a separate being enters into the sur-
rounding world as a part of it and (by the help of
language) to the uniting and single spirit which
lives in all, as is presented by the whole course of
the guidance and treatment of Lina.
II.
THE CHILD'S DESIRE FOR SIGNS. —INTRODUCTION.--
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.-A CREATOR IN HIS
SPHERE OF ACTION.—EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF
THE CREATIVE POWER IN THE CHILD.
WE recognize the fact that man, especially in
early childhood, is in intimate, united interdepend-
ence with Nature and its course of development-a
course which is in accordance with manifest law.
But in order that the course of his developing edu-
cation may be assured and clear (therefore for his
own welfare), it is at least not less important to re-
gard man, even as a child, as respects his nature
and activity, in the most intimate and lively con-
nection with the Original Cause, the Creator of all
things, and with the oneness of his creative nature.
/ To view the child as united to Nature gives se-
curity, conformity to law, recognition and insight,
firmness, applicability, dexterity, and extent to the
education of the child. To view him as united
with God gives dignity, truth, clearness, light, in-
finity and unity, spiritualization, sanctification,
blessing and blessedness to that education.
56
GOD'S CREATIVE ACTIVITY ALSO IN MAN. 57
But in what way did and does the eternal,
Original Cause--the Creator of all things—make
himself known to us? In what way does he reveal
and manifest his nature? Just by his eternal ac-
tion; by his eternal, uninterrupted creating; by
bringing into existence from the eternal spring and
fount of his own being; by the manifestation of the
invisible oneness of his being in the visible appear-
ance of the individual; by the endless revelation of
his own nature, which is in itself one, in the in-
numerable manifoldness of individual existence.
And now by what means does man, even as a
child, make known his being in that which is phe-
nomenal? his nature in his existence? How does
he make himself known, and thereby cause us the
purest joy (and, in the course of development, en-
tertain and even astonish us)? Is it not by action,
by activity? Indeed, when the use of the child's
senses is but partially developed we must recog-
nize the activity of the child to be comparatively
observant, usually, indeed, excited from without,
but yet actually and finally determined by the
innermost workings of the soul (therefore, as it
were, created from the invisible spring and fount
of the soul) to create, therefore to employ himself,
as one called forth from hidden being into exist-
ence, into perceptibility. 1
In this steadfast contemplation, and with this
view of life, let us now observe the voluntary and
58
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
spontaneous expressions of life in the child scarcely
a month old in regard to the ultimate innermost
and hidden, constantly invisible, original cause of
these expressions. (Let us see how the child, with
the united power of soul and intellect, strives to
call into existence for himself and, as it were, from
himself, that which does not yet exist for him,
which is not yet in the province of his perception
and recognition. The child by this striving shows
himself to be a creator in his own little world. ) If
we thus perceive and experience, we must recognize
(being forced to the recognition by the perception,
experience, and actuality of what we have ob-
served) what indeed shows itself already as the re-
sult of pure thought: viz., that man, even in child-
hood, proves himself by his creative activity (which
is conditioned in the innermost parts of his being,
as it originates in the inscrutable Eternal, in the
Original Cause and Creator of all things) to be
like his Original Cause in that he is a creating,
creative being. And thus man, in accordance with
his nature, in and by this creating (which shows
itself in the child as an employment of self) shows
himself to be related to his Creator?
But now in what single phenomena, in what
manner, and by what means does this strengthen-
ing and elevating, invigorating and encourag-
ing, purifying and blessing, even hallowing rela-
tionship of the child to God as his Creator, and con-
THE CHILD ENDOWS ALL OBJECTS WITH LIFE. 59
sequently as his Father, make itself more fully
known?
The genuinely healthy child will be always ac-
tive, he will employ himself. Why? He wishes
to make something so that his inward desire may
also appear externally. He wishes that what is
hidden within him, and lives in him, may also out-
wardly exist. Therefore as the inner conceptions,
the intellectual perceptions and comprehensions, the
images of the soul, change in the child, so also the
activities of his life, which are taking form, change
with equal quickness.
But now what is the further cause of all ac-
tivity in the child? It is just life, as life is the
first cause of all existence in God. Therefore the
child invests with life whatever he sees—that is,
he not only anticipates, feels, and experiences, life
in all, but he even attributes conscious life, will
power, conscious, self-determining will power to all.
As all things emanate from the self-determining
will of God (the First Cause of all things), and as
life and that which has life and which veils life
proceeded from God only, so the child sees and an-
ticipates hidden life, and that which has life in all
his surroundings. This fact shows definitely the
relationship of the child in his activity to his First
Cause and Father, as the Creator of all things.
Yet the proofs founded on facts of the child's
inward relationship rise ever higher. The child
60
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
not only anticipates and imagines life in the ob-
jects around him as soon as he places them in refer-
ence to himself, and himself in reference to them,
but all which proceeds from the outward and in-
ward life of the child appears to him immediately
in completely finished animate form. Thus in the
things he makes or with which he plays he sees the
kitty, the birdie, the little fish, etc. The lambs
are represented now by white beans, now by the
flower buds of the field or pasture. Sticks must
realize the idea of trees. Blocks, etc., must be per-
sons. Indeed, even the child's own fingers must
spread themselves out and become now different
children, now little fishes, now little birdies, etc.
Thus the child, whose life is a whole in itself, at
first always represents life as a whole in the objects
around him, since each and every thing which has
entered into existence from the being, life, and ac-
tion of God the Creator is a whole, and is also a
part of the great All-life.
( Not until a later period, when the examining
power of his reason is more developed and his crea-
tive and creating power has become more independ-
ent as well as spontaneous, does the child compare
and separate. )
Now, in what sequence and in what way does
the child early reveal and manifest his impulse to
activity, to employment, and to representation?
How does he reveal his operative, creative power?
A
THE CHILD'S FIRST CREATIVE IMPULSE. 61
The first object of the tendency to activity and
employment, the actual attraction for forming, is
the child's own limbs, often its whole body. He
joins his little fingers and hands in different posi-
tions, and even seeks to represent different objects
by them, as also by his whole body. This is, as
it were, the first development and preparation of
the limbs and body for creating representations
by other objects and materials.
These other objects are, primarily, solid, bulky,
capable of being grasped by the hand, firm. They
are at first tested by the child as to their power
of standing alone, their movableness, their pliancy,
their capacity for being united, the possibility of
easily joining them together and again dividing
them from one another. Spheres, wooden blocks,
stones, the ball, are therefore the first playthings
of children.
By using them the child will produce outside of
himself that which he conceives within himself.
This is a proof of his tendency to do something, to
produce (his creative impulse), and a token by
which he shows this impulse. Therefore, even the
indication of the child's activity is important, but
his later efforts to draw are yet more so.
Ah! this little child, I see,
Would e'en now an artist be.
Perhaps with the second, certainly the third year,
this bulky solid form material is replaced by
62
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
other materials of two different kinds. The one
is yet more bulky, but can be easily impressed.
It consists of soft loam and wet sand, water itself
in its movableness, its tractability, and capability
of being guided, and the air with its power of mov-
ing and turning. The other consists of less bulky
and solid objects: small flat pieces of wood, little
slats, smooth paper, or sticks and thread. Finally,
the child chooses dry sand, sawdust, plate glass
moistened or breathed upon. He also chooses ob-
jects which by friction leave a mark, such as slate
and slate pencil, paper, lead pencils, colored chalk
or crayons, and colored liquids—that is, the colors
themselves. Hence the child's desire for drawing
and painting. Both are quite essential, developing
means of education and cultivation of the child and
man. But singing is no less essential. For even
the easily resulting and again easily vanishing,
echoing tone produced in one's own throat or by
one's own members, or by ringing and resonant ob-
jects (glass, bell, metal, etc.), must serve for crea-
tive representations of inner conceptions, sensations,
• feelings, and indeed ideas.
Thus we see how an advance is shown in the
child's creative representations as the means of play
lessen in materiality. The forms made with the
solid materialoften give but a slight outward rep-
resentation of an object, but were mostly called
forth by fancy. The forms produced by soft ma-
PLAY LEADS TO SELF KNOWLEDGE.
63
terial showed more the inward connection by the
outward form. The sticks rudely represented the
outlines. These appeared more complete in the
sand and dust, as well as on the pane of glass which
has been dimmed by the breath when the forms
have been made by the easily movable finger; but
they are yet more sure, precise, and complete, but
less material, when slate pencil, lead pencil, etc.,
are used on slate and paper. Yet the echoing tone
in its harmonious and rhythmical, as well as in its
melodious combinations, expresses directly the
higher and the highest feeling of life in its unity,
one part flowing into another. It is the soul which
here speaks to the soul; the life which speaks di-
rectly to the life through the life (especially con-
nected with the composite, immaterial word),
whereby the spirit speaks to the spirit. But in the
spirit and by the spirit man recognizes himself as
a creative being; he recognizes God as the Creator,
and he recognizes Nature as that which is created
from God. Thus we see and recognize that we,
by fostering the creative power in the child early in
his life and through the stages of development in-
dicated by the child himself, raise him to knowl-
edge of himself, of Nature, and of God, and to the
recognition of himself as a child of God; but “ by
their fruits ye shall know them,” says the highest
educator of humanity. So we must recognize
here that we, by early, continuously, and symmet-
64
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
rically developing and cultivating man's creating
power in conformity to law, raise him to the true
dignity of human nature, to fitness for life, to
accordance with Nature, to genuine all-sided union
of life, consequently union with God—therefore to
true peace, to pure joy, and to constant freedom.
THE CHILD'S DESIRE FOR TYPICAL REPRESENTA-
TION.
The object of the previous essay is to lead us
to observe the child and the child-world, and to per-
ceive in both the truth that man is a creative being.
If we now look back again upon both, we see that
the child's activity, taken collectively, from his first
spontaneous movement to the stage at which he has
gained the power to make a life of representation,
of the life of feeling and sensation that is, up to
the age of completed childhood, therefore up to his
sixth or seventh year), has its foundation in the
effort, first of all, to make known first his inner
life in and by means of outward phenomena as
soon as it comes to his perception, to place this life
objectively before himself and externally to him-
self; and next to appropriate the inner life of things
around him (that is, to bring himself to knowledge
of, and thus to insight into this inner life, in order
to reproduce it spontaneously), and indeed to come
to a knowledge of it by this reproduction.
In a twofold direction, indeed, but in a self-
THE CHILD'S FEEBLENESS.
65
determining way, which is in itself single, the
child's action here depends always upon the com-
prehension and manifestation of the inner in and
by means of the outer. It depends, as it were,
upon a creation which emanates from the inner be-
ing and shows itself in that which is present and
apparent, therefore upon an actual creation; for
the spirit, the life, hereby acts as the determining
power and conditions the material.
Yet as certainly as this uninterrupted self-re-
vealing, creating activity of the child is in its nat-
ural healthy condition a general one, so certain is
it also that the power of the child to exercise this
activity is still very weak and slight. But that he
may not feel himself restrained from using his
power by perceiving its weakness, the child who is
undisturbed in his development always feels that
his power is at least great enough to accomplish
that for which he strives. Therefore (as every one
who has watched the impulses of healthy children
will have been convinced) the as yet slight power
of the child is not in a condition to obstruct his
impulse to creative activity, but, on the contrary,
he seeks to strengthen and elevate this impulse by
increasing demands on the efficiency of his power.
We must not disturb the child in this effort, though
it be often apparently fruitless. If he does not
actually accomplish anything outwardly, yet his
inner power of creation grows by his efforts. But,
66
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
as a rule, the child will himself seek out material
by the use of which he can gratify his impulse to
represent by creating, or, in other words, his im-
pulse to creative formation. These materials, by
the aid of steadfast will, will finally submit to the
influence of the yet unpracticed arm and the little
hand, as we have already shown.
It is now just as indispensable that those who
are around him should, by promoting and fostering
it, meet this effort and impulse of the child and his
activity as it is essential that the moist warmth
of the earth should offer to the germinating kernel
and the clear, shining light of the sun to the bud
which is striving to unfold, the right conditions for
the complete development of their powers.
Now what Nature, the mother of all, gives to
her children that they may reveal what is within
them, the conscious love of parents must supply
for their children, and the love and insight of
adults must provide for the children of the exist-
ing generation for the free development of their
nature. “Draw a mousie for me or a little house."
“Paint a birdie or a flower for me," is therefore
likewise one of the first requests of the child as soon
as he can make known by words his will and his
inward impulse. He also begs, “Do tell me a little
story,” or definitely, “Do tell me the little story
about the birdies who loved their mother.” By
this means the impulse to representation and the
DRAWING THE MOST IMPORTANT AGENCY. 67
power of creation grow in the child. Now, as
soon as he can master any kind of suitable, plastic,
flexible material he tries to show his impulse and
his power by representing, forming, and creating-
by employing himself in manifold ways.
Now, although all that the child does is a cre-
ating from himself (even his plays with the most
palpable, most material substances—cubes, blocks,
pebbles, etc.—being a kind of painting or drawing
of his inner self; that is, of that which lives within
him), yet it is painting and drawing in a narrower
sense, even if it be only the drawing in the earth
and on the pane of glass moistened by the breath,
which has been previously mentioned, that attract
the child above all and ever anew as a means of
representation of his inner self. But why? Because
this gives to the operative impulse to formation
and effort in the child an all-embracing satisfaction;
for the child can by the drawing just as well repre-
sent a star as it shines in the sky as the flower which
blossoms in his little flower bed. He can thereby
just as well represent a tree showing itself in the
woods as the flying birdie sitting on a tree or flutter-
ing its wings and rising into the air.
But this requirement of the child to avail him-
self of the most easily movable, the finest and small-
est material for his producing and drawing, for the
showing of his little creations, for the manifesta-
tion of his power of creating, is now fully in har-
68
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
el
mony with the doings of Nature and with the phe-
nomena of Nature. For Nature also creates her
works from, and represents them by, the most easily
movable materials—light, air, water, earth, dust.
And so the desire and will of the child are again
shown to be neither individual nor yet isolated,
but to be a necessarily postulated living whole in
itself single, which is creating and has created, by
which showing the child proves himself to be a
part of this whole.
Hence we see that even from this point of view
the efforts as well as the desire of the child to
prove himself, by the aid of the objects mentioned,
to be a representing, forming being must be sacred
to us. For, as the child proves himself in this way
to be a creative being, he also shows himself just
as surely, on the other hand, to be a member of the
great living whole and of all life. He is destined
to develop himself as a creating and as a created
being, in and by means of the great living whole,
in order thus to have knowledge of the Creator and
the creation (recognizing the Creator and under-
standing Nature), and therefore to comprehend and
to bring himself to consciousness of his own nature,
since by what he does he stands intermediately be-
tween the two. He is therefore destined, like Na-
ture, and like the Creator of both Nature and him-
self, to create the great from the small, and by
means of the small in constant coherence with the
THE EDUCATIVE FUNCTION OF DRAWING. 69
universal life, to effect good, to form the beautiful,
to show the true, and to do the right.
If now all these activities of the child previous-
ly mentioned, and the different materials used by
him, admit of this mode of contemplation, and show
him as creating (with which doubtless later and
further presentations of the nature of the child as
a creative being will be connected), yet it is
above all the art of drawing by which the child in
his circle already proves himself to be a creating be-
ing, because with the slightest mastery of the ma-
terial and with the exertion of the smallest amount
of physical power, there can most easily and quick-
ly be shown recognizably by the drawing that
which the child would like to represent from him-
self, that which he would like to create. Therefore
now the development of the power of drawing in
the child belongs to one of the most essential mem-
bers of the educational training which develops the
human being and is one of the most essential bases
of the general education of humanity, of the edu-
cation of the human race toward union of life on
all sides. Such an education has long been dimly
anticipated by humanity, and so is now longingly
expected.
Owing to the fact that the power of drawing
has not been completely recognized hitherto, and
that the introduction and practice of drawing has
not been generally considered to be an essential
1
70
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
part of genuine human training and has not been
received as an essential means of educational train-
ing, humanity, especially in childhood and youth,
has up to this time been cut off from one of its most
comprehensive means of training.
Slight as the necessary expenditure of power
in drawing seems to be, yet drawing in its ap-
plication and execution makes a demand upon the
whole human being, consequently on the child in
all the references of his development and training.
Even the correct position of the drawing fingers
and hand for spontaneous use requires a correct,
suitably free position of the whole right arm; this
again indispensably requires a corresponding posi-
tion of the other limbs and of the whole body of
the child who is drawing if he wishes to represent
what he creates with freedom of bodily action as
well as with a free spirit. For a freely active, skilled
use of the body necessarily presupposes a free,
skilled spirit in the circuit of that activity. The
two condition one another reciprocally.
As therefore true, free, beautiful drawing re-
quires that the limbs and body be symmetrically de-
veloped, it also demands the spontaneous, skilled
use of the senses, and it no less demands the sense
of hearing and that of feeling than that of sight.
This wholly satisfactory training of body, limbs,
and senses, and consequently the development re-
quired for drawing, conditions in the same way
WHAT DRAWING DEMANDS OF THE CHILD. 71
a harmoniously unfolded soul, a feeling, experien-
cing mind, as well as a thoughtfully comparing,
intelligent, and perceptive intellect, formed judg-
ment, correct conclusion, and so, finally, an idea
(more or less clear, at least more and more improv-
ing during the representing activity) of that which
is to be formed.
But, again, this demands from, and forms in
the child who is drawing observation and attention,
the comprehension of the whole, recollection and
memory, the gift of connection and invention,
fancy. In general, it enters on the path of corre-
sponding use of man's total power of formation,
enriching the spirit with clear conceptions, the
mind with true thoughts, and the soul with beauti-
ful ideas—the said conceptions, thoughts, and ideas
being the fundamental conditions of creating the
animate and active. For such creating the child
already yearns and strives.
The drawing which, to the injury of the chil-
dren, has been hitherto neglected in their early edu-
cation, is of general, universal, and comprehensive
importance in the training of the human being.
As a complete presentation of his creative power,
it renders it possible for man, by the strong im-
pression of pure humanity, to become within him-
self, and by his own action, a second creator of him-
self, as well as a creator and outward representer
of pure humanity and human nature. Drawing
72
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
also makes it possible for man to rise from the cor-
rect comprehension and cultivation of that which
is corporeal, material, and sentient, through sense,
modesty, and morality, to true union with himself,
as well as with Nature, with humanity, and with
God in feeling, thought, desire, and action.
This must here suffice to lead to the recognition
of drawing as an essential means of educating
man up to completeness—his constant vocation on
this earth-conformably to the unity and univer-
sality of his nature and the use of his creative
power as an individual being and also as a member
of humanity.
We have just given prominence to the fact that
the recognized goal can not be reached by one-
sided development, but only by symmetrical de-
velopment of both body and spirit.
. Above all, we must let the child be early in-
terpenetrated by the feeling that a free, sure, firm,
position of the whole body not only makes possible
a free, easy use of all his limbs and senses, but ren-
ders possible such a use at the same time with a
pleasant feeling of tranquillity, whether he sits or
stands.
In general, all in which the child's active will
is required and necessary must at first be attended
by a pure feeling of pleasantness (through as pure a
feeling of well-being as that with which the child
clings to the mother's breast and is pressed to her
THE CULTIVATION OF THE HAND.
73
heart). With this feeling of pleasantness must be
connected at first the becoming accustomed to the
right, and later on also the feeling of the right and
correct. This feeling also awakens early in the
child, often gradually, often strongly, but always
easily. This also, like the feeling of pleasantness,
exerts a determining influence upon what he does,
and upon the manner in which he acts. The devel-
opment and cultivation of the child to a creating
being, even in the special cultivation of the crea-
tive power in and by means of the drawing, must
therefore proceed from the careful fostering of
these two feelings (the one of which appears more
bodily and sentient, the other more intellectual and
spiritual) early arousing in the child or at least soon
to awaken.
Here now with the firm holding and free posi-
tion of the body begins the cultivation of the arms,
hands, and fingers. This was formerly done, in
general, under the guidance of the Mother-Play
and Nursery Songs, and is now carried on with the
special object of cultivating the above-named mem-
bers for drawing as a creating power and activity.
This cultivation of arms, hands, and fingers goes on
in rest as well as in movement. This movement
is in straight as well as in curved lines, and in all
directions. The drawing is at first wholly in free
space. Later, it is done so that the traces of the
movement (especially if it be a continuous one)
74
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
may be made perceptible upon the surface—for
example, on the earth, in sand, in dust, or in fine
sawdust, which has been spread on a suitable plane;
and yet later by the use of objects, such as chalk,
slate pencil, lead pencil, etc., which leave the traces
of the movement as lines on blackboard, slate, or
paper.
This last appearance is now (if the conscious-
ness of the precise object be reached) the drawing
(showing) of the lines, first of all the curved, and ·
afterward the straight lines, with the practice of
which, therefore, the development and cultivation
of the child's impulse, capacity, and talent for cre-
ating drawing must begin.
Thus the comprehension and representation,
that is, the drawing—of the curved and straight
lines are not only closely connected with the simple
movements of the limbs, but proceed directly from
these movements combined with consciousness of
the purpose. Both the curved and straight lines
appear in different positions. The latter appear as
vertical and horizontal, and as oblique or diagonal
lines.
Yet, as we recognized, the drawing, being the
complete creating activity of man, must proceed
through the attainment of consciousness and must
be accompanied by consciousness. But, again,
both consciousness and its attainment begin with
speech and proceed from' words. Therefore the
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
75
showing (pointing out) and the testifying (awaken-
ing consciousness) word must be connected with the
drawing. But since here also the activity of the
child, as always, proceeds through feeling, or, if
the other mode of expression be preferred, through
the feelings of the pleasant, the beautiful, and the
right, etc., the growing activity of the child should
not only be accompanied by spoken, but by sung
words, thereby leading to the right and beautiful.
We therefore connect the drawing of round
(curved) as well as straight lines with the explan-
atory word or with the animating little song (for
instance, the ball and sphere songs before men-
tioned), in order not merely to awaken but to foster
and strengthen the whole, collective activity of the
child, as will soon be stated. While the pencil
moves in a circling manner on the slate these
words, for example, can be sung:
Around, around; how much I enjoy it!
My pencil I turn; thus I like to employ it.
Thou, too, must enjoy it.
Or:
Do see the straight, straight line
My pencil makes so fine.
With the round, as well as with the straight
lines, besides the position and direction, the manner
of origination or forming should be considered in
reference to the one who is drawing—from the
hand, to the hand; or outward, inward; up, down;
76
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
down, up; or the opposite originations may be
united in a zigzag or winding course; this, as ex-
perience shows, gives great pleasure to the children,
especially if to the explaining word, which speaks
to the intellect of the child, be added the loving
tone, which speaks to his heart, and so as the flow-
ers blossom with the sun's rays which shine upon
and warm them in the morning, there result here
the many kinds of combinations of lines by the
help of the clearing and pleasing words of song:
Zic, zac, zic, zac,
Goes my pencil fleet;
Tic, tac, tic, tac,
Sounds the round clock’s beat.
Or, with winding curved lines:
So the line winds along
With a song, with a song,
And the time seems not long.
Yet soon these lines, the drawing of which is
now his object, become to the child, who is guided
by them to thoughtful notice of that which sur-
rounds him, again a means of further representa-
tions that is, material for representation. Thus,
for example, the circular lines which the child can
now draw with considerable facility become to him
the image of the moon, the sun, a target, even an
apple, a ball, a sphere, a hoop, a ring, etc. He
has seen in the meadow, in the garden, and in the
field the three-leaved clover, with its rounded single
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
77
leaves, and the five-leaved flowers of the most dif-
ferent kinds, with their petals set round in a circle,
and he easily represents them by winding circular
lines (as well as rayed flowers and the many kinds
of feathered leaves which are often quite rounded;
for instance, the pinnated leaves of the creeping
rosebush, a kind of field rose, the acacia, etc., or
well-paired cauline leaves, as, for example, in the
beautiful sunny blossoms of the moneywort). But
the child's impulse to represent by drawing ven-
tures also upon the animate. He tries to repre-
sent the cony, with its rounded form, the mouse,
the lamb, the dove, etc. The child has exercised
himself essentially by means of his round play-
thing, in the clear, sure perception and the repre-
sentation of that which is round in form.
In the same way that he was attracted by Na-
ture the child is also attracted by the human being,
by human life, and so by his fostering place the
house!“ Draw me a little house!” We have al-
ready given prominence to this request of the child.
He now tries to fulfill this wish himself. Now
new and differing demands are made upon the
child: First, the more acute perception of the differ-
ent positions and directions, especially of the right
lines as defining the positions of the oblique lines;
then the relation of the single lines as parts of a
whole to a uniting and limiting middle point, line,
etc.; finally, and lastly, the exact perception of the
78
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
relative length of the lines by comparison with a
fixed, defined measure.
These three indispensable requirements (posi-
tion or direction, size, and drawing point) for cor-
rect and beautifully formed drawings indicate that
the eye should be cultivated as a measurer. The
solution of these requirements must therefore pro-
ceed from the capacity of the eye for correct per-
ception (as did the representation and execution of
the line from the training of all the joints of the
arm) as well as from the cultivation of the whole
body.
But the drawing in the network is the ultimate
reference which receives and, as it were, forms the
outer world in the eye. Name and thing show
us here in a remarkable manner, and, by the child
himself, the way to cultivate the child's eye, and
thus to cultivate his sense of the perception and
representation of the comparatively correct positions,
sizes, and uniting middle. This is a netted surface
given to the child, an exteriorly placed net on
which he can at first with certainty represent its
lines as the condition of bounded surface formation,
and, first of all, the straight lines in various posi-
tions and lengths, and can thus bring himself to
consciousness (through simple, continuously pro-
gressing multiplication of a line which is compara-
tively the smallest and serves as a measure—the
line of the first single length). Later proceed from
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
79
this the sharper perception and conscious correct
representation of the curved lines, the circle again
being first.
This multiplication of the first single measur-
ing length (relatively the smallest), applied first of
all to straight lines, concludes with lines of five
times the length of the first line, which gives the
measure. This number is determined for the child
by the number of fingers on each hand.
For the purpose of presenting such a netted
surface, which will, first of all, cultivate the eye of
the drawing child for the perception and represen-
tation of the relations of direction, position, and
size of the lines, it is best to use a smooth slate,
on one side of which a network has been formed by
cutting vertical and horizontal lines at always the
same distance of the quarter inch with the inverted
sharp point of a knife.
a
6

The distance from one of the parallel lines to
the next is indicated and measured by a right line
80
EVELO
EDUCATION EDUC
.
BY DEVELOPMENTof single length or size, and so progressively the dis-
tance of the fifth line from the next is a right line
of fivefold length or size.
As now the child's consciousness of his power
of presenting things by drawing generally begins
with the perception and representation of the
straight line, so the perception and representation
(that is, the drawing) of straight lines begins with
the vertical line, and all the relations of size and
grouping are first carried on with the vertical lines
before the child advances to horizontal and oblique
lines.
Thus the child should first draw many times a
vertical line the length of one square, then of two
squares, and so on up to five, always at equal dis-
tances, each time separating the rows from each
other by a distance of two horizontal lines.
The drawing and correct measuring of the lines
is now done by the child at first in the marked lines
in the required position and extension. In this
way and by this use the net serves to train at the
same time the child's eye, hand, and fingers. But
not this only, for the inner law (which is mani-
foldly expressed in this net as an outward law)
trains the thought and spirit of the child, since by
means of it he is guided directly at the instant of
action to a sharp and comparing conception of what
he is doing. For, as already said, the “aim ” is
not only the production or representation as such,
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
but we aim to make the child conscious of what he
has done and how he has done it. Thus the child's
doing becomes a creating, and his activity an in-
dividual employment. This is done when the
word, which makes the action objective and leads
to the child's attainment of consciousness, is joined
directly to the action, and the accordance of word
and deed constantly and strongly expressed by the
silently compelling law in the net, thus leading to
unity as well as insight. While drawing a line
the child says immediately, for example:
“I draw an upright (senkrecht) line, one square
long from up to down.”
“I draw it from down to up," * and so on up to
five lengths.
Or the designating words may be allowed to
follow the act, for example:
“I drew an upright line (or several),” etc.
Even this little difference in perception and de-
scription (language) arouses the child's attention.
But observant action leading to consciousness is
always the expression of the child's activity even
when he is rebuked as thoughtless because he has
turned his attention to another side of his activity
than that required by us. And so we see here
already how the drawing itself, even as a creative
activity, and the developing, educational course of
* A child in a kindergarten said of his own accord, and
actually with precise designation, " raised right up."
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
drawing evolved therefrom is necessarily condi-
tioned in the nature and in the course of develop-
ment and cultivation of the human being—child
as well as man.
These simple exercises and representations,
which are used first of all, and which we have just
mentioned, lead also to the perception and concep-
tion, even to the recognition of general valid laws
of formation and of actual life, and the all-sided
power of creation increases more and more in the
child the more the insight into those laws develops.
But those laws reveal themselves even at this first
stage (at least to the developing educator), as it
were, of their own accord, with quiet observa-
tion of the thing. The educator needs only to
give the correctly designating word to that which
appears actually before him, and it is then pos-
sible for him to show (to the child who is draw-
ing) these laws in the child's own action, and by
that which he has represented, although this show-
ing is yet more valuable with the fulfillment of the
next requirement, viz., the connecting, comparing
grouping of that which was in the preceding (that
is, the first) stage represented singly, by the com-
paring grouping of the five vertical lines of from
one to five lengths side by side.
By employing the simple rule already many
times practiced by the child himself, and thus ex-
perienced by him in his own action (viz., that
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
83
there can be something which is opposite to, yet
like each thing), the fulfillment of the preceding
requirements gives four forms, all of which have
the property of being opposite to, yet like one an-
other individually, and in the grouping of the sev-
eral parts.
As now the laws of formation and life here
revealing themselves (for example, that there is al-
ways an intermediate between each two things
which are opposite, yet alike) are higher than those
before stated, so also are the laws of development
higher (that is, more general, more comprehen-
sive), which result from the combining of the four
groupings opposite in the order), yet similar (in
the length of the lines), by arranging the groups
by an opposite, yet similar reference to a (common)
middle. In each previous form the succeeding
one is suggested. In the new combination the four
groupings, which were before isolated, now show
themselves as necessarily conditioned members of a
higher whole.
The child's desire for signs awakens and nour-
ishes (according to progressive laws full of life)
the capacity to form a whole, to recognize the in-
dividual as a member of a whole, to find a mediat-
ing connection between opposites. In the recog-
nition and acknowledgment of law the child feels
and perceives the growth of his creative power, and
soon turns the law of development (recognized, or
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
at least anticipated in his symmetrical activity),
if not to the representation of living objects, at
least to the invention of more free, independent
forms created from himself.
These first results and expressions of the child's
power and gift of invention (by means of a definite
law) are at the same time the first proofs of the
creative power dwelling in the child, and indeed
quite inseparable from his nature. Therefore it
appears here as a requirement, which has already
been quite definitely brought forward, how not
merely laws of formation and cultivation, but truly
comprehensive laws of life, develop from quite sim-
ple, little activities in accordance with equally
simple laws of progress which are as natural as
they are necessary, and more and more impressive
as well as comprehensive. These laws of forma-
tion, etc., reveal themselves to the child in the sim-
plest, actual perceptibility from his own action and
representations. By the contemplation of objects,
though by no means as yet by word and insight,
the child is here clearly shown that his spirit is
thoughtfully creative, and creatively thoughtful.
At least he acts in accordance with this idea, being
early impelled to such action by his own nature.
May all educators carefully consider that the
observing child has passed from the total contem-
plation of the object as a whole to a perception
of the individual parts, to the limiting lines them-
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
85
0
selves, seeing them also as single in the combina-
tion. Therefore in drawing and uniting simple
lines with lines he first represents outwardly what
he immediately recognizes as a definite something.
In the second place, the child shows himself by
means of the drawing as a being gifted with deter-
mined, firm will. In the third place, as he shows
his will by definite deed, a precise something, so
he also designates will and deed by definite speech
and definite word. In the fourth place, he forms
himself by this means into a creative being, and
by these means recognizes himself as such. In the
fifth place, the child brings directly into action
and thought and to independent perception (though
not as yet to insight) the simple, limiting, funda-
mental laws of form and life which exist within
him.
Thus, in the sixth place, the child, as a recog-
nizing being, rises to self-recognition, to self-con-
sciousness. And in the seventh place, and lastly,
as the completion of the circle and, in a certain
sense, 4a return to the beginning through recogni-
tion, will and deed, self-perception, self-knowledge,
and self-creation, the child forms himself into an
inwardly united life-whole, into a part-whole of
the all-life, into a true genuine human being:
Hence it follows that the child's desire for showing
and forming, his power of creating by drawing,
should not exactly be freely used to produce in-
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
definite images, but should be developed according
to the laws of cultivation inherent in its nature.
It is already sufficiently evident what fruits must
result from such developing training, not only for
the child, as before intimated, but yet more for the
family, the home, the school, and for public life.
Yet the most important result, which although
later proceeds with certainty from this developing
means of educating the child, is that he attains to
the recognition of the opposite, not as something
contradictory or destructive, but as something
which, conjoined with its contrast, forms an in-
wardly united whole. It may therefore be said that
he comes to the knowledge of the opposite as being
in certain respects indeed opposite, but in other re-
spects like, and therefore actually opposite-like.
The child who, in the stage of unconscious im-
pulse to formation, advanced in his drawing from
the round to the straight, now, in the stage of con-
sciousness, rises from the straight to the round, to
the circle, which is opposite to, yet like the straight.
For, although the round (the circle) is this com-
plete opposite of the straight in regard to the law
and manner of its direction as returning to its start-
ing point, etc., yet both round and straight, in re-
gard to their stability, to the proportion of the
directions once begun, to the holding fast to the
law of origination once chosen, are like one an-
other; consequently they are from this point of
MAN A CREATIVE BEING.
87
view opposite to, yet like one another, but they are
also alike in the fact that they are both lines which,
as such, necessarily separate. But the round (the
circular) line at once concludes and includes; it
has its end in itself. The end is pointed out by the
beginning, and thus its size is pointed out by itself.
The straight line, on the contrary, running on to
infinity in the direction once indicated by it, con-
sequently, only departs from and never returns to
its starting point. Thus both lines are here again
opposite to one another, and therefore from this
point of view also they are opposite to, yet like one
another.
In the drawing and by means of it the child
represents in union forms which are opposite yet
alike, the ending and endless, the visible and the
invisible. So, through the drawing qualities which
are opposite to, yet like one another, are harmoni-
ously developed in the child. So, above all, that
which is infinite, invisible, united, existing, godlike,
develops from that which is finite, visible, individ-
ual, apparent, earthly, thus corresponding to that
which pertains to humanity, and so to the worth
of man's nature.
Thus, in order that the child's desire for show-
ing and drawing, consequently his impulse to for-
mation, be fostered according to the laws of Nature
and life, be developed to true power of formation,
and be raised to conscious creation, the child, and
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
TUT
Y
thus the human being, is set in the midst of the col-
lective life-whole and is comprehended in that
life-whole. In this way is fulfilled the first con-
, dition necessary to his development according to
earthly possibilities for all positions in life, viz.,
that he, in the completeness of his living expression
of himself, be at the same time most capable, as a
whole and member of humanity, of perfectly mani-
festing the nature of humanity; for this mode of
teaching draws together the life-bond between crea-
tion, created, and Creator.
The cultivation of the child for creative (that
is, independent, inventive) drawing, however small
its circumference may be (for it, like a circle, is
always a whole in itself), is therefore also the mid-
dle point, the starting point, and spring, as well
as (according to its nature, as a condition of all de-
velopment) the point to which all true, satisfying
education refers. Hence the genuine kindergar-
ten, animated by this conviction, leads to this point
through each of its actions, even the smallest.
Just in this cultivation of the child for creative
drawing consists the nature of the kindergarten.
By means of this cultivation its place of develop-
ment is a garden of freshly springing humanity,
and its education one of all-sided union of life, a
training of the child to that which he is and which
he makes known by his desire for signs—a creative
being.
III.
EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN.-GUIDE TO PAPER FOLD-
ING.-A FRAGMENT.
A continuously instructive employment which
educates by developing, intended for children from
five to seven years and over, under the intelligent
co-operation of guiding adults.
PREFACE.
The means here presented of training the child
which develop him on all sides have also the al-
ready recognized beneficent property that they, in
their logical application (proceeding from the sim-
ple, and constantly progressing toward the more
complex and manifold), offer an agreeably refresh-
ing and strengthening recreation for the children,
and not less for the power of mind and spirit than
for the bodily activity of the child-tending adult.
These plays possess the property of satisfying alike
the playing child and the loving, guiding adult
(mother, father, older brother or sister, educator),
and of leading the adult himself to an intelligent
enjoyment of them, and this is just what makes
89
90
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
them so appropriate for the genuine family room,
for intimately united family life, and for foster-
ing such life. This is the property which causes
these childish employments to act so beneficially
on the uneducated child, as well as on the educat-
ing adult, uniting both to form a whole, full of
life, for the practice and representation of the true,
the good, and the beautiful, as they develop spirit,
mind, power of doing, thought, feeling, and action
in harmony and accord of life, which is such a
great, imperative need for all our relations in life,
and for the all-sided demands of life for intelligent,
æsthetic, religious, practical training.
A.
A guiding thread through the means of em-
ployment in general as well as a superintending
guidance in particular.
1. As was demonstrated in the Mother-Plays
and Nursery Songs and elsewhere, the means of de-
veloping the child are deeply conditioned in his
nature and his course of training, proceed directly
from the bodily activity and the spiritual influence
of man as a whole, single in itself, and exert a di-
rect influence on man. So the means of employ-
ing the child, presentéd especially in the so-called
play-gifts, etc., are, as can be demonstrated, as
deeply grounded in the nature of the child as in
the properties of the things (as has also been re-
PAPER FOLDING.
91
peatedly said here), and proceed from a connecting
medium, from the corporeal, the material, as such,
from its simplest representative (the ball) to the
sphere, the cube, and the cylinder as an undivided
whole; since the children consider and especially
treat these objects as such, according to their vari-
ous and opposite as well as connecting properties
and relations in rest and movement. The training
of the limbs and senses is here the connection be-
tween development and employment, the single and
the undivided, the spiritual and the corporeal.
ing to the ruling law of opposites, to the divided,
and in the divided, first from the once divided on
all sides to the several times divided, from the
cubical to the brick formation, and from the
straight to the oblique division. These are the
well-known play-gifts from the third to the sixth
inclusive.
3. From the bricks (of the sixth gift) the
means of play goes on to the tablets, and, in the
tablets, first to the right-angled or four-cornered,
and then to the oblique or three-cornered. The
comprehension of their different positions and re-
lations to one another conditions the difference in
kinds, their use, and their different effect on the
child.
They form the special and intimately connected
scries of the laying plays which comprise a many-
92
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
sided cultivation, and hence are especially adapted
for developing education as well as agreeably in-
structive.
4. Through the brick formation and that of
the tablets the corporeal division goes on to the
sticks; first of all, to the sticks of the length of two
cubes, or one brick. The use of these sticks consists:
a. In different ways of laying the forms of
life, beauty, and knowledge which are already
abundantly familiar. With the latter we can
again, if we wish, distinguish the figure and num-
ber forms, and also the writing and reading forms,
etc.
b. In the firm joining of the sticks by a con-
necting body (peas or cork) to form inclosed fig-
ures or surfaces.
For movable connection of the single sticks
there appear: 5. In this place, slats of the length
of eight cubes or four bricks, and of the width at
most of a half cube. The employment with these
is the so-called interlacing. The preceding employ-
ment is called peas work.
6. The connection of the sticks by the inter-
lacing, appearing as an undivided but movable
whole, leads to the employment with the jointed
slat, by the management of which one form is de-
veloped from another, and the more complex is
brought back to the simpler form.
7. The interlacing and the use of the jointed
PAPER FOLDING.
slat lead to the employment with undivided strips
of paper folded together lengthwise, or to inter-
twining. The joining and twisting of these pro-
ceed from simple forms and conditions, and lead
then to the combination of single colored strips of
paper in a turning fashion (braiding). This leads
to weaving, which opens the passage to the fol-
lowing.
8. Through all which stands before us, the di-
vision of the whole and its separation into parts
leads back again to the whole in perceptions of
solids and surfaces, but both can be seen through,
and thus permit a view into the interior. From
this division and recombination of the divided ma-
terial the advance is to
9. Changing the material in different forms,
but in unaltered quantity, to wholes, which actually
remain constantly the same in themselves.
a. If the whole, when it is to be changed in
this way, is massive, the mass must be soft, ca-
pable of being pressed and moved out of place
(thus in a certain sense impressible), therefore
changeable in form, but abiding in respect to quan-
tity. This is the modeling in its first simple forms,
proceeding from the sphere or from the cube.
. If, on the other hand, one proceeds from a
defined surface which always remains the same,
the result is the folding, which is to be especially
treated and brought forward in what follows.
94
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
c. If one proceeds from a thread there results
a childish and especially girlish play, the so-called
thread game. Here are brought forth the outlines
of surface and solid forms of different kinds by
the use of a thread (the two ends of which are
joined, and the length of which remains the same
through all changes of form), with the help of the
two hands of a coadjutor and the use of one's own
hands.
10. In accordance with the course of constant
development, the childish employment now follow-
ing is of course the connection of the two preced-
ing ones. It is therefore the union of the separate
with the abiding, or, with the solid mass, the cut-
ting off or carving; with surface material (paper),
the cutting out-cutting, so called."
The cutting is therefore the connection, the
folding of an abiding material with the parts and
forms, so that an abiding material indeed remains,
but develops and shows definite forms in the rela-
tions of its separations; although also, on the other
hand, separated parts again originate which may
be again combined according to general and neces-
sary laws of combination.
But from the management of this fundamental
activity there proceeds again a twofold course:
First, one may regard the forms which are origi-
nated by the cutting in respect to their kind.
They may then be either merely representations of
PAPER FOLDING.
95
1
Us, Cuc.
the beautiful, of an idea; or representations of facts
and thoughts; or representations of the forms and
objects of the surroundings, of Nature and of hu-
man life—even the representation of man himself
-here, for example, the furniture of a house, an
inn, a manufactory, dolls, human forms; there, nat-
ural objects, animals, plants, etc.
Or, second, that which is cut out, cut off
and separated, remains in connection with the
whole, and is itself grouped together to form a
whole, inclosing space. This gives the hollow,
and thus in its application to human life proceeded
the room, the house, the building; and thus again
the introduction and return to the purely human,
to the home and the family life, to the family
room, from which indeed the whole proceeds. All
this is presented to the child in subjective form,
and can be understood by the child from his own
experience.
Thus, then, a review of the whole employment
and occupation of children shows that they are to
be, for the child, a mirrored image of the whole
life of Nature and of man, and that at the stage
of childhood they lead to true estimation and
comprehension of life; indeed, at every stage of
the development and the progress of childhood
they lead to comprehension of its inner signifi-
cance.
From the sequence of the employment and oc-
96.
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
cupation of children here intimated we now bring
into prominence but one—the paper folding.
It proceeds from a surface of a precise and
given form.
This simplest form (proceeding from its inner-
most foundations and law of development) is the
square, or the form defined by four equal sides,
four equal angles, and four equal corners. Al-
though the triangle, consisting of three equal sides,
three equal angles, and three equal corners, ap-
pears, on account of the number, to be the simpler
and first, yet it is, on account of its nature (as is
afterward shown), the one which is led up to—the
later.
B.
Paper folding as a means of employment pro-
ceeding from the square surface or square form.
The square may be formed from any firm paper
surface, whatever the outlines of the latter may be.
The given continuous surface is creased by a fold
into two parts as nearly alike as possible. Then
the surface is again doubled together, dividing into
two equal parts the line caused by the folding, so
that a right angle results, closed on one side, open
on the other. Then one half of the open side is
bent so that its boundary line coincides with the
boundary line of the closed side, this, with the new
fold, forming half a right angle. We then make
an incision at any point of the sides which have
PAPER FOLDING.
97
been laid together and made even all the way
from the apex of the half right angle, therefore
on the side where the half of the divided side
coincides with the closed one. We then let the
half fall back into its original position and join
the two incisions by a straight line in the direction
of which the superfluous paper is cut off. Now if
the triangle resulting from this cut be unfolded
the desired square appears.
The remarkable thing in this is, that the most
symmetrical and simplest form, the square, results
from the unshaped surface by means of three
creases and three cuts. This phenomenon demands
the strictest consideration on several sides.
By the foregoing work and its results should be
demonstrated that the formed, and, in this especial
case, the square, proceeds from the unformed by
regular division.
But it would be not only unadvisable, but ridic-
ulous, to proceed always in this way to form a
square. A proper, progressive cultivation always
takes into account what already is. If not square
forms, we find enough rectangular forms in our
surroundings. These are shown us by our present
machine-cut papers, and often with great exactness.
This is a beautiful and convenient agreement of
that which already is with that which we want,
and we must thankfully consider it, and make use
of it to promote the whole. Thus if it is desired
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
to carry on the folding with additional paper it is
advisable to take for the purpose rectangular ma-
chine-cut paper. Ordinarily, for instance, in the
work of the public schools, paper already used in
writing or drawing books can be taken for the
folding.
We here proceed with the machine-cut paper
as material for folding, or, in other words, we make
use of such paper. The use of already written
paper, or of leaves from writing and drawing books,
proceeds on the same plan.
We see, first of all, how from one sheet of ma-
chine-cut paper a number of suitable squares can
be made, as preparatory material for folding.
In order to understand what follows, and to be
actually instructed by it, it is necessary to take
a piece of machine paper in hand and follow out
the directions step by step. If one has anything
clearly before him, it is easy to impart it to others.
1. I lay the whole sheet before me opened as a
horizontal rectangle, crease it by a fold in the mid-
dle of its length so that it is divided into two equal
parts or oblongs (one long side of which is closed,
the other open); the two shorter sides are divided.
The paper thus folded lies before me in the position
of a horizontal oblong, the closed side turned toward
me, the open side from me.
2. I take then the upper half leaf of the divided
right-hand side and bend the corner so that the
PAPER FOLDING.
99
short side of the oblong shall coincide with the
closed side, and so that the right angle which the
shorter side forms with the closed longer side is
divided into two half right angles.
3. I turn the whole over, so that what was be-
fore underneath shall be above, and do the same
with the right-hand corner of the top leaf now
lying before me.
4. I do the same with the two left-hand sides.
The result is a parallel-sided, alike-sloped quad-
rangle (boat-shaped trapezoid).
5. I unfold the whole in the crease which
formed the two original oblongs, through which a
hexagon appears, two of whose sides are single (in
thickness), the four others closed by the four bent-
in triangles. The bent-in triangles lie two on each
side, and so that the bent-in points coincide in a
of the large triangle formed by the two small bent-
in equal triangles.
6. In the direction of these two bases I now
bend each of the two large triangles back, press
the two folds close with my finger, and cut off the
triangles in the direction of these folds.
7. Each of these two cut-off large triangles,
each of which again consists of two doubled small
triangles, I bend together in the already creased
fold, so that the two doubled small triangles lie
one on the other, and cut them apart in this fold.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
EDUCATION DE
So I obtain four doubled small triangles, and, when
I have unfolded each of them, four squares.
8. There remains yet of the sheet one rectangle
lying in the middle containing equal quantities of
the two half sheets of paper, which will be used
at a later period (for the intertwining). It is
essential to consider the position of the knife in
cutting; the edge of the knife must be on a line
with the paper, and the cutting must be done very
firmly.
The squares resulting from the foregoing,
and by the repetition of this with several sheets,
give now the foundation exercises for the folding,
and for the forms and representations resulting.
These forms are different indeed, but develop from
one another in simple symmetry, first, however,
making several additional symmetrical folds and
creases, by which a form results which is the fun-
damental for all following forms. It is well for
the children to make a number of squares them-
selves before carrying out the folding, and to rep-
resent with them a number of fundamental forms.
All this aims at and unites perfection, by which
the fresh and glad continuance of an employment
is promoted. In addition be it said that it is better
to call the several-times-mentioned figure of the
surface a square, rather than a quadrate (Geviert),
because four equal sides, four equal corners, and
four equal angles are found in it.
ISO
PAPER FOLDING.
101
We later call another figure a threefold form
because it is formed of and bounded by three equal
sides, three equal angles, and three equal corners.
We name each similar figure in the same manner,
by which means an equally progressive nomen-
clature for all equal-angled and equal-sided figures
is found and given, instead of the designation con-
sisting of many words hitherto used—“regular
pentagon,” etc.
From the stock of squares now obtained result
the fundamental forms in the following regular
way:
9. In order constantly to develop the artistic
from that which lies before you, the square is
taken between the two hands so that the forefingers
lie within the already creased diagonal fold, but
the thumbs and the middle fingers of both hands
must be outside the fold. Now draw out the two
forefingers gradually from the square and crease
it again in the already existing cross fold into
two equal parts, saying: “I divide the square
by a diagonal line into two equal parts, into
two equal and similar right-angled, isosceles tri-
angles.”
REMARK.—The fundamental law of all ad-
vance, development, and cultivation (thus, in gen-
eral, of all education) is to proceed from any given
thing to the pure opposite within this given thing.
So here also.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Opposite to the oblique lies the right line, ex-
pressed in the square as across.
10. I lay the square between my fingers, as be-
of the square, of which two opposite sides are laid
together (as were before the two opposite corners),
and say, proceeding in the same manner as before,
while I lay side closely to side and corner to cor-
ner: “I divide my square by a cross line into two
equal parts or halves, two equal long rectangles"
(evident by superposition).
I now unfold the whole again, lay my fore-
fingers, as in the beginning, first in the diagonal
line (a), and then in the same manner in the cross
line (6), saying with “a” “one half is," and with
“7 ” “ equal to one half” (and going back to the
first position, “a”), “ consequently the triangle”
(now going back to position" ] ")is equal to the
rectangle.”
REMARK.
1. By this word and speech connected with
deed by the adult, the child will at first only
be required to do and to hear, because the organs
of speech at this stage of the child's development
are as yet too untrained for the repetition of long
sayings, and the mind is as yet too unpracticed for
comparing comprehension. This practice will be
obtained in the way just mentioned. It is worthy
of consideration that the child appropriates the
PAPER FOLDING.
103
words more easily by frequent hearing than by
frequent repetition, for hearing impresses the mind
more than repetition. Therefore everything must
be clearly and precisely expressed by the adult al-
ways with reference to the perception.
2. With these exercises various perceptions of
the relations of form and size and facts for the true
pleasure and elevation of the life of the children
may be connected, in proportion to the development
of the children; for example:
a. A square will be divided by a diagonal line,
more exactly indicated as a corner diagonal, into
two equal parts, two equal right-angled, isosceles
triangles, which are opposite to, but like, each
other (that is, while their two times two equal acute
angles lie at two opposite corners, the two right
angles and base lie likewise opposite to and equal to
one another).
6. From this follows the perception of the fact
that a triangle is the half of a square when it has
an equal base and altitude. A further perception
is this:
C. A square is divided by a cross line which
goes through the middle of the square parallel to
two of the sides, into two equal parts, two equal
rectangles. Further,
d. This cross line divides at the same time each
of the two sides at its ends into two equal parts.
By the diagonal line the perception is retained that,
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
e. As the diagonal line divides the square into
two equal parts, it also divides each of the right
angles from which it proceeds into two equal parts,
so that each of these is equal to half a right angle,
and both together again form a right angle. From
this follows further the perception of the fact that,
f. The sum of the angles of a right-angled,
isosceles triangle amounts to two right angles; and
the angles at the base (that is, at the diagonal
line) are, taken together, just as large as the angle
which lies opposite to the diagonal.
By these employments, which are plays to the
child, and which can be made very attractive to
him by the quick change of form and the quick
indication of that change by accompanying words,
the child also perceives that the expression right
angle has a double signification: first that of form,
then that of size, in which lies its connecting—that
is, instructive property and importance.
From this follows the seventh easily demon-
strable perception, when the square is divided into
the two triangles,
g. That in a right-angled, isosceles triangle the
base is always larger than each of the two equal
REMARK.-All these facts, viewed here singly
and as separate phenomena, receive their clearer
and more general perceptions in the progressive
development of the whole from stage to stage, by
PAPER FOLDING.
105
their frequent repetition in the most various re-
lations. They impress themselves so deeply and
easily on the mind as perceptions of fact and real
truths that by the retention of them the abstract
words do not burden the memory. The retention
of the so-called abstract—that is, purely intellectual
-facts is connected with the pleasure and joy of
activity, of creation. The child finds them, dur-
ing the pleasure and joy, in himself and through
himself, and so easily receives them as his own self-
won property; for, briefly speaking, they would
not be impressed upon him, but would develop in
him by his own activity. We now return to the
perceptions of knowledge.
h. A right-angled, isosceles triangle is equal to
a rectangle which has an equal base and half the
altitude.
The perception of this truth proceeds from the
two kinds of division of the square by a diagonal
line and a cross line, and by folding the paper to-
gether in both ways for the purpose of comparison.
(See above, No. 10.) “ One half is equal to one
half.”
But this fact can also be expressed as a new
one in the opposite way—that is, by proceeding
from the observation of the rectangle, as before
from that of the triangle.
i. A rectangle is as large as a right-angled,
isosceles triangle which has an equal base and twice
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT,
the altitude. This can be made perceptible by ap-
plying the diagonal line of the triangle, cut off from
the rectangle, to the second half of the divided
side line, and thus in twofold, similar directions
joining a right and an oblique line. Further per-
ceptions are received when I spread out the square
before me and consider the relations of the two
creases inside the square.
k. The diagonal line and the cross line form, at
the point where they intersect, two times two
equal angles, which, at the point of intersection,
are opposite to and equal to each other, and which
are called vertical angles, from which is received
the perception of the fact that vertical angles are
equal.
If now we take into consideration the two sides
of the square, which are parallel with the cross line,
in connection with the diagonal, we obtain the fol-
lowing new perceptions:
1. The perception of inner opposite angles, here
twice formed from one of the obtuse vertical angles
and the acute angle lying opposite to it which is
on the same half diagonal, and is formed from this
and the side of the square which is parallel to the
cross line.
2. The perception of inner, alternate angles
twice two times formed: once from the diagonal
line and the two horizontal side lines of the square,
and lying on the alternate sides of the diagonal;
PAPER FOLDING.
107
then formed from the two perpendicular sides of
the square and the diagonal and lying on the al-
ternate sides of the latter. Then again two times
two, formed each of a half diagonal with each of
the two half cross lines, and with the two sides
parallel to the cross line, and lying on alternate
sides of each of the half diagonals. The inner
alternate angles here indicated are all sharp, but
the right angles can also be perceived. But this
intimation must suffice. Since now each pair of
such inner alternate angles are always equal to
one another, we obtain the perception of the fact
that-
l. Inner alternate angles of parallel lines are
always equal to one another.
Other positions of the angles can be perceived;
indeed the children seek them for their own pleas-
ure after their eye and sense of form are developed.
We will now go on with the exposition. We
last obtained a rectangle, one long side of which was
closed and the three other sides were open. We
now bend this together so that one half of the
closed side lies on the other, and the two short
sides of the rectangle come together. This gives
a square with one wholly closed side, and one half
closed; the two other sides are open, and in four
parts. I open the square again to a rectangle, and
obtain the following perceptions:
m. A short cross line, which goes through the
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
middle of the rectangle, divides it into two equal
parts; each of these two parts is a square.
n. Inner opposite angles of parallel lines can
both be in respect to form two right angles (per-
ception of fact), and are together two right angles
in respect to size (statement of fact reached by de-
duction).
The two long sides of the rectangle form, with
the separating cross line, two times two right an-
gles; or conversely, the separating cross line forms,
with the two long sides of the rectangle, two times
two right angles. These angles lead to the name
-adjacent angles of a line and this leads to the
perception that in the case in question two adjacent
angles of a line have the form, as well as the size,
of a right angle.
We now open the rectangle again to a square
and thus come to the perception that-
0. Two lines which cross a square and intersect
in the middle, and each one of which is parallel to
two sides of the square, divide the square into four
equal squares.
This perception comprises the fact that-
p. Each component square is one fourth of the
principal square, and so each small square is like
the others in form, as well as in extent. The oppo-
site statement, that each of the small squares is like
the principal square in form, but different in ex-
tent, gives rise to the following:
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109
oso
9. Like form does not condition like size, or the
size can be different with the same form. This
fact can be again brought out by the comparison
of the four small triangles with two large ones.
This perception of the two cross lines connected
with that of the diagonal line passing through
their point of intersection—by which, according to
form, there originate two right and four acute
angles, or if we bring only one cross line into com-
bination with the diagonal, two obtuse and two
acute angles-leads to the perception that-
r. All the angles round a point taken together
equal four right angles.
S. Adjacent angles—that is, such as come to-
gether on one side-are, according to size, always
equal to two right angles, for they take up only
half the angular space around a point.
t. If the adjacent angles are oblique, the ob-
tuse angle is as much larger than a right angle as
the acute angle is smaller.
REMARK. — The child must be repeatedly made
to observe that a right angle is spoken of in two
different ways. When, for instance, I say, "the
angles may be of two kinds, right or oblique,” I
speak of the right angle according to form. But
when I say, “a right angle takes up a different
space from the oblique," I refer to the size of the
angle. The name, right angle, thus refers (1) to
the form, and at the same time (2) to the size of
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the angle. In this double nature and significance
of the word right is founded the fact that the
right angle is in itself the measure of the angles,
for the right angle, on account of its double nature,
forms the connection between the obtuse and the
acute angles.
U. As was formerly said with respect to the
adjacent angles perceived in the folding leaf, the
obtuse angle is as much larger than the right angle
as the acute angle is smaller, so we here perceive
that the two obtuse angles are as much larger as
the two acute angles are smaller than two right
angles.
In this way the eye of the child is developed
to the perception and conception of a number of
relations and facts in proportion to the child's skill
and capacity for inward and outward perception.
The eye is spontaneously and the mind voluntar-
ily developed for such relations and facts by the
frequently repeated representation of the thing,
since word and deed, perception and designation,
and thus thinking, doing, and noticing, are always
intimately united.
We now go back again to the occupation of
folding. The last fold was that by which we ob-
tained seemingly one square, but actually, after un-
folding, four squares by the division of the long
rectangle. We now again connect with the first
experiment where a square was made from the
PAPER FOLDING.
111
rectangle by folding the latter together in the
shorter cross line. Now I fold the lower closed
side to the left side, and say, “I divide the square
by a diagonal line into two right-angled, isosceles
triangles."
;
Now, turning the square thus divided down-
ward, and the opposite one upward, I do again as
before and say: “I divide the square into two equal
parts, and, indeed, into two right-angled, isosceles
triangles.”
I now open the rectangle, by which means a
larger right-angled, isosceles triangle lies before
me, as well as the rectangle. From the simple
perception of facts proceeds the double truth that
the triangle is the half of the rectangle; and,
looking at the two in the opposite order, that the
rectangle is twice the size of the triangle, which
perception leads, at this stage, to the general saying
that,
v. A right-angled triangle is half of a rectangle
which has an equal base and altitude; or, reversing
the statement-
W. A rectangle is twice the size of a right-
angled triangle which has an equal base and alti-
tude. The fact, as it lies before the child, expresses
this truth so clearly that the word only makes an
audible truth of a visible one, or an advance from
the outward perception to the inward recognition
and comprehension of the truth.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The performance of the thing proves the truth
and importance of what has just been said for the
fostering of childhood by developing and educating.
A further perception (twice shown, first in the
separation, and the second time by the crease or
fold, serving, as it were, to confirm one another)
is that-
X. A perpendicular from the right angle of a
right-angled, isosceles triangle to the opposite base,
divides the angle, the base, and the whole triangle
into two equal parts, the two halves of the triangle
being right-angled, isosceles triangles.
From this saying there can be again derived a
large number of sayings which are the result of
perceptions, although they are derived from or con-
nected with the preceding ones.
When the surfaces of the divided squares lie
side by side, the rectangle thus formed is again
divided into two squares for the children, with
the familiar words, “I divide,” etc. Each of
the two squares is likewise divided by a diagonal
line, using the same words as before. By this
division is obtained, apparently, a single right-
angled, isosceles triangle which really consists of
several such triangles. By unfolding these trian-
gles we have before our eyes, apparently, a square,
but consisting of two squares lying one upon or
one behind the other, one of which is divided by
two actually separating cross lines into four equal
PAPER FOLDING.
113 :
parts (four right-angled, isosceles triangles), and the
other square, now brought forward from behind, is
likewise divided into four equal parts, but, by two
cross folds, into four equal squares. This experi-
ence now gives the proposition-
y. That two diagonal lines divide each square
into four equal parts, four right-angled triangles,
and
2. That two cross lines [through the centre]
parallel with the edges likewise divide each square
into four equal parts, or into four squares.
This leads to the concluding statement:
aa. A fourth is equal to a fourth; consequent-
ly each of the squares is equal to one of the tri-
angles, and each of the triangles is equal to one of
the squares.
If now the paper be opened, we have again the
first principal square. Inside of it is another
square, in an opposite position to the principal one,
and therefore called the opposite square. Its cor-
ners or angles lie in the same direction as the edges
or lines, and its sides in the same direction as the
corners and angles, of the principal square. So it
seems to us the name of the opposite square is fully
justified. The comparison of this with the prin-
cipal square gives rise to the following truth of per-
ception:
1. The opposite square is half of the principal
one, and, reversing the statement, the principal
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
square is twice the size of the opposite one. From
this we derive the statement that surfaces of like
form can have quite different extent, and, con-
versely, surfaces of different size can have like form.
A further statement is that,
The four triangles outside of the opposite square
are, taken together, just as large as it is, and each
of the triangles is a quarter of the opposite square.
The opposite square is four times the size of each
triangle which touches one of its sides. Now
comes the new perception that,
2. Two cross lines, each of which is parallel to
two sides of the principal square, and which go
through the middle of it, divide it into four equal
parts—four equal squares. Each of the triangles
outside the opposite square is half of such a square;
thus half of the quarter of a whole. The half
of a quarter of a whole is an eighth,* consequently
each of the triangles outside the opposite square
is an eighth of the principal one, and so a fourth of
one of the triangles we first obtained by diagonally
All these facts lie directly before the child in
his play-employments, and it is merely necessary
to give the word for the perception; not that
the child may retain the word, but that through
* The perception of this fact has been prepared for by the
earlier play employments, especially with the third and fourth
play-gifts.
PAPER FOLDING.
115
the word the perception may become an abiding
one.
In like manner, several more propositions, which
are the result of perception, are derived from all
the preceding statements, but are left for individ-
ual discovery.
We now go back to the double square (that is,
the one in which the four outside triangles are bent
back upon the opposite square, with their right
angles touching one another in the middle of the
square). I take it in my hand so that the divided
surface lies uppermost, and the two forefingers rest
in the cross line; following this line, I begin, as be-
fore, the division of the square into two equal ob-
longs by a cross line, repeating, as usual (in order
to bring the repeated phenomena to the child's
perception, and to put them into words), “I
divide the square by a cross line into two equal
oblongs.”.
The so-formed oblong, placed in a vertical po-
sition, is now divided as before by a cross line into
two equal squares, so that four doubled squares lie
one on another, and so that in one corner all four
are separate, and in the diagonally opposite corner
all four united. I now bend the wholly sepa-
rated right corner back to the closed corner, thus
dividing the square as before by a diagonal line
into two right-angled, isosceles triangles. In the
same way I treat the opposite square. Now I
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
triangles, ħ of these to the
bend the two triangles thus obtained so that they
cover one another, and the two remaining squares
are outside. Now I divide these in the same way,
and open the whole, and there appears a three-
fold square which on the side of the diagonal line
is divided into equal right-angled, isosceles tri-
angles, and on the opposite side by two cross lines
into four equal squares. This repeats the earlier
recognized perception, but with much greater
clearness.
3. When a square is divided by two diagonal
lines into four equal triangles, and by two cross
lines into four equal squares, each of these squares
is equal to one of the triangles; and, reversing the
statement, each of the triangles is equal to one of
the squares, so that each of the triangles, and each
of the squares, is equal to one quarter of the whole
square. This is one of the finest, clearest, and
most cultivating perceptions for the child. This
gives further the correct perception-
. 4. That the two cross lines and the two diag-
onal lines intersect each other in the middle of
each, and so bring the middle of each and the mid-
dle of the square manifoldly to the child's percep-
tion and knowledge, and, as it were, reveal it.
For, from this point on, the middle now appears
manifoldly important in reference to the outside;
and in the reference of the outside (the single) to
it, the unity.
PAPER FOLDING.
117
With these four squares so obtained (by the
comparison of which with the triangles, all the
earlier perceptions are repeated with increasing
clearness), the first fundamental form is given from
which the first principal forms necessarily develop.
JUO
IV.
STICK-LAYING.-A FRAGMENT.
As has been already many times intimated and
presented, to a greater or less extent, this whole of
plays and occupations has by no means originated
with me arbitrarily and as an artificial mechanism
outwardly thrown together; but it is actually, in
all logical consequence, called forth, and, as it
were, given by the stage of cultivation of life now
begun, and universally verifying itself and aspir-
ing to become common property. This whole is
also called forth by the idea of education and train-
ing of the human being which is developing itself
to greater and greater completeness and applicabil-
ity. One may say, indeed, that this whole has
grown forth with such necessity as, in the spring,
the seed germinates, the bud swells, and finally the
tree blossoms and bears fruit. Even the personality,
through and by which this whole appears, has not
been able to interfere with its pure, logical conse-
quence, or with the fundamental conditions of its
perfection. Thus the whole is an equally neces-
sary, fresh, and healthy growth of human develop-
118
STICK-LAYING.
119
ment. Although the statement is now revealed in
many ways and confirmed by experience without
the possibility of doubt, it may be somewhat an-
ticipatory to say that the wonderful efficiency of
the whole of the school stage, as well as that of
childhood, proceeds from its harmonious growth.
Consequently we enter into the subject so as
to let it unfold itself according to its own inner
law before our eyes. According to the measure
of the facts so resulting, we can then demonstrate
the more extended results of and demands for the
developing educational training as the fruit of the
whole in the proper place for further consideration.
In so doing we view such training as the funda-
mental effort of the present day and the character-
istic of the present state of cultivation of humanity.
As is the case with each of the means of play,
or each plaything which makes its appearance in
the whole of plays and employments, the sticks
also, the stick play, and thus the actual stick-laying,
are by no means arbitrarily or accidentally intro-
duced into this whole; but the stick-laying steps
forth in the whole of plays and employments, like
each of the other plays, with inner necessity, at its
precise place, in its peculiar way, and (remarkable!)
at once in an age and at a time in the life of the
child when he has attained on every side to the
power and capacity, not only to play with it in the
usual sense of the phrase, but actually to employ
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
himself. with it thoughtfully, and therefore forma-
tively. And thus, after the beginning of the fifth
and in the fifth year of the child's life, the stick-
play grows up in increasing completeness, even as
the child himself grows older.
From this fact can be clearly deduced the state-
ment that if it be desired that the stick-laying
have a healthy, invigorating effect on the life of
the child, it should not begin before the child has
obtained the requisite preparation for it by means
of employing himself with the plays which precede
it. The capacity for conception, remembrance,
abstraction, and creative representation must have
already attained a certain power and cultivation in
the mind of the child, or else there will come forth
merely insignificant and immature results for this
stage of the child's life, and his employment with
this play at this premature stage will bring him
more injury than gain. The child soon forms the
opinion that because he, with his as yet too unde-
veloped weak power, can accomplish nothing with
this means of play, nothing can be represented by
it, and he therefore treats it with too much indiffer-
ence. But, on the other hand, it should be re-
marked that the sticks are a means of play, and a
material which can be easily managed by a relative-
ly weak power.
In the series of the whole of divided plays and
employments, the sticks proceed from the tablets,
STICK-LAYING.
121
which, being split in the direction of their length,
can be divided into sticks, and, as it were, fall apart
into such sticks. For this purpose it is best to
take tablets made of pine or fir wood.
Peculiarly developed, vigorous, adroit, and
careful children of this age may be allowed to split
the tablets themselves, and they like to do it if
given corresponding tablets for purposes of com-
parison. The effect is, first, the children in a
certain sense create their own means of play and
employment, and, second, from their own action
discover how one means of play develops from an-
other. Thus the connection of things is made
plain to the children by and in the continued de-
velopment, and, essentially, by means of their own
activity. These are the most important and forma-
tive properties of this means of play, and will later
manifest themselves more definitely with other em-
ployments of children.
On account of its importance let us now bring
ourselves to a clear perception of such a develop-
ment of the later from the earlier, of the newer
from the older, of the last from that which imme-
diately precedes it, in the manifest development
of the sticks in our play-whole, so that we may
be in a position to bring to comprehension and
insight such observation of the development of our
playing child by this means of play and employ-
ment.
U
122
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The sticks, as we have just said, result from the
tablets.
But the tablets are, in like manner, a progress-
ive development of the oblong prisms of the fourth
play-gift with the three different relations of size,
according to length, breadth, and thickness; the
length being two cubes, the breadth one cube, and
the thickness one half cube.
The oblong prisms in the just-mentioned rela-
tions of size are, however, again developed, accord-
ing to the same law, from the four rectangular,
four-sided, and equal-sided columns into which, in
the course of expounding the third play-gift, the
cube separates, so that thus the oblong prisms pro-
ceed from the cube through the equal-sided, four-
sided columns.
But the cube is a quite necessary development
from the sphere, as the sphere is, for the more devel-
oped child, the firmer, and, for that reason, the
more movable, and thus, as it were, the more per-
fect ball, which fact has been already brought out
by the development of the second play-gift.
But in the ball, and yet more definitely in the
DUIS
to the external round surface) the straight lines,
first of all in the three principal directions which
intersect each other at right angles.
These three invisible but yet definitely percep-
tible directions in the ball—which is, as it were, the
STICK-LAYING.
123
germ of all, the developing means of play and em-
ployment—and yet more in the sphere, appear in
the cube as three times four straight edges; in the
rectangular, equal-sided, four-sided columns as four
times four; and in the eight oblong prisms as eight
times four straight edges; and finally these become,
by splitting the tablets into sticks, a multitude of
sticks.
And thus we have developed the stick back-
ward from the sticks to the sphere and ball, and
from them forward to the sticks. We have thus
treated the sticks as a means of cultivation in that
kind of developing education which requires
thoughtful observation and judicious accomplish-
ment. This is important in order to show how the
sticks in their first appearance and actuality, as
straight directions and lines, are already given
(drawn into a smaller compass) in the sphere and
ball, and have in them, as it were, their germinat-
ing point and root, their first origin.
As then this whole of plays and employments,
being founded on fact, actually develops in the
purest logical sequence, and necessarily from the
sphere and ball, the latter may be considered as
the germ of a tree, and all the means of play and
employment may be symbolically regarded as part
of the tree developed to blossoms and again ripened
to fruit and seed, a figure of speech already used in
other articles on this subject.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Or the ball or sphere may be considered as a
flower bud which develops from itself in the blos-
som a great number of stamens and pistils.
This symbolic representation of the unfolding of
the whole in the figure of a tree unfolding itself in
like manner, and in the blossoming and blossomed
flower buds of such a tree, is indeed to show and
demonstrate for the child the constant (consequent-
ly full of life) development of each individual part
of this play-whole (and, above all, here of the
sticks), as well as the nature of the employment
which enters the whole at the right place. This de-
velopment of each individual part of this play-
whole lies in the nature of the thing; for it is im-
portant even for the child, but yet more for the
total development of the life of the complete hu-
man being, that the child should be early led, even
through his yet sportive life, into these inner link-
ings of life in a chain of which he is himself a link,
in a manner corresponding to his intellectual power
and proportioned to his bodily strength. Such
guidance is the chief object of the training which
educates by developing, and of this whole of plays
and employments which is, as it were, composed of
organic parts.
What is now the stage of cultivation in the
child which the use of the sticks presupposes?
It is already a considerably developed one.
First, perfect use of the limbs and senses, es-
STICK-LAYING.
125
pecially cultivation of the sense of sight and the
use of the hands and fingers, for which the Mother-
Play and Nursery Songs, as a family book, gives
the most appropriate guidance to the most versatile
and earliest stage of the child's development.
Second, a clear perception of the round and
straight; with the straight, a clear perception of
the right and oblique; and with the right again, of
the vertical and horizontal; with the oblique, of
the right and left diagonal. The plays with the
ball and sphere already give these perceptions (and
have manifoldly given them to the child), which
become more and more cleared and confirmed by
the subsequent means of play.*
But the child has also gained the perception of
other positions and directions with respect to one
another, such as are parallel and such as are not
parallel lines, similar slope and similar direction of
lines, just as a pure perception, indicated by simple
words without explanation. The ball and sphere
plays, with the body and movement plays result-
* With all that is expressed in what next follows one
should, in order to attain to a clear and correct understanding
of it, have the object in question (the play-gift) actually before
him when possible; or should at least try to recall it as clearly
as possible to his remembrance in order to rise from the out-
ward perception to the inner, and from the outward grouping
to the comprehension of the inner intellectual coherence. Such
is also the case with what precedes, beginning at the first page
of the stick-laying.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ing from them, manifoldly develop these percep-
tions; but yet more the play with the cube of the
second play-gift, through which came to the child
the clear perception and conception of angles and
corners, edges and surfaces, sides or planes, as con-
nected and unconnected lines.
But these perceptions and conceptions were also
shown with peculiar clearness and on all sides in
beautiful arrangement and grouping by the third
play-gift (the cube, once divided on all sides),
which is therefore called the delight of children.
It is especially the right, clear conception, the
adroit and thoughtful management of this third
gift, which is presupposed by the play with the
sticks, and especially by the stick-laying, a play
rich in results and therefore educative in many
ways; for by these perceptions of the mass the
child trains itself by degrees to the perception of the
outlines which are, as it were, drawn out from the
mass.
There is but one perception now lacking to the
child's complete and all-sided developing and rep-
resenting use of the sticks. This is the perception
not only of different lengths, but of proportionately
different lengths. This perception has already
been brought before the child many times by the
third play-gift, but changeably, not abidingly, and,
as it were, fixedly. But this is supplied by the
fourth play-gift, the eight oblong prisms.
STICK-LAYING.
127
If we add to this the laying with the tablets,
and let these, as above mentioned, unfold or fall
apart into sticks, we have come with our child to
the stage of development of his activity and attrac-
tion to employment when he can practice stick-
laying with developing results, and can, in and by
means of it, reveal himself in yet greater compass
than heretofore as a creating being, developing
and forming from himself.
And now what have we gained by this presen-
tation of the stick-play, and especially of the stick-
laying, in reference to the whole of the means of
play and employment, as well as in reference to
each single play-gift in respect to its use as well as
its spirit?
First, we have recognized that this whole of
play and employment is not merely outwardly
drawn together in respect to its single plays, but
is developed in all its parts according to inner and
necessary laws, and is consequently an organic
whole, full of life.
Second, that the profitable use of each follow-
ing play-gift in a certain compass presupposes the
knowledge and use of the preceding ones, but that
after and with each of the following play-gifts the
preceding ones can be used with yet richer re-
sults. In the same way in the world surrounding
the child and man, the most various kinds of ob-
jects are present at the same time for use as well as
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
for consideration, and can be actually used at the
same time by the man, and even by the child in pro-
portion to the stage of cultivation he has attained.
Third, the bringing out of stick-laying ac-
cording to its spirit and use teaches us that the
means of play and employment as a whole, as well
as each single play-gift, introduces the child sym-
bolically into life according to all points of view,
relations, and directions, and that it is for the child
a truly developing, educating means of cultivation.
This will be shown more and more clearly in the
course of demonstration.
Fourth, here again is presented as worthy of
consideration what has already been shown us by
the study of our modes of play and employment,
namely, that the development and representation of
the manifold presupposes the knowledge of the sin-
gle; but, again, the knowledge of the single as a
member of a higher and greater whole demands
and requires the knowledge of this whole as its
unity, without which knowledge the single can not
show its nature again in manifoldness and perfec-
tion—thus three in one.
Fifth, if we now, according to the foregoing,
consider the stick as a member of the whole of plays
and employments, we find, according to the funda-
mental law of this whole, that the stick includes in
itself all the essential properties which the ball con-
tains in itself as a whole and as a member of the sur-
STICK-LAYING.
129
rounding world of objects. Hence it has the prop-
erty of filling space, that of having boundaries, ma-
terial or contents, coherence, gravity, extension,
but here pre-eminently in the direction of length,
though in the ball, sphere, cylinder, etc., there is
extension on all sides. Hence the stick has also
form, size, number, color, even sound and elasticity.
But further and essentially in and by means
of the visible (for example, by the two visible ter-
minal points) there appear in the stick the invisible
line of direction and the middle point likewise in-
visible, but sharply defined and consequently sepa-
rating, and at the same time in a remarkable man-
ner uniting. The stick, therefore, like the cube,
sphere, and ball, unites the highest and most gen-
eral laws of earth, Nature, and the whole world,
which connect and unite in spirit. Such is the
law of unity and individuality, and that of oppo-
sites and their connection.
From the middle toward each of the two end
points new middles are again postulated as points
again uniting middle and ends, thus as new points
of connection, and so on, fixed always between each
two newly resulting points, thus bringing out the
phenomenon and law of continuity.
In like manner the sticks show and unite the
visible and invisible. And so we see in them not
only the essential properties of the cube, cylinder,
sphere, ball, etc., but also the most essential proper-
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ties of all the objects which surround the devel-
oping child. Therefore the stick is for the little one
a means of introduction (through the connection of
the visible, invisible, and invisibly visible) to his
own life and to the surrounding world.
Having hitherto looked at the stick by itself,
we can now view it in its relations to the objects
around it, and thus, first of all, to each plane or
surface, even to the surface of the earth itself. The
stick can either stand in upright direction toward
gravitate], directly (right) toward the middle of the
earth-that is, stand perpendicular (senkrecht)
or it may incline toward the surface of the earth
with all its points at the same time and quite
equally, and consequently lie horizontally, or it
may be in a position in respect to the earth, which,
as it were, connects both relations—that is, in an
oblique position. Now all these properties which
slumbered, hidden in the stick, as it were, for the
child, and others which the stick-play brings by de-
grees to the view of the children, are what gives the
stick such an inexpressible charm and such an en-
chaining power of attraction for the child as an
object and means of play; and, indeed, gives the
child, as a creative being, the premonition that the
stick affords a suitable material for his impulse to
creation.
We now go back finally to the stick-play and
STICK-LAYING.
131
the stick-laying. The stick is, for the child, either
a middle line of the sphere made visible, or a cut-
off edge of the cube, or one of the sticks which are
the result of the splitting of the tablet, or a straight
line. But in a wider point of view the stick is for
the child the representative of all things that are
straight. And the play is connected with this sim-
ple connection of ideas, this simple mode of com-
prehension of the child. We see whither this quite
simple way of comprehension and perception leads
our child in his symmetrical development as a crea-
tive and recognizing and, we may add, as a feeling
being. From this point, as the most important of
the whole, we come back to the presentation of the
stick-laying.
We will now, dear reader, enter one of the
Froebelian kindergartens. Here sit (since an in-
terest in kindergarten has arisen) at one or two, or
two times two tables joined together lengthwise (in
pairs), and not so very far from one another, ten,
twenty, up to forty children. The children greet
us by joyously rising and turning toward us with
their song of greeting:
“We greet you, we greet you,
Kindly we say,
Welcome to-day,
Welcome, welcome."
Kindergartner. “The children are quite right.
You have come to us just at the right time. I
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
might say with the greeting song (Willkommen),
you come in accordance with my will—that is, my
wish; and certainly also in accordance with the
wish of all the dear children [the children, “Yes,
yes”], for we are just beginning a new play.”
I. “That is fine.—Do sit down at once, dear
reader, here at this table; there is some space
left."
Kindergartner. “I only fear that the play will
seem too insignificant and simple for these dear
visitors, for we are just beginning the play with the
sticks, and especially the stick-laying. When you
came in I was about to begin with a single stick.”
1. “That is indeed very fine. I have actually,
as you said, come just at the right time with my
somewhat doubting guest; for all that is great, if
one traces it back to its germ and to the first in-
timations of it, begins almost always with that
which is quite insignificant, and the manifold goes
forth from the simple, indeed the heavenly from the
earthly, just because the latter contains the heav-
enly in itself. I always think of this when my boy
in the company of his playmates cuts his reed flute
in the spring, and when I go into the church and
hear a Thuringian chorister of the genuine stamp
playing on the organ, with its vox humana stop,
the introduction to an “Allein Gott” (“ One only
God”), and then this choral itself, and see as an
altarpiece the picture of St. Cecilia, the inventor
STICK-LAYING.
133
of the organ, transported to heaven. This is what
many of the dear visitors whom I bring here with
me will not at all believe, viz., that the childlike,
pure, and simple in its constantly continued cul-
tivation should lead to heavenly glorification.
This is the reason that the knowledge of the con-
tinuous, which has just been manifoldly illustrated
by the reed flute and the organ, is so highly im-
portant. A visit to the kindergarten will, of
course, not show us this to-day, but still it is a
beginning. I am only sorry, dear kindergartner,
that I have delayed you so long. Do go on, and
do not let yourself be prevented by the seeming in-
significance of the play from freely carrying it out
in our presence.”
Kindergartner.
“ Gayly, children, one, two, three,
Joyous each in play will be.
What have I in my hand?”
Children.“ A little stick." .
“ What can you tell me about the stick?”
Children. “It is straight, it is long."
“Do you know any other things that are
straight and long?”
Children. “ Yes; the-the--"
“Now only think of what you know; afterward
you shall show it to us. What does my stick do
now?” The kindergartner places the stick upright
on the surface of the table.
11
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Children. “It stands!”
“Do you know any other things that are
straight and stand?”
Children. “ Yes; the-the- "
“Now I told you before that if you would only
think about it for a while you should show it to us.”
The children look at one another and laugh,
for they can not show anything.
“What does my stick do now?” The kinder-
gartner lays it flat on the table.
Children. “It lies down."
“Do you know of several other things which
are straight and lie down?”
Children. “Yes, yes, yes.”
Kindergartner. “ As you have answered me so
readily, pleasantly, and quickly, each of you shall
now also have a beautiful, new, clean, smooth, shin-
ing stick with which you will like to play.” The
sticks are given a few at a time to certain children,
who then pass them quickly to the right and left
as well as opposite.
“Now each of you can tell and show me of
what your stick is a picture to you, of what it re-
minds you, what you think about it, and what you
“I see in my stick my bodkin.” As the kin-
dergartner says this she lays her stick on the table,
touching the middle line (D), and says several
times: “A bodkin. What did I see in this stick?"
STICK-LAYING.
135
All.“ A bodkin.”
To the first child, “ And you?”
“A darning needle.”
The kindergartner lays the second stick beside
the first at a little distance (11) and repeats, “A
darning needle.”
“What do you see in the stick?"
All. “A darning needle.”
So the kindergartner goes on till each of the
twenty children at the double table has seen or
shown an object in his or her stick, and the kin-
dergartner has laid a stick on the table for each
one, so that now more than twenty sticks lay on
the table in the middle:
III|||||||||||||||||||||||
“Now we will see if we can remember all that
each of you has shown us. Each of you must pay
attention so that your stick may not be called by
the wrong name or be wholly forgotten.”
The kindergartner begins, pointing at the name
of each object to the stick which represents it, and
the children repeat:
A bodkin—a darning needle—a match-a slate
pencil-a beater—a ruler—a lead pencil—a flower
stick—a stick of wood—a sail needle-a netting
needlea cane—a yardstick—a candlestick-a
candlean I-a 14a toothpick—a rafter--a pil-
lar-one side of a ladder—a cigar-a penholder.
Puu.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
“ Before, when I said that each of you should
show me what you saw, you looked at each other,
laughing, and thought you had nothing at all to
show, and see now you have shown me more than
twenty things.
“Now can some of you show me where each
one's object lies?”
Children. “Yes, yes, yes "
“Who has the match?” “I.” “Where does
it lie?” “Here.”
“Who has the side of a ladder?” “I.”
And now you, dear reader, who have accompa-
nied me hither, have the confirmation, if you believe
in, confide in, and see through the statement, and
you who doubt and are unbelieving have the proof
that manifoldness proceeds from the individual and
single in the kindergarten; indeed, I may say that
something proceeds from nothing. For instance,
each child had at first scarcely one, or at most a
few, images and conceptions, but certainly not one
that was clear. Now each child has at least twen- .
ty, and certainly several more which were not only
aroused within him, but were also made outwardly
visible and named. Have you, who accompany me
and examine so critically, observed how gayly and
joyously all the children were intent on what each
could see and show in its stick, and that each does
not see and show the same which others have al-
STICK-LAYING.
137
ready seen in theirs? Do you see and note how
the children look at one another with such joyous
eyes? They now have a common treasure among
them. By this common treasure there has been
formed in and among them a quite peculiar spirit-
ual bond of reciprocal respect and acknowledgment,
and it would have been easy to increase these twenty
perceptions by more than twenty others. In what
different directions, and to what different sides in
Now, are not the children right, and do they
not know and feel what they say and sing when
they leave the kindergarten with the song:
“In all things that we do
The good comes into view,
The beautiful, the true.
Our playtime now is done
And gayly home we'll run.”
Now, dear reader, we also will go home and
critically consider somewhat further what we have
heard and seen, for I will freely confess to you that
it has been with me to-day as it always is when I
go into a kindergarten, that I come away from it
each time as a scholar, even in my old age. Thus
I have also learned something to-day. And what
have I learned? May I tell you, dear reader? I
have discovered, first, that the powers of memory
and imagination are considerably increased by this
employment, and long-vanished images come forth
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
again from life in perfect freshness and connec-
tion. Second, that the power of comparison is ex-
ercised, things of the same kind are unconsciously
brought together in the child's mind. Third, that
C
tended. Fourth, and finally, that the power of
perception and comprehension is sharpened.
But who has not liked to learn something new
and liked it so much the more as his knowledge of
the disclosures of life springing forth from within
increases? Manifold material for new perceptions
forms the charm, indeed the magic, which, reju-
venating and vivifying, enchains one ever anew in
the kindergarten—that is, if it be a genuine one. -
“May I, kindergartner, come back to-morrow at
this hour?”
Kindergartner. “ The master is always wel-
come, for in companionship with him one attains
mastership.”
“Will you, then, accompany me again, dear
reader?”
“I think so."
Good-day, my dear reader! You have come
early to my house to accompany me to our sensible
kindergartner and her happy children. This is
to me a joyful sign of your very lively interest in
this simple subject.
“How could it be otherwise, for that is just
STICK-LAYING.
139
the peculiarity of the attractive subject, that it can
be so enchaining in spite of its simplicity. For I
will freely confess that since I left our active chil-
dren in the happy kindergarten yesterday the sub-
ject has constantly occupied me, and I have actu-
ally regarded the things around me with quite dif-
ferent eyes. Indeed, the objects themselves have,
as it were, drawn me back to it.”
If you, my dear reader, are already so struck
by this when you occupy yourself for the first
time with the subject, how much more will it sur-
prise you when I, before whom it has been brought
more than a hundred times, am obliged to confess
that this has been the case with me also since yes-
terday. I have been continually led to the sticks
we had yesterday by objects which suggest the
linear. Can you give me a reason or a comparison
for this?
“I can not give a reason at this instant, but
I will give you a comparison. The sticks attract
as the magnet does the iron, or as the earth mag-
net attracts the magnetic needle.”
Dear reader, you who thoughtfully and observ-
antly accompany me, have given at once the key
for the solution of our question by this comparison.
In the innermost depths of the earth, unattainable
by us, rests a power the nature of which we can
not understand. This is the magnetic power which
directly influences every magnetic needle that is so
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
poised as to admit of free movement. This is one
fact to the perception of which this comparison
leads us. The second fact is that each magnet,
when developed and impressed and, I might say,
organized with magnetic power, is in a condition to
arouse the magnetically attracting but as yet slum-
bering power in each simple and rough bit of iron,
as well as to affect one which is similarly developed.
Let us now, while in the kindergarten, contempla-
tively hold fast this threefold fact and expression of
the magnetic power.
• Thus, first, we notice the fact that the mag-
netic power, hidden in the impenetrable depths of
the earth, acts in inscrutable and equally hidden
ways on the developed needle unobstructed in its
developed magnet, as well as the hidden earth mag-
net, acts on the magnetic needle. But we espe-
cially remark the third fact, that pieces of iron and
iron things—as yet undeveloped for the magnetism
of the earth-call forth, awaken, and develop the
magnetic power; at first, indeed, only passingly,
but later, with continued influence, abidingly.
But now, to explain the attraction of our stick,
let us hold fast merely the generalization of these
three facts:
1. That deeply hidden, inscrutable, general
power acts arousingly on already developed indi-
vidual power;
STICK-LAYING.
141
2. That developed individual power acts arous-
ingly, in like manner, on already developed power;
and, finally,
3. That undeveloped power yet slumbering is
indeed aroused by a power already clearly organ-
ized, but sinks back into itself if that power has
not been aroused to a certain fixed point.
Here, my dear, reflective, accompanying reader,
you have an intimation of the explanation of the
magnetic effect of our stick, of the stick-laying and
stick-play, and, at the same time, a hint of the ex-
planation of the attractive power of each play in
our play-whole, and of the developing, educating,
actually formative power of this whole. The ex-
planation is as follows: The magnetic force abides
hidden in the innermost depths of the earth and
acts with outwardly operative power on the small-
est outside specimen of its kind which is developed
to independence, and with this acts in the three-
fold way mentioned. In a similar manner a con-
stantly invisible and not less attractive outwardly
acting inner power abides in Nature as a whole,
as well as in the parts of Nature. An example of
this is given in our little simple and yet tangible
stick, not only by the middle line which is indi-
cated by its visible ends, and is hence, as it were,
visibly invisible, but also by the middle of this
line which is purely invisible, merely perceptible
to the intellect, though never to be made visible.
S
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
But this power abides in the stick not merely as
a part, but as an actual whole in itself, and at
the same time a part of the great whole of Na-
ture and life, here, first of all, of the earth.
This inner power, abiding in, and wholly insepa-
rable from, each visible thing around us, even if it
be the smallest grain of sand or the bit of wood
with which we play, this inner power hidden in
each thing is what effects a certain invisible (if it
is not permissible to say spiritual) relationship of
things to one another, and also affects our culti-
vated minds by its arousing power of attraction as
the earth magnet does the easily movable magnetic
needle. In this extremely delicate yet effective re-
ciprocal relation of the invisible, the innermost, in
each thing to the things around it as well as to
the observant spirit, lies the peculiar charm of the
employment with the sticks, not only for our chil-
dren but also for the kindergartners, and for every
one who takes a true, warm interest in these em-
ployments. Indeed, whoever will give himself up
calmly and without prejudice to what the activity
of his own spirit requires will be unconsciously
drawn into this sympathy. This is the effect of
the hidden, always invisible, inner power. In this
is conditioned the innermost nature and relation of
the kindergartner to the children intrusted to her
charge, and that of the children to one another, as
well as, in general, the effect of education. But
STICK-LAYING.
143
this fact has been hitherto wholly overlooked.
Herein is also given the innermost nature of the
kindergartens, as well as of the reciprocal relation
between the kindergartens and the children who
attend them, and also in general of that training
of the human being which educates by develop-
ing. The nature of the power and of the spirit
is here brought back to its most general expres-
sion and to its most general comprehension and
perception, being the innermost. I place great
value on this fact. We will later return to
this subject.
But we have reached our goal. The song tells
us so. Let us enter.
Kindergartner. “I have just introduced our
little playmate at the present time, our stick, into
our circle and welcomed it again. If you please
I will go on.”
" That is not only a matter of course, but it is
our wish and the reason of our return."
The leader of the play, speaking in a singing
tone:
“ One, two, three,
Each must now attentive be.”
“How many sticks did we lay at a time yes-
terday?"
“Only one.”
“Well, each of you has a stick. But shall we
not go further to-day?"
144
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
YY
She is answered partly by quiet, bright, affec-
tionate glances, and partly by a joyous “Yes.”
“Well, then, each of you can have another
stick. But tell me how many sticks each has?”
All together. “Two sticks."
“Now see once more which of the things you
know you can lay with them; that will be a kind
of drawing.”
Shall we, my dear accompanying reader, join
the children, ask the dear kindergartner for two
sticks, and see if we also, like our dear children,
can not make or draw something with the sticks
which might not immediately occur to the chil-
dren?
Kindergartner. “I do that also, as you, my
dear visitors, will immediately see, as I am thus
a child with the children. This has a very good
effect on them. First, it pleases them very much
when a grown-up person, and especially a dear visi-
tor, will become a child with children. They feel
more grown-up for this union. It rouses their
mettle, increases their power of will and action, and
their joyousness in representation. Second, new
perceptions will be called out in them as older ones
are recalled to their remembrance.”
You see here in another way, my attentive, ac-
companying reader, the influence of the invisible,
especially in the kindergarten. As the invisible is
efficient in its working in the flower and vegetable
.
STICK-LAYING.
145
garden, so is it here in the kindergarten for the
good of the children who are guided and exercised
by the conscious child-fostering.
As no sun ray, no shadow, is without its effect
in a well-tended garden of plants, so in the genuine
kindergarten no activity, even the smallest, is with-
out its effect on the likewise receptive little human
plants within. In this all-sided thoughtful consid-
eration of that which is invisible, but just for that
reason efficacious, lies the result of kindergarten
fostering, often so inexplicable to those who have
not advanced in the study of the science.
Kindergartner. “Now tell me what pretty
things you have each laid.”
A candlestick; knife and fork; a bridge over
a brook (two sticks close together); the two sides
of a ladder (two sticks a little apart from one an-
other and parallel); a mill flume, or mill brook
(two sticks a little farther apart); a hammer; an
auger; a pair of tongs (two sticks crossing one an-
other somewhat above the middle); a pair of scis-
sors for cutting paper (two sticks crossing one an-
other somewhat below the middle).
The kindergartner, as before, lays each of the
objects represented by the children on the table in
the middle, so that, first, each child sees itself rec-
ognized in its work; then, that the product of the
individual may become a common good; and also,
finally, that, for the future, the creative power of
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
each child may be enhanced and its natural quali-
ties, ideas, and conceptions be increased and cleared
by the comparison of the different objects.
“But now pay attention to what I will show
you, children. What do I do now?”
“You beckon.”
“ With what do I beckon?"
“ With your finger.”
“What is the finger with which I beckon
called?”
“The pointing finger.” (In many localities it
is also called the beckoning finger.)
“Why is this finger also called a pointing
finger?”
“You point with it.”
“How do I hold my finger when I point
with it?"
“ Quite straight.”
“What do I now do again with my finger?”
“ You beckon.”
“How do I hold my finger when I beckon with
it? Is it still straight?”
“No, it is bent.”
Now see here. The space within my finger
when I bend it so is called the angle (Winkel), be-
cause I beckon (Winke) with it. See, now I place
the point of the stick exactly in the angle of the
finger. Where does my stick lie now?”
“ Inside of the angle."
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147
“ See here, now I will beckon again. If I
beckon again with my finger and make an angle
with it, into how many parts do I divide my finger
in that way?”
“Into two parts."
“ You are right; and see, the lower part is still
and the upper part moves. But see here again. Do
I now make different angles with my finger when
I beckon? How many kinds of angles do I
make?”
“Three kinds: one is little and one is big, and
one is neither little nor big."
“Now, because you have to-day laid such pretty
things, I will tell you something more. The little
angle is called a sharp angle; the big angle is called
a blunt angle; and this one, which never varies,
the right angle. Have you also a pointing finger?
Can you also make an angle? Then make a sharp
angle. That is right. Now a right angle, and
now a blunt angle. But see here; I can also lay
an angle with two sticks. What kind of an angle
have I laid?”.
“A sharp angle."
“ Can you each lay a sharp angle with your two
sticks?”
“Oh, yes!”
“ Then do it. Quite right. But I can also lay
a blunt angle. Whoever can, may do it.”
"I!” “I!” “I!”
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
“But I can also lay a right angle. Who can
do that?"
“I!” “I!” “I!”
“Good; lay a sharp angle. See here. The
sharp angle, because it gets sharper or smaller all
the time, says:
“I smaller grow, you see ;
and the blunt angle, because it becomes always
more blunt and larger, says:
“Wider to grow suits me;
and the right angle, because it always stays the
same, says:
“I never do grow smaller, nor larger do I grow;
The same unchanging figure is what I always show."
“Now, dear kindergartner, sing the little angle
song once more for us, and we will lay the angles.”
The kindergartner sings the little song mentioned
by the children while they lay the different angles.
Kindergartner. “Who can lay something
else?”
A collier's hut; a pair of compasses; a bridge;
the gable of a roof; two turnstiles; half a saw-
horse; part of a garden fence.
Kindergartner (to the visitors). “But will you
not ask me something, so that you and my dear
children may see if I also know something?"
“Very well. What do all the things which
STICK-LAYING.
149
have just been named show in respect to their
angles? ”
Kindergartner. “The sticks of the collier's hut
and those of the compasses form sharp angles; the
sticks of the bridge form a blunt angle, and those
of the gable form a right angle; those of the turn-
stile form four right angles, and those of the half of
a sawhorse and those of the part of a garden fence
form two sharp and two blunt angles.”
“Is your auntie right, children?”
“ Indeed she is right.”.
Kindergartner. “Now, because you are so sure
that I was right, I will show you something
right. Stand up, all of you. Place yourselves
straight before the table. Take a stick with the
tips of the pointing finger and thumb of your right
hand, hold it high above the table so that the lower
end of the stick points straight toward the table;
after I have counted one, two, three, etc., let it fall,
and see what else it will do. Now pay attention:
“One, two, three,
Let the sticks go free.”
All the children do it.
“What have you noticed about the stick?”
“When it fell down it sprang up again.”
“ Yes.
Upright now down falls the stick;
Upright then it springs back quick
In the air.
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Now we will do it once more, and at the
same time sing the song for it.” They do so.
“Now take two sticks in your right hand just as I
do and tell me of what do these two sticks so held
and so moved remind you. What object do they
recall to your mind?”
Several. “A steelyard."
“You see the lower stick lies exactly right
(recht), like the beam of a steelyard (Wage), so this
position, or direction, is called horizontal (wag-
recht), and the other stick, because it sinks (senkt)
straight to the table in a right line, is called per-
pendicular (senkrecht). Now we will lay the sticks
of the steelyard vertically and horizontally on the
table.”
REMARK.-In the actual kindergarten the per-
ception and knowledge of the angles and of their
nature is much exercised by the earlier plays and
perceptions—by the limb, ball, movement, and
building plays—and the knowledge of these angles
in the kindergarten is here presupposed. Only, for
the benefit of those readers to whom these plays (or
at least the originally developed course of exercises
in these plays) are strange and for those who wish to
use the stick-laying without the preparatory plays,
means and ways to develop the conception of the
angle and its relation in the province of stick-laying
should be here shown. Another reason why these
ways and means should be shown is for the pur-
STICK-LAYING.
151
pose of justifying the earlier expressed assertion
that each play is in itself a whole, as well as a mem-
ber of the whole—that is, bears in itself all the
essential properties of the general whole, and so
also of each individual play, but in its own peculiar
way. A twofold phenomenon is grounded on this
in and by the free creative employment of chil-
dren: first, that the child in each thing, as an ob-
ject of his activity, finds something (properties)
which he delights to perceive and recognize; sec-
ond, that the child treats everything as material
with which to employ himself, by means of which
to create and by means of which he can represent
externally something which exists in himself. And
so everything (especially the plays of the play-
whole) stands (in a way of which the educator is
clearly conscious) in a double relation to the child:
first, in an arousing, representing relation; then
again in a relation of taking up into itself, as it
were, and re-presenting the child's conceptions and
the activity resulting from them. In this double
relation of our play material (well weighed in re-
spect to aim and means) to the child, in the rela-
tion of the inworking charm and the outworking,
formative impulse which stands visibly before the
child as a result, lies the satisfactoriness for the
child (once more through the play in general), as
well as, quite predominantly, the joyousness in the
employment with the plays of our whole of plays
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and employments presented with consciousness of
the aim and means.
These inner, spiritual, invisible phenomena in
the child, easily perceptible by the quietly and
thoughtfully observing spirit, must be clearly rec-
ognized in order to recognize and correctly estimate
the true nature of a kindergarten, as well as of the
fostering of children and manner of employment
therein practiced, and the spirit, nature, and effect
of each play on the child. For this reason I
have so long dwelt on the inner aspect of the play
material, and especially of my objects of play, as
well as that of the child. This will also explain
(for on this the fact is founded) why already pre-
pared play material is so much less liked by the chil-
dren than the simple and little prepared, and why
children are so ready to put aside the former for the
simple material offered them in the kindergarten.
Of this fact many examples have been related
to me.
This deeper and more spiritual insight into the
inner reciprocal relation between the child (who is
unfolding himself in play) and his play material,
was here required for the correct comprehension of
the whole nature of that early fostering of child-
hood which educates by developing, which keeps
the children busy, and which itself creates. But
you, my dear reader, you, dear mothers, and you
who help the mothers in many ways, as well
STICK-LAYING.
153
as you, brave teachers of national and country
schools, who lack time to obtain this clear insight
into the inner nature of this way of employing chil-
dren before actively engaging in your vocation,
need not be discouraged from acquiring this in-
sight. Do not let yourself be prevented by the
above-stated requirement from constantly using this
or any other play for the children committed to
your charge, as the stage of their development re-
quires. Only go according to your own and the
child's natural impulse (the instinctive demand of
your own as well as the child's inner nature), which
transmutes itself in reciprocal charms. For you
see the child's favorite playmate is the child who
wholly gives himself up to the play and enters into
it. Therefore, trusting in the child and the ob-
ject of play, become a child with the child. Only
in what you do, consider your employment, its
grounds, influence, and results, and seek by de-
grees to become conscious of them, and you will,
through your own trusting, examining, and com-
paring consideration of your own activity, attain
to the deeper insight just required, not only into
the nature of the child and of its life, but also into
your own, as well as into the nature of life in gen-
eral. This is just the blessing, the invisible reward,
of that genuine developing nurture of childhood.
You, my dear reader, who were here like a
child with the child and as busy as he, will have al-
LS
154
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ready experienced at least a part of what is here
said. I rejoice in the quiet pressure of your hand
and your grateful glance; these are an assurance
of the benefit you will derive from coming here
to-day with me.
Since you have followed thus far my presenta-
tion of the inner nature of this play, I must ask
you to accompany me yet further. That which
you see here before you consciously represented by
the children and which shows a remarkable inner
connection suggests to me the continuation of this
inner connection. For the inner life of the chil-
dren is revealed to us by what they have done, and
we enter thereby the most secret workshop of their
spiritual activity.
See, my kind companion, what lies here before
us. Here is a turnstile (that is, one stick placed
vertically and another placed horizontally and
touching it in the middle); close by it is a turn-
stile in an oblique position (the two sticks crossing
one another at right angles); near this again, two
sticks crossing one another in the middle at an
oblique angle in the extension of height; close to
these is the same form in the extension of length.
Is this indeed accident?
If we look closely and compare,
We surely find an answer there.
Now, then, what does our calm, comparing in-
spection show us? The diagonal or obliquely lying
STICK-LAYING.
155
lines or directions which the two obliquely lying
sticks show to us tangibly are intimated invisibly
in the first sticks which stand straight and are at
right angles; and, on the contrary, the right lines
right angles show us tangibly are intimated invisi-
bly in the obliquely lying sticks. And so we see
what the one shows visibly is in the other invisible,
but perceptible to the inner eye. Here we see again
the working of the invisible. Let us go further.
Our eye connects the ends in each of the two crosses
by four invisible straight lines, and so two squares
result which lie opposite to each other (the first in
an oblique position as an opposite square, the sec-
ond as a principal square).* The two obliquely
lying sticks which cross each other also show some-
thing similar; their ends, invisibly connected by
lines, form also two quadrangles—not squares, but
rectangles; the first, being in the extension of
height, forms a high rectangle, but the second,
tangle.
You see, therefore, my thoughtful, accompany-
ing reader, how here it is primarily the connection
of the visible and invisible, the connection of the
opposites, which is so attractive in the children's
employments; but that which is invisible yet per-
* Referring to the perceptions gained by the fundamental
folding.—TR.
156
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ceptible and which really acts is especially attract-
ive, and therefore should be principally considered.
This consideration constitutes the nature of a kin-
dergarten.
Kindergartner. “Now, my dear visitors, you
shall see what pretty things my diligent children
have laid while you have been so eagerly talking
to one another. Children, can you name all these
things for our dear visitors?”
“Oh, yes! oh, yes!”
“Now, then,” pointing.
One child alone. “A level.”
Kindergartner. “ Together.”
All. “A level.” In this way each object
named by a single child is each time repeated in
chorus in order to increase the perception.
“A smith's tongs ” (the sticks cross each other
below the two upper ends); "a long hop pole”
(two sticks touching one another at the ends and
placed in the same direction); “two bean poles”;
“a lead pencil and a slate pencil"; "a whip”;
“a carpenter's square"; "a sand clock or hour-
glass"; "a fishing rod and line”; “ a watchhouse
in an orchard ”; “ a tent."
Kindergartner. “It is very profitable for the
children to repeat the same forms with differ-
ent names, as these forms then make a deeper im-
pression on the children; for instance, the two last-
named objects with the collier's hut previously
STICK-LAYING.
· 157
made, or a church cross or churchyard cross and a
signpost.”
Kindergartner (to the children). « These two
last things can not be well shown with two
sticks. It will be better to leave them till you have
three sticks apiece. That is true also of the level.
Even my steelyard might have been left till then.
Indeed, I should have left it till then if I had not
wished to show you why we say horizontal (wag-
recht) as I did before why we say vertical or per-
pendicular (senkrecht).”
Kindergartner (to the visitors). “I permit the
children at times to make such representations as
correspond but little to the actual forms, so that
they may be led so much the more to look at what
they have represented, and compare it with the ob-
ject they wish to represent.”
“Let us now count how many forms we have.
Thirty-four. Then there are thirty-four forms and
objects which you have together made. Now look
at all of them closely once more. Now I will take
up the sticks, and then each one of you may try
to make as many of the forms you have just seen
as you can remember. I will give each of you two
sticks as often as you need them.”
Kindergartner (to the visitors). “I like par-
ticularly to give this exercise, for it makes the
children conscious of a number of conceptions and
perceptions. This arouses the power as well as the
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
mettle of the children, and also arouses the joyous-
ness and activity of the representation, as you will
soon see."
The children (now one, now another). “ Please
give me two more sticks.” “ Please give me two
more sticks.” “ Please give me two more sticks,
too."
See here, thoughtful reader, the effect of the
early receives for the child a significance, the child's
intellect receives a material for thoughtful compari-
son, its mind and heart the joyous feeling of satis-
faction, its body the strengthening feeling of abil-
ity. The senses receive certainty of perception;
the, members, especially the hands and fingers,
adroitness of representation. You can see here in
this little insignificant play, my dear reader, the
effect which is the aim of the whole of the kinder-
garten as well as of these plays as a whole and also
as an individual part-fitness for life and life
union.
Kindergartner. “I would like to call your at-
tention to something else in respect to these two
effects.—Emil, how many figures have you?”
“ Eight.” “And you, Emmie?” “ Ten.” “ And
you, my little Maggie?” “Six.” “And you,
my diligent Robert?” “Fifteen.” “That pleases
me; it shows that you paid great attention. And
you, my quiet Augustus?” “Thirteen.” “That
STICK-LAYING.
159
is right; always reach forth to the things which
are before.” “But I have eighteen!” “Who
is I?” “Charles.” “Well, you are the oldest
and the largest, and so it is only right that you
should have the most. You see, dear visitors,
that the children have kept in mind different num-
bers of forms and different forms among those
at which they previously looked. The cause of
this difference is the difference of connecting
power in the minds of the children; but partly
in order to bring this power to consciousness and
partly to strengthen and enhance it, I bring the
different forms which have been again produced
by one or more children into a little connected
story. And if the objects are not too numerous I
include them all. Thus it becomes apparent that
each individual form has a purpose, and the whole
acquires connection and significance. By this
means also are attained by the child with conscious-
ness what you just mentioned as the object of
the whole—viz., harmony of life and fitness for
life. This greatly delights the children, because
their little creations, thus receive life and recog-
nition. The older children will soon try to find
a certain connection between the things they
make.” More will be said on this subject at a
later period.
What do you think now, dear reader?
“It seems to me that where such harmony orig-
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
inates in youth it must also be represented in later
life.”
"Farewell, children; be always as dear and
good as we have found you to-day.”
Kindergartner. “If you will wait a few min-
utes we will sing the reply.—Mary, Anna, Mar-
garet, you may take up the sticks.—I let the chil-
dren with whom I am particularly pleased help me
in kindergarten as a reward.” To the assembled
children:
“ One, two, three,
In a ring go we.”
“Our dear visitors told you to be dear and good.'
Now, what closing song will you sing in reply to
this request?”
All.“ Our playtime now is done."
Kindergartner. “Very well; we will go round
to the right while singing:
“Our playtime now is done,
And gayly home we run.”
The kindergartner with a clear voice:
CC
“Farewell, farewell,
Be dear and good.”
The children, softly answering:
“ Farewell, farewell,
We will be dear and good.”
To the kindergartner: "Farewell!”
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL, HIS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES
OF EDUCATION, HIS MEANS AND MODES OF EDUCA-
TION, AS WELL AS HIS EDUCATIONAL AIM AND
OBJECT, IN RELATION TO THE TENDENCIES AND
REQUIREMENTS OF THE TIME.—REPRESENTED BY
HIMSELF.
WHERE could there be now, in any position, vo-
cation, or profession, a human being who had not
been drawn by it to be observant of the different
phenomena and manifold facts of the time in which
we live?
But if we turn away from this multitude of
phenomena of the time, hard and grasping as their
effects may be on spirit, mind, and life, and direct
our attention to the character of the time itself and
endeavor to survey at a glance the whole in respect
to its causes and foundation, to its innermost spirit
and aim, we find that it is the impulse, the effort
after development, cultivation, and continued train-
ing—in one word, it is education, the striving for
education, which generally and vigorously moves
men and nations, which gives to the time its char-
161
162
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
acter, its whole expression, which constitutes the
spirit of the time and determines the aim of its
efforts.
If we now seek out the final innermost cause
of this it is expressed in an uninterrupted, lasting
phenomenon which lies near to us—namely, in the
revolution, the periodicity, and the cyclical recur-
rence of almost all the phenomena of life. What
we now remark each day in the change of the times
of day, each year in the change of the seasons, and
in ourselves in the change of the ages of life, recurs
also with the human race and humanity considered
as a whole, as it were, as one human being. As it
runs through the year in seasons, for example, it
likewise necessarily and in strict order, indeed in
unavoidable sequence, runs through great times
and sections of its vivid expression, only that these
changes are measured here by thousands of years,
as in the former case by months, weeks, and days.
In the beginning of such a large, sharply de-
fined section of time, such a period of the develop-
ment of humanity and life, we now stand. We
have lived in it for some time without having ren-
dered to it the special and vigorous attention and
observation which are really its due. It would be
difficult to explain this neglect if it were not gen-
erally the case that that which is nearest to man
(for example, the air, the light, the water), al-
though most important to his existence, is often
least noticed and considered by him, and greatly
to his injury. In the same way but few observe
the instant and exact time of the change of the
day, of the year, and of other periodical and cyclical
times, and thus perceive neither the end of the
one nor the beginning of the other, although they
are strictly dependent on hours and minutes, etc.
But most people usually first observe the true ad-
vent of the new time, of the period of progress and
development, after it has long taken place, is al-
ready long past. Such is also actually the case in
and with the present time. We now first begin
to recognize universally the advent of something
altogether new; but even now we notice, though
us, how each neglect of development in accordance
with the laws of Nature draws after it in life its
natural, often painful, results.
The conception formed from natural history,
and especially the astronomical cosmic conception
of life and of the history of the human race, very
greatly clear and enlighten life and the understand-
ing of it, and we shall see immediately how this
also expresses itself in the character of the present
time and in its predominantly educational efforts.
But the whole life of man and humanity is a
life of education. If we now reflect upon this the
thought forces itself upon us, what is it now by
which the present time especially proves itself to be
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
a time of education, of the progressive training of
the human race, of humanity?
Here, as the principal foundation for the satis-
factory answering of the important question before
us, appears, first, the fact that only that has real
existence for man which has passed in and by clear
consciousness, which, as it were, has been born
anew in spirit, and indeed (again in the like con-
scious manner) was recognized not as merely iso-
lated but as an active member of a greater whole.
But what concerns each individual, and conse-
quently, above all, the individual human being,
concerns also the whole human race, as has been al-
ready said. For the human race also, that only
actually and truly exists which has in the greatest
possible universality passed through the conscious-
ness of all, and by which the human race is not
only recognized and acknowledged as whole and
individual, but again as part of a further composite
higher whole.
Second, the fundamental answering of the
above-stated question rests also on the fact that an
era is distinguished only by that which comes forth
not only in a few individuals but in an independent
plurality. That which till now was actually edu-
cationally lived and carried out in life by individ-
ual men, and also indeed by individual nations,
which was likewise felt by others, earnestly de-
sired, and also by degrees raised to consciousness
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPL
165
(according to possibility, or relatively) by individ-
uals, is now to take a place in life, to be consciously
observed by the minds and recognized by the spirits
of a predominating plurality, as a spiritually united
whole. Now whatever earlier times showed in re-
spect to educational endeavors, as well in the indi-
vidual as in the whole, they (the times) lacked
either the universality or the clear consciousness of
the endeavors. But both in their association are
the impressions of the younger or present time, and
mark pre-eminently the entrance of a new period of
the development of humanity and of the educa-
tional character of this period. But this is ex-
pressed especially and unanswerably in its indi-
vidual requirements; these are as follows:
First, that the individual be pressed back into
himself and led back to himself, whether this indi-
vidual be an individual man, an individual people,
or the whole human race.
Second, that therefore the human, instinctive,
educating action determined by the higher tenden-
cies of life be raised to clear consciousness, above all
in the mother and the whole feminine sex.
Third, that the whole feminine sex be rec-
ognized by mind and spirit and actually acknowl-
edged in life as a whole in its destination and dig-
nity, as not only a real part and half of the human
race, but also as being as essential to it as the mas-
culine.
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EDUCATION
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Fourth, that even the child and the life of
childhood be recognized, acknowledged, and actu-
ally considered and treated in life relatively as a
whole in its worth and dignity.
Fifth, the acknowledgment of the life of the
family as a part of the life of the community, the
reiteration and acknowledgment of the constant re-
ciprocal relation between the two.
Sixth, it requires a clear and active co-ordina-
tion and co-operation of the social and political re-
lation. As here of the more outward, so,
Seventh, of the more inward relations between
school and home and of both to the church.
Eighth, clear demonstration of the relation of
force, of mass (material), and of form to the idea,
to thought; in general, to power.
Ninth, the endeavor for all-sided union of life
with Nature, with humanity, and with God, and
this is pre-eminently the undeniable proof of the
real and prevailingly educational character of the
present time. But on account of the great impor-
tance of the requirement of the time already
brought out in this single enumeration, it is neces-
sary to devote a special attention and consideration
to it.
/The first demand which thus characterizes the
time in its educational efforts is that the human be-
ing be pressed back upon himself and led back to
himself. This requirement appertains as well to
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
167
the individual as to whole nations, and, it may be
said, to the whole human race. Thus the pressure
toward comprehension and consciousness of one's
self (but also toward self-creation and personal ac-
tion), which has long been felt, has given rise to
the number of self-taught people (Autodidacten)
and to the importance generally attached to knowl-
edge acquired through personal action and personal
experience, whether that action and that experi-
ence be outward or inward. But now this is quite
evidently the effort of the human being, whether
it be that of the individual, of the community, or
of the whole human race to raise to consciousness,
to insight, inspection, and oversight, the tendency
to the activity and employment of life (the natural
instinct). This is the effort for the acknowledg-
ment of the human being in the triplicity of his
nature as thinking, feeling, and acting in his united
power of spirit, mind, and action.
But since now this must be done even according
to the first and earliest fostering of the human be-
ing, thus even with the child and in childhood, and
since this fostering is especially given by the Crea-
tor to the mother and in general to the feminine
sex, and so to the family, Ahe second demand which
characterizes the present time as an educational one
is that the treatment by the mother, determined
by the high instinct of Nature and life, as well
as the whole feminine influence, be lifted out of the
168
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
instinctive as an influence which educates human-
ity, and this influence be raised to consciousness
and thus to right recognition, to true acknowledg-
ment But the mother herself must, first of all,
be raised to the recognition of her dignity and the
importance of her striving.
er and But the third demand which characterizes the
time as a genuine educational one is the effort to
raise the feminine sex as a whole to recognition and
acknowledgment of its destination and dignity and
to living in accordance with the requirements of
this destination and dignity, and especially to uplift
its instinctive passive activity (as a part of human-
ity) and to rise to the same authority as the mas-
culine sex on account of its nature and its voca-
tion of fostering humanity, and so to consider the
woman from her nature and spirit as purely and
completely of equal birth with man.
But the fourth demand which no less proves
the present time as an educating one is the effort
to acknowledge the dignity of the child, of child-
hood, and of the life of childhood; not as single
and isolated, but as a whole, complete within itself,
as the germ and embryo of the development and
representation of a life of humanity according to
the words of Jesus, “ of such is the kingdom of
heaven,” and so, I might say, to fulfill the funda-
mental demand of Jesus to his followers.
The fifth demand by which the present time is
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
169
proved to be a genuinely educational one is the ac-
knowledgment of the family life (of the life of
father, mother, and children, brothers and sisters)
as a whole complete in itself and as the true root of
genuine, pure, true human life. This acknowledg-
ment is especially important for the family as a
member (a branch of the race and stock) of the
life of the community.
The sixth demand by which our time is espe-
cially characterized as an educational one is the re-
establishment and acknowledgment of the recip-
rocal relation between the life of the family and
that of the community, and of the fostering of that
relation. Here it is again the relation of the indi-
vidual to the common and united, of the especial
to the general, which appears. If we weigh the im-
portance of these single points against one another
it is very difficult to distinguish which among them
is of the most absolute importance, but, in reference
directly to the present time, the one just named
appears to be pre-eminent. It leads to the public
spirit so necessary to us, lights up the relation of
the one to the many, or, in other words, to the
community, and leads thus to the regulation and
arrangement of the social relations of the citizen,
as well as of society at large. Hence the endeavor
of the present time (by which it is characterized as
educational) to regulate the relations of the com-
munity, of the city and of the state, as well as of
170
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
society at large. For we know that the state in the
totality of that which it gives or demands and takes
is in a great measure actually an educational in-
stitution, whether good or bad we may not here in-
quire. Therefore,
Seventh, the present time is characterized as
educational by the endeavor to fix the relation be-
tween home and school, and the relation of both to
the church; or, properly, the relation between sen-
sation, mind, thought, spirit, and active life; or
really the question is of the relation between the
inward feeling and recognition, and of the relation
of both again to the outward action and to that
which is outwardly created or effected. Thus the
question is briefly of the clear relation of the inner
to the outer, of thought to deed, of the idea to the
reality, and on account of this effort,
Eighth, the present time is characterized as
an educational one, just because thus the form as
well as the mass, the material (the money), has
lost its power, and, on the contrary, the real
thought, the fine idea, the pure and good sentiment,
in general, the spirit has risen to power; or also
through the fact that the dead, quiescent, inher-
ited possession is no longer a power, but the con-
stant, spiritual, advancing cultivation which makes
itself known in act and representation; so that in
this creative action, in this work, it is the spirit and
idea which animate it and give to the material the
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
true value, often a hundredfold and more, as was
long ago shown by Art. Or one may also say, the
thought and idea attest themselves also externally
as abiding, and yet again, as that which constantly
renews and develops and rejuvenates itself from
itself. They are thus become, as it were, genuine
states; they now afford to life and to man what
they require as such, and what it is the task and
duty of the state to give; what man, in accord-
ance with his nature, must strive to obtain. And
onward development and onward cultivation of the
individual by itself and as a member of the whole
as such, with backward reference to the individual
and to its needs for the pure living expression of
humanity, is gained by endeavor; this is obtained
when man is early treated as a creative being, as a
creation of God.
From this, as the keystone and summing up of
the whole, now follows that which points out the
time as prevailingly educational. Thus,
Ninth, the general striving for union with
life, Nature, and humanity, and consequently with
God, which makes itself known in the most differ-
ent religious and ecclesiastical efforts of the time.
But at the foundation of them all lies the presenti-
ment of the unity, the single foundation, the single
fount of all existence, essence, and life. At the
foundation of all is also the anticipation that man's
vocation and destination lie only in undisturbed
172
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
union with this unity, and thus in the purpose
of real union with God, which gradually approaches
its attainment. That is, they lie in a life in har-
mony with the laws of existence, development, and
life (laws of life in appearance) which make them-
selves known in all beings as having their original
cause in God and proceeding from God. Thus
only in that consciousness of true union with God
which attests itself immediately in action does
man's vocation consist. This living expression of
his nature, by his own choice and his own deter-
mination, consequently in freedom, effects the
genuine peace and pure joy of the life of man, and
is the total endeavor of the time as truly educa-
tional.
These are the most essential strivings which ex-
press themselves, not only clearly, but even audi-
bly, in the events of the present time, and the
most essential requirements of the new peroid of
life, requirements which appear to us as un-
avoidable.
Yet it is by no means merely characterized as
a predominantly educating time by the fact that
these efforts are present, partly single or even part-
ly connected, for they were present, isolated, or
partly connected at different times, indeed at all
times. No, the grandness, the high significance of
the present time lies in the fact that all these efforts
are present at the same time, and, it may be said,
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
173
LU
almost all in equal power and strength; which has
not been the case in any other time in history.
Then what is yet more important, and what points
out this time in comparison with the former as ex-
clusively educational, is, that none of these require-
ments can be satisfied alone, but that they must
necessarily be all fulfilled at the same time,
even though only one of them is to be completely
fulfilled. And the present time makes this re-
quirement for the education of the individual, and
indeed for the education of the family and commu-
nity, for the education of the people and of human-
ity, for the education of society up to the genuine
State, that is, to the State constantly self-renewing.
But how is this apparently difficult requirement
to be met? How is this important problem of life to
be solved? Simply thus, that in the same manner as
the gardener or farmer educates his plants to per-
fection in all-sided coherence with Nature and con-
formably with all requirements, we strive to ob-
serve, to develop, to educate, and to form the child,
the human being, conformably to his nature, to
his inner laws, and in untroubled union with life
and Nature, in constant union with the origin of
all life.
This manner of comprehending and treating
the child and human being in the all-sided cohe-
rence of life proceeds (as being constantly the same
result) from self-observation, from the observation
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
of the nature of the human being and child, in
general from the observation of all development and
formation wherever it may show itself, and it thus
expresses itself as the first and uppermost maxim,
as the principal requirement of human education.
From this all-sided observation of life for neces-
sary application to the education of the child, and
thus in essential reference to the solution of the
problem in question, we are met by the following
highly important facts, viz.: that that which lies in
a whole lies also in the smallest part of it; thus, that
which lies in humanity as a whole also expresses
itself even in the smallest and youngest of its chil-
dren. And further, that thus, that which lies in
humanity as a whole and expresses itself even in
the child, slumbers in the child as essence and
germ, makes itself known again in the smallest de-
tails of his nature: indeed, definitely shows itself
therein to a clear, spiritual eye. This is the second
maxim on which the method of genuine education
of the human being and child is founded and
through which consequently the problem in ques-
tion farther receives its solution.
From this comprehension of the human being
and of the children, from this comprehension of the
individual life as well as of the life of others and
of objects in general, proceeds farther the third
essential principle of education, viz.: that as the
inner development, the development from within,
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES..
175
is joined to an impulse working out from within,
so the outward form also depends on an attrac-
tion affecting it from without; and these two
limitations, opposite to, yet like one another
(for all life has indeed a single, thus the same,
origin), give the single life uniting both in itself
as a result (product)—the educated, cultivated
We must therefore necessarily recognize a
fourth law of development, education, and cultiva-
tion, viz.: that the child is truly formed to a man
only by the co-working of limitations (factors) op-
posite to, yet like one another, and by the com-
parison and connection of these factors in and
through life.
Conformably to all this, the first effort, as well
as the first duty in the present time, must necessa-
rily be for each one who acknowledges these demon-
strated principles of education and cultivation to
be true, to begin to apply and carry them out, first
of all with himself, then with those committed to
his care, but especially to begin to labor to introduce
all educators, especially those of the feminine sex
(first of wives and mothers, but also their perhaps
already grown-up daughters, and educational help-
ers), into these principles. That is easy, because
one needs only to clear, to strengthen their sure,
natural instinct, then to raise this instinct to con-
sciousness, and so to firm, logical, continual accom-
D
176
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
plishment, and to provide the necessary means for
rightly following that which is understood.
But it would again be one-sided, if education for
the training of the human being should be confined
to the feminine sex, for the reason that women, who
are faithful to nature, are the first trainers and edu-
cators of the human being. No! the more out-
wardly instructing masculine sex, according to the
necessary law of opposites above mentioned, has no
less a part in this training, as the future teacher,
protector, trainer, as the future father of the fam-
ily, of the community, and of the nation. This co-
operation in the training of the human being must
begin not only in the years of boyhood and youth,
but even in those of childhood; so that the child
may be early led on all sides toward his destination,
in order that in the fulfillment of his destination he
may protect and uphold the other, the softer, more
delicate sex.
Therefore, in conformity with this whole sys-
tem, humanity must be observed from the begin-
ning of its dual existence as composed of two oppo-
site sexes which are, in all other respects, alike.
And so in its whole nature, its senses and limbs, its
body and its soul, its feeling and being, its under-
standing and intellect, its comprehension and rea-
son, and its all-exhausting nature, the child must
be treated in accordance with the spirit of this sys-
tem, consequently as a being rising from sensation
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
177
V
to consciousness, to intelligent willing and doing, as
a being one in itself, therefore sentient, reflective,
moral, chaste, and having a high vocation.
Since, now, the germinating point and the
source of all genuine development, of cultivation,
and education is in the feeling and the sensation, as
well as in the anticipation (therefore in the mind),
this must necessarily early find its suitable nourish-
ment, even with the first development of the child's
body, limbs, senses, and spirit. This is done by in-
troducing the child at once into the realm of har-
mony and accord, into the province of rhythm,
melody, and dynamics, and thus into the realm of
tone and song, for which the child early shows de-
cided inclination.
We perceive how the nurses quiet the young
child by the employment of rhythmical movements
(of the so-called dancing, rocking, knocking, etc.),
and the child actually feels itself pacified by these
means. It appears even to agree with the pulse-
beat, consequently with the heart, and, as is gener-
ally thought, with the seat of sensation. Thus we
early see the healthy infant which has been satis-
fied in all its needs lull itself to sleep with singing
when the mother has laid it in its little bed. Con-
formably to this expression of the child, and taking
it up fosteringly, we hear not only how the nurses
induce their charges to sleep by song, but also how
they, whenever necessary, at other times quiet them
TIT
178
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
U
with it. The somewhat later phenomena in child-
life also prove that rhythm and song are intimately
connected with the child's expressions of life.
Rhythmical, measured movements and harmo-
nious song thus necessarily and early belong to an
education of the human being, which, meeting the
demand of his nature on all sides, is consequently
a healthy one. So we must clearly recognize that
the educational requirements of the time, earnestly
presented in the foregoing remark, can be com-
pletely obtained only by the appropriate co-opera-
tion of song, even with the early education of the
child, since it strengthens that which is noble in the
youngest child, and makes himself more receptive
of the noble. Hence the first plays of the body,
limbs, and senses, the little plays of the Mother-
Play and Nursery Songs practically produced for
the earliest period of childhood and infancy, are
mostly accompanied by song; by which at the same
time the word, leading to comparing thought, is
introduced (as most essential to human education,
to the education of the human child) into the first
strengthening and developing nurture of children,
which is so important. This introduction of
the word by song, which took place at first instinc-
tively by motherly caressing, now takes place espe-
cially by the singing-tone, which exerts so much
influence.
But with such development of senses, limbs, and

EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
179
body, as well as soul, a development begun on a
sides, penetrating mind and feeling, and cons
quently fostered (though only in the germ),
child now also needs an object by which he
develop himself yet farther and more compl.
independently, and spontaneously. For we
see how, in order to use, strengthen, and
the power of his hands and fingers, he
grasp objects—his own cheeks, etc.;
squeezes his own. thumbs, holds fast
er's finger which he has seized, etc.
The nature of the human being recen
early shown to us in the child) a co: ung
counterpart for the animate being, for his inner na-
ture, and for the requirements of that nature; that
is, an antitype, opposite to yet like him. This re-
quirement is one with the human being, insepara-
bly connected with his earthly appearance and exist-
ence, and therefore repeatedly comes forth with the
observation of his first appearance everywhere, in
all zones, and in the most different relations.
If this requirement of the human being in gen-
eral is not fulfilled for the child by a suitable ob-
ject coming to him from without, he seeks to satisfy
this requirement of his nature by means of his
power of imagination (fancy). But the images of
fancy leo umap brin


180
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
uiman being, and this even in his early develop-
ent, at least for outward representation. They
more to one-sidedness than to that all-sidedness
is cultivation, toward which the human being
in childhood is to strive according to his na-
An object must therefore be given to the
lot merely for his outward bodily activity,
er for his inward activity, the activity of
and for the development and cultivation
vity. It is by no means unimportant, it
contrary, a thing of the highest impor-
kind of an object is here provided for
the child as a true counterpart of himself. We see
also by what has just been said that it must neither
be left to accident nor to the arbitrary will of any
one what object is chosen for this purpose, but that
this is already definitely given with the appearance
of the human being as a child. According to the
requirement it is to be an object like the child, but
at the same time his pure opposite. Let us now ob-
serve and question the child himself, and see what
object he chooses in his earliest period of develop-
ment for such a counterpart of himself and of his
efforts. It is the simplest inanimate object but also
(a highly remarkable fact) the heaviest. He prefers
wood and stones. The boys like to carry what is
id seek it 21 nlaything

EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
181
wood. I was informed by a mother from the
higher family circles of the city, who was an early
observer of life, that a heavy sandbag she acci-
dentally found became to her the most cherished
doll, when she was a little girl, because it had in
it the weight of the actual child, and so she ex-
perienced an illusion and gave herself up to it; she
imagined herself to be carrying a real child.
But weight, attraction, is the first expression of
the power, as it were, the life in Nature which ex-
presses itself in its higher degree as the attraction
of the senses; and, in its purest development, as a
spiritual attraction, as love.
In this course of development of the human be-
ing here pointed out as it makes itself known in
each child is at once clearly expressed how the
child is to be treated, what object (when? where?
and how? why? or wherefore?) is to be provided for
the child in the beginning of his own activity.
As a being complete in himself, bearing life in
himself, developing and appropriating life to him-
self, and the opposite of life in his own adjusting
nature, the child seeks also as a counterpart of him-
self an object which is opposite to, yet like himself.
It must therefore, firstly, as a similar object, be
such a one as will enable the child, for the free un-
folding of his self-determined nature, to make from
it everything which he wishes: that is, to conceive
and think of everything in it.
14
182
.
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENTрімі
Therefore, as purely opposite to the child, it
must be, secondly, an object, a means for something
else, while the child is himself only a pure end and
aim for himself.
This statement clearly gives the character of the
first plaything of the child. In this is clearly, an
ticipatingly expressed the deep sense with which the
child chooses a stick, a stone, a board, a piece of
wood, a bootjack, sandbag, or even the loam,
the heaps of earth and sand, the clay and earth
hills in which he can dig with zeal. Yet, after
all, for his freest development, he likes best the
ball. Just the ball is demonstrably the middle
point and point of union, I may say the repre-
sentative of all for which the child strives as a
counterpart for his self-development and culti-
vation. It shows completeness in itself, and is
yet the general representative of all things—of rest
and movement, of totality and unity, of that which
is all-sided and that which has but one surface.
It unites in itself the visible and the invisible (its
middle, its axis, etc.). By the ball, the child can
now accomplish and represent unnumbered things
which exist within him as desire, idea, and thought.
And, with the ball, the child can imitate innu-
merable things which he sees around him. The
ball is thus a means of representation for the inner
world as well as a means of introduction into the
outer world which surrounds him.
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
183
I
By this is solved the question, “ Why is the ball
as a plaything so dear to the child?” The play
appears (corresponding to the sense of the word
Spiel) to the human being, and especially to the
child, as a mirror (Spiegel) of his inner and of his
surrounding world, and is, especially at the stage
of childhood, a mirror required from inward, there-
fore free, impulse by the child's attraction to life
and employment. The plaything (Spielzeug) is
thus (as a means and aim) opposite to, yet like, the
child's nature; and for this reason it is the object
which awakens and engenders (erzeugen) the desire
for play, the act of playing (Spielen), and the con-
tents of the play.
Play is thus actually engendered by the con-
nection of opposites which are also alike, by the
combination of the free activity of the child with
the dependent movability of an object and its conse-
quent power of taking form.
The ball is thus actually a gift which, in com-
bination with the child's impulse to activity, by its
many kinds of movability and its manifold em-
ployment, engenders the desire for play, for free
reflection of the inner as well as the outer world,
and is therefore a favorite gift.
If we now combine this statement with what
has been before said, it is easy to explain why the
ball is the child's first and dearest plaything, and
why it remains so in the German ball plays through
1
184
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ULUI.
the whole age of boyhood and up to and into the
age of youth; why it, as the best-loved plaything,
pre-eminently captivates the youth who is early
striving for all-sided cultivation.
That which especially concerns the play with
the ball as the earliest and first means of develop-
ment of the child can be done by the ball by itself
and for itself in its simple form and in its simplest
relation.
It can be used either free, or fastened to a string,
and in both cases either in free space or (in refer-
ence to surfaces) perpendicularly, horizontally, or
obliquely. When thus used the ball appears as a
guide in the outer world by representing the objects
of that world, as, for example, a kitten, etc., or as
a cultivator of the child's own body and limbs;
one may say, as an instructing gymnast.
The ball has been hitherto taken up merely in
its form, and, in this, merely in its relation to the
child and to the outer world. But it can also be
considered and used as a plaything for the child
in its relations to itself; firstly, in relation to its
size; secondly, in relation to its clothing, its cover-
ing, or its color; thirdly, in relation to number;
fourthly, in respect to its material; fifthly and
finally, in its different relations of hardness or elas-
ticity; and, in connection with both of these, by its
falling on a corresponding surface in relation to
tone.
1
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
185
In all these respects the ball enters into ever
new relations to the child, and the exhaustive treat-
ment of it here shows it as a constant, all-sided,
uninterrupted means of education and cultivation
as well as of the actual development of the child.
A slight indication in regard to color must here
suffice. The child, instinctively, and in accordance
with his nature, soon seeks that which is the sim-
plest opposite of the single, yet like it, viz., plural-
ity. The fosterer of early childhood must, like a
gardener, bring to the point of unfolding this un-
conscious effort of the child (his instinctive long-
ing for plurality) and must also develop it to con-
sciousness, that it may not become merely a greedy
desire for possession and a strong longing for
owning.
But mere plurality of a like kind, as such, does
not and, according to his nature, should not satisfy
the child, for he seeks in plurality the connecting
unity or to have the manifoldness of the connecting
bond made perceptible to him. This is most satis-
factorily done by the colors of the balls, which are
of like form, size, and material. The color should
be the purest possible; six rainbow colors (seven by
using a dark as well as a light blue), blue, green, yel-
low, orange, red and violet—the six (or seven (with
indigo]) children of the light (in a prismatic spec-
trum) which is in itself single—which, as a wonder-
fully beautiful unity complete in itself, show in the
186
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
rainbow the symbol of the highest peace, of peace
between heaven and earth, between God and man.
And why should not the path to such peace be early
entered upon in a childlike way for the human be-
ing and for the child? Therefore, are brought be-
fore the child as a plaything, by degrees, six balls in
the six designated colors, now singly, now in various
connections. These balls, even singly, are received
each time with pleasure by the child. Then they
are given together in pairs as complementary col-
ors: red and green, blue and orange, etc.; or com-
bined in threes, for example, as the three principal
colors, red, blue, and yellow; and as the three inter-
mediate or mixed colors, violet, green, and orange.
Therefore, here the combination of a different num-
ber with the conception of some particular shape can
be early brought to the child by the simple and thus
natural grouping (as it were, self-resultant) of two,
three, four, or more balls in a closely connected
whole. With the increasing age of the child in-
creases also the size and hardness, and thus the elas-
ticity, of the ball, as well as its capacity to call forth
a sound by dropping it on a firm horizontal surface.
We have already tarried a long time with the ball
in order to show it to be necessarily the first play-
thing of the child. Yet that which is here stated
about it, and, as it were, in its favor, is quite insig-
nificant in respect to its being carried out in detail
when compared with the genuinely educating and
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
187
forming effect of what can be actually done by the
ball, and, with it, by the child at each attained stage
of development.
What has been here brought forward about the
ball may perhaps seem too much, though it is but
little in comparison with what the ball, as the first
plaything of the child, contributes toward the little
one's true and constantly developing cultivation.
But we have intentionally lingered so long over
this demonstration of the all-sided necessity, the in-
dispensableness of choosing the ball as the child's
first plaything corresponding to all. We have lin-
gered intentionally over this confirmation of the
fact that the ball is actually the true, first play-
thing of the child, because just this fact was so
much disputed, at least the effort to again introduce
the ball in its old right as the first plaything of the
child was considered one-sided and strange.
And yet for the genuine educator, the ball is
just as necessarily given as the first plaything for
the child, as the spherical form of the earth is for
the first step of the geographer; although educators
of children have given every other object-but no
ball—for a plaything, and although at the begin-
ning of the knowledge of the earth many things
were dreamed about the form of its upper surface,
this being considered, now as a disk swimming on an
endless surface of water, now as a disk supported by
columns, etc. Indeed the ball is just as absolutely
188
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
given as the first plaything for the human satis-
factorily developing child to those who truly know
the human being, as the spherical form of the world
is to the satisfactory insight into the system of the
world to those who are learned in regard to the
universe; although the heavenly bodies have been
in the beginning by no means correctly considered
merely as lights, etc.
The fact that the ball belongs to the first stage
of the child's development is also proved in many
parts of Germany by the natural disposition of the
country women to return from the market with a
half-penny ball as a gift and joy for the little ones,
though it be filled only with sawdust or cow's
hairs. Another proof is the fact already mentioned
that in many of the countries of Germany the play
with the ball in manifold ways and with various
alterations appears to be the favorite amusement
of the smallest children, as well as of the growing-
up boys and girls, even up to the age of youth.
A Persian legend even indicates the ball as the
privileged play of the king's children.
But the ball is highly important from the in-
tellectual, sentient, and moral side, as well as from
the corporeal and thinking, as a moral means of
preservation, as a talisman; since, by the provision
of the ball for free and full use, the child is pre-
served from ill-humor, and from all the moral dis-
eases which proceed from it. The ball has the
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
189
same influence in reference to the passions and emo-
tions, since the ball neither arouses nor nourishes
them, but, on the contrary, strengthens the impulse
of the child to the activity and employment cor-
responding to its nature, develops in harmony with
the laws of his own life, and leads to formation.
But enougli has been said, I hope, for the all-
sided confirmation of the choice, and for the satis-
factory justification of the use of the ball as the
first plaything for the “joy” of the child.
The total activity of the child proves (and this
became prominent even in the preceding remarks)
that he advances according to his nature, his life,
and the law which expresses itself in his life (thus
with general necessity and with especial joyousness
and freedom) from that which is given to that
which is opposite to, yet like it. This is implied in
the common saying, “A child always wants some-
thing new.”
But that which is opposite to yet like the soft
ball is the hard, firm sphere which is therefore, ac-.
cording to the simple and natural course of devel-
opment, the plaything next required by the child.
The sphere is more complete than the ball, and
is also more easily movable, as its surface is smooth-
er; but it is also heavier, and therefore rests more
firmly and determinately when it once rests. Yet,
on account of its greater weight, the child's use of
it makes demands upon his more developed strength
190
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and dexterity. But, at the same time, that it makes
more demands on the more developed strength and
dexterity, it also shows by the noisier sound caused
by its use, first, its greater weight, and second, the
greater strength required to handle it: both of
which please the child as the expression and proof
of his increased power in the play with the sphere.
All this shows plainly the fact that this progress
in the material proffered for play, and consequently
for development and cultivation, is, in several re-
spects, in accordance with Nature; and this is high-
ly important. In the same way we certainly un-
equivocally perceive what is already expressed by
the just employed phrase, “in accordance with
Nature”-namely, that the advance is not an ar-
bitrary one, but is given of necessity, since it in-
cludes in itself likeness and progress as well as
contrast and stability, and therefore the indispensa-
ble conditions for such a progress of the child and
human being as will be at the same time wholly
satisfactory and worthy of humanity. These in-
dispensable conditions are contained and expressed
in what has been before brought forward. In the
same way the condition of the development of each
thing and being shows itself as necessarily given at
the same time with the thing. This condition is,
that what is to be developed, drawn forth, brought
out in the later must lie as a germ in the earlier.
This is one of the most important of all the
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
191
general laws of human education, but has been till
now but little noticed.
It is highly remarkable (and it is here made
prominent once. for all in its importance) how in
the conviction of the nature of the human being
here brought forward and represented, the require-
ments of education, as well as the means and ways
of education, reciprocally limit and explain, justify
and confirm each other. This takes place inwardly
and (without being sought for) with an unmistak-
able necessity in the laws of development given
with them and the way and method of treating and
educating the child proceeding from them. This is
to us the innermost and deepest proof of the truth
of the whole, which can be grounded only in the
perfect comprehension of the whole being and can
proceed only from that comprehension.
. According to the inner condition just pre-,
sented, the sphere now appears as the second play-
mate of the ball. The logical deduction from
the preceding remarks is, that the sphere by no
means supplants the ball, but, with its aid, effects
the farther development of the child who loves
them both.
On account of its by no means slight impor-
tance, I here bring forward once for all, the fact,
that the playthings or means of play, the following
play-gifts, as we call them, never preclude the em-
ployment of the preceding, but that the use of the
192
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
one is only yet more extended, explained, etc., by
that of the other. The use of the sphere in play
and the features of the play, or, in other words,
the employments with the sphere as opposite to,
yet like the ball, have naturally very much in com-
mon with the play with the ball, only that the
movements of the sphere are much more exact and
defined than those of the ball. A loop of wire, to
which a string may be fastened, is affixed to the
sphere, so that it may be moved by the string.
Each plaything is, in a certain point of view, a
complete one (as, for example, each of the senses
of the human being is itself a unit, and the senses
collectively form again a whole of a higher kind).
So each plaything has its appointed task to accom-
plish in the development and education of the child
to the stage of maturity, and this task is to be ac-
complished by means of this development and edu-
cation/ As now the ball is to lead to harmony
and accord, particularly by the variety of its colors,
so the sphere is to lead to the clear perception, com-
prehension, and retaining of unity as such, espe-
cially in and during the variety of its turnings and
twistings, by which, however, it clearly and unal-
terably shows the one sphere.
This clear and precise perception of unity in life
through all its changes may be, and the quiet hold-
ing fast of this perception is, a quality which we all
need, that we may preserve the peace of the heart,

EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
193
that we may attain to the joyousness of life, and
that we may secure firmness of character in all con-
ditions and under the most different relations. To
lead the child to this in the most gradual and play-
ful way, early to guide a number of children to this
and to confirm them in it, will bring the blessing
of genuine education into several families at least,
and perhaps into a community, or even into a city
or province. For the proof of the godlike in life
and of the influence in life which is grounded in
the godlike is that the blessings of it lead back to
the smallest, proceed from the smallest, and yet
stretch out far and wide.
The sphere is intended to benefit the child by
developing his power of perception and conception
and even his character, in play and by means of
play, though quite unanticipated by him. It is
also to develop the body and its members as a
gymnastic model, as it were (we used this signifi-
cant expression in speaking of the ball), by its
manifold turnings and twistings. In order to
avoid repetition for all subsequent play, I would
here state that words spoken and sung (conse-
quently also verses and little rhymed songs) in
a manner corresponding to the child's state of de-
velopment, to his head and heart, his thought and
feeling, his mind and spirit, are to make a reality of
the early entrance upon the path of education of the
human being to all-sided development of himself.
194
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Be it here remarked as essential in respect to the
sphere and the play with it, that, as with the ball,
the colors (as it were, like the joys of life) form a
symbol of plurality, so do also with the sphere,
the light and shade, the day and night sides of
life. (As white and black spheres form, as it
were, the opposite poles of the color circle which re-
solves itself toward one pole into the light, the
white; toward the other pole condenses into the
dark, the black.)
This small, almost insignificant, alteration gives
child, and very rich application to actual life in
respect to its most different sides, especially with a
grouping of many children; so that the use of it
for the development of the practical employment
of the children of all conditions must be clear to the
unprejudiced eye. By means of the new, added
shades, the relations of number, form, and rhythm
appear in as new a light as a beautiful country does
by means of corresponding shades of light when
thrown on a white ground.
What is now to be the indispensably necessary
advance to the next plaything?
The sphere has one surface, which is therefore
a curred one. The contrast must have straight
surfaces and several of them. The sphere has no
corners and no edges; the contrast must have cor-
ners and edges. These are the opposite properties
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
195
which the next solid used for play must show.
Now for the similarity: The sphere has three sim-
ilar directions or axes, reciprocally intersecting each
other at right angles, and these axes must appear
clearly and precisely when the body is at rest. The
next solid used for play must necessarily have these
like properties together with the above-named oppo-
site ones. But this can only be the cube or hexa-
hedron; therefore the cube is with indispensable
necessity the third developing, educating playmate
of the child.
On account of the plurality of its properties
the cube, in comparison with the simple, round
sphere, shows and gives a plurality of use and a
multiplicity of the most different appearances, as
the sphere shows an all-sidedness of movement.
Thus the always stable cube, with its straight sur-
faces, represents itself to the child as the opposite
of the round, easily movable sphere, but yet similar
to it.
So the cube first shows to the child by its sur-
faces, corners, and edges, the purest contrast of the
all-sided extension in one plane by the surfaces,
and the all-sided convergence to a point by the cor-
ners. It shows also, by the edges, the connection of
the two in the line, as it were, since they can stretch
out indefinitely on two sides, but on the other are
drawn together like the point. The law of con-
nection was already approached with the ball in
A
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the colors. This law now shows itself to the child
almost constantly in each of his playful activities,
and so as an all-prevailing law of formation and
life. It is later essential for insight and recogni-
tion, as well as for creation and action; for arousing
and fostering the moral part of man's nature, as
well as for all-sided, purest, and highest life union.
It is important that this law be now brought to
childish simple notice and perception in a childlike
way even at an early stage of the child's develop-
ment. The necessity of this requirement and of
quiet obedience to this requirement very soon re-
veals itself for the welfare and pleasure of pupil
and educator, of trained and trainer. 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.
But in yet another respect the perception and
contemplation of a comprehensive law of life and
development are important even in the earliest edu-
cation, since we may not forget that we are per-
ceptively intellectual beings, and that our first edu-
cation especially requires the corresponding percep-
tively intellectual contemplation in order thereby
to rise to a purer, more intellectual perception, and,
finally, to inner spiritual comprehension which must
be as free as possible. Up to the present time this
forgetfulness has, alas, been shown, to our great
detriment, in many ways, especially in our earliest
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
197
primary school and national education, the sad re-
sult of which are now evident. As genuine, bene-
ficially acting educators, recognizing the deficiencies
of our present training and called to improve it,
we must above all give again the genuine and com-
prehensive symbol to the education of our chil-
dren and youth, and the many-sided education of
the people, based upon the first education of child-
hood and youth. This only can furnish to our peo-
ple what they need, for just the empty, effete ideas
which have been committed to memory in certain
logical connections have made the people also empty
and dead, and weakened them for vigorous com-
prehension of the right. Here is a principal cause
of the perplexities of life, for which reason I felt
myself imperatively urged to linger so long on this.
part of my subject.
We now return to the cube as the third object
for the child's play and development.
By its form it leads, firstly, to the perception
of the solid form and to the knowledge of its bouin-
daries, of the sides, the edges, and the corners (sur-
faces, lines, points), and of their different relations
to one another in form, position, and size.
One must of course see for himself among the
children the way and manner of introducing the
cube, in order to convince himself that it is possible
to do it in a manner corresponding to the child's
nature and the then existing stage of his develop-
15
198
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ment, and that this is actually done. It is in many
ways difficult if not impossible to present this mere-
ly by words.
Form, size, and number are important to the
comprehension of the figure and to the perception
of its interior, and are therefore important for life.
But the clear, sure gaze is just as important, for
this reason, that early notice of both inward and
outward, and introduction into the perception of
both, is a great gain for the whole life as a whole.
But with the human being as a child everything
begins in and with the comprehension of what is
perceived by the senses. Therefore the early
introduction of the child into the perception of
form, size, and number lies in the nature of the
human being and in the nature of the child, only
not in the abstract, bodiless, and objectless, but con-
nected with bodies and objects.
And so also the cube, in the same way that it
leads into form and size, leads, secondly, into num-
ber and its relations, in the most constant natural
way, which is therefore also the most agreeable and
most judicious for the child. It thus appears like
an entertaining teacher of arithmetic in the most
manifold numerical connections of its sides, edges,
points, angles, etc. But here we must again refer
to that which concerns the truth of the whole thing,
to that perception which is gained in child life, but
is still more obtained by the third way of viewing
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
199
the cube where it shows the most various and pe-
culiar appearances in its different positions and
movements. It is especially suited for play in re-
spect to its manifoldness, which fascinates the child.
It is also important for child, man, and life in its
higher meaning. Such plays show and demon-
strate that the human being is born for research;
that he is to practice it even as a child, as also that
he is, just as early in life, to separate that which
seems from that which is.
Yet this is, of course, by no means all that can
be said and brought forward of that which the sim-
ple cube develops from itself by activity and differ-
ent ways of perception. For in the notice, etc.,
of form, size, and number, and of the different ways
of appearing with one and the same fixed form,
fourthly, it leads the child in a childlike manner
into the fundamental ideas of physics and me-
chanics, the science of movement by its pressing
on the hand, etc., and by its rising and sinking by
means of the string. Fifthly, it serves as an in-
troduction into life and to the objects of life by the
different ways of perceiving and looking at it,
which proceed from the child's fancy; for example,
as a square stone, as a bale of goods, as a chopping
block, as a tree tub in a greenhouse, etc.
A remark in respect to the playing and the na-
ture of the play of the child here obtrudes itself.
It should perhaps have been rendered prominent
200
EDUCATION BY LEVELOPMENT.
even earlier and must not remain longer unnoticed,
because it is so highly important in respect to the
child's whole occupation, to his relation as a per-
ceptively intellectual being, to the object of his play
and the use of that object, and also to his content-
ment. This remark is, that the child's satisfaction
in playing and his delight in what he plays are by
no means peculiarly connected with the outward
appearance and value of the plaything, and with the
perfection it shows, but rather with what the child
can represent by means of this object, with what
he can conceive, perceive, and imagine by means of
that which is outwardly represented. The high im-
portance of the child's playing and of the games he
plays is that what takes place within him is awak-
ened and developed during the play and, by means
of the playing, takes form. It is this, not merely
the object of play as such, which gives the child
pleasure in his play, and causes him to be satis-
fied by it. Therefore the child likes best that play-
thing, whatever its outward appearance may be,
by which and with which he can form and ac-
complish the most: that is, can call forth in him-
self the greatest number of and most satisfying
conceptions, imaginations, and fancies as vividly as
if he saw them actually in himself and outside of
himself, even in the most imperfect outlines and
representations. This perceiving and actual repre-
senting of things in the outside world-even though
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
201
very imperfectly, yet always as a whole complete
in itself—is just what gives such an exceedingly
high, strengthening, as well as developing value to
the representation plays as compared with the
empty activity of forming abstract ideas or acting
out such ideas. These representation games are
plays of the fancy awakened by actual life and
connected with it. But that occupation with. ab-
stract ideas can develop itself boundlessly (and so
also into the formless), and yet be connected by no
condition, no possibility, to the fixed, clear, and
precise life-forms. However incomplete these rep-
resentations may be in themselves, yet they are a
self-contained, firmly defined, sharply bounded, al-
ready existing whole which can now be completed
and perfected by continued cultivation, persever-
ance, diligence, dexterity, and skill: all of which
can in a certain point of view be obtained by firm
will.
Hence the actually quite incalculable, price-
less value of the early exercises, the modes of play
and employment, as, in general, of development,
education, and cultivation of the child and youth
which are here demonstrated and entered upon,
and which are alike important for all conditions and
relations of life, but especially important for all
conditions and callings of practical and executive
life. For they free man from the life of empty
and formless, vacant, as well as measureless imagi-
202
nation and fancy, which is so inwardly full of dis-
turbance, outwardly demolishing and annihilating,
or at least perplexing, because they give to the hu-
man being and to his life all that his spirit hopes
and anticipates, all for which his heart yearns, and
which his outward existence requires. They give,
on the one side, material and contents, substance
and form, value and dignity to life, and thus to
thought and feeling as well as to action. They
give life, vocation, aim, and the determination of
one's own destiny, to the human being, to the
individual as well as to the whole human race.
These means of employment indeed preserve
throughout the happy and satisfying idea which
is to become truth and reality, and which actual
life gives.
“ I live, ye shall live also,” are the words of the
greatest educator of man. Consequently the peace,
which he left us as he departed, and which the
world does not give, must finally become a fact.
So also must every blessing which his life and his
teaching would bring to us, that it to say, that union
of life and Nature, humanity, and God which he
anticipated and recognized. What he said about
little children must be true"Of such is the king-
dom of heaven." His statement that “ whoso shall
receive one such little child in my name receiveth
me” must be a fact, and not a glittering, specious
but perishable sound of words tending to the indul-
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
203
gence of ambition and egotism, self-interest, etc.,
and even to the nourishment of sectarian hatred.
What has just been said in respect to the cube
can be said with equal truth about the methods of
guiding children, which have been already pre-
sented, as well as in respect to each of the modes of
play and employment yet to be brought forward,
as it is the keystone of the whole. For this is just
the spirit that lives in the whole, in which and by
which the whole has its existence, its being, its con-
tinued formation and cultivation. But, as it presses
itself forward here in the midst as the center and
middle point of the whole, who could or would hold
it back? And so let it be here stated that this is
now said once for all, but though said but once
could and really should be repeated in respect to
each exposition of it brought forward in the fu-
ture, because it finds its more perfectly formed
and more comprehensive confirmation in the greater
increasingly cultivated manifoldness of the self-un-
folding plays and ways of employment of children.
The law of connection is the most important
law of the universe, of humanity, and of life in gen-
eral. The child is to be treated as a member of
humanity, and consequently of all life, in accord-
ance with the highest and most effective laws of
life, and is to be developed and educated according
to those laws. But the child is also life itself. His
plays and employments are mere representations of
204
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
life; therefore the connection in his plays, and his
ways and means of playing, must also appear as
necessary as it is unsought. The next object of
play is a proof of this.
The sphere and cube are pure opposites. They
stand to each other in the relation of unity and
plurality, but especially of movement and rest, of
round and straight. The law of connection de-
mands for these two opposite yet like bodies and ob-
jects of play a connecting one, which is the cylinder.
It combines unity complete in itself in the round
surface, and plurality in the two straight ones.
The part of the surface of the cylinder taken for
the base shows how in the first (i. e., in a curved
surface taken for the base) is expressed movement,
in the second (i. e., in one of the plane surfaces
taken for the base) rest, as the cylinder combines
plane and round.
Thus, then, the cylinder is the child's fifth object
of play, and child life, especially in the country,
proves to us the truth and correctness of the se-
lection. Only consider how the country children
play with the cylindrical or round pieces of wood,
the so-called clubs, especially with shorter, more
disk-like pieces sawed off from them, which is di-
rectly according to nature, since in these the plane
surfaces predominate.
We see thus with pleasure that in the choice of
these three early and almost first playthings of the
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
205
child 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. These means of play and
the mode of playing have approved themselves in
the life of the children in freer, more playful de-
velopment through the experience of more than ten
years, during which they have been used with the
child and with whole circles of children. This be-
ing the case we can be assured that we have seized
the great means of development for the first stage
of childhood which we have here in view.
There is nothing further to be said about the
particular and individual use of the cylinder; this
use is determined by its form as well as by the use
of the two last-named playmates of the child.
But another essential thing must be expressed.
As opposites with their connection, the sphere, the
cylinder, and cube (as was before the case with the
twice three play balls) appear as a play-whole com-
plete in itself, and, belonging together as they do
in a kind of family, form the second play-gift.
We will later return to their more extended use.
Yet these first objects of children's play point
somewhat toward the more effective phenomena of
social life and of the life of art. For instance,
the cube, the cylinder, and the sphere as a con-
nected trio point toward another trio in architec-
206
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ture-the column, composed of pedestal (cube),
shaft (cylinder), and capital (sphere).
This manner of connecting opposites by com-
bining them into a whole complete in itself seems
to me the most essential thing in the columnar or-
ders. The tripartite character (always combining
opposites) pervades their whole composition. I
consider that on this connection and on this tripar-
tite character is based the fact (as resting on a high
comprehensive law of formation) that the columnar
orders maintain themselves in their purity as the
foundation of the noble art of architecture through-
out Europe as well as America. The reason of this
fact is that they not only form a beautiful whole
complete in itself, but, in that whole, imprint on the
in the fact that it shows simple imitation of Nature
in pure laws of number, form, and size, for exam-
ple, in the trees standing together in orderly ar-
rangement, although growing naturally with
boughs bending toward each other, forming crossed
and pointed arches.
This fact has been so distinctly brought out
here for the purpose of indicating at some future
time the uniting single spirit which makes itself
known in all that has grown out from formation
and through formation, especially from the clear
thoughts and ideas of human beings at all times
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
207
and in all zones. Another reason for the presen-
tation of this fact is in order to point out the single
spirit which at the same time expresses itself in
human life and the life of Nature according to
similar laws, although in different stages of devel-
opment.
This spirit of humanity and of man, this spirit
in itself single and therefore again leading to union
in Nature and humanity (thus the single spirit of
God working in all, creating all life, and again
unifying it in higher consciousness), this spirit of
unification must, like a warm breath of spring,
spread over and unify the life of the child if we
human beings are to unite and will unite in truth,
first individually, then (socially and as individ-
uals) in the family, in the life of the commu-
nity, and in that of the nation; and if we are
first to feel and then to recognize ourselves as a unit,
in and with humanity, and finally are consciously
thus to live.
This spirit of union must early light and warm
the life of man, like the sun rising clear in the
morning, shining anew over all life, separating in-
deed life and the living into their component parts,
but yet again uniting all by the light which is in
itself single. And “the spirit which forms life is
unity.” “One spirit it is which gives life unto
all.” So also the genuine spirit of the early nur-
ture of childhood which awakens genuine life
208
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
in and around us, gives it back to us and us to it.
Only through this spirit is the long anticipated,
long yearned for goal of all-sided life union gained
by the individual man, the peoples, the nations,
and all humanity.'
We have now come with our play, our means
of employment and gifts (in respect to the use of
which we must refer, as we have before said, to
life, to their employment in genuine spiritual kin-
dergartens, and in families where the children are
fostered in this spirit, as well as to the articles upon
this subject which have already appeared and are
still appearing) to an essential division of our sub-
ject, of the nature of which we have first to form a
clear idea before we can with security go on build-
ing upon it and (proceeding from it in conformity
with the subject) continue our lifeful development.
Now, what is the nature of the means of play
which have been heretofore given? This, that the
object of play was always a unit complete within
itself, a non-separable whole. Only at last, at the
conclusion, we see that three objects in themselves
single can form together again a whole which is in
itself single, like the ball, but in contrast with this
a whole which consists of single parts bearing the
same relation to one another and to the whole as
the individual members bear to the whole which is
in itself single; but, since they were considered in
our earlier treatment always as wholes, they ap-
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
209
pear as part-wholes. And this property of things
to be whole and parts, a part-whole, and the
comprehension and treatment of things and so
again of the human being, even of the smallest
child in its earliest appearance conformably to this
property, are so highly important for the child that
the human being, and consequently the child, can
not too early be led into the observation, knowl-
edge, and treatment of the same. That this now
is to be done by the next plaything and means of
play is definitely expressed in the preceding (the
second) gift; sphere, cylinder, and cube considered
as a whole, in itself single.
But the instinct of the human mother also leads
to this, since the mother seeks to content her restless
child by procuring a plurality of things for its use.
So also the child is instinctively moved to obtain
a plurality of bodies capable of being again joined
together, since it likes to divide separable bodies,
and even likes to observe the parts of membered
objects singly and disjoined and so as movable.
In accordance with this indwelling desire of the
child for a divided and membered whole and the
requirement for the next play-gift, already ex-
pressed at the conclusion of the second play-gift (as
such a whole formed from different kinds of parts),
now follows, according to the law of continued
progress of the means of play, the cube once divided,
but on all sides, thus again uniting in itself the op-
210
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
posites of one and all. By the division the whole
cube appears divided into eight equal cubes, and we
thus say, as it were, "see, it is highly important to
consider the cube-form in life, therefore there ap-
pear here eight equal part-cubes."
And so it actually is. The knowledge of the
cube form is so important for the whole life in all
respects—in respect to the inner as well as to the
outer life, in respect to Nature as well as to human
life, and here again in respect to artistic, scientific,
and practical life—that its form, its comprehension,
and its management can not be too early or too ur-
gently brought before the child. Demonstrations
of this in life and proofs from life are innumerable;
only two are here given. Winkelmann tells us that
the Graces were at first honored in an old temple in
Greece in the form of three perfect cubes. The im-
portance of the cube for sculpture and for the
higher and common architecture can be plainly
seen. In science the knowledge of the cube form
is, for the investigation of solids, what the
straight line is for insight into the nature of the
surface form; indeed, it appears full of meaning
and significance even for moral life and its striv-
ings. How instructive it is, therefore, in and for
such an old and far extended association for general
attainment of genuine humanity as a many-sided
symbol of this effort and of the conditions for at-
taining its aim, etc. Therefore in the first and
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
211
simplest division of the cube which the child at
first attempts there appears only the cube again,
though in numbers, and, as we significantly say
from a higher insight into language, eight (acht)
times presented to notice (Be-acht-ung). Therefore
the attraction which these eight simple cubes, each
of which appears exactly the same as the others,
have for the children even in their second year, is
quite magical. It is wonderful how these simple
cubes are so warmly loved and valued in their con-
stantly unalterable form and figure, as well as in
their constantly abiding number, by the children
who are ever striving for something new and differ-
ent, and how fond they become of this small num-
ber of playmates which are always alike! (As the
legendary world is of its dwarfs because they ac-
commodate themselves to everything and are skilled
and helpful to do everything, like the little man-
drake [our Brownie]). Experience gives many
proofs of this inward, delicate, cordial companion-
ship, of these eight inflexible, unalterable cubes with
the most thoughtful, delicate, actually angelic chil-
dren in the genuine institutions for the fostering of
children, as well as in the families where their most
free and careful development is striven for, so that
a whole pamphlet of lovely children's stories might
guide to the true inner relation of this plaything
to the children and to their innermost need of devel-
212
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
opment and training, for those who are not swayed
by selfish motives (to mention whose names would
here be inadmissible) but are urged by deep, holy,
solemn earnestness to test by mind, spirit and life,
experience and investigation, all that a pure, loving
disposition toward children, human beings and hu-
manity reveals for their education, so that there
may again be for our children a genuine childhood,
that is, a life in which spirit, mind, and power of
action, feeling, thinking, and handling first pene-
trate and strengthen, as being intimately united, be-
fore they are necessitated to enter into the outer life
in the separation which is an unavoidable requisite
for higher consciousness. For separation is per-
mitted for the observing, thinking, and comparing
intellect and the outwardly representing life, and
is indeed required by it, but must by no means on
that account be permitted to appear in the mind
which is destined to constantly grasp and retain
in its original, inner union that which is outwardly
apparently separated by the thinking intellect, the
reason, and the life.
To fufill this (the most difficult requirement in
life) or to live in life, which is esteemed the great-
est art, can now never be taught to the man in the
most highly remarkable and important ways, or, in-
deed, learned by him, just because it depends on
comprehending and retaining the original (that
which was originally in itself a unit). It can there-
EDUCATIONAL PRINCIPLES.
213
fore only be early fostered, strengthened, and de-
veloped in the human being the child. It must
therefore also be early observed, in fact with the
commencement of the life of the child. Now both
these actually take place in a way highly worthy
of thought, and most conformably and satisfactorily,
in the way of observing and guiding, developing
and educating children which lies before us for
contemplation. And what is further not less wor-
thy of notice is that just the point in this whole
method of comprehending and treating children
which meets with the most hostility, just the means
of play most vigorously assailed by its opponents—
the sphere, the cylinder, and the cube, and also not
less the eight simple cubes-fulfill this most diffi-
cult requirement perfectly, lead most satisfactorily
to the practice of that greatest of arts, since they
foster and develop child life in the most delicate,
judicious, warm, pure, harmoniously united manner
just by the outwardly inflexible and sharp separa-
tion they present to notice, as well as to treatment,
as is now proved by the life of many hundreds of
children already occupied with them. The most
striking proof of the comprehensiveness and deep
foundation of the idea of genuine human training
here presented is that it elevates to the highest
glory just that of which it was to show the nullity.
So it is also with the reproach that the children
when occupied with Froebel's plays in Froebel's
214
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Kindergarten are earnest but with faces not pre-
cisely either joyous or laughing. Indeed, life, with
its deep earnestness, can not be early enough
grasped, especially in the present times; and does
not one of our most celebrated educators, Jean
Paul, say, " Play has for the child the greatest ear-
nestness and attracts the little one like a business;
indeed, it lays claim to it like a kind of work by
thought, feeling and acting, mind, intellect, and
action.” Thus here also—and it happens for the
second time—the arrow which struck and was to
annihilate the thing, fell as a trophy of war, feebly
and without effect, before the feet of the thing at
which it was aimed.
Rejoice, children, over Froebel's plays. They
insure to you the highest treasure of life, a life
which is in itself a unit. They insure you a
thoughtful mind. They insure the anticipation of
your hearts, and so confirm your blessed faith in
an eternally invisible, single, good Being—God.
VI.
THE FATHER'S CRADLE SONG.
SOFTLY!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
My boy's trust in me is deep
That he, through this stress of living
Be not roused too soon from sleep;
For the strength the night is giving
Through the whole day he must keep.
Softly, softly, softly.
Softly!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
Childhood is of life the night,
Should in quiet stillness pass on;
Then, when comes the dawning light
Ready is the arm for action,
Strong and able for the fight.
Softly, softly, softly.
Softly!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
In life's battlefield so stern,
Courage pure and strength uniting
Backward will all evil turn,
215
216
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Gain the prize by bravely fighting;
This the weaklings never learn.
Softly, softly, softly!
Softly!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
From the clear, soft light of dawn
Joyously the day is springing;
So the spirit's life is born,
To its deed its will thus bringing;
Thought of failure wakes its scorn.
Softly, softly, softly!
Softly!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
Each act well weighed by the mind,
Prompted by the heart's warm glow,
Will fulfillment surely find;
Bravely thus be met also
Death itself—all ills combined.
Softly, softly, softly!
Softly!
Softly, my son now sleeps, softly!
So sleep on, my little lad,
Till to the heart's love warm within
You the spirit's light shall add
For strength and light the victory win.
Without light all life is sad.
Softly, softly, softly!
VII.
THE CHILDREN'S GARDENS IN THE KINDERGARTEN.
THE high importance of intimate acquaintance
and union with Nature for the development of the
child, the education of man, the training of the na-
tions and of all humanity, has been already many
times mentioned in this work, as it is the sure foun-
dation of successful and profitable education and
training of the individual as well as of all humanity.
For we can not comprehend Nature in its whole be-
ing more precisely and more satisfactorily and vivid-
ly in all its relations than when we consider it as the
direct manifestation in action of God, the first
manifestation of God; but we have not yet devel-
oped the importance of this in detail. This impor-
tance is shown in the consideration of the growth
and development of Nature, and its comparison
with the growth and development of the human
being, and so, first of all, considered and compared
with one's own growth and development. If now
this comparative study is important for man, it
is especially important for the embryo man—the
child. Thus an all-sided satisfactory education
217
218
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
1
(and thus the existence of the kindergarten) neces-
sarily demands that the child be afforded opportu-
nity for this comparison-the word kindergarten-----
tells us how and by what means, if we reflect upon
its application—in the garden of the children.
The kindergarten, the completely formed idea, the
clearly demonstrated conception of a kindergarten,
thus necessarily requires a garden, and in this,
necessarily, gardens for the children. Yet the ne-
cessity of the requirement to connect a garden of
the children with the kindergarten proceeds not
only from the higher reason just given, but also
from reasons of social and citizen collective life.
The human being, the child, as a part of human-
ity must even early not only be recognized and
treated as individual and single, thus as a member
of a greater collective life, but must recognize itself
as such and prove itself to be such by its action.
But this reciprocal activity between one and a few,
a part and a whole, is nowhere more beautifully,
vividly, and definitely expressed than in the as-
sociated cultivation of plants, the common care
of a garden, in which the relation of the gen-
eral to the particular is clearly shown. This is a
so-called house garden, but one in which each child
has its place in its own little garden. But here
in the children's garden of the kindergarten, where
there are many children, and where they and their
gardens form the principal fact, the arrangement
0
CHILDREN'S GARDENS.
219
must be somewhat altered. Here the gardens and
respective beds of the children must be surrounded
by the garden of the whole, as the particular al-
ways rests protected in the general, and the general
protectingly surrounds the particular.
But this garden of the children, besides its gen-
eral aim of representing the relation of the particu-
lar to the general, of the part to the whole, of the
child to the family, of the citizen to the com-
munity, has to be in essentials not merely develop-
ing, educating, and instructive about relations, but
also about things, and here especially about plants.
But this is effected for the child in that he is sum-
moned to comparison, and is again shown by the
fact that the objects, here the plants, stand by one
another for comparison.
In accordance with these ideas the following
is submitted and stated for the arrangement of the
ground, or the place for the children's garden in
the kindergarten:
I. The total space of the children's garden has
the form of a rectangle as the most suitable one.
Other simple forms, circles and ovals, are not ex-
cluded, although they do not seem to correspond
to the object of the whole, especially with many
children, so well as the rectangle.
II. This whole space must now be divided into
two parts—into the part for the general and into
the part for the particular (that is, for the chil-
220
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
dren), or, in other words, into the part for the
whole and that for the individual members (that is,
again, for the children).
III. The part for the general is the inclosing,
as it were, the protecting part; that for the chil-
dren, the inclosed, protected part.
IV. The children can not be and should by no
means be introduced by this garden into the to-
tality of the vegetable world, but only into the
part which most closely touches human needs, thus
into the field plants and those of the garden in
a more limited sense; and therefore the general
land should be divided into garden and field land.
V. But the garden land divides again into the
flower and vegetable garden.
VI. The arable land is for the oil plants, corn,
leguminous plants, bulbous plants, turnips and cab-
bages, finally plants for fodder.
VII. According to the quantity of land, larger
pieces may be given to the children for their little
gardens, and even a piece of garden land to each
child alone. But if the children are many and the
space limited, then the space for each individual
must be circumscribed, or even a smaller piece may
be given to two children together. This connec-
tion of twos in the kindergarten has something good
in it-it teaches friendliness, and each child is so
much the richer for what the other puts in the bed.
Where there is enough land each child may be
CHILDREN'S GARDENSh
221
.
(
given four square feet in the form of a square;
where there is less land, six square feet, in the form
of an oblong, may be given to two children to-
gether. Where, however, the number of the chil-
dren is large and the land small, two children must
be content with four square feet.
VIII. The paths which divide and again com-
bine the whole are either the principal paths or
cross paths (between the single beds); the latter
may be one foot wide. But it is a good plan to
make the principal paths, if possible, at least two
and one half feet wide, so that two children may
walk in them side by side.
This must suffice for the division and use of the
land in the general. In the particular the follow-
ing is yet to be remarked:
In their own little beds the children can plant
what and how they will, also deal with the plants
as they will, that they may learn from their own
injudicious treatment that plants also can not grow
well unless they are treated carefully according to
laws. This will be shown to them by the plants
in the common bed, which they must observe care-
fully, so that they may calmly notice them in their
development from the seed through the germinat-
ing, growing, blossoming, and fructifying to the
seed again. :
In sowing or planting this common bed the
different seeds of the plants should be shown to the
222
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
children for comparison and placed by one another,
and the points of resemblance and difference should
be sought out, so that the child may be able to
name the different plants and to distinguish their
seeds from one another. In the summer and fall,
after the seeds have ripened, they should be gath-
ered and kept for use in winter (about which more
will be said in a later article on winter employ-
ments in the kindergarten) and for replanting in
spring. When it is possible the seeds should be
kept in little paper boxes which have been previous-
ly made by the children themselves. (More will
be said of this in the articles about the employ-
ments of children in general and in particular.)
The plants set out in the gardens should be
compared in the same way. Each child should
have the care of keeping its own bed in order; the
common beds should be cared for by all together,
or by several children at the same time on alternate
days (for instance, on Wednesday and Saturday
afternoons).
In order that the children may be aware of the
name of the plant while looking at and examining
it, it is a good plan to place by the side of each
kind of plant the name (formed by sticks) which
can be easily read by children whose plays and
employments have made them conversant with the
stick forms; besides, the children thus obtain a
clear view of and complete insight into the whole.
1
CHILDREN'S GARDENS.
223
Just so manifold are the results when the bed
of each child is indicated by its name in the man-
ner before given. Each child immediately finds
out the bed of his friend and himself receives,
silent praise or blame according as he has been
careless or careful.
• Besides, the child as yet unskilled in the knowl-
edge of letters and of reading is thereby exercised
in both, since he tries to find out the names from
the signs.
Finally, and lastly, the child receives through
all, as was already mentioned above in a more lim-
ited sense, a complete view of and clear insight
into the whole, by which the memory especially is
strengthened, the memory of places, things, names,
and qualities, as well as the memory of time, by
the differing stages of development of the plants,
and by the tending of them.
All this, however, by no means exhausts the
children. As the child finds in it an image of the
true family life, of the genuine common life
(where the whole and general protect the individ-
ual and particular, and the latter has a retroactive,
beneficial effect on the former), so he finds in each
object by its creation, growth, and decay—that is,
its development from the unit and its return to the
representation of the unit-an image or type of
224
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
himself which leads him to a better understanding,
a more correct comprehension of himself.
It is an incalculable benefit for man to become
early familiar with the course and the stages of
his development, as natural as they are general
boy or girl can early attain to this anticipation
under suitable guidance by tending the little gar-
den, and by observing the tending of plants by in-
telligent and experienced people.
What has been previously said will serve to ex-
plain the accompanying drawing (see page 226) so
far as it concerns the representation and execution.
The garden is, according to circumstances, cal-
culated for twelve or twenty-four childrer. Ac-
cording as the number of beds is increased in the
length or in the breadth of the garden, the neces-
sary number of beds for each number of the chil-
dren can be obtained. Here a bed of four square
feet is allowed for one child (or two children)-
each cross path is to be one foot wide-each of the
principal paths to be two feet wide. The width
of the common bed which surrounds the small beds
is likewise two feet, the length of this bed being di-
vided into equal parts, according to the number of
the fruits and plants to which it is to be devoted;
here in the plan one foot (long or running meas-
ure), and therefore two square feet are allowed for
each kind of plant.
CHILDREN'S GARDENS.
225
The side A is devoted to the field fruits; the
side B to the garden plants. The sequence of the
former (A) and the manner in which the plants are
grouped for the purpose of comparison are given.
The sequence and the order in which the garden
plants (B) are placed side by side for comparison
easily result from the former. Since it is only too
difficult, alas, to find with the kindergarten a
larger place for the gardens or beds for the chil-
dren, in a symmetrically arranged whole, the meas-
ures, especially the width of the paths, are here
given as small as possible, and so the whole garden
is only twenty-five feet long and fourteen wide.
It is, however, better to make the principal paths
at least two and one half feet wide. .
Each of the sticks used for the child's name is
given about one inch and a half for its usual
width and about the same in length (which, how-
ever, may be three inches longer, according to cir-
cumstances). In the same manner one of the
sticks used for the name of a plant is given in equal
width, though not so long. The thickness of each
stick is one fourth of an inch.
There must be as many of these sticks as there
are of children and of kinds of plants. If it is
desired to make the child familiar with bushes also,
it can be done by a hedge surrounding the whole.
In a kindergarten which has lasted some years
the seeds of natural (wild) plants (grasses, herbs,
7
Field plants.
Peas,
vegetables
Cabbage
Turnips
Cereals
Fodder herbs
Luse
Oil plants
cou
- Cabbage turnip
tch
Garden beans
Spotatoes
Beters
Lentils
tillet
ΙΙΒρας
German wheat
White
Rediteet
Rye
Rape cole
heat
ΠΙΓΡιαα
BEL
Allax
Sainfoin
POPPY
Spanish Clover
Sunflower
The Garden for the Children is the Kindergarten.

Kindergartner's surname
wes
TOIN
dopolnh. 21922aba
Flouer gárd
ants
he names of the garden plants are put here like those of the field plo

Kindergartner's Christian name
CHILDREN'S GARDENS.
227
etc.) may be sown in the third or fourth year, in-
stead of those of cultivated ones, thus increasing
the child's knowledge of Nature and plants.
As the seeds and plants have been compared by
the children in common, the seeds should be sown
and the plants set out in common and, as it were,
festively. In order yet more to fix this impression
and expression, the kindergartner accompanies the
planting of the garden with an appropriate song:
Let us to the garden go,
All our little seeds to sow;
Warm air through the vale will blow,
Making each seed sprout and grow,
Etc.
So, later, when the seeds have germinated, the
plants have grown,
In the garden we would be,
All our little plants to see.
It is only necessary to say a word more about
the retroactive effect and the influence of such fos-
tering of Nature and plants on the intellect and
knowledge, as well as on the spirit and on the
feeling, indeed on the whole actual and creating
life of the child. For whoever thus stands in the
midst of the whole, and thus grows forth in and
from it, must well comprehend the whole. There-
fore parents who possess a garden should never
neglect to give up a sufficient space to their child
or children to tend and cultivate in little beds.
228
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
They will thus provide for the children, with some
plain, judicious guidance, a fount of inner moral
elevation and strengthening.
Indeed even the thoughtful tending of a little
window garden or a flower pot is for the child a
pure fount of moral improvement. So cultivating
is Nature in her effects, even through the simplest
plant, for him who early opens heart and sense to
her beneficent influences.
VIII.
PLAN FOR THE TRAINING SCHOOL FOR CHILDREN'S
NURSES AND EDUCATORS.
“KINDERGARTENS ” are the surest means, the
most correct way, the simplest method of general
elevation and ennobling, clear accomplishment and
beautiful representation of genuine family life in
all conditions and relations, as the single, true
fount of contented individual life, joyful social
life, free public life, and united life of humanity.
FR. FROEBEL.
§ 1. AIM OF THE INSTITUTION.
a. In General.
The aim of the institution is, in general, to
train young women who are suited for such work,
to tend, develop, and educate the child from its
birth up to the time when it is fully prepared to
begin its school life, and so up to the beginning of
the instruction of the school properly so called. Its
design is thus to train these young women in the
union of the home, Nature, the school, and life as
a whole (necessarily single in itself) for the attain-
ment of the educational aim-comprehension, de-
17
229
230
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
velopment and cultivation of man (from childhood
up) in his personal individuality, and also as a
member of the great life-whole.
§ 2. AIM OF THE INSTITUTION.
b. In particular.
The aim of education designated in the former
section can be attained in various ways, as it must
be continued through various stages of develop-
ment. These various ways can be essentially two-
fold, either the domestic family education (com-
plete in itself) or the education in common in child
circles and child unions (as one trains plants alone
and singly in a room or in full life union with
other plants in a garden), therefore the aim of this
educational institution is also necessarily a mani-
fold one, either:
I. The training of women as educational help-
ers for the house and family merely; and here
again either:
1. First of all, only for the first stage of the
fostering of childhood, the training of nursery
maids and nurses; or
2. Up to the completely developed capacity for
school, indeed up to the beginning of real school
instruction, the training of directors and educators
of children for the family; or, finally:
II. The training of directors and educators of
2. Up to the come the beginning the educators
NURSES TRAINING SCHOOL.
231
whole circles of children and child unions, as it
were, true kindergartens (as one has flower gardens
and tree gardens in which, as here, the flowers and
trees, so there the children are the exclusive objects
of consideration and fostering, of common devel-
opment and education in the coherence of Nature
and life), thus for kindergartners.
§ 3. FORMING PLAYS FOR THE DESIGNATED AIM.
The stated circles of educational operations
jointly rest on the same foundation and are derived
from the same source. Each one includes the
knowledge and training of the others, only with
greater or less conspicuousness and expansion of its
own peculiar requirements. So the training of
nursery maids and nurses (or rather, as they should
be called, child fosterers and educational helpers)
differs from that of the child directors and child
educators, properly so-called, merely in this, that
the training of the first aims more at mere practice
and knowledge of the particulars and their true
application, while the training of the second has in
view more the insight into and the survey over the
whole, and not only the freer appropriation result-
ing from these, but also the later fulfillment of the
vocation, more full of life, and more freely active.
Therefore the training for both aims of cultivation
can go on in this institution in certain respects
side by side.
232
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
§ 4. AGE OF THOSE WHO ENTER.
A full-grown, healthy, and vigorous body fits
those of from upward of fifteen to twenty years to
be trained for the more limited, first vocation of
child fosterers.
For the training for the more extended second
vocation, as child directors and kindergartners, in
general as child educators, the most suitable age
is from seventeen to twenty years, in proportion
to the degree of love of and kindness toward chil-
dren, love and capacity for playful employment
with children, and for the animated, joyous, and
peaceful view of the world which they have at-
tained. Yet, under the above-named conditions
(which are indeed at times fulfilled in yet earlier
years) older persons are not excluded from en-
trance into the training institution.
§ 5. STAGE OF CULTIVATION OF THOSE WHO ENTER.
Besides the already named conditions for the
choice of this vocation—love for children, capacity
and disposition for play and employment with
them, purity of character, consequently sense and
modesty—a womanly religious feeling of union
with God, and a liking and capacity for singing,
are indispensably requisite. The knowledge and
dexterity which a good public school and girls'
school give are also needed, especially by those
NURSES' TRAINING SCHOOL.
233
who wish to cultivate themselves for child directors
and kindergartners—in fine, as educators. Should
the knowledge be more extended, so much the
greater is its use for the future efficiency—also
more extended—of those who enter.
W
§ 6. DURATION OF THE TRAINING COURSE.
Time and need press urgently, and the pecun-
iary means are usually insufficient to defray the
cost of a longer training. So fully twenty-six
weeks are fixed upon for the first course of training.
On account of the inflexible demand of circum-
stances which I have just mentioned, this course
must usually suffice for the acquirement of the
inost necessary training, as it can not be pursued
further. Of course much might be compressed
into the twenty-six weeks, and unremitting dili-
gence, strenuous employment of the time, and some
favoring preparation of the subject beforehand are
needed to reach the goal. It has, however, been
completely reached by several students.
LU
§ 7. THE ATTAINMENT OF THE AIM OF CULTIVATION.
The attainment of the aim of cultivation indi-
cated in § 3 (beyond the wise employment of the
time required in the former section) depends espe-
cially on the students' correct comprehension of the
impulses (to activity and employment) of their
own lives, and of their laws, as well as, later, on
234
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the consideration and fostering of such impulses
and of their laws of development in the child. The
inevitable condition of the attainment of the aim of
cultivation designated in § 3 is to see into these laws
of cultivation, to find them in one's own life, as
well as to recognize and foster them in the life of
the child, or at least to faithfully order one's life
according to their requirements, as they make
themselves known in each simple womanly mind.
§ 8. DIVISION OF TIME DURING THE TRAINING
COURSE.
The day of instruction begins at seven o'clock
A. M. during the winter half year for the partici-
pants in this training school, as well as for those
in the general educational institution. At this
time they take part in the general morning prayer
and also, immediately afterward, in the religious
instruction in the classes on that subject in the edu-
cational institution. They do this in order to ob-
tain firm religious opinions and clear insight into
the nature of religion and its development in man-
kind, especially at the stage of childhood. They
should gain such insight for their own benefit as
well as for later use with those confided to their
fostering care, as religion is the only sure, satisfy-
ing, vital foundation of an education rich in re-
sults and blessings.
From 8 to 9 o'clock.—Breakfast and free time.
· NURSES TRAINING SCHOOL.
235
From 9 to 10 o'clock.—Bringing forward and
observing the phenomena and course of develop-
ment, consequently also the laws of development
of the human being and the child; reflecting upon
the insight into the being and nature of the child
proceeding from these, and the demand thereby ex-
pressed for its tending and education, as a guiding
thread to the fulfillment of the above-named voca-
tion—the tending and education of children.
· From 10 to 12 o'clock.--Acquirement of the
before recognized means of setting the child to
work and developing it, especially the acquirement
of the right kind of intercourse, the suggestive
talk with the child, learning the suggestive child
songs, and especially the means of corresponding
training of the limbs and senses for the unfolding
of the soul-life in the child as a whole in itself,
and also as a part of the whole human life. The
family book [Mother-Plays, etc.] of Friedrich
Froebel serves as a foundation.
From 12 to 2 o'clock.-Dinner, freedom of
action, free employment with the children of the
family circle, and the reviewing by each student
of what has been before learned.
From 2 to 4 o'clock.—Making the proper ob-
jects for play and employment and the proper
means for the developing of children, by education,
for future reasonable self-dependence. Then prac-
tice with these objects for free use in accordance
1
236
TION
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
with the various gifts of Friedrich Froebel's play-
whole; with essential consideration of all which
Nature and life offer—that is, observation of nat-
ural objects and of the phenomena of life in ac-
cordance with the various stages of the development
of childhood.
From 4 to 5 o'clock.—Supper and free time.
From 5 to 6 o'clock.—Taking part in the play-
ful occupations of the little ones in the united edu-
cating families and of the youngest pupils in the
general educational institution.
From 6 to 7 o'clock.—Acquirement of pecul-
iar little manual dexterities which constantly de-
velop themselves from the above-named play-whole,
each forming in itself relatively an individual
whole, and all together forming a coherent whole
for the children's representing employment (on the
side of the present domestic use, and later of that
of the social, as on the side of the formation and
cultivation of the sense of beauty and also of the
laws of thought and reason), and for the awaken-
ing and anticipation of the inner coherence of all
manifoldness, the development of a harmonious
multiplicity from a unity, and for the anticipation
of the laws of development in Nature and life.
1
NURSES TRAINING SCHOOL.
237
§ 9. A FEW MORE ESSENTIAL PECULIARITIES AND
THE KEYSTONE OF THE TRAINING COURSE.
The division of the day for the duration of the
training course has indeed been given in general in
the preceding section, yet it should be understood
· that even the advancing season effects many alter-
ations in it. Thus, for example, in the spring
months of the training course the science of plants
for the stage of the development of childhood is en-
tered upon from 2 to 3 o'clock.
There also intervenes between the above-given
hours of instruction the execution of free exercises
of the body and the practice of the movement
plays; as also, twice a week for at least an hour,
such plays with the little ones of the educating
circle, and also twice a week occupation and play
with the children in the school of our pastoral vil-
lage of Eichfeld. As thus the training for the
fostering and education of children embraces all
the requirements of the child in bodily (dietetical)
and intellectual (pedagogical) respects, so does it
also in observation of all the directions of the
various inclinations of the child, quite espe-
cially for the elementary preparation for the
school and for leading the child into that prepara-
tion.
This preparation for the foundation of the
school instruction, and the reference to it, can,
238
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
however, be only briefly indicated in the first
course, owing to the limited time, although suffi-
ciently for a further individual progressive cultiva-
tion of the students through their ability and their
own judgment.
Where a second complete course is possible, an
elementary preparation for the school and the in-
troduction into the first educational instruction is
exhaustively given.
In this training course for harmonious, total
fostering of childhood, as already indicated in sec-
tions 1 and 8, the child will be considered and
treated in its individual personality, and also as an
essential member of the great life-whole; thus, ac-
cording to its nature, as a part-whole. Therefore
one of the principal objects of the training school
is to have the students learn to clearly know and
vividly recognize their future little charges as they
now recognize themselves in this double nature, as
wholes and yet members, in order thus to educate
them to the anticipation of the belonging together
of all that is different, the union of all that is sepa-
rate, to the anticipation of the invisible and spir-
itual in the visible and corporeal; of the abiding in
the transitory; of the good even in the evil; and in
this way to train them to the consideration and
fostering of all good and to the union with all good
in life, to the union in thought, will, and deed with
Him who is good and the fount of all good—with
NURSES TRAINING SCHOOL.
239
God—thus in genuine self-union and life-union, up
to true union with God.
§ 10. OUTSIDE CONDITIONS OF ENTRANCE.
The participants in a training course can either
have board and lodging in the general educational
institution, or the latter in certain houses in the
village by the week, in which case — dollars are
to be paid weekly to the above-named educational
institution. The students themselves provide for
bed, washing, light, and fuel, as well as for the
care of the room. Doing the washing and the daily
care of the room afford practice which may be es-
sential at a later time, but the washing can be
cheaply done in the village.
Or the students can procure board and lodging
from the inhabitants of the place, in which case
the compensation amounts to about half, including
light and fuel in the common sitting-room.
One half dollar should be paid weekly for each
person for the whole instruction, so that, in the first
case, the whole course will amount to — dollars per
month; in the second case — dollars per month.
§ 11. BEGINNING OF THE COURSE.
It is best for the training course to begin on
the first of December, so that part of the time may
fall in the spring months.
240
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
§ 12. CONCLUDING REMARKS.
The aim of this institution is generalization of
an education corresponding to human nature and to
the nature of the child, of an education which sat-
isfies the definite requirements of the stage of hu-
man cultivation which has been attained by effort,
and especially the more general carrying out of this
education in families. The attainment of this
aim has till now presented many difficulties in re-
gard to the unavoidable expenses of training the
students. Therefore unions of the fathers of fami-
lies and other persons devoted to benevolent and
humane objects, who recognize the comprehension
of childhood and the aim of training here pre-
sented as founded on their convictions, are invited
on the ground and in accordance with the aims of
their unions to make it one of their objects to ob-
viate these difficulties in cases where, for example,
the establishment of a kindergarten in the province
of their union is concerned, and thus to promote
the efficiency of this training school; since all that
is virtuous and good can be attained only through
an education true to Nature and human nature,
thus an education worthy of humanity, consequent-
ly the genuine family education.
But, on the other hand, young women in the
before-mentioned relations and of the above-men-
tioned age who must choose a suitable means of
NURSES' TRAINING SCHOOL.
241
securing a respectable living, and also those who
are hindered by their parents or by their position,
are invited to prove whether they find in them-
selves capacity and inclination for the vocation (so
rich in blessing) of the education of children which
is here presented; whether they find in themselves
firm will, perseverance, and capability of self-sacri-
fice to seek out the right way and confidently to
train themselves toward the fulfillment of this vo-
cation.
§ 13. REFERENCE.
All those who wish to take part in such a
training course for themselves, their daughters,
their relations, and wards, or for women as objects
of humane assistance, should therefore address let-
ters to the undersigned.
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL,
The Training School for Children's Nurses and Educators,
KEILHAU, NEAR RUDOLSTADT, October, 1847.
IX.
ADDRESS DELIVERED IN THE PRESENCE OF HER MAJ-
ESTY THE QUEEN OF SAXONY, IN DRESDEN, AT
THE TOWER PAVILION, JANUARY 7, 1839.
NOBLE AND HONORED HEARERS:
In Nature as in life, all stands in constant,
inner coherence, in the highest vital coherence
which leads to God, indeed even unites with God.
ored assembly will willingly excuse me from ad-
ducing proofs of this, and so much the more will-
ingly as these proofs can be easily produced from
every point of view, in every direction, and in every
form, and can be demonstrated by the facts of Na-
ture and life, as well as by the utterances of the
wisest men.
In Nature all is intuition and life. Every phe-
nomenon has its sufficient foundation and its neces-
sary consequence. Finally, Nature is the first mani-
festation of God; it is the manifestation of God
by fact and deed. Therefore this coherence is not
only deeply grounded and true, but it is also
equally deeply grounded and equally true that to
242
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
243
live unrestrained and undisturbed in this high co-
herence of Nature and life gives to each created
thing in its degree the finest fruits of life; but it
gives to man the highest goods of the soul-seren-
ity of spirit, peace of heart, and joyousness of life.
Was not this expressed and is it not still hourly
expressed to us by Him who governs life, before
whose name bow the hearts and spirits of those who
know Him?
Since we now see represented in Nature for us,
actually and symbolically, as it were, those highest
ideas of life, since we perceive in Nature the fruits
which are the sound and clear and complete living
expression of the innermost, even manifestations of
the highest (as the holy bards of ancient times
teach us), should not therefore the human being,
the crown of creation, also strive to live in this
high, all-prospering harmony of life which God
himself so visibly manifests to us in his creation
and by his creation? Should now we adults, we
parents, we educators and teachers, in general we
fosterers of childhood and of humanity in the child
--should, in short, the conscious human being, to
whom it is indeed for himself no longer wholly pos-
sible to be able to live undisturbed according to
the high coherence of Nature and life-should we
not at least strive not only to lead our children,
even from the beginning of their existence, into
Nature and life in accordance with this all-har-
244
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
mony and coherence, but to make it perceptible
to and recognizable by them?
The earnestness of this life question to which,
highly respected, highly honored hearers, I could
not close my mind and spirit, to the solution of
which, therefore, I could not refuse my life and
strength, is the cause that I ventured at least to
strive toward this solution.
The earnestness and high importance of this
life question caused me to venture to obey the sum-
mons to lay my attempt to solve this problem be-
fore an assembly, in every respect so prominently
distinguished, for their examination. I beg, there-
fore, for great indulgence and considerate judg-
ment of the imperfection with which I am now
able to demonstrate the whole in word and deed. :
If now there is everywhere in Nature and life
inwardly united coherence, the truth of which has
been conceded by us (or at least assumed to be con-
ceded), each individual must be in life at the same
time a whole in himself and a part of a whole-he
must be a part-whole. The expression easily ex-
plains itself, as there is nothing in the surrounding:
world, and especially in Nature, which does not
justify this expression, which does not illustrate its
truth.
The child himself is such a part-whole since he
unites and connects father and mother, the human
being and Nature, the human being and God; thus
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
245
TY
he mediates between all being and life, even in its
opposites, and therefore it is easy to awaken and
foster in the child the anticipation, and, finally, the
consciousness of the unity of the individual life
abiding in God.
But how and through what is the human being
to rise, as a child, to the anticipation, comprehen-
sion, and living expression of this inwardly united
coherence and harmony of life?
First of all, the human being, even from his
first appearance on earth, from his first entrance
into the family, should be not only considered and
regarded, but also tended and treated in all-united
life coherence with God, Nature, and humanity,
and in all ways as a part-whole.
Every error in regard to this threefold inner
comprehension of the child and human being, even
though it be but slight, injures his clear unfolding
and disturbs the completeness of his life forma-
tion. Therefore this triune conception of the child
and of the life of childhood is our first problem.
Then, secondly, the human being, even as a child,
is to be led to the anticipation and conception, as
well as to the self-demonstration of the inward
uniting coherence, so that he is led to observe, con-
ceive of, and treat each object of Nature and him-
self first of all as a part-whole of Nature.
Therefore the real starting point, the sufficing
foundation of all development is to retain this per-
18
246
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ception of Nature and of the world in its innermost
essence and with all its consequences. But since
each self-developing being and life, therefore also
the life of the child, expresses itself in and by activ-
ity, we have thus, noble and honored hearers, come
to the point from which I would like to begin the
education of the child, or from which, in my opin-
ion, a satisfactory education of the human being
begins; viz., from the correct comprehension and
fostering of the child's life and of his impulse to
creative activity in accordance with the develop-
ment of Nature, of life, and of the world.
But all activity is threefold, or expresses itself
in a threefold action-in development, reception,
and the union of both, viz., comparison and forma-
tion. This threefold activity appears in all which
surrounds the child, as, for example, in every plant
as well as in the life of the child himself. Thus
the life of the child also must be comprehended in
this triplicity of its creative activity, and must be
treated according to it.
The human being, and therefore the child, is
indeed led to all this through Nature itself, since
there is nothing in Nature which does not lead
from every point to God as well as to man; there
is nothing in it (Nature) which is not a part-whole,
which does not show activity. An apple on a tree
is an example of this fact. It is a whole, since a
whole tree can be again produced from it; and is
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
247
also a part of the tree and of Nature, since it re-
ceives its juices through the tree and can actually
develop itself into a tree, only in coherence with
Nature.
near to and too far from the human being, and there
is therefore needed, especially for the child, a con-
necting third which, as it were, unites in itself the
properties of each part-whole of Nature and the
properties of the child as a part-whole of the All-
life, and yet is neither of the two. This is the
ball. For since the connecting third can be nei-
ther an object of Nature nor the child or hu-
man being himself, it must necessarily be, on the
one hand, a product of the human mind (so that
the human being may be assured that it bears his
nature in itself), and, on the other hand, it must.
bear in itself the properties of Nature, that it may
be the mediator for Nature and for each part-whole
of Nature. The ball fulfills these conditions, since
it appears as a self-centered whole, but also at the
same time as striving toward a higher whole, to-
ward the earth and its center.
It is also the ball which especially corresponds
to the life of the child and his activity, in which
the child finds the self-centered starting point and
completely satisfactory expression for this activity.
As the ball easily develops activity from itself, it
also receives into itself the activity of the child and
248
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
shows both what is received and what developed
in an externally uniting phenomenon.
I could therefore also call the ball the repre-
sentative for all which exists, and this designation
or view can not only be most completely justi-
fied, but even bears within itself something very
developing and full of life. And so the phenom-
enon of the ball, as connecting the human being
and Nature (and first of all the child and Nature),
has its foundation in a higher indispensable require-
ment, viz., that the human being, in order to un-
derstand Nature, must create it anew, as it were, in
and from himself in a manner peculiar to himself.
In this effort now the plays entered upon by me
and here brought forward for examination have
their further ground as means of introduction into
Nature for recognition and as types for the hu-
man being, first of all for the child.
But everything that exists like the man and
child combines and unites opposites in itself, in-
deed resolves them in itself-for example, rest and
activity, power and material, etc.—so it is also with
the ball even in its outward appearance, since the
ball (full of material) immediately requires and
demands the hollow ball in the surrounding air or
the surrounding general space.
Through all this the ball not only serves as an
introduction into the knowledge of the most gen-
eral properties of natural objects, but also into the
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
249
knowledge of Nature and of the essence of Nature,
and leads as well to the knowledge of the human
being in his outward appearance as to the insight
into his inner nature and into the unity of that na-
ture, thus leading to the observance of its require-
ments. Therefore the ball is a mirror of all, and
of the life in all, of the general as of the particular,
and of the human being who receives both into
himself.
To have intimated this about the ball and its
nature as the first plaything of the child must now
suffice for me, since I, noble and honored hearers,
have been obliged already longer than I desired to
direct your attention to this object in order not
only to justify the starting from the ball, but also
to bring it out clearly. For if we are united about
the first point and the first means of the fostering
and development of the life of the child we shall
go on, I hope, like the skipper on the open sea
when he has found the power or force pointing
toward a unity—the compass.
But in Nature the outer proceeds from the
inner, the special and particular from the general
and united, etc., by means of the opposite; the in-
flexible from the movable, the manifold and com-
posite from the simple and whole. So also repre-
senting all this, the inflexible sphere and the com-
posite cube come forth from the soft and simple
ball. Therefore the sphere and cube are the next
250
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
playthings, or rather the next suitable means of
employment of the child. But in the sphere, al-
though solid, becomes yet more precisely prominent
the easy mobility of the ball, as in the cube the
manifoldness resting in the ball, of which I shall
only permit myself to mention the most striking
phenomena. I must wholly set aside, for want of
time, the especial consideration of the sphere in
contrast with the ball, since the phenomena of the
sphere are only the sharper and more perfected
phenomena of the ball, on account of the greater
weight and hardness of the sphere.
In the sphere, as in the ball, in whatever posi-
tion they may be, are to be distinguished three prin-
cipal directions always at right angles to each other,
conditioned by the lower, upper, and middle points.
These three principal directions are in many ways
the key to recognition, comprehension, and repre-
sentation of every form and figure, of every size
and number, even of life in its intellectual phe-
nomena. It must not, therefore, remain unnoticed
that as we perceive in each object three activities-
the developing, the receiving, and the comparing-
so also the principal direction, even in the ball,
is determined by three points, and the principal
directions in the ball, in the sphere, and in the cube
are again necessarily represented by three. The
importance of this observation of a constantly un-
divided, coherent three will come up to us, from
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN:
251
this point on, more and more full of life, and will
faithfully conduct us to our goal, as that perception,
deeply grounded in the most secret innermost na-
ture of things, faithfully shows, even to the child,
the way to fulfill many of the requirements which
life makes.
In the cube each end of the three principal di-
rections appears extended to a surface, since each
of the principal directions comes forward externally
four times as four edges, whereby the cube shows
three times four parallel edges. And so six sur-
faces of the cube, each two of which are parallel
to one another, appear as postulated in its interior
as well as in the inside of the sphere and of the
ball. We must here postpone a particular refer-
ence to the manner in which, on the contrary, the
phenomenon of the eight corners of the cube is pre-
supposed in the inside of it and also in the inside of
the sphere and of the ball. It is only important to
us at present to give further prominence to the fact
that in the sphere and ball all directions show them-
selves as different only in position, but alike in
size. In the cube, on the contrary, these directions
(which in the sphere only differ in position) show
also the difference in size. They first of all show
themselves as directions from one surface to an-
other (surface directions), as directions from one
edge to another (edge directions), and as direc-
tions from one corner to another (corner directions).
252
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
If we now look at this thoughtfully and scrutiniz-
ingly we must recognize that the cube, first of all,
makes its inner nature externally visible; and, sec-
ond, which is yet more remarkable, leads to the per-
ception and recognition of the fact that the outside
of the sphere is only the representation (manifesta-
tion) of the inside. A special mention of the man-
ner of making this perceptible must also be post-
poned. Only the great law of Nature and life
thus made known-to make the internal external,
to make the external internal, and to place both in
uniting comparison—this greatest and first (and yet
simplest and most extended) law of Nature, life, and
education, must not remain unexpressed. It is the
more important to express this law as it thus be-
comes clearly perceptible how the kinds of employ-
ment entered upon by these plays not only lead
to a notice of the laws of Nature, but bring them
near to the comprehension and penetration of the
human being, even as a child, and so to their ap-
plication in his individual life. For we ask, What
is the highest aim of man's activity from the be-
ginning to the end, or at least what should it be?
Can we give any other answer than to make known
the unity of all life, goodness itself, God, through
all which he creates from himself; to recognize the
unity of all life, goodness itself, God, in all which
above all in Nature; and comparing both to per-
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
253
ceive the one divine life, the unity in the workings
of God, and, lastly, goodness itself everywhere in
the universe, in life, and in Nature?
To this now I would guide even the little child
(constantly bearing in mind the expression “ one")
in his first free action, in his play, unconsciously
to himself, and indeed wordlessly, through the con-
templation of object and action.
It has been already recognized that the ball is
the means of introduction into that which is gen-
eral—first of all into that which is general in Na-
ture. It must now be stated that the cube is the
means of perception of and introduction into that
which is particular in Nature, and also in the forma-
tion of the life of man and of the child.
A slight indication must suffice for the cube
on each of these two sides. On the first, the side
of Nature, this is thus shown:
Where the directions of surface are equally
formed we find all the fixed forms which belong
to the spherical, cubical formation, to the tessular
system in mineralogy, as in the noble metals.
Where the edge directions appear to define it we
find the two-and-two-sided formation of the fixed
shapes-e.g., in the feldspar; and where the corner
directions determine the formation, the three-and-
three-membered system enters, as in the quartz.
In this there may at the same time lie an indica-
tion of how the child fostering for which we strive
254
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
is at the same time also the genuine representation
of comprehensive and impressive knowledge of Na-
ture, and that the child therefore most thankfully
recognizes a fostering of childhood in accordance
with Nature when this kind fostering is also be-
stowed upon the natural sciences, since the child
feels his relation to Nature in her innermost striv-
ings, and so enjoys that fostering, although not ar-
bitrarily and accidentally.
In reference to life, the fact appears that in all
changes of the phenomena, the fountain and union
of them, as well as their outer and inner coherence,
should be retained for recognition and exercise.
For the penetrating, thorough consideration of Na-
ture leads the whole human race, as well as the
individual man, always to God, as the divine
teacher and educator of humanity himself says; and
therefore the deeply penetrating consideration of
Nature in reference to man's heart and soul, mind
and life, becomes a sacred duty to his disciples and
followers. Finally, who does not know, indeed
what truly cultivated person doubts at the present
time, that the thoughtful consideration of Nature
has or should have a like aim with genuine child
fostering, the aim which is given to the human be-
ing with his life, to recognize the fountain of all
life, and, as we live through it, to live in and
with it.
The sphere and cube will thus be given to the
child, and therefore in general to the human being,
as the next plaything, or as the following means
of employment, that he may be introduced into the
manifoldness of Nature, of his own life, and of
all life; and also at the same time that he may
comprehend the inner and outer coherence of the
two, and the unity in all manifoldness of each by
the changes of the phenomena, and retain it that
he may not be wrecked therein.
But I must hasten to my goal, however will-
ingly I would still extend further my observations
about each of these subjects, since I esteem them
important for the life-fostering of the child and for
the attainment of his future inner and outer peace
of life.
As the unity of the ball requires manifoldness,
especially the manifoldness of the cube and also of
the sphere, as I have pointed out, so now further in-
divisibility requires the divided, the single requires
separation. Each child shows us this, for he
tries to divide everything; at least he brings each
thing to his mouth in order to bite into it, although
he is as yet unable to bite off a piece of it. This,
however, by no means sets aside the fact that this
phenomenon may have and actually has other
causes. It is enough that we all know the child's
desire to take things to pieces, which, if not suffi-
ciently noticed in bringing him up, becomes a dis-
position to destroy.
256
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The next plaything for the child must there-
fore be a divided simple body. This body must be
divided in the smallest and slightest way, and yet
on all sides. Such is the cube once divided on
each side, through the middle and parallel to its
surfaces, thus separating the principal cube into
eight part-cubes similar to it, and exactly like each
other.
Permit me one glance at our words, which are
so full of meaning. On account of their impor-
tance, special attention (Acht) must be given to the
eight (acht) equal part-cubes (similar in form to the
principal cube), because what the principal cube
shows once the eight part-cubes together make
known eight (acht) times.
The division of the cube once on each side, or,
in other words, its division on all sides, necessitates
the remark that the opposites, which are in this case
one side and all sides, must always appear united,
and the one-sided should no sooner be seized upon
than it is again recognized necessarily as a member,
as an indispensably essential development of all-sid-
edness.
But now, how and through what does the once
divided cube correspond to the nature of the child
and satisfy his impulse to activity?
For application in life, especially in educational
life, it may be stated that the tendency of the in-
telligence, proceeding from the first contemplation,
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
257
is to separate; as the tendency of the heart, pro-
ceeding from the same contemplation, is to unite..
This, however, does not deny, but rather proceeds
necessarily from the fact that they, especially in
later life, exchange their rôles and effects, so that
what was before separating becomes uniting, and
what was before uniting becomes separating. But
this is here no further carried out, yet should be at
least touched upon in order to avoid unnecessary
objection. As now the intelligence separates and
the intellect unites, practical life demands the
form, and this is furnished by the cube thus di-
vided.
So now the third play, which legitimately de-
velops before our eyes, gives the possibility, in-
deed the necessity, of comprehending the child and
the human being, by means of it, in the triplicity
of his nature as a feeling and experiencing, as a
thinking and recognizing, as a creating and form-
ing being.
And so the play-forms which can be represented
by it, or the results of the tendency to activity fos-
tered in the child, are either forms of knowledge,
of truth, of thought (often the child also briefly
names them in his play, learning forms), such as
Ž, 4, 8; or forms of feeling, of beauty, of the heart
(the child also well names them, picture-forms); or
forms of use, of life (the child also well names
them, object-forms). As this exposition corre-
258
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
sponds to the nature of the human being, of the
child, so it corresponds to the phenomena of Na-
ture, where appears first the thing and the object
in general, then the object in reference to unity and
beauty (as, for example, in the leaf and blossom
forms), finally according to the laws which govern
the organization of parts (measure and number,
etc.). It must yet be remarked about these repre-
sentations that a whole—that is, a divided cube-
always serves for each of them; a similar law is
also expressed in Nature.
But I must hasten on, since the briefest repre-
sentation of this subject alone would fill up the
hour.
It can not escape notice that each successive de-
velopment must be already founded in the previous
one, as this is a law of progression and development
in Nature as well as generally in life. This is also
an essential law of these plays, as a means of devel-
opment for children. So the three principal per-
pendicular * directions of the cube appear even in
the sphere; here, however, as changing; there as
abiding, etc.
These three principal directions, although ap-
pearing permanently fixed in the cube, show them-
selves to be of equal value that is, each of the
directions can be put in the place of the other.
* The word is here used in its geometrical sense.- TR.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
259
If now any one of these directions is given—for ex-
ample, as the direction of height—the two others are
necessarily determined as directions of length and
breadth. But the constant all-sided development
of the child, as well as the introduction into the
many-sidedness and all-sidedness of life formation,
requires that with all changes of position these
three different directions should appear fixed, con-
stantly different in themselves from one another,
yet each always the same.
Now, how is this to be obtained? Simply by
carrying the dividing cut in the third division
through the middle of each column, parallel to the
two side surfaces, instead of through the middle of
each column parallel to the top surface. The neces-
sary result of this is the building-stone form, which
is important for the forming life, especially for
architectural life. The whole principal cube which
before separated into eight cubes is now in this way
divided into eight building stones, also well named
by the children building blocks.
We see here again, according to a clearly visible
law of Nature, the formation become more and
more precise, and at the same time more and more
manifold.
The forms represented with them by the chil-
dren's impulse to activity are again, as before, sep-
arated into forms of life, beauty, and knowledge.
But each series of them is essentially extended by
260
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
representations on and in a surface, as well as by
outline representations, especially from the province
of life and use.
The most remarkable, however, is the phenome-
non which is brought forward by this single altera-
tion of the parts (that each direction, before only
different according to the position, is now also dif-
ferent according to the size). This is that each
single form of beauty or picture-form which could
be represented, at the most, three different times by
the cube once divided on each side or into eight
part-cubes, may be carried out more than a hun-
dred—indeed several hundred times—by the cube
divided into eight building blocks. These forms
are always different, yet are produced according to
a simple necessary law without any arbitrariness.
What an effect it must have, what an impres-
sion it must make, even on the simple intelligence
of the thoughtful child and on his later developed
childlike intellect, when he perceives that the hu-
man being, even he himself, by his own small and
limited individual power, can form such innumer-
able things with such small means! What must
an unlimited single power, like that of God, be
able to accomplish and form with infinitely less
means! And these eight blocks have indeed pro-
ceeded and can be brought forth even by a child's
power from the first principal cube, which by itself
shows already such a great number of alterations.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
261
According to experience, it must be assumed
with certainty that such perceptions can not remain
in the childish mind, in which often the smallest
impressions have the greatest results, without bene-
ficial effect for his whole life. And the observa-
tions of this higher yet simple kind are as many
as the representations possible indeed more, since
each representation admits of several different per-
ceptions.
These observations are so much the more im-
portant for the child, as not only can the represen-
tations and perceptions be again called forth at any
time, but also the child is introduced by means of
them from himself and his play into the notice of
Nature; and his eyes, too, are opened to the in-
tuition and perceptions in Nature where these
truths become formed and actually shine wher-
ever he turns. So through these plays and this
way of playing in the life of the child is not
only introduced and prepared for, but actually
obtained and accomplished, that for which we
strive-namely, that the observation and con-
templation of Nature may be the foundation of
human education, especially of the fostering of
child life.
In this reference must be here made prominent
a perception important for life and a general law
which shows itself in these playful representations,
as well in Nature as in the life of the human being
19
262
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and even of the child, and obtrudes itself in these
representations. This law is that each following
development includes each preceding and earlier
one, as is demonstrated, for example, by the per-
ception and development of the three different
principal directions at right angles to each other,
which are indicated even in the sphere, but first
appear permanently different in the so-called build-
ing block. This perception is as important for the
life of the human being, and particularly for the
development of the child, as the law already pre-
viously brought forward, that all that follows must
go out from that which precedes. But the child is
led by Nature mediated by play, to the recogni-
tion of this law which is so important for his life
and which expresses itself on so many sides, and in-
deed everywhere in Nature. This is the reason
that these plays appear important to us. For as
the child is led in such a way to perceive all de-
velopment and manifoldness in Nature as proceed-
ing from a unity, so again is he led through all
manifoldness of Nature to its first unity, to its rest-
ing in God, to its having proceeded from God.
This intuition of the mind, this recognition of the
spirit, and this perception of life afford the highest
Now a few more words about the next follow-
ing play and its development from the preceding,
as well as about its nature, etc.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
263
Because the advance goes from the undivided
cube to that once divided on each side, and because
the most natural advance is from one to two, so the
next plaything in this series of the means of play
is the cube twice divided on each side parallel to
its sides. This increased division, however, does
not yet effectuate the progress of development in the
child, for only a greater number of parts would
be thus obtained. Therefore there must be added
to the plurality of parts the variety and difference
in kind of those parts, in order to obtain an actual
advance. This is done by the division into the part-
cubes, but necessarily, according to the natural law
of the constantly requiring opposite, by a division
wholly different from the preceding ones, viz., ac-
cording to the oblique or diagonal plane of a part-
cube, and once as well as twice crossing it. Since
now, by the dividing of the principal cube twice
on each side, the cube separates into three times
three times three or twenty-seven part-cubes, it is
in the nature of the thing that each of three
cubes should be once divided into two diagonal
halves, thus into two right-angled triangular
prisms, in each of which two sides are similar and
one is different. [This remark applies also to the
bounding lines of each prism.] Then again each
of three other small cubes is divided by two diag-
onal planes cutting each other at right angles into
four equal quarters, thus into four right-angled
264
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
prisms, * each consisting of two similar sides and a
dissimilar one.
Indeed the correct comprehension of the right,
in form and figure as well as in life and represen-
tation, is above all and first of all important for the
human being and the child. Therefore, since Na-
ture as a model for man teaches the right so multi-
fariously, and first of all in the upright position
(the perpendicular attitude toward the upper sur-
face of the earth, etc.), so precisely the former
plays sought also to confirm this comprehension and
this impression. But the oblique and inclined is
important for the comprehension of Nature, of her
attributes, and of her laws, as well as of all the
laws of life (who does not think here of the in-
clinations or dippings of the magnet and of their
significance, as well as of the directions in the hu-
man mind, which are also significantly called in-
clinations!), for which reason these plays and
means of employment of childhood in their progres-
sive development in accordance with childhood also
strive to train the child to the comprehension of
the oblique and its extent in Nature, in art, and
in life.
This may serve as an indication of the signifi-
cance of this play for fostering the impulse to ac-
tivity in the child, and for introducing him into
* The bases of these prisms are isosceles triangles.-TR.
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
265
Nature and into the laws of life in general. The
division of their representations into forms of
thought or knowledge, into forms of feeling or
beauty, and into forms of life or use (object forms)
came forth clearly and importantly even in the
two former plays and means of employment, and
it does so here yet more. Since now, further, the
number of forms is naturally very much more in
each of the three branches or divisions than with
the earlier means of employment, there soon come
forth from each of them new and important rami-
fications leading into Nature as well as into life.
Besides, the forms of each kind also appear on that
account so much the more complete, the more fin-
ished and formed they are. Therefore if they are
architectural forms they receive roofs, doors, etc.;
if they are articles of furniture they receive more
exactness; if they are forms of beauty they re-
ceive the essential, new feature that now, besides the
square, the equal-sided triangle, and indeed the
round which appears as a fundamental element of
the forms of beauty in the most manifold way, and
both appear as an introduction into the plant, leaf,
and flower forms of Nature. The forms of knowl-
edge present for comparison, besides an already
large manifoldness of the simple or whole forms,
a yet greater number of part forms, and as a
wholly new result, a multitude of combined forms
of truth or knowledge. I will cite especially the
266
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Pythagorean Proposition, or the truth of the
united square contents of the square surfaces on
the longest side of the right-angled triangle, being
equal to the square surfaces on the legs of the in-
closed right angle.
This play and employment box is especially
important for the child on account of the richness
of its forms, leading on many sides into Nature,
and on account of the multitude of simple facts
of thought, life, and Nature which proceed from
them.
Opposite to it in the series of play with tablet-
like parts stands the cube, whose long tablets [ob-
long prisms] are again divided into square tablets
and square columns. The constructions are, on
this account, to a great extent columnar.
Yet, since it would be impossible in one state-
ment to complete the whole of the subject in the
yet remaining manifoldness of its direction and in
the many kinds of their development, and still less
possible to bring it forward with at least a few
necessary illustrations, I close here my explana-
tions of these educating plays. It has been at
least possible for me to lay before you for your
searching examination a few of the most essential
perceptions, laws, and facts on which rests the
effort we have begun, or rather from which it pro-
ceeds. You have received at least a general idea
ADDRESS BEFORE THE QUEEN.
267
of the progress of the whole which further un-
folds itself according to fixed and necessary laws;
which progresses onward from this point, goes
down by degrees more and more into the practical
life of the child and the directions and relations of
life awaiting him; comprehends his whole life,
his inner and outer (that is, his spiritual and
corporeal), his present and future life requirements
at their starting point; and in such a man-
ner that the whole comes to a conclusion with
the development in his mind, of the concep-
tion that “through God and in God, by whom all
is which exists, I also live and abide in the mani-
foldness of the phenomena of my life.” In respect
to the application of these plays in the life and
society of children I must refer to what I was per-
mitted to accomplish by kind, confiding permission
and gracious favor here in several circles of chil-
dren. Though it would not be possible for me to
describe in one hour, even in its first fundamental
lines, in the single accomplishments required by it,
an idea very dear to man, highly simple, but rich
in its development—to make Nature in its eternal
laws of unfolding and life, placed in it by God
himself, the foundation of human and childhood
education—I do not therefore doubt of a favorable
and kind indulgence. But if it should become pos-
sible for me to bring forward this idea (so simple
in itself, and yet certainly beneficial in its results)
.
268
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
so clearly that one would convince himself of its
truth and possible applicability, especially with
children before the age of school duties, I trust I
should be pardoned if I, in conclusion, should ex-
press openly the wish of the heart and spirit which
has faithfully fostered within itself this idea until
now—for almost fifty years. This wish is that there
might be for the demonstrated idea such a practical
realization, a place for its fostering and unfolding,
where it could make itself known in the entire ful-
ness of its beneficent effect on the mind of the child,
and in the rich blessings which it brings to the life
of the human being.
Should this wish be fulfilled by the noble and
respected assembly here present, it would thus be-
come at once possible for the idea to give practical
evidence, primarily by the blessing which develops
from it for the life of the child, of the gratitude
which is due for the indulgent reception of its first
incomplete presentation.
X.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL. A LETTER FROM FRIED-
RICH FROEBEL TO ONE OF HIS DISCIPLES.
MARIENTHAL, May 25, 1852.
DEAR AND ESTEEMED EMMA:
You desire from me an appendix concerning
the management of the connecting or preparatory
school—the connection between the kindergarten
and the school for actual learning. This will, of
course, be difficult for me, since I can not add the
perception of the actual objects to my written
words. However, I will make the attempt. First
of all let us try to fix somewhat the different stages
of the development of the child. The first stage is
that of childhood. This is again separated into two
divisions; in the first of which the tending of child-
hood, especially with regard to the bodily invigora-
tion and strengthening of the child, predominates;
and in the second division the careful development
and use of body, limbs, and senses. This baby
stage connects the child pre-eminently with the
arms and lap of his mother. With the first stage
is linked the second stage, which is continuous
269
270
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
with it; this is the stage of the family. By means
of the space in the room which is free to the
child he develops to a wholly independent and
spontaneous use of his body, limbs, and senses, and
especially to a more complete development of his
capacity for speech, so that he is at least in a con-
dition to communicate all his needs, and to comply
with the simple requirements of life which espe-
cially refer to alterations of space and determina-
tions of activity. These two stages form a whole,
in a sense, opposite to the kindergarten. The
second principal stage of the life of children is that
of the kindergarten. At its entrance into the kin-
dergarten the child enters into a manifold new re-
lation of life which should be carefully and
thoughtfully considered by the kindergartner.
The little one enters, first of all, into relations with
a number of companions, and with those compan-
ions 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.
In this lies the human training of the kindergarten,
which the kindergartner must make clear to the
child's consciousness in order to carefully introduce
him into this new relation, and to make this rela-
tion fruitful to him. Second, the child, when he
comes into the kindergarten, comes to a plurality
of objects which lead him to comparing perception,
thus to comparing afterthought, to the training of
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
271
the understanding, and so, through their appear-
ance and their relations unconsidered and unan-
ticipated, to manifold recognitions. These objects
become also for the child not only objects of per-
ception, etc., but also objects of the activity of the
creative will, and thus means for the recognition of
his creative power and the results of that power.
They thus teach him through the thing and the deed
to know, first, the things themselves; second,
their relations to one another; third, their man-
ner of origin and development; and fourth, their
further effect. All this the kindergartner must
bring very clearly to insight and perception before
she carries her child on to the third stage, the con-
necting school. In the kindergarten the question
is merely of perception, contemplation, action, cor-
rect designation by words, as well as correct indi-
cation of what is brought out by action; but not
yet of recognition and knowledge separated from
the object.
Object and knowledge, perception and word, are
yet in many ways as much united as body and soul.
This training stage of the kindergarten must yet
be retained (held fast) by the, kindergartner as a
very sharply bounded one. The abstract pure
knowledge, the abstract self-dependent thought, is
first entered upon in the fourth stage—that of the
connecting school. The name closely indicates its
nature. The connecting school stands in the mid-
272
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
dle between the kindergarten and the school for
learning or for conceptions. It combines both, as
in a certain respect it shares the nature of both;
that is, it passes from the perception of an object to
the idea of that object.
The precise and clear result of the kindergarten
(complete within itself) is therefore a sharply de-
fined and clear apprehension and conception of the
object, of its properties, its relations, its origin, its
onward development, and its manifold connection
with life. And all this is connected with the accu-
rately describing word, first of all, by the forms and
images called forth by the child's freely creating
activity, as forms of life, as forms of knowledge
(recognition) and insight, and as forms of feeling,
forms of beauty. Here that which is inwardly
single and existent appears in outward manifold-
ness, and so the child comes to the true recognition,
to the particular perception of the manifoldness
which resides in the inner unity and comes forth
from it by legitimate unfolding. This is one of
the most important phenomena to which you must
call the attention of all those who examine the
subject; for, as all proceeds from a unity and again
returns to a unity through manifoldness, opposite-
ness, and connection, its contrary and opposite is
given with each thing, and so the child is intro-
duced unconsciously into the science, indeed into
the living expression of the simple and general as
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
273
well as the special laws of life by this definite
action and by this holding fast in feeling and com-
prehension; the child indeed lives in these laws.
You must, first, make this very clear, vivid, and
intelligible to all; and, second, show it particu-
larly to the examining authorities, and especially
to the open or silent opposers of the system.
Therefore the stage of kindergarten training
must be very clear to you. Your perception of it
must be very decided. In this kindergarten train-
ing the law of development, constantly used and
followed, counteracts the impulse to destruction, es-
pecially in boys, as it arouses the impulse to devel-
oping, creative, formative activity.
But what is the result of this developing ac-
tivity? It is as follows: That which is not ap-
parent becomes evident in the sphere one recog-
nizes the axis); the invisible becomes visible (this
applies to the child). In the action of the parents
the child recognizes their love, and vice versa. In
the manifestations of Nature the oneness and the
love of God are disclosed. To this disclosure of
that which is not apparent lead the stick-laying,
the interlacing, the intertwining, and especially the
peaswork, rising from the hollow, empty, plane
surface to the hollow, empty solids—cube, octahe-
dron, tetrahedron, etc.—and their constant connec-
tion with and abiding in cube and sphere. You
have been through all this work and can conse-
274
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
quently demonstrate it also to your examiners and
critics.
Before the stick-laying I directed the laying of
surfaces or little tablets. The laying of squares and
triangles especially should be mentioned. This lay-
ing of surfaces leads to the highly important knowl-
edge of the relation of form to contents, or of figure
and form to size. It teaches us to know the laws
which lead us into the deeper knowledge of the
nature of things—namely, that like form is pos-
sible with unlike size, and that equal size is possible
with unlike form. The surface-laying also teaches
us the laws of size and form (mathematics), which
develop further from those just mentioned, and
shows us how the first apprehension and perception
of these laws is merely a simple making, changing,
doing, without any further reflection and without
any words.
You see, my dear Emma, you must expound
the nature, means, and ways of kindergarten guid-
ance in such an organic manner as this to your edu-
cational officials as well as to the severe critics. If
you do so you are provided with weapons and will
be unconquered, even if no one agrees with you,
even if no one says that you are right. Your being
right does not at all depend on the acknowledg-
ment of the fact. You can be perfectly right with-
out the acknowledgment being made by another,
just because he does not see into the subject; in-
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
275
sight can be impressed upon no one. The being
right is based on mathematical proof which no one
can oppose, and which speaks through the object.
But the whole kindergarten procedure rests
upon simple mathematical proofs, and you yourself
must rise to the perception of them. Now, there are
two more principal perceptions of life which begin
in the kindergarten and which are demonstrable in
their fundamental generality. These are the rela-
tions of plurality, mass, number, to unity, and the
relation of the designation to the thing; and here
again in a double reference, first that of the word
to the thing, then that of the sign to the thing.
As the numbers in their essential diversity as
even and uneven numbers, as three times two and
two times three [square surfaces], are seized in
the cube as unity, this is an important fact of our
kindergarten procedure. I place great value on
this, as I do on everything in which manifoldness
develops from unity through contrast and again
returns to unity. However, number first finds its
true recognition with the stick-laying, where, as
you know, all which teaches the relations of enlarg-
ing quantity to increasing number, the distribution
of the size of the parts (thirds being smaller than
halves, sixths than fourths) comes out necessarily
and in the simplest way. Thus the foundation is
laid in the occupations of the children in the
kindergarten for the perception of number and its
276
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
relations, as so-called integers and fractional or
divided numbers.
You must once more quietly recall this to your
remembrance, and bring it to objective perception
in your own room, dear Emma, so that you may
again obtain the feeling of supervision and master-
ship. You should never allow this feeling to be
weakened, my dear Emma, but you must, on the
contrary, strengthen and elevate it.
Now let us turn to the consideration of the
representation of the object by word and drawing.
The former, in the kindergarten, is confined to the
spelling and writing of a few names, and the article
entitled How by Means of Persons and Things Lina
learns to Read * gives you sufficient explanation of
it. If you develop what is there stated in and from
itself, as your own view, you can thereby meet each
criticism and question with the full feeling of suf-
ficiency.
This subject is treated in the just-mentioned
article so lucidly, so truly, so in harmony with the
development of the child and the reflective nature
of man that it merely needed to be read to establish
the truth of what is there stated.
Next comes the representation of the object by
drawing—that is, by the sign. Little of this be-
longs in the kindergarten, because the little fingers
* See vol. xxx, International Education Series.—TR.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
277
are as yet too weak. Stick-laying represents the
drawing in one aspect; the making of circles, which
the children like so well to do with the slate pencil,
is another aspect. The latter can be carried out
to the simple flower and leaf forms.
However, on account of the weakness of the
little fingers, the drawing, as well as the writing,
belongs predominantly to the connecting school,
as do the practice in color and the genuine singing
exercises, for which the singing in kindergarten is
only the preparation.
Add to this the introduction into life itself by
the movement plays, by the tending of the little
individual gardens and of the general garden of the
children, and by the personal feeling of selfhood
and life awakened and nourished in the child by the
play and the tending. Add also the presentiment
(caused by the just-mentioned feeling and aroused
at the same time with its increase) of a fatherly
Giver of life, and of the feeling of his fostering care
of life, as the foundation of which may be claimed
the testimony of Jesus, that children wish to be
good. Put all this together and you have the
kindergarten in its completed cultivation, and the
child, as a member of it, at the threshold of the
connecting school.
Here presses on us pre-eminently the question,
Then what makes the connecting school a connect-
ing school? The name says clearly that it makes
20
278
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the connection between the kindergarten and the
school for genuine study, and is a passage from the
one to the other. The name also implies that the
connecting school comprises and unites within itself
the nature of both, proceeding from the develop-
ment and nature of the kindergarten to the school
for genuine study, and to the right guidance of the
child in a manner corresponding to and faithful to
his nature and its requirements.
Now, what is the nature of the kindergarten?
And what of the school? The nature of the two may
be thus described: In the kindergarten the princi-
pal consideration is the child, his nature, and the
strengthening, invigorating, developing, drawing
out, and educating of the little one; in the school
it is just the reverse. Here, in the connecting
school, the principal consideration is the object, its
nature, the recognition, perception, and comprehen-
sion of its properties and relations, and the desig-
nation of those properties and relations; the train-
ing of the child thus effected is but secondary, inci-
dental, and casual. Through the demands on the
child to recognize the object, the fact, the thing,
in its right nature, in its true properties and clear
relations, the child is still considered; but the cor-
rect comprehension and knowledge of the object
through perception is ever the principal considera-
tion. In the school the principal consideration is
the comprehension of the object through thinking,
1
• THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
279
the inner presentation, as it were the unclothing
from the body—abstraction.
The connecting school thus forms the step
from the perception of reality and facts in the
kindergarten to the comprehension of abstractions
and of thought in the school. You must make
this very clear to yourself, my dear Emma, and you
are right in thinking that the correct comprehen-
sion of the nature of the connecting school and its
proper guidance is very difficult, or at least not easy,
just because it presupposes exact knowledge of the
kindergarten, its nature and peculiarities, and also
at least the general knowledge of the school, its
subjects of knowledge, its nature, and its demands.
Whoever, therefore, sets for herself the task of
completely carrying on a connecting school must
go through a training course of at least one year,
if this guidance is actually to lay claim to com-
pleteness and perfection. On account of this lack
of thorough training for the connecting school it
is for the most part carried on so imperfectly, and
on account of the twofold character of the training
required, in spite of its high and great importance
to the teacher, and even to the public teacher, it is
still so rare.
Upon what path does the connecting school
now enter? It connects accurately with the facts
and phenomena, with the sense-perceptions in the
kindergarten, but gives generality of significance
280
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
to the observation of particulars, and thus gives
intellectual comprehension and a form of thought.
For example, my little ball moves easily, there and
here, forward and back, up and down (kindergarten
perception). Everywhere in space I can think of
three lines, of three directions, all three of which
intersect at one point, and at right angles to one an-
other. I can draw them and place them before
myself in thought (connecting-school conception).
Or, going yet further back," the little ball escapes
from my hand and hops out free.” It escapes
from the small, narrow, inclosed space into the
great free space (kindergarten perception). Every
object can move in particular or general spaces
(conception of the connecting school). Exercise
in the connecting school: What rests or what moves
in particular, and what in general space? To con-
nect with the preceding kindergarten perception:
How does it (state it in a general form)-move in
space? Answer in the connecting school: In three
directions at right angles to one another (compre-
hensive form of thought). This form of thought
explains in the connecting school the diversity in
the movement of the ball. Or, again, one whole,
two halves; two halves, one whole (kindergar-
ten perception). I can divide each whole into
two halves, and always unite the two halves
of a whole again to form this whole (intellectual
and general comprehension of the connecting
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
281
school). Where do whole things appear actu-
ally divided into two halves, or halved? and
what wholes can I divide into two perfect equal
halves? (progressive development of the connecting
school at this stage, used for the perception of num-
ber and quantity). Passage to figures (distin-
guished from number). “You see, children, it
would be too tiresome always to make the proper
number of strokes for the numbers or quantities, so
people have found out signs for the numbers or
quantities (first of all up to nine) which are called
figures. These figures may perhaps have origi-
nated in the following way:
ve
1=1,==Z=2, 3-3 = 3, [ = 454,
$-5-6, 6-6-6, 7- 7-7,
8=8=8, 8) = 9 = 9,1
But we have a particular sign for each particular
number or quantity. In other words, we have a
particular figure for each number. A number or
quantity of |||||||||| is considered as one single
composite (drawn together) whole, and is hence
called the ten (zehen from ziehen, to draw). This
number is again indicated by a figure 1, but this
figure occupies the second place counting from
right to left, etc.” (Connection with arithmetic.)
282
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
It is remarkable how the whole of arithmetic, and
the whole teaching of number, is connected with
the perception forms of the kindergarten, and you,
my dear Emma, can most completely satisfy each
examiner of the subject, and each critic, of the
truth of this statement. Alas! I can not here dem-
onstrate it all to you just because it presupposes the
direct perception and presentation of the object,
which I have neither time nor space to supply here
by written words.
But as the connecting school leads so deeply
and fundamentally into the science of numbers and
figures, into real calculation (arithmetic), so also
does it lead into the knowledge and science of space,
form, and size in a greater or less circuit—the cir-
cuit as much greater or less as suits the views of the
teacher, the need of the scholar, or of the school
in general.
Willingly as I have shown you here the easy
and satisfactory way conjointly with the word and
the perception, yet, as I must refer you to my
Education of Man for my treatment of number, so
I must now also call your attention in respect to
form and size to the plates illustrating the Fifth
Gift.* You may also recall to your mind the
forms of knowledge with the different triangles.
These and the peaswork are the most important
means of passing from the kindergarten, through
* See vol. xxx, International Education Series.—TR.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
283
the connecting school, to the school for study,
thought, and teaching. They also form the most
important means of connecting the former with the
latter, which, to use a common phrase, we will
term “ the school of instruction.” I use these dif-
ferent expressions in order to give you an oppor-
tunity of grasping as exactly as possible the nature
of the school, and so of comprehending the nature
of the connecting school.
You are quite right. The keystone of kinder-
garten employment is the transformation of solid
bodies, and consequently the knowledge of the rela-
tions of the different geometric (crystalline) solids
to one another, as well as their development from
one another, and the relation of all to the space-
filling, geometric unities.
The fourteen solids which you have received,
and, if possible, the making of such forms with
potter's clay or with cubes of turnip or beet-root,
furnish the means to acquire this knowledge. It
is best to have the cubes of equal size prepared by
the joiner, if he will utilize for this purpose his
somewhat disused tools. If it is difficult for you,
however, to have these prepared you must content
yourself with the box of fourteen solids which was
sent to you, and with their derivation and develop-
ment from the cube.
Let me first recall to your memory the use of
this box of fourteen solids in the kindergarten.
284
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The training of the human being which educates
by developing, or the kindergarten training which
is a complete whole, begins, as I have already said,
with the tending and observation of the stage of
infancy, and here again with personal and extrane-
ous care (the care of that which is foreign and ex-
ternal to self), and the comparison of both. The
second stage is that of complete development of
limbs and senses and of the body. Such develop-
ment is needed that the child may do justice to his
own personality, and may bring things near to him-
self, or himself near to the things in order to look
at, to handle, to use, to utilize, to change them.
For this purpose the child must learn, above
all, to know each thing in its capacity for filling
space, in its property of being defined within itself,
in its rest and motion, in its form and size, in its
gravity, etc. The ball serves this purpose for the
child. The ball unites in itself and shows all the
properties which appertain in general to all and
each object which has a body and occupies space.
Since the ball shows boundary, visibility, and in-
visibility, it leads to the great law of the world-
the law of opposites (contrasts) and their connec-
tion. It leads even to the discernment of that
which is within, of that which is invisible and sin-
gle (in the middle), as well as to the connection,
that which is visibly invisible (in the axis). It
also leads the child to the discernment of all the
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
287
fundamental properties of all things and of each
thing, and at the same time introduces him into the
outside world.
According to the law of opposites the soft
round ball demands the hard sphere which shows
yet more precisely many of the properties of the
ball.
The round sphere, having one surface, no edges,
and no corners, requires its opposite—the cube,
which has straight surfaces and more than one sur-
face, and has also edges and corners and leads
thus to the manifoldness of the properties of things
by holding fast their inner invisible unity. The
sphere also now appears clearly as the expression of
motion and of easy movability, and the cube as the
expression of its peculiar gravity and rest.
The cylinder shows the connection between the
two, the motion in a straight direction connecting
rest and movability.
Now, you know the second play gift of the
children—the sphere, cylinder, and cube, the chil-
dren's delight—with the richness of its phenomena.
With this gift is now connected the employment
with the fourteen solids, which employment pre-
supposes the former. Therefore sphere, cylinder,
and cube—the latter in its twofold form, first as a
mere mathematical cube, second as a cube prepared
for manifold alterations by being pierced and hav-
ing wires in it-are the first four solids.
286
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
If now the child considers these three (relative-
ly four) different bodies in their different phenom-
ena, what have they shown and taught him? The
answer is given by the connecting cylinder.
· The round would fain unite with it the straight,
and the straight would fain unite with it the round.
The cylinder results from this reciprocal effort,
from the union of cube and sphere, as it were.
Therefore the points would fain become sur-
faces and lines, the surfaces would fain become
points and lines. .
Suffice it to say that each would fain form and
develop (as it were, be the living expression of) all
others.
We see, therefore, how the inner organic and
living law of change, of development, results from
the apparently outward law of contrast and connec-
tion. You will remember that this manifestation
and this law already came forth in and with the
employment with the right-angled isosceles tri-
angles where the outward, mechanical, inorganic
grouping led to a living, inner, organic coherence.
What took place there with the surfaces, and with
the interlacing and intertwining at the stage of
lines, takes place here in predominantly increased
completeness at the stage of corporeality, and of the
capacity of bodies to fill space. Hence the con-
templation of the fourteen solids introduces us and
the child into the province of formation in Na-
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
287
ture, and first of all into the province of formation
of the solids.
The cube (or dice, from its original use) is
also familiarly called the hexahedron. The octa-
hedron and dodecahedron also receive their scien-
tific names from the number of their surfaces.*
According to the law and effort above stated,
the corners seek to extend themselves to surfaces
till the surfaces touch one another and, as it were,
reciprocally set limits to their further formation.
Thus results the cube, with its angles replaced by
planes. Its place in the play-box is in the third
compartment of the left middle row; the eight
completing forms lie in the first box of the left
completing row.
If you will have this done, dear Emma, first
of all in the kindergarten by the children who are
in their last quarter (in which it belongs) with
potter's clay, or any other material which can be
easily cut (turnips), you must give the children
perfect cubes of this material and require them
(by few or slight, or regular cuttings off of
all eight corners) to change each corner or point
into a plane or surface according to the desire
* The German names for the two latter solids indicate the
number of corners and of edges respectively.—TR.
+ Literally the six-eight surfaced (sechsachtflächner)—that
is, a solid with fourteen sides, six of which are similar in form
and size (octagons) and the other eight are equal triangles.—TR.
288
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
of the cube (as it were) till the surfaces touch
in the middle of the edges of the original cube,
and thus results from the activity of the children
themselves the six-surface previously produced
and named. *
Now, if you have sufficient material you can
let this solid stand for itself in the degree in which
it has been formed, and do the same with a new
cube up to this point. Then continue by cutting
off thin slices till eight equal three-and-three-sided +
surfaces, which become on further slicing hex-
agonal surfaces; and, last of all, purely equilateral,
triangular surfaces appear lying opposite (v) to
the former (V). The six cube surfaces have wholly
disappeared. In the place of each appears a four-
edged corner; and in the place of each former three-
edged corner appears now a purely equilateral tri-
angular surface. In the place of the hexahedron
(cube), and as if from within it, appears the octahe-
dron, and as a connecting intermediate form appears
the six-eight-surfaced solid which was given by the
first stage of change.
In the box of the fourteen solids the mechan-
ically organic development of the octahedron from
the cube could, alas, be but very incompletely
shown, since equal, whole corners would have to
* Froebel says sechsflächner here, referring to the "six-
eight-surface” solid described above.—Ed.
+ I. e., three long and three short sides to each.-ED.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
289
be taken away. However, by means of this box
the child learns at least how and where the octahe-
dron lies in the cube.
N. B.—The supplementary forms to the octa-
hedron lie in the first box of the completing row,
quite at the right hand, the opening of the box
being turned toward the teacher.
We now go on, dear Emma.
The effort to become surfaces was shown and
accomplished by the corners, so that the six-eight-
surfaced solid and the octahedron resulted from
the cube. This is also shown by the twelve edges
of the cube. This effort can be illustrated by means
of soft masses in the same way that the corners were
changed, or by taking away the twelve completing
forms. Suffice it to say, there results, in the double
way before shown, from the cube .
first the six-twelve-surfaced solid;
then the pure (rhombic) dodecahedron.
See the six-twelve-surfaced solid in the fourth
compartment of the left middle row, its complet-
ing forms in the second box of the left complet-
ing row, the dodecahedron in the fourth compart-
ment of the right middle row, and its completing
forms in the second box of the right completing
row.
Cube, octahedron, and dodecahedron, with their
connecting forms, the six-eight surface and the six-
twelve surface, are the chief forms and figures of
290
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the three equal surface directions of the cube,
which intersect one another at right angles, which
( 1, by the surfaces;
lead to the sphere { 2, by the corners;
| 3, by the edges.
Yet where powers and efforts move, there is also
a heaving and a pressing forward and back, and,
finally, a suppressing; so, first of all, with the sur-
faces of the corners, four corners are wholly sup-
pressed, and four corner-surfaces come out promi-
nently; thus are found
first, the six-four-surfaced solid,
next the pure tetrahedron.
See the former in the fifth compartment of the
left middle row, and the latter in the fifth com-
partment of the right middle row toward the out-
side, and the completing forms of and to both to
the left and right in the third box. We may also
look upon this formation as if it arose from six
angle-diagonals or oblique lines, touching at their
ends, which form edges.
The development of these six new solids and
the knowledge of their outward relation to one an-
other can close the course in the kindergarten with
the sixth year. The reverse course, which is almost
easier than this, can, however, be also given, and
the cube, the cube with its corners replaced by
planes, and the octahedron may be formed from
spheres of soft loam, clay, or sand, by equal cut-
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
291
ting off of two, and two, and two opposite points,
each two of which are opposite to each other and
their connecting line of direction is at right angles
to the two other connecting lines of direction.
Therefore it is more important at the stage of
kindergarten employment and training to raise
that which can'not be seen through to that which
can, and to raise that which is material to a less ma-
terial perception, than to advance to the solids of the
edge- and corner-diagonal or oblique lines. So you
have already made, with your little ones, the square
(each side as long as two of the edges of the cube);
the rectangle (oblong), which is half the size of the
square; the right-angled isosceles triangle, also one
half the size of the square, divided by a corner- or
angle-diagonal line, etc. This is clear to you, as
you have already done it yourself so many times.
The outlined cube results from two squares
made of sticks exactly equal in size, joined by
four vertical sticks each of the same size as each
stick of the squares.
The outlined cube with its corners replaced by
planes (six-eight-surface) originates within the cube
by making the opposite square (i. e., one-half size)
in each of the surfaces of the outlined cube.
A pointed column or pyramid composed of four
equilateral triangular surfaces erected on the two
opposite sides of an opposite square gives you the
outlined octahedron, as you well know.
292
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
Take six sticks, each of the length of the corner
diagonal line of a principal square, connect each
three ends of these lines by a pea (pieces of cork
or wax), and, as you know, the outlined tetrahedron
results.
Now you know that all these bodies with a com-
mon, invisible, middle point can be represented in
one and the same cube in an easy way.
Yes, and with these representations, their com-
parisons with one another and their comparison
with the collective bodies which can not be seen
through—that is, the solids—with the perceiving
and demonstrating of the one in the other, there is
stated and included at this stage of active occupa-
tion and kindergarten employments an intimation
of the development of manifoldness from unity, of
the invisible from the visible, of the inner from
the outer, and the reverse—that is, the development
of perception from conception and thought, of
thought from action, of conception from desire
(will), etc. The child is ripe for entering, and is
quite sufficiently developed to enter the connecting
school. He stands on its threshold, before the
door. The child steps into the connecting school.
(The child of the kindergarten is now a little boy
or a little girl.)
That which was the keystone of the kindergar-
ten training is now the starting point of the first
stage of the connecting school—the particular,
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
293
And the reverse.
individual, and objective perceptions of thought.
Therefore,
Opposite to unity is singleness.
“ to singleness“ manifoldness.
to the outer " the inner.
to the visible “ the invisible.
to the simple " the complex.
to the round “the straight.
to motion “rest.
to the whole “ the divided.
to the single “the composite.
to the quiet and abiding inner being is the out-
ward appearance, the becoming.
to the outward grouping is the inward coher-
ence.
to the outward combination is the inner devel-
opment.
to the passing appearance is the abiding effect.
" to the mere effect is the life.
to life
of the living.
" to the living the sensible.
" to the sensible “the rational.
" to the unconscious “ the conscious.
We can add as a connection: to unconsciousness, coming
consciousness.
To coming consciousness, consciousness.
To the mute and yet speaking form, the clear, speaking
uttered, audible word.*
You see, my dear Emma, that the child passes
from the kindergarten into the connecting school,
being skilled in and capable of quite precise per-
ception and conception of all these contrasts. These
* The life and works of man are opposite to the life and
works of Nature, etc.
21
294
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
contrasts can and should be brought to the child's
observation as opportunity offers and necessity re-
quires, but this should always be done in a se-
quence similar to one of those indicated. Now
see with what a foundation, with what a ground-
work, with what an amount of germs of life in the
collected material of life the child passes from the
kindergarten into the connecting school. At no
point of life is the leading direction lacking. The
germ for each development required by life is pro-
vided, as is shown in the great whole of Nature.
All this awaits only the development from uncon-
sciousness through coming consciousness to con-
sciousness, and this is the task of the preparatory
school; the keystone of the kindergarten is, as I
have before stated, the first stage of the prepara-
tory (connecting) school.
The nature and character of the connecting
school are in many ways clearly indicated; the
particular is advanced to generality, the outward
isolated perception to an inner total conception—for
example, one and the same child lets the ball jump
from his closed hands into free space in different
parts of the schoolroom, and he himself moves in
three principal directions (at right angles to one
another), there, here; forward, back; up, down; or
several children do this in succession with a ball
attached to a string, or several do it at the same
time. Suffice it to say that in all these cases the
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
295
general result, and the recognition of that result,
are as follows:
Everywhere in space I can think of three prin-
cipal directions intersecting one another at one
point at right angles; or,
The general surrounding space can be deter-
mined and measured by three principal directions
at right angles to one another.
The form of each object which fills space can
be defined according to length, width, and height
or thickness.
The thoughtful observer of language is here
met by a connection of the designation by speech
and the mute perception of fact; wide and widen-
ing—thick and massive *—length and length-
ening.
The form of a body, the actual form of an ob-
ject, is determined by the form, position, number,
size, union or separation of the surfaces, edges, or
corners. Hence the indispensable requirement for
the abstract (drawn away), reflective, comparing
consideration of all the just-named references and
relations to the filling of space; hence introduction
into the science of space,
into the science of form,
into the science of number, and
into the science of size,
* The German words for thick and massive (dick, dicht) are
also similar.-TR.
296
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
but also further
language
into the science and art of
7 and sign.
The consideration of the fourteen solids intro-
duces you now to all these above-named, particular,
independent, and isolated considerations and exer-
cises, again and again, if you will only connect the
continually progressive exposition of the fourteen
solids with what has been presented and stated in
the Education of Man and in other essays found
in this and the former volume,* and, having done
so, if you will then, proceeding from the cube,
analyze it in its individual parts and will elevate
their individual perception, as has been already
said many times, to general conceptions—if you
will therefore descend from cubes to tablets and
surfaces and from the edges of the cube to lines and
sticks.
I entirely lack both time and space to demon-
strate all these facts individually in this place, and
a mere inanimate verbal perception would be of
little use. I must here request you to continue to
develop independently and intellectually what the
kindergarten has given you on this subject.
You can carry on the instruction in numbers in
their rudimentary compass from the knowledge of
the individual numbers and their difference up to
* Vol. xxx, International Education Series.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
297
teaching their relations and proportions; from the
stage of perception up to that of intellectual con-
ception. The instruction concerning the form and
size of solids, surfaces, and lines likewise proceeds
from the perception of them to the intellectual con-
ceptions of form and size, and their inner recipro-
cal relations to one another, but this instruction
also should be within the general, fundamental
compass.
The perception and comprehension of form,
size, number, in general of figure, lead to the per-
ception, comprehension, and knowledge of the sur-
rounding world-in short, to the consideration of
the outer world.
The consideration of the outer world in its pri-
mary conception constitutes a principal subject of
the connecting school. Here also I can refer only
to the Education of Man, by Friedrich Froebel,
although in the more than a quarter of a century
which has elapsed since the book was written and
published the mode of treating this subject has been
manifoldly improved and simplified. This consid-
eration of the outside world leads in a very remark-
able way (which has not yet been completed and
carried through in the education of human beings)
into the linking together of the activities and voca-
tions of man, and even into the history of human
development.
The consideration of the outer world leads just
298
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
as remarkably to the perception and comprehension
of the province of language as audible and (by
means of writing) visible representation of the out-
ward and inward world of man. It includes with-
in itself the whole fundamental written and spoken
language of our mother tongue in a corresponding
compass.
The tone and rhythm (law of movement) of
words and sentences, of the speech-whole, is here
again linked with language in the elementary song,
and the elementary exercises in singing.
But song leads the child back again to Nature,
and thus are developed from the general considera-
tion of the outside world the actual contemplation
of Nature and natural science in their rudimentary
compass, and, in particular, as an important germi-
nating point and starting point-the science of
plants.
With the science of plants is organically and
vividly connected the science of the surface of the
earth.
For many plants are fond of the water and be-
strew the shore of the brook and of the river, and
encircle the sources of both. Many plants would
fain adorn the meadows and vales. Many love
the clear, airy, and fragrant height of the hill and
mountain. Many like the vicinity of man, and
many, the simple, hidden, woody vale. The vessel
that crosses the ocean brings us many from distant
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
299
parts of the world. The steamboat on the river,
the canal, the railroad, etc., bring many. They
are in the home, the garden, the house, and even
the room of each person. Thus the plants really
show the way and lead to the science of the surface
of the earth—the description of the earth—geog-
raphy.
But our kindergarten exercises, plays, and em-
ployments are also a help here. Our molding with
plastic loam and moist sand teaches us hills and
valleys, and blue clay and sand represent to us
brooks, rivers, streams, seas. Yes, our stick-laying
makes the outlines of these by indicating the main
and side directions of the brooks and rivers. But
also our pricking shows itself to be of practical im-
portance here, since it gives us six equal maps
which we can utilize first as a map of rivers, then
a map of mountains, again a map of cities, then a
map of States, then of districts and provinces, lastly
as the summing up of the whole.
With the consideration of the outer world, es-
pecially with the contemplation of the plant world,
is also connected the training of the sense of color
and form, the province of drawing and painting.
The observation of plants, of vegetables, and espe-
cially of trees, is important for the connecting
school child for several reasons. First, it shows al-
most the whole fundamental intermediate instruc-
tion and most completely links itself with this in-
300
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
struction. Therefore it leads all back to the be-
ginning, the starting point. It also leads the
child (and consequently man) to himself, to the de-
velopment and use of the totality of his capacities
and powers, to the recognition and fostering of his
nature, to the connection and union of the great
whole of the universe and of life, and to the source
of life, to the oneness of life, to God who is by
and in himself good, as well as to the history of
the inner and outer development of humanity.
This history begins in a remarkable way with the
relation of man to the tree and its fruit, according
to our Holy Scriptures (which even the critic ac-
knowledges). However, in the second great prin-
cipal epoch of the development of humanity, and
especially in the early part of this epoch, plants
and trees have again a great and remarkable im-
portance, and play the rôle of being present with
man on almost all sides of his life, uniting, teach-
ing, admonishing, requiring, so, above all, uniting
him with God: “Consider the lilies of the field.”
They lead man back to and into himself, to the
development, the invigorating, and the right use
of his powers: “Every tree which bringeth not
forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the
fire."
Concerning the relation of the degree of moral
cultivation it is said: “Do men gather grapes from
thorns, or figs from thistles?”
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
301
Concerning the action of Jesus as the mediat-
ing teacher and educator of humanity between
man and the demands of eternal God, as the re-
vealer of the eternal living truth uniting God and
humanity, it is said, “A sower went forth to sow."
Concerning the relation of man to Jesus, and
his relation to humanity it is said: “I am the
vine; ye are the branches.”
Concerning the fostering and the efficiency of
the truth and its results the parable of the mustard
seed and its treelike development was spoken.
But not merely in reference to religion and
to the Christian religion are the tree and the whole
plant world important to the child and to man.
They are also pre-eminently important for us as
Germans, and for our children as German chil-
dren; for is not the oak, the German oak, the sym-
bol of German national life, and of the life of each
individual German? “Stand fast in the storm of
life like a German oak! It stands firm,” etc.
Have not all our hundreds of kinds of apples
and pears (as the pomologists teach us and prove
to us) proceeded from the simple apple and pear
tree of the wood, by means of the cultivating
care of man, connected with his observation of
Nature, with observation of the original, peculiar
nature of the fruit trees? What are, therefore,
these cultivated fruit trees?
Answer: “Works of God, of Nature, and of
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EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
humanity.” And so the individual human being
also in his completed education can only become
and be “a work of God, Nature, and humanity.”
Thus he can become what he is to be only in the
undisturbed, unclouded, true union with God, Na-
ture, and humanity.
With this awakened anticipation, the boy and
girl are ripe for passing from the connecting school,
or, if another term be preferred, the elementary
school, into the school of teaching and thought,
from which they will later enter the last stage-
the school of vocation and life.
Therefore, my dear Emma, that you may com-
pletely fulfill what the guidance of your connect-
ing school requires, you must always have before
your eyes the image and life of a tree in its all-
sided functions and relations; in that case you will
certainly leave none of your duties unfulfilled, no
talent, no power, no natural capacity of your pupil
undeveloped.
Whether you can make the application of all
that has been here said to each and every require-
ment of your connecting school is, of course, a
question which I can hardly answer affirmatively.
For I can not and may not actually presuppose
that you have understood me throughout; but, as
I have said, it is difficult at this stage to attain
complete and all-sided clearness with all-sided ap-
plication without explanatory dialogue and with-
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
303
out connecting perception. However, you see at
least by the certainty with which I express myself
about what is to be required and done, that I es-
teem it possible to attain to it, and that I am
deeply convinced of the possibility—and it is some-
thing to know that one man has overcome waver-
ing and uncertainty, and has arrived at clearness,
surety, and confidence upon the subject. It is to
be hoped that this letter will, or at least can, give
you this certainty.
Now for a few more isolated remarks about the
box with the fourteen solids.
1. The two middle rows of compartments con-
tain the bodies.
2. The two outer rows of compartments con-
tain the completing forms.
3. The left inner row of compartments con-
tains the connecting forms proceeding from the
cube.
4. The right middle row of compartments con-
tains the principal forms from the cube to the
sphere.
5. The left outer row of compartments con-
tains those forms which complete the principal
forms in the left middle row.
6. The right outer row of compartments con-
tains those forms which complete the principal
forms in the right middle row.
7. The forms which complete the forms of bod-
304
CLOT MH
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ies can be utilized for quite new, beautiful group-
ings, each of which again presents much that is
instructive, as well as agreeable playful entertain-
ment.
8. The knowledge of the forms of bodies (or
solids) offers rich material for interesting plays
that call out the child's power of recognizing them
by the senses, especially by the sense of touch when
the eyes are closed or when the bodies are held be-
hind him.
The box being turned with its opening toward
you, the solids succeed one another downward from
you or forward from the box in the following
order:
13. The double-pointed dodecahedron.
The double-pointed hexagonal prism. 14.
11. The eight and two surfaced form.
The eight and four surfaced form. 12.
9. The four and six surfaced solid.
The tetrahedron. 10.
7. The sis and twelve surfaced form.
The dodecahedron. 8.
5. The six and eight surfaced form.
The octahedron. 6.
3. The geometric cube.
The pierced cube. 4.
1. The sphere.
The cylinder. 2.
I hope that this representation (with the inter-
twining and the use of sticks indicated) will make
you familiar with the complete and profitable use
of this box.
THE CONNECTING SCHOOL.
305
I will remark in addition only that these four-
teen solids, with the other forms indicated therein,
lead you into the whole province of the forms of
Nature and of bodies, and, indeed, into three prin-
cipal divisions and series of development of these
forms:
1. The production of the three surface direc-
tions at right angles to one another in the forms
1 to 10.
2. The production of an edge direction in
each of the forms 11 and 12.
3. The representation of a corner direction in
each of the forms 13 and 14, with which the
whole production of bodies closes; but the devel-
opment goes on through the forms of plants and
animals, as well as through the forms of thought.
May you be able to write to me in your next
letter that the trouble I have taken and my sacri-
fice of time have given you pleasure.
With hearty greetings from my whole house-
hold to yours,
Your faithful, fatherly friend,
FR. FR.
XI.
A COMPLETE EPISTOLARY STATEMENT OF THE MEANS
OF EMPLOYMENT OF THE KINDERGARTEN.
Man, the creature of God, appears upon earth
as a sentient, spiritual being, connected, as a child,
with the family by his parents, and, at first, di-
rectly connected by his mother. Thus connected,
he therefore appears as a member (full of life and
soul) of a family likewise full of life and soul.
This conception of the child in his original nature,
in his natural connections and relations, is to me
the foundation and the real starting point of his all-
sided, prosperous development, and of that foster-
ing and education which satisfies the demands of
his nature.
Since by such fostering, education, and develop-
ment the child obtains not only his right position
in regard to God, Nature, and humanity, but also
that position which satisfies his own nature, and
consequently obtains his right position toward and
in himself, so does also the family with all its mem-
bers, and with each individual of them, above all
the parents, and here especially the mother.
306
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
307
Through such fostering she (the mother) ap-
pears pre-eminently in her true nature, her real po-
sition, and in her manifold and, to the child,
important connections, for first she stands as a con-
necting link between her child and his Creator, the
Original Source of his life-God.
Next she connects the child with her husband,
his earthly father.
She is the link that joins the child with the
family of which he is a member.
Through the family she unites the child to the
human race, with humanity, and with each indi-
vidual member of humanity.
The mother also connects her child with the
Mediator between humanity and God-Jesus
Christ.
Finally, and lastly, and in a special sense, she
is the bond of union between the child and Nature.
The mother, as a real human Christian mother,
must have a clear idea of all these connective offices,
as indeed must all the members of the family. She
must know and acknowledge all of them. She
must manage them all in a manner corresponding
to their requirements with the greatest possible in-
sight, circumspection, faithfulness to duty, and self-
sacrifice. She may not neglect or subtract from
any of these connective offices. For, after all, they
are of equal importance, since they collectively point
toward the Original Source of all existence; be-
308
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
cause only in and by means of this all-sided con-
nection does the child develop on all sides, and to-
ward the greatest possible earthly perfection. The
child is also to develop himself at a future time to
be as much as possible a complete human being.
He is even to be himself a connecting link on all
these sides, and this is to be observed in his first
mental activity. Thus the child is later to show
himself especially as a mediator, reconciler, and re-
deemer between Nature and God; for, as a human
being, he is connected with Nature in her many
characteristics by his body, and united with God by
his spirit; he is also linked with humanity by his
spirit and by his body, which is animated by his
As the child can in general only be satisfac-
torily educated toward his destiny and the fulfill-
ment of his vocation in and by means of the mani-
fold connection above indicated, so he develops him-
self first of all—at first by the aid of the mother-
in and by means of the connection with Nature.
But where mediation takes place there is al-
ways identity in some respects at the foundation of
what is mediated, but the identity appears in the
opposite way; or, in other words, mediation presup-
poses opposition in appearance, but identity in na-
ture—that is, mediation can only take place be-
tween and with opposites which are yet identical.
If therefore the mother is to educate the child
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
309
by means of and in union with Nature, such
an education presupposes in the child and in Nature
that which is opposite, yet like, therefore identity
and antithesis in other words, likeness in one re-
spect and oppositeness in another.
Likeness conditions union; oppositeness condi-
tions a contrast.
But, according to outward condition, the child,
as a human being and a mortal, appears at first
as a member and part of Nature. Therefore the
mother must take care that the child develops in
union with Nature and in contrast with it. For
while necessity rules on the part of Nature man
as an intellectual being should sensibly and reason-
ably reflect upon what he does, and do it with
deliberation, with consciousness and intelligence,
with determination of mind and will. The con-
trast, therefore, here does not consist in the oppos-
ing or striving against Nature or in that which is
opposed to Nature. But the contrast is that what
was done and is done by Nature is to be done by
man with intelligence, therefore with reference to
the undisturbed harmonious development of his in-
dividual self, therefore with ever-constant and ever-
demonstrable reference to the unclouded and unob-
structed representation of his personality, therefore
for all-sided physical and spiritual health.
Consequently the care for the entire health of
the child is the first thing which is imposed on the
22
310
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
attention of the mother and of all those who recog-
nize it as a duty to take part in his education.
But, as above intimated, the child is healthy
when he can express and occupy himself in all the
demands of his spirit and body, in all his demands
as a human being in a manner corresponding to his
being and nature. Therefore, first of all, the child
is to be healthy as far as it is possible.
In order that the child may attain to all-sided
health, and consequently to connection between
himself (his essence and being) and Nature, his
body with its parts of formation, with its organs of
maintenance, vivification, and will, is given to him.
But with the body are given the limbs and senses,
both of which, in reference to the mind, soul, and
will on one side, and to Nature, the outside world,
on the other, are again in contrast. The senses are
given pre-eminently for the purpose of enabling
their possessor to so make internal and to appropri-
ate the cssence of things as it discloses itself in out-
ward appearance, form, movement, tone, etc. The
limbs, on the contrary, are given in order to mani-
fest outwardly the will, the desire of the mind, of
the soul. Here again the arms, with hands and
fingers, and the legs, with feet and toes, are in con-
trast to one another: the arms, etc., as tools to
bring surrounding things near to one's self; the
legs, etc., on the contrary, as implements to bring
one's self, one's body, near to the things; therefore
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
311
in the former case to move the things to one's self,
and in the latter to move one's self to the things.
The hands, with the fingers and with the sense
of touch to be found in their tips, are again a con-
nection between the senses and limbs; as, on the
contrary, the two arms, with their hands and fin-
gers, and the two legs, with their feet and toes, are
again in contrast with one another.
The senses, on the other hand, may be consid-
ered to correspond to the three states of coherence
-solid, liquid, and gaseous—or to the mechanical,
chemical, and dynamic.
The physical and dietetical treatments of the
child in their whole compass depend on the body
with all its parts and organs.
The limbs and senses likewise require their pe-
culiar attention, treatment, fostering, strengthen-
ing, development, exercise, and cultivation. All
this is important even for the stages of infancy and
childhood.
In reference to the child's development of mind,
of will, of habitude, and consequently in general
reference to his moral, to his actual human devel-
opment, it is necessary to observe his relation to his
mother and to all those who partially take a moth-
er's place to him; in short, to observe his behavior
to all which has an arousing, beneficial, and deter-
mining effect upon him.
The power and use of the child's body, limbs,
312
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and senses develop correspondingly with this at-
tention and fostering, and consequently the child's
activity, his impulse to activity and even to em-
ployment further develop with the growth and ex-
ercise of the powers before named. If his own
little hands and fingers, the hands and fingers of
his nurse, and the few objects (which are mostly
but little movable) which he can grasp with his
little hands, suffice at the beginning to satisfy his
impulse to activity, yet very soon after his little
arms and hands are somewhat developed he requires
for handling an object which he can move and use
quite freely and easily.
The retroactive effect on the child which be-
comes perceptible through his use of objects is
in the beginning merely a twofold one, the testing,
as it were, of the things around him as to their in-
dependent existence and also as to their free mova-
bility, and second, the exercise and the feeling of
his own power. The first plaything which is now to
be given to the child must also be constituted in
conformity with this effect. It must be, as it were,
the representative (complete within itself) of all
objects existing in space, and consequently must
itself contain the collective general properties of
these objects. Yet further, in order to suffice for all
that is required of such a plaything as the first, it
must neither be able to do harm to the child, nor
may the child be able to injure himself or any-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
313
thing else with it. But the object can neither be
permitted to excite and nourish the sensuality of
the child nor to awaken any other wrong tendencies
of mind or heart, etc.
All these requirements are met, as has been al-
ready demonstrated and declared in many places,
by a moral talisman, so to speak—the ball.
But this is not the place to further demonstrate
the developing, educating, cultivating effect of this
first plaything and its capacity for exhaustively sat-
isfying this stage of the child's development. Suf-
fice it to say that in and by the ball are represented
all the essential properties, phenomena, and re-
lations of the child's surroundings—namely, mate-
rial, form and figure, size, movability and rest, all
kinds of movement, all kinds of relations of space
and time, and also the phenomena of light and even
color. It (the ball) is the true means of exercising,
increasing, and recognizing the child's own strength
and dexterity. It is a means of introduction to
knowledge of the general properties of objects, their
use and relation; and of training the little one in
language, which is important to his conrection
with the surrounding world and to his intellectual
development. The further harmonious and intel-
lectual development by the play with the ball, con-
nected with tone, rhythm, and song, can actually be
recognized only by one's own judicious employment
of the ball in play with the child, and can only be
314
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
perceived by means of one's own contemplation of
the play.
. It may be added that the play with the ball as
a type—that is, a means of representation of the
child's own inner world and as a means of appre-
hension and recognition of the outside world around
him-attracts the young human being through his
whole later youth.
Let us here go back to the earliest life of child-
hood.
As the child's power and the use of that power
in the indicated way increases, he seeks—in order
also to hear the expression of his activity—for a
body which also sounds, or at least makes a noise,
but which has otherwise the same many-sided prop-
erties as the ball. This solid is the hard, firm
sphere. At the same time with the sphere, the
child wishes for, and the nature of the sphere re-
quires, an object which is its pure opposite. With-
out going through with the proofs of the fact on all
sides and individually, I will state that this object
is the many-surfaced, many-edged, many-cornered,
firmly resting, firmly standing, not easily movable
cube, idle, as it were, only able to be shoved and
thrown, but incapable of actual rolling.
But sphere and cube are purely and manifoldly
opposite to, yet like one another—a fact which
may be easily perceived and yet more easily dem-
onstrated. But Nature and the child's all-sided
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
315
nature require for such objects that the connec-
tion be likewise easily perceptible and just as easily
demonstrable. This connection of opposites is just
what gives the constancy, and by means of this
constancy the developing, educating, and cultivat-
ing effect of the child's requirements, plays, and
occupations.
The connection between the rolling, round-sur-
faced sphere which can be easily moved and turned
on all sides, and the straight-surfaced cube which
is, so to speak, idle, is the cylinder, easily rolling
like the sphere and standing firmly like the cube,
therefore uniting round and straight.
But since the cylinder excludes the perception
of the corner, and the definite turning round itself
on one point, it requires and conditions again the
solid which connects the three—that is, has the
properties of all three: corners (points), edges
(lines), sides (surfaces)—and here again uniting
straight and curved surfaces. This is the cone.
With these four solids consequently the second
play-whole of the child is closed. They form a
whole, complete within itself, for all four have
three equal lines of direction inclined toward one
another at right angles. But they are different or
opposite according to the manner in which these
three principal directions are abiding and visible.
Thus in the sphere they are changing and invisible.
In the cube, on the contrary, each of them is once
316
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
invisible; again each is four times outwardly visible;
but likewise, also, each is four times invisibly visi-
ble—that is, it is invisible in itself, especially to
outward and superficial observation, but can be
made visible by bringing it to attention. From
this. property not only do the rest of the opposite
properties of these four bodies necessarily proceed,
but those properties are also in the highest degree
important for the child's intellectual development,
particularly for the development of his power of
imagination, and for the development of the inner
perception and conception of the invisible. The
invisibly visible lines are here again for the child,
in a particularly instructive way, the connection
between the never visible lines always hidden in
the interior and those which are always outwardly
visible as edges.
Several other points belonging to this subject,
proceeding from the comparison of these four solids
with one another, and highly important for the fun-
damental and wise cultivation and education of the
child, can not here be brought forward and carried
out, but must be left for verbal demonstration ac-
companied by actual perception of the objects.
Still more important, on account of direct ap-
plication and performance at this stage of child-
hood, is the intimation of the use of, and the method
of playing with these solids. This method for the
first and earlier stage of childhood is merely the
LI
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
317
moving of these objects, the results and phenomena
of which appear so very manifold, often so unex-
pected and astonishing, so wonderful and almost
magical, that they, just because they can not be at
once, or at least not easily, explained to the child,
give him such great pleasure, yet teach him that
which is important in fitting him for life—to make
a distinction between the thing or being and its ap-
pearance, and thus to protect himself from de-
lusion.
By means of this manifestation of form and
movement these solids and the play with them give
many opportunities for the observation and con-
sideration of form, size, and number (particularly
for a somewhat advanced stage of childhood), and
in many ways introduce the child into the phe-
nomena of Nature and life around him. They are
therefore, as it were, the middle point and source of
the later training for school and life, as well as for
the union of these.
As a sheet of printed matter, besides a litho-
graphed plate * and a pamphlet of one hundred
ball songs give directions for the use of the ball
" as the first plaything and always the dearest play-
mate of the child,” so also a sheet of printed mat-
ter, besides a lithographed plate,t gives some
* Printed in vol. xxx, International Education Series.
+ Also in vol. xxx, International Education Series.
318
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
guidance to the use of the sphere and cube, “the
children's delight.” The most essential points,
however, must be left for verbal communication.
Much as this quartet of playthings has been
opposed and ridiculed from ignorance, unskillful-
ness, and want of comprehension of its nature, yet
I can not refrain from distinctly declaring that
I consider this gift to be as suitable as it is en-
tertaining and instructively educating, not only
for this early stage of childhood, but progressively
up to the school age, and I am willing and ready to
give manifold proof for the assertion, by showing
results as well as by words. This assertion is espe-
cially confirmed by the personal experience of every
one.
I could not omit this explanation here because
it might otherwise have seemed as if I wished to
ignore these criticisms on account of my inability to
refute them, which, however, is done without any
polemical words by the facts themselves at each
simple presentation.
Let us now return to the development of the
play-gifts and the modes of playing.
All the playthings hitherto considered are undi-
vided. Yet, as before mentioned, the child likes the
change to the opposite. As he in the beginning
likes to use everything as a ball, so he later likes to
divide everything as far as his strength allows. He
also likes to build together again what is thus di-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
319
vided; or, as is beautifully and significantly said,
“the child likes to provide himself with something
to create.” This impulse of the child to form and
create is above all to be most carefully and con-
stantly fostered, for the more he himself creates
from and by himself with his own power and spirit
in independent activity and judgment, the more
will he at some future time understand himself,
surrounding Nature, the Creator of both, and life
in its growth and in its tranquil appearance, and
the better will he understand the instruction and
teaching of all this and its application to his own
action.
The next plaything must therefore be divisible
at least once, but on all sides and in all directions.
These requirements are met by the cube, once di-
vided but on all sides, and so into eight equal part-
cubes—the third play-gift, “the children's joy."
If I am not mistaken, I have already intimated
that each following plaything is necessarily presup-
posed in and required by the preceding; thus, the
three times four edges of the cube are shown in the
three principal directions of the sphere, and the
six surfaces of the cube in the six terminal points
of those three directions. Likewise the undivided
cube, by its three surface directions at right angles
to one another, shows the three planes of division,
each of which goes through the middle of the cube
parallel with two of its sides, which in the third
320
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
play-gift appear as actual surfaces of division, and
thus separate the cube into the eight part-cubes al-
ready named.
The different plays with this gift are condi-
tioned by the different ways of separating and re-
grouping it. It is therefore essential to consider
two points as belonging to the nature of the mode
of playing: first, it is necessary that all the eight
cubes must always be used for each representa-
tion; second, that as much as possible the following
form must be so developed and shaped from the
preceding, that what is already formed must serve
in a certain respect as the foundation and means of
representation of the following form.
But the forms thus made show a threefold char-
acter, each part of which is essentially different
from the others. On account of this character the
forms are distinguished as forms of knowledge, rec-
ognition [apperception], or learning, as forms of
life or building, and as forms of beauty or picture
forms. It is essential to the development and train-
ing of the child that this distinction be retained,
though intermediate forms again connect the
separated.
Each of these representations is connected with
the explaining word, so that the child's conceptions
may be definite. Wherever it is possible the rep-
resentations should be also connected with the
rhythmical word and with melody, so that the child
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
321
may definitely and pleasurably retain the represen-
tation; for the heart, as well as the body and intel-
lect, is to be taken into account and nourished by
these plays.
Sufficient guidance is given for the use of this
play-gift by the essays and by eleven plates in
the former volume,* and by one hundred little
rhymes and verses for the forms of life (or building
forms), seventy-one songs and rhymes for the forms
of beauty (or picture forms), and twenty-two for
the forms of knowledge (or learning forms), and
also by a third play-gift managed by the assistance
of a leaflet giving directions for its use—to which
all readers are here referred.
In all these representations the three different
principal directions come forth in space as length,
breadth, and thickness, or height, length, and
breadth, but capable of change and alteration. Ac-
cording to the law of development, that the later
may be contained in the earlier, or that the follow-
ing may come from the preceding, and consequent-
ly also according to the progressing development
of the child itself, this fact determines the next
plaything
But how does this next plaything result simply
and necessarily from the third play-gift? Each of
the four equal columnar parts, into which one can
* Vol. xxx, International Education Series.
322
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
imagine the principal cube separated, appears to
be divided in the third play-gift into two equal
cubes by a plane which passes through the middle
of the column parallel to its two end-surfaces.
Each of these four columnar parts is divided, in
this following play-gift, by a plane which passes
through the middle of the column, but parallel to
two of its side surfaces, into two equal but brick-
shaped parts, the three different principal directions
of which now show, also, as length, breadth, and
thickness, three abidingly different dimensions
which bear the relations to one another of four, two,
and one. Thus results the fourth play-gift-the
cube divided into eight little building blocks, "the
children's favorite building material.”
By the slight alteration in the direction of the
plane of division just indicated, this plaything ob-
tains a double extent of surface and length, and it
can inclose a hollow space the volume of which is
more than twelve times that of the eight part-cubes.
The representations with this gift (now, of course,
likewise according to the three different aspects
indicated in the former paragraphs) obtain by this.
alteration an almost incredible variety by no means
to be exhausted by experiment, but yet legitimate
and demonstrable.
As is the case with the third play-gift, the forms
represented by the fourth are of three different
kinds—forms of knowledge (recognition) or learn-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
323
ing [apperception], forms of beauty or picture
forms, and forms of life or building forms.
The tablet form in which the three different
lines of direction at right angles to one another
come out, made its appearance in the object repre-
sented with the third play-gift; but whereas those
lines vanished again as they originated, they were
abidingly retained by the building blocks of the
fourth gift. The oblique line of direction also ap-
pears in the further representations with the third
play-gift, but alterably; yet this line of direction is
also required to be abiding, as it is essential to form
and building, and is therefore also indispensably re-
tained as a form in play. This is done in the fifth
play-gift in which a double advance appears, first,
from the cube of the third play-gift once divided on
all sides, to the cube twice divided on all sides.

Since the law of the three now comes out in this
cube, three cubes in one of the thirds of the twenty-
seven part-cubes remain undivided (a); three cubes
are each divided by a diagonal line into two trian-
gular columns (6); and each of the three other cubes
is divided by two diagonal lines into four columns of
324
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the same kind (c), each of which is one fourth of
a part-cube, as each of the larger columns is one
half of such a cube. By this division the oblique
or diagonal line of direction is caused to be fixed in
variously-shaped solids.
The representations with this fifth play-gift are
highly important in each of the three principal
kinds, forms of knowledge, beauty, and life, which
have been many times named. These representa-
tions are likewise as entertaining as they are in-
structive and cultivating. For lack of directions
and the absence of the gift itself nothing can be
said about them here except that they introduce
the child into school and life just as much as they
strengthen and develop his mind and spirit.
As a fourth gift developed above parallel to
the third, so a sixth play-gift develops parallel to
the fifth. In the sixth gift, as in the fourth, the
brick shape is the one determined by the law of
development, and the number becomes apparent by
a similar division to that of the fifth gift.
This gift has the peculiarity that by it hollow
spaces and columnar erections particularly can be
represented. It has the likeness to the fifth gift
in that forms of beauty, the fundamental percep-
tion or position of which is the square or the trian-
gle, can be made with it.
Being necessarily and manifoldly conditioned,
the seventh gift results from the fifth, since the
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
.
325
cube is divided three times on each side, so into
four times four times four, or into sixty-four cubes.
Several of these part-cubes are again divided, from
the middle and through the middle, into oblique-
surfaced equal parts, one half, one third, one
fourth, one sixth. By arranging them together in
reference to a common center the most important
polyhedrons, the octahedron and dodecahedron,
can be represented as if their germs existed in the
interior of the cube, and, as it were, developed
from it. This play-gift is highly important, since
some polyhedrons, although at first only in outward
form, appear as if conditioned in and required by
the interior—the middle of the gift.
The seventh play-gift goes side by side with the
eighth, which is related to the seventh as the sixth
is to the fifth and the fourth to the third. The
further development of the eighth gift is not given
here.
• As a review of the whole, and for the harmo-
nizing and understanding of the annexed review,
there need only be said that, by the industrious use
of the body, limbs, and senses, and the plays which
proceed from it, the first series of the employments
and plays of children is given.
The ball, which can be used in so many ways,
forms the first series of children's playthings.
The sphere, cube, cylinder, and cone form to-
gether the second series.
23
326
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The third, fifth, and seventh gifts form the
series of cubical forms and the forms used in play
which evolve from the cubical. They thus form
the third series of children's playthings.
The fourth, sixth, and eighth gifts form the
series of the brick shape, or the fourth series of
children's playthings.
With the development of the solid forms and
their division, which are especially the subject of
the last-named series of plays, the conception of
the surface, as independent of and abstracted from
the solid, now also appears, and, like the former
solids, shows itself as an attractive plaything for
children, especially if color be connected with it as
emphasizing the independence of the surface.
Thus necessarily appears a new division of the
developing, educating plays for children—plays
which arouse the child's creative power. These are
the tablet-formed surfaces, which are again divided
into four different series:
A. The series of square tablets, consisting of
eight square tablets of two colors each.
B. The series of right-angled isosceles trian-
gles, consisting of five gifts: the first of four, the
second of eight, the third of twelve, the fourth of
sixteen, the fifth of sixty-four right-angled isosceles
triangles.
C. The series of equilateral triangles, consist-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
327
ing of five gifts: the first of nine, the second of
eighteen, the third of twenty-seven, the fourth of
thirty-six, the fifth of fifty-four equilateral trian-
gles.
Finally,
D. The series of right-angled scalene triangles,
.consisting of one gift with fifty-six such triangles.
With this gift also obtuse-angled isosceles triangles
can be represented, thus completing the representa-
tion of all the principal kinds of triangles.
The derivation of these plays from those before
existing can not here be carried through, yet it is
quite clear to the thinker and to him who has
a conception of the manifold in its unity.
In this creative means of employment the laws
of development and unfolding from the inner, from
the opposite through the connecting forms, are es-
pecially prominent in the so-called forms of beauty.
They likewise show clearly—proceeding from sim-
ple unity, and going on by opposites and their con-
nections—the return to unity, in this way running
through the necessary series of experiences, the in-
dispensable condition of knowledge, the necessary
conditions, as it were, of becoming conscious and of
later consciousness.
These plays show in various ways how move-
ment can develop the contrasts from the legitimate
regulated connection. They are especially im-
portant on account of the classical, normal, suffi-
328
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
cing spirit applicable to the life of Nature and of
man which is expressed by them, and because they
clearly place before the child, one might say within
his grasp, the laws of their origin in their results,
as well as in their beginnings; and thus conduce to
the regular, harmonious, intellectual, and uniform
development of the little one.
With this gift, as with the four preceding ones,
in the representations the threefold order of forms
of life, beauty, and knowledge is rendered promi-
nent, and here the exercises in color, especially with
A, are added. The relations of form, size, and
color are connected as in two of the preceding gifts.
With the development of the tablet and surface
form and their further division, there now appear
especially the conception and perception of lines.
The single sticks being, as it were, embodied lines,
show themselves as an attractive plaything for chil-
dren, and form a whole new division of the develop-
ing means of play and employment.
The plays with the straight, unconnected sticks
show again the greatest variety.
First, they can be form-plays-that is, repre-
sentations of figures and objects connected with
number, in which form preponderates and number
is subordinate. What can I not represent with
three sticks of equal length!
Second, they can also be genuine number-
plays, connected indeed with form, but where the
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
329
number is the principal consideration. For in-
stance, in how many different positions and se-
quences can the series of number from one to three
be laid with sticks of equal length? Behold:
IT
IT
_
1
IN
- -
_
Third, they can be plays for the perception
and comprehension of linear and surface sizes, espe-
cially for the relative position and inclination of
the lines; for example, connection of vertical and
horizontal lines (sticks) where the horizontal is just
as long, or two or three times as long, as the ver-
tical; for example, L __, etc. Or so that
the horizontal stick is one half, one third, etc., of
the vertical. For example:
LL
In like manner with squares, or rather rec-
tangles:
O DO
Also the comprehension of oblique lines—that
is, sticks—which may be compared to trees bend-
ing lower and lower.
330
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The actual childlike way of playing can not of
course be given here, where we merely treat of the
connected presentation of the means of play. With
this play is included special training of the eye,
and of the power of measuring by the eye. Here
also, particularly with the form-plays, appear
again the laws of formation and development from
within of different forms, conditioned by the inte-
rior, which are recognizable by the child's power
of perception and comprehension, and on that ac-
count are very suggestive and important; for ex-
perience and the repeated expressions of the child
teach that he seeks to recognize in every phenom-
enon its inward cause.
As a connection of the opposites, there develop,
fourth, representation plays and forming plays
with sticks of a certain length and position; for
example, with vertical sticks one square long:
Since now through all this the child's power of ,
representation and observation, later of speech and
hearing, is developed, so also through the tendency
to imitation, through the necessity and law of this
tendency, is developed in the child the impulse to
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
331
connect what is audible and what he has heard
especially words, with visible signs written and
printed. Thus proceed from the first and fourth
ways of playing, fifth, the letter and word lay-
ing, the writing and reading plays; at the foun-
dation of which are the mostly straight-lined
capital Roman or Latin letters (I, N, V, M, etc.).
In order to lay the round forms, such as P, straight
sticks are nicked.*
The plays with the unconnected sticks were, ac-
cording to this statement, imitation plays, or plays
of formation, number plays, plays of size and rela-
tion, purely form plays, and finally letter and word
plays, or, as it were, writing and reading plays.
As now the color exercises are particularly con-
nected with the tablets, so the sign plays and the
actual writing and reading exercises are connected
quite simply with the sticks.
The points of connection at which to render
prominent, to observe, and to practice the singing
tone are so numerous that no special prominence has
been given to them before. This also has been the
case with the points of connection for the observa-
tion of Nature and life, for the exercises in speech
and language, and for the applications to the devel-
opment of the feelings of order, right, morality,
even of religion, to the training of will and charac-
* The rings were afterward used.-TR.
332
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
ter, etc. The development, strengthening, and
training of the power of action, of the family feel-
ing, and of the feeling of community or rather the
general feeling, appeared manifoldly and often, so
that no special prominence has been given to them
in the preceding pages. However, the leader of
children must have a clear and definite idea of all
these references so that he (or she] can render them
prominent and arouse and foster them in the child
whenever opportunity offers, and the capacity for
receiving them shows itself in the child. This re-
mark is one which applies to all these instrumen-
talities of childish play and employment.
In the same way as the perception of lines
came out through the development and division of
the tablet and surface forms, so also appears, in and
with the perception of lines, the conception and
perception of points, partly as a perception of fact,
partly as mental perception, and as material and
means of play for the children. The points form
again a new division consisting of these plays and
means of play. Objects compact by themselves
and having the characteristics of the point-seeds,
pebbles, little leaves, even bits of paper, etc.--can
be here employed as representatives of the point.
This is therefore the point of connection for the
collection of natural objects, fruits, etc., as further
means of play as well as for the seeking out and
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
333
separating of objects which are of a like kind from
those which are unlike and manifold.
Consequently we have come to the complete di-
vision and separation, to the complete dissolution,
and, in certain respects, to the spiritualizing (ren-
dering less material] of the solid, since, by the anal-
ysis of the solid into the surface, line, and point, we
have followed, as it were, the development of a tree,
of a plant from the germ—the seed—through the
formation of stem, branch, and twig, through the
development of the leaves and blossoms up to that
of the anthers and stamens, and even to the devel-
opment and scattering of the pollen. Hence we
must now in the opposite, yet like manner, return
on our path of collecting, combining, and uniting,
till we again reach the first unity.
It is highly remarkable that the dividing, the
scattering, immediately conditions unifying and
collecting; that the separating requires at once a
cohering. This coherence (this placing of the parts
together to form a whole) can now, as was indicated
in the former division, be performed in various
ways, as, for instance, by means of a pin which is
stuck into a suitably soft surface (such as can be
pricked), a firmly stretched cloth or cushion,. .
The inspection of round bodies, such as beads of
different colors and sizes, also belongs here.
334
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
The connection of the points to lines, and
through them to shaping of forms, is particularly
expressive, collecting, and unifying. This is best
done by a little ingenious device, by connecting
with one another and combining the perforations
in the so-called perforated sheet. This perforated
sheet has the astonishing and new peculiarity that
each product may be manifolded (from six to
twelve fold), as the sheet when folded together
many times is inclosed in another, on one side of
which is indicated that combination of points by
lines which is to be represented on each of the
leaves.
Three such series of pricking sheets are now
prepared. The first series is for the smaller, the
second for the middle, and the third for the larger
children. The latter series is prepared in accord-
ance with the strict progress from the easier to the
more difficult, and from the simple to the com-
plex, which makes it a preparation and previous
training for drawing and for instruction in draw-
ing by the cultivation of the measuring power
of the eye and that of the sense of form thus
effected.
With the pricking is also connected the rep-
resentation of letters—as initials of names—and of
words in little sentences, therefore writing and
reading. After all this is manifolded by the prick-
ing, that which is represented by it may be again
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS. 335
brought into prominence by colors; thus practice in
colors is connected with the pricking. It is im-
portant that the things produced should be used
as little presents, so that the child may not merely
receive.
As in the foregoing the points were again
united into lines and thus to figures, so in like man-
ner single sticks, when somewhat extended in
breadth, may be combined as strips, at first to sur-
faces, and later also to solids. The first can be done
in a fourfold way:
a. By interlacing somewhat wide and flexible
wooden slats which are alike in width and length.
The interlacing is either voluntarily taken apart
so that different forms may be made by the same
sticks, or the ends of the sticks may be fastened
together by some means—glue, paste, or wafers.
In this way model forms may be made for other
children and institutions.

B. By so-called intertwining of strips of paper
folded twice, or even stiff ribbon and cord. The
results of the intertwining are similar to those of
336
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
the interlacing, but more lasting and firmer; for
instance, in the following figure:

C. By interlacing, or rather weaving, of paper
strips. It is best that these should be of different
reciprocally completing colors—that is, comple-
mentary colors. In this way the different surface
forms may be again represented. The result of
this activity may be employed, like figured paper,
to make or beautify the most different objects
portfolios, writing books, needlebooks, cuffs, col-
lars, napkin rings, etc., box covers, covers for
glasses, cushions, etc.; thus again for various little
gifts and presents.
The use which is made of these little products,
as was mentioned above in regard to the pricking, is
very important to the civilizing, to the nourishing
of the child's being and mind; for I consider the
fact that many children receive so much and can
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
337
give hardly anything from their own little pro-
ductions, to be one of the most essential causes of
the frequent retrogression of childlike love and sen-
sibility. This statement must here suffice as an
intimation of one of the most important points of
education.
With increased development of power and
under precisely stated relations, the weaving of
mats with straw, etc., and even basket making, are
connected with the weaving. With the above-men-
tioned pattern leaves, etc., this may become at once
an industry for poorer children.
d. The fourth combination is that of slender-
1. To form simple figures, triangles, and quad-
rangles, but especially the triangles, in accordance
with fixed laws. These simple figures can then
again be grouped together in the most manifold
ways to form structures, but likewise according to
fixed laws. This grouping together is again a most
excellent cultivation and preparatory training of
the eye for drawing.
2. To make equal-surfaced and otherwise sym-
metrical solids which can be seen through, being, as
it were, only represented by the edges in outline;
and-
3. Also to construct buildings, house, room, and
household furnishings, which can also be seen
through.
U
338
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
By the inner combination and composition of
equal-surfaced and symmetrical bodies the develop-
ment of each following form from the preced-
ing, and finally from the original, fundamental
form, may be represented in such a manner as to
be capable of being seen through and capable of
being seen into.
This occupation is extremely important for the
insight into the innermost nature of the develop-
ment of forms and solids gained by it, as well as
for the impulse to creative activity. It is also par-
ticularly important for the development and cul-
tivation of the mind by the anticipation and in-
vestigation of the unity of all that is formed from
and through life. Hence it comes that the chil-
dren dearly love these occupations.
Three remarks may be here permitted:
First, the cutting from wood of all kinds of
little furnishings for house and household, such
as ladders, sleds, sawhorses, etc., is connected
with the splitting of the sticks from flat bits of
wood and tablets, and with the sharpening of the
sticks.
Second, by these employments, models, solids,
and objects can be made for other children and
institutions. Thus results a means of industry and
support and, at the same time, of education and
training for poorer children. This fact has already
been mentioned several times.
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
339
Third, the children are hereby enabled to make
little presents to those whom they love.
The combination of surfaces forms a new but
natural sequence to these employments. This
combination takes place first of all with paper sur-
faces, which, by creasing and folding, form solids,
or rather the outlines or superficies of solids-here
boxes of the most different kinds, with and with-
out covers, there equal-surfaced, symmetrical
bodies, and buildings. This creasing and folding
is used particularly with a later occupation, that of
cutting. By combining surfaces into the form of
symmetrical, rectangular solids, all cubical sizes
can be represented; for example:
Of course the way of fastening the sides rises like-
wise from the easier and simpler to the more diffi-
cult and complex. At first the fastening is done
by simply bending the material, then by interlacing
and closing together, finally by gluing or pasting.
As this occupation advances according to rule,
it also is entertaining, enjoyable, cultivating, and
instructive for the child.
With this occupation are connected the actual
paper work and the work with pasteboard for older
340
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
and more cultivated children, particularly boys;
and the remarks which were made above in respect
to children's gifts and to the cultivating effect of
these means of industry for poorer children are
therefore also of value here.
A further new and large division of the em-
ployments of children, as entertaining as it is in-
structive and useful, is the change of form:
A. Without diminishing the quantity of the
material, and here
a. At first with flexible thread lines—the twin-
ing into cords and other objects.
b. With proportionately connected stick lines,
as, for example, with the usual inch sticks. Here
especially representations of the different angles
and figures by changes.
C. With flexible surfaces, such as paper, by
creasing and folding, different forms and objects
are made with one and the same square surface, or,
what is the same, with several square surfaces of
equal size.
d. With soft flexible material—wax, loam, or
clay. Modeling is included in this occupation.
B. With the diminishing of the quantity of the
material:
a. Cutting of different forms of beauty from
square surfaces of like size according to fixed, pre-
cise law, generally the law of bringing out the visi-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
341
ble and that which can be made visible from the
invisible or, what is the same, from the hidden
visible. The forms are here:
1. With straight lines.
2. With curved lines.
3. With both straight and curved lines.
7. The cutting of different objects:
'1. Free-hand cutting of the objects of the house
and household, natural objects, and the objects of
social life.
2. The cutting out of already depicted objects
-animals, furniture, people, dresses, soldiers, the
objects of trade, landscapes.
Here takes place the unfolding of the whole
human department of social life, and of the life of
Nature—morals, good behavior, sensibility, the
right, the view of and insight into life, history; also,
on the part of the child, the use of all the unfolded
powers and qualities of his mind as well as his
heart, of his speech as well as the activity of his
body, limbs, and senses.
With this employment and play the busying of
the children for this stage of childlike development
terminates, as it embraces and comprises the whole
life of the child in every respect; man comes into
consideration in all his relations to God, Nature,
and humanity.
This is shown by the extended second play-
gift or “the sphere and cube with the solid
Lines.
24
342
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
forms derived from them according to necessary
laws."
c. The change of solids made of soft material
that can be cut-for example, clay, loam, potatoes,
turnips, cabbage stalks, or soft wood-and first of
all the change of the cube by cutting off (1) the
corners, (2) the edges. Here is specially re-
vealed the endeavor of the child to perceive the
inner in the outer, to represent the inner by the
outer; and, in reverse order, to find unity in mani-
foldness and to develop manifoldness from unity.
The way in which this busying of the children
leads to the higher and true (religious) comprehen-
sion of Nature and of their own life is clearly evi-
dent. And consequently here is also a complete
close.
· This again leads us back to the consideration of
the plays with the solid and firm round, and here,
as a connecting point with the former, first of all:
A. To the undivided sphere and to the plays
and employments with the sphere in different sizes
and numbers.
B. To the divided round. First of all,
a. Spheres are divided:
1. Concentric with the surface, thus giving
half spheres and spheres within others.
2. Parallel to one of the largest circles, giving
disks.
3. Through the three largest circles, intersect-
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
343
ing each other at right angles, thus into eight equal
four-surfaced bodies.
5. The cylinder is divided:
1. Concentric with the cylindrical surface, thus
into cylinders of different sizes.
2. Parallel to the upper and lower surfaces,
thus into equal-sized disks.
3. Through the two largest division planes in-
tersecting each other at right angles, thus forming
four columnar bodies, the sides of each including
two plane surfaces and one curved.
4. Into circles or rings from number one.
C. The cone is divided again:
1. Concentric with the curved surface.
2. Parallel to the base into disks.
3. Through the two division planes cutting
through the axis at right angles.
4. According to the conic sections.
From the connection of the round (thus origi-
nated) with the straight; and,
1. From the outward connection of the round
with the straight proceed the building and laying
forms, and
2. From the inward connection of both, the
roller, the wheel, the barrel, the wagon, the car-
riage, etc.
With the modeling as an object of play is,
therefore, connected
344
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
I. The province of mechanics.
II. The province of the contemplation of Na-
ture and introduction into it.
III. The province of human and social life.
But the round also finds its educating applica-
tion in play in the conception and connection of
planes and lines.
From all this now proceeds the free connection
of each favorite material in favorite forms in the
most manifold way and for the most different ob-
jects of play, employment, entertainment, and edu-
cation, as well as other objects (the fostering and
observation of human life and human relations);
for instance, for gifts of friendship, as has been al-
ready many times mentioned.
With these is further connected, as an educa-
ting employment for play and entertainment, first
of all the collecting of natural productions (pebbles,
leaves, flowers of the most different colors and
forms) to which the child so early inclines, in order
by this collecting to exercise his power of observa-
tion and comparison, as well as to extend his ob-
jective knowledge, but, above all, to procure for
himself a knowledge of the objects of Nature.
The collecting of objects—the flower, the plant,
the bug, the caterpillar, etc.— leads to the care over
them for growth and unfolding, therefore to the
fostering of life. The delightful impulse to such
A
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
345
fostering likewise shows itself very early in the
child as soon as he has even an anticipation and
perception of it. All this has an instructive effect
on the parents, and in general upon all who exert
an educating influence on the child. The gardens
of the children belong here essentially.
Lastly, humanity, in the shape of the child,
is even for the child the most satisfactory object
of play and the most enjoyable playmate, as
through the child all expressions of human life
become material for play, and, as it were, the
bringers of play. From this fact proceed the
voice and singing plays, the word and speaking
plays, the movement and representation plays, espe-
cially the representations of man in the most di-
verse stages of development, in the most varied
relations, vocations, businesses, and efficiencies.
They are in general, therefore, the plays of observa-
tion, comparison, and consequently apperception;
plays for the exercise of thought, for the fostering
development and cultivation of the reason, the in-
tellect, the head and heart, manners, and mod-
esty, as well as of morality and the highest
union of life—the greatest fostering and ob-
servation of life in all relations. For the child
thus represents, by and by means of himself,
his innermost unconscious life, as yet unknown
to him. He absorbs the inner and innermost of
the surrounding joint life. He mirrors this life in
346
EDUCATION BY DEVELOPMENT.
himself, he compares both spheres of life, finds
what is common to both, what is alike and what is
united in both. He thus develops, educates, and
forms himself for true, all-sided, intimate union of
life, and so for the understanding of life, for in-
sight into life, and for the ruling of life (as far
as this is possible at the child's age and at the differ-
ent stages of development). This is the actual and
highest aim of this play-whole, of this means and
way of playing, of this course of play. As a
higher spiritual bond passes through and pervades
the whole, so the child in the plays makes the dis-
covery that he can only arrive at insight into and
practice of this united and constant whole through
constant connection. In these three, and in the
presentiment thereof recognized or presupposed in
the child, lies the developing, educating, forming,
high effect of these plays. This high effect lies in
the still deeply slumbering, yet already active pre-
sentiment in the child that only the transitory and
visible can by connection lead to the becoming ob-
jective, to the becoming visible, and consequently
to the comprehension of the single and invisible
that abides in itself, therefore to the solution and
perception of that which is inward, spiritual, and
directing.
In this anticipation the child's impulse to imi-
tation, the tendency toward and the power of repro-
duction have their foundation as well as their aim;
KINDERGARTEN OCCUPATIONS.
347
and in this anticipation is revealed the nature of
the plays and ways of playing here presented.
By means of all this the whole life of Nature
and of man, the nature of all things, and above
all that of man (as being whole and single, dissolv-
ing all opposition and contrariety, and consequently
harmonized), are clearly revealed to the child in
the mirror of his plays.
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