FRIEDRICH FROEBEL

 

 

"As an educator, Froebel believed that stimulating voluntary self-activity in the young child was the necessary form of pre-school education (Watson, 1997a). Self-activity is defined as the development of qualities and skills that make it possible to take an invisible idea and make it a reality; self-activity involves formulating a purpose, planning out that purpose, and then acting on that plan until the purpose is realized (Corbett, 1998a)." Froebel stressed the importance of play and that using it can engage children and allow them to learn. He stressed the importance of creativity and thinking independently. He believed that through play and exploring the world, children could learn all that they needed to learn. Froebel often provided children with paints and clay in order to allow them to explore their creative side. "To assist children in their development of moving from one plane of educational growth to another, Froebel provided the children with many stimulating activities to enhance their creative powers and abilities. Froebel designed a series of instructional materials that he called "gifts and occupations", which demonstrated certain relationships and led children in comparison, testing, and creative exploration activities (Watson, 1997b)." These gifts and occupations inclued cylinders and various other shapes that children could use to get hands-on experience and to play with. Froebel also believed in working closely with the family unit in order for children to experience success in the classroom. He believed that the classroom should resemble home as closely as possible because children have their first learning experiences at home.

 

I like Froebel's theory. I think that feeling at home in the classroom will allow children to open up and be better able to learn. Home is a place where you can let your guard down and be yourself; I think that it is also very important for children to be able to do this at school. I originally researched this theoriest because I saw that there was a book written about him "inventing kindergarten." Loooking at his theory, I can see how his contributions led to the development of kindergarten. His hands-on play type of curriculum is exactly how kindergarten is structured.

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