Froebel

By
Neema K
I st year M.Ed.
School of Pedagogical Science,
Dharamsala,
Kannur University
Friedrich Wilhelm August
Froebel
“Play is the highest expression of human
development in childhood for it alone is the free
expression of what is in a child's soul.”

"Children are like tiny flowers: They are varied

and need care, but each is beautiful alone and
glorious when seen in the community of peers." 

-Friedrich Froebel
 Friedrich Froebel (1782 -1852) 
 Born on 21 April 1782 in south Germany.
 He was a German pedagogue.
 Friedrich Froebel was a motherless child. Losing his mother
before the age of 1.
 Studied Mathematics and Science at the University of Jena.
 A student of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
 Taught at progressive model school in Frankfurt that was
advocated by the Swiss Educator Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi.
 Opened his own school at Griesheim in Thuringia in 1816.
 He is best known for the founder of the kindergarten system.
 He is one of the greatest contributors of the 19th century to the
science of education.
 He also included Mothers in his school which was the start of
the PTA we see now.
 Then they were called “school-mothers” and they were a
club, just as they are now, that helped out the school.
 Froebel was an innovator, who was influenced by the key
pioneers of education John Amos Comenius and Johann
Heinrich Pestalozzi. 
 Works
Froebel went on to spread the word about his, Kindergarten.
He wrote many books about his philosophies. These include:
 The Education of Man
 The Pedagogics of Kindergarten
 Education by Development
 Mother Play
 His Philosophy of Unity
 “Come let us live for our children.”
 Unity in diversity.
 The unity between spirit and nature.
 He Influenced by the Schelling pantheistic* philosophy of the
identity of mind and nature.(*God, as the Absolute power,
included all parts of nature, man was part of God and God was
part of man.)
 He admired the appearance of a divine spirit in all things
growing.
 All things have come from the Divine Unity.
 Unity is God.
 Mental life was the outgrowth of the incessant creativeness of
the Divine.
 It helps man to understand his own nature
 Educational views of Froebel

 He was an absolute idealist and his ideas about education

were related to concept of religion and god.
 According to Froebel, the real purpose of education is to
expand the life of an individual until it comprehends the
existence through participation in all pervading spiritual
activity. To him education is a stage in the evolution of the
child.
 Education helps to elevate child to a higher level and be a
useful member of the society.
 He introduces a new method of teaching related to the interest
and inborn tendencies of children, which emphasizes natural
development through self activities and experience.
 Freedom and Creativity
 The most important aspects of man are creativity and freedom
 Freedom implies the ability to make wise choices and to avoid evil.
 Goodness is alone is real ,according to Froebel, for evil is merely
partiality and a distortion of goodness.
 Man is naturally creative; this is an expression of his basic nature.
 The child is not evil, on the contrary, waywardness is usually a lack of
vision and the result of false values.
 Education is most effective when it is based on the need of children.
 Child’s Own Individuality: Self Realisation.
 Self Activity is Creative.
 According to Froebel , if we encouraged the child when he is young,
the chances are that he will develop creative patterns in his matured
years.
Education through Family
and Morals
 Education depended on the unity of the family.
 The important virtue for mother is gentleness and the
father had to guide wisely.
 A home united by love would be the best institution
for human progress.
 When the home failed in its responsibilities, the
educator had the duty to instruct the parent in the
path of virtue.
Froebel on Mental Development

 Mental growth is organic. (like plants).

 The activity of a things ownself may be called self activity.
 Knowing, feeling and willing are the three major activity of
mind. It proportionately balanced according to their
strength.
 Each human being must develop from within self active
and free, in accordance with the eternal law. This the aim
of all education is instruction and training.
"The play of children is not recreation; it means
earnest work. Play is the purest intellectual
production of the human being, in this stage … for
the whole man is visible in them, in his finest
capacities, in his innermost being."
-Friedrich Froebel
 Froebel the Idealist
Froebel built his concept of Kindergarten upon idealistic principles
such as:
 All existence originates in and with God.
 Humans possess an inherent spiritual essence that is the
vitalizing life force that causes development.
 All beings and ideas are interconnected parts of a grand,
ordered, and systematic universe.
 Froebel based his work according to these idealistic principles,
believing that each child at birth has an internal spiritual
essence, or a life force, that can externalized through self-
activity.
 Kindergarten was to be a place that this self-active development
could occur.
 Froebel used ideas such as kindergarten’s gifts, occupations,
and play to promote this self-active development.
 Froebel’s educational ideals
 The whole universe is simply a unity. It demonstrates unity of
substance, unity of origin and unity of purpose.
 There is one eternal law, the law of unity that governs all things,
men and nature.
 Education is a growth from within. Every one develops
according to some universal law.
 Education is a development by which and individual realizes
that he is one unit of the all encompassing unity (God).
 Development is possible only through activity and practice.
 Education for Cultivation of senses, especially hearing and
vision.
 Education means the cultivation of awareness, love and
independence.
 The purpose of education is to unfold the child’s innate
power and awaken his spiritual nature so that he may have
a spiritual union with god.
 There is similarity between the growth of a plant and that of
a child.
 Play is the highest expression of human development in
childhood for it alone is the free expression of what is in a
child’s soul.
 Play is the spontaneous activity of the child. Therefore it is
the test to for their education.
 Self activity is the greatest teacher. The teacher is only a
guide. He should have full sympathy for the child.
 Principles
 Recognition of the uniqueness of each child’s capacity and
potential.
 An holistic view of each child’s development.
 Recognition of the importance of play as a central integrating
element in a child’s development and learning.
 An ecological view of humankind in the natural world.
 Recognition of the integrity of childhood in its own right.
 Recognition of the child as part of a family and a community.
 Environment
 Physically safe but intellectually challenging, promoting curiosity,
enquiry, sensory stimulation and aesthetic awareness.
 Demonstrates the unity of indoors and outdoors, of the cultural
and the natural.
 Allows free access to a rich range of materials that promote open-
ended opportunities for play, representation and creativity.
 Entails the setting being an integral part of the community it
serves, working in close partnership with parents and other skilled
adults.
 It is educative rather than merely amusing or occupying.
 Promotes interdependence as well as independence, community
as well as individuality and responsibility as well as freedom.
 Kindergarten
 Froebel’s first kindergarten was started in 1837 in
Blakenburg, Germany. 
 Kindergarten is a German word, which means a children
garden.
 Froebel conceived the school as a garden, the teacher as
the gardener and the students as tender plants.
 The teacher like the gardener is to look after the little
human plants and water them to grow to beauty and
perfection.
 Froebel discovered much similarity between a child and a
plant. he believed that the process of growth and
development of the plants and the child is the same. the
plants grow from within according to the seed that is within.
In the same way the child grows from within.
 He recognized that education begins in infancy.
 Froebel’s kindergarten is the system of pre-school in which
children are taught through creative play, social interaction and
natural expressions.  
 To him a child is repository of all good qualities and each child
carries with in itself the seeds of its fullest development.
 The name kindergarten signifies both a garden ‘for’ children and
also a garden ‘of’ children.
 Garden for Children: A garden for children means a location
where they can observe and interact with nature.
 Garden of Children: A Garden of children means where they
themselves can grow and develop in freedom from arbitrary
political and social imperatives.
 Froebel saw mothers as the ideal first teachers
 The Froebel Kindergarten offered the first significant careers for
women outside the home. At that time, women were not expected
(or often allowed) to work professionally. 
 Froebel's Kindergarten Goals
Froebel's kindergarten was designed to meet each child's need
for:
 physical activity
 The development of sensory awareness and physical
dexterity
 Creative expression
 Exploration of ideas and concepts
 The pleasure of singing
 The experience of living among others
 Satisfaction of the soul
 Basic principal of kindergarten
system or methods of teaching
 Self activity : Froebel stressed that the child should be
given full freedom to carry out his activities. the growth of
the child is directed by inner force in the child. Self activity
of the mind is the first law of kindergarten. The instructions
steadily goes on from the simple to the complex, from the
concrete to the abstract, so well adapted to the child and his
needs. He goes as easily to his learning as to his play.
The following points should be noted regarding activity :
 It should not be vague.
 It should be a controlled activity.
 Social atmosphere is essential in order to secure
meaningful results.
 Self activity may take the form either of work or of play.
 Learning by playing : According to Froebel  play gives
joy, freedom and contentment. Froebel recognized that play
needs to be organised on definite material so that it may not
degenerate into aimless play instead of preparing for those
tasks of life for which it is destined. There should be rational,
conscious guidance, consequently. The importance of
kindergarten system technique of teaching in kindergarten
system lies in teaching through play.

 Songs : Gestures and construction. Froebel  saw an

organic relationship between songs, gestures and
construction. He regarded these as three co-ordinate forms
of expression in the child.
 Gifts: Froebel prepared his gifts which form the basis of all
modern kindergarten. each of these gifts was accompanied
and  cheered by appropriate songs and music.

 The role of Teacher: The teacher is not to remain

passive. the teacher has to suggest the idea of occupation
when gifts are offered to children. The teacher is required to
demonstrate certain activities to them she also sings a song
with a view to helping the child to form appropriate idea.
 Freedom in education : In Froebel's word self activity
can be developed only in an atmosphere of freedom.
Freedom will bring out the natural and rational
development of inner faculties of the child. teacher should
not interfere with activities of the child. freedom does not
imply freedom to do whatever the child likes. it is a
controlled freedom when child keeps in view freedom of
other.
 Discipline : According to Froebel view on discipline, a
teacher has important responsibilities to perform. He has
to inculcate sympathetically values likes love, sympathy,
humility, cooperation, and obedience to elders. He has to
avoid external restraint and bodily punishment. The child
should be made to realize that discipline depends upon
his love for others, goodwill and mutual understanding.
Froebel stressed that women should be trained for
training children at this. Self control is an inner discipline,
which is the cause of outer discipline.
 Features of Kindergarten
 Free self Activity- Kindergarten system gives opportunity to
carries out his impulses and motives. It provides for the free
self activity.
 Creativity- Child is in creative in nature. The kindergarten
fosters creativity by process materials (gifts) for the child self
directed activity.
 Social Participation- It provides opportunities for
participation in social activities and co- operative activities and
which will encourage the child to discover himself and his
world. As a result he can build social relationships.
 Motor expression- Children are impulsive and physically
active by nature. The kindergarten system promotes learning
by doing.
 Gifts and occupations as materials and method of
education – Froebel design special materials known as gifts
and a series of recommended activities known as
occupations for use in kindergarten. The gifts are a set of
geometric shapes such as balls, cubes, cut papers etc.
Occupations such as folding paper, clay modeling etc.
 Teaching through play- Play is the characteristics activity of
childhood. Kindergarten system makes use of this play
behavior for providing learning experiences to the child. So
the child will learn many things easily and eagerly.
 Teaching through songs, gestures and construction-
Froebel says that singing, gestures and constructing
something are the general nature of children. Hence, proper
organization of these activities is the best means of their
developments.
 Froebel’s Curriculum
 He divided the curriculum in four parts-
1.Religion and Religious instruction.
2.Natural science and Mathematics.
3.Languages.
4.Art and object of Art.
 Froebel developed what he called “gifts” and “occupations”
for the children to use in Kindergarten. These gifts were to
stimulate the children to understand fundamental concepts.
 Should develop the foundation of perception.
 Facts are secondary and memorization should be avoided.
 Froebel’s Gifts and
Occupations
Froebel’s Gifts and occupations are used in kindergarten system.
The Froebel’s Gifts are play materials for young children designed by
Froebel for the original Kindergarten. It suggest child some form of
activity. The gifts began with simple objects such as spheres or
circles and then became more complex.
 Gift-I: It is a box of six woollen balls of different colour, which is
the right size for the hand of a small child. Rolling is occupation.
His intention was that through holding, dropping, rolling, swinging,
hiding and revealing the balls, the child may acquire knowledge of
objects and spatial relationship, movements speed and time,
colour and contrast, weights and gravity.
 Gift-II: It is wooden objects, a sphere, cylinder and a
cube. In occupation with these things the child marks the
difference between the movements of the different article
This gift was developed by Froebel to enable a child to
explore and enjoy the differences between shapes.

 Gift-III: There is a large wooden cube is divided into 8

equal parts. A child delights in rearranging the 8 cubes in
many ways, and reassembling them in the form of a
cube. This is the 1st building task.
 Gift-IV: It is the 2nd building gift and it appears similar to the first.
Each of these 8 identical beech wood blocks is twice as long and
half the width of the cubes of the previous gift. Many new
possibilities for play and construction arise due to these
differences.

 Gift-V: Considered by many too complex for a young child, this

building gift consists of more cubes, some of which are divided in
halves or quarters. 

 Gift-VI: A set of more complex wooden blocks that includes cubes,

planks, and triangular prisms.
 Gift-VII: This set of parquetry tablets contains a variety of geometric
shapes, made from either wood, plastic or paper.

 Gift-VIII: Whole and half wire rings for outlining figures. It represents
the edges or outlines of the objects. 

 Gift-IX: It represent small objects, often in a variety of colors, to

represent the point.

 Gift-X: The cycle full circle by combining the point and line to create
a framework of solid forms.
 Merits of Kindergarten System

 It laid emphasis on early childhood education.

 It gave importance to the principle of learning by play.
 It develops imagination and creative capacities of children.
 It develops mental, emotional, social, and spiritual qualities of
children.
 This is very simple, interesting and attractive method.
 This system broadened the concept and scope of the school as
an essential social institution.
 Demerits

 The over emphasis on play is likely to distract the child

from serious learning.
 The method requires a number of materials and
specialized teachers which cannot be provided at all
times.
 Children of early age do not comprehend the principle
emphasized by Froebel.
 There is only limited scope for correlation in the teaching
of various subjects in Kindergarten system.
 Criticism of Froebel’s
Theory and Practice
 Froebel bitterly criticized by many educational leaders even
his own time.
 During his life time Prussia the leading state in Germany
banned the establishment of Kindergarten.
 His socialistic and liberalizing tendencies were not liked by
government authorities.
 Froebel’s excessive emphasis on play in education cannot
be acceptable because it detracts the child from serious
learning.
 His insistence upon play, constructive work and many
other subject has underrated the importance of true
knowledge and ideas to a disrespect to the learning.
 As a philosopher he is discredited as a mystic and
pantheist.
His final resting place is in Schweina near Bad Liebenstein. His
grave stone was based on the ‘gifts’ of the sphere, cylinder and
cube. The Froebel Web explains:
“The sphere and the cube together represented Knowledge, Beauty
and Life.
“The sphere predominantly corresponds with the feelings or heart,
(affective) and the cube to thought and intellect (cognitive).”
 Conclusion
 Froebel was the first person who gave attention to early childhood
education.
 To him education is a necessary condition for the complete development
of child.
 He envisaged the gifts will teach the child to use his/her environment as
an educational aid.
 The natural course of the evolution of the child’s activities should be the
main guide in education of the child.
 Inner self activity direct the development.
 Early education should be oraganised around play.
 Physical, mental and moral powers should be developed and
harmonized through constructive activity.
 The curriculum should be based on the activities and interest of children
 The education women should be regarded as essential for the
development of human race
 Education can insure the future of evolution of mankind.
Thank You