Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)

Personal Background:

Born on April 21, 1782 in Oberweiss, a small village in Thuringia, Germany.

His mother died when he was nine months old. His father, a Lutheran minister, sent him to live with relatives as a young boy.

As a young man he tried attending the university several times, this caused him to go into debt due to tuition payments which led him to being imprisoned.

Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852)

Background:

1797: Was apprenticed to a forester in Thuringia.

1799: Took courses at the University of Jena.

1801: Returned home to be with his ailing father. A year later his father passed away and he became a clerk in the forestry department of the state of Bamburg.

Background:

1804-1805: Served as a private secretary to several noblemen.

1805: Went to Frankfurt intending to be an architect, but ended up teaching.

1808: Went to Yverdon, Switzerland and tutored boys while attending Johann Pestalozzi's school.

1811: Left Yverdon and studied at he Universities of Gottingen and Berlin until 1816. He then served in the army ran by German states opposed to Napoleon.

Refrences:

Foundations of American Educaiton. L. Dean Webb. Arlene Metha. K. Forbis Jordan.

www.biography.com

www.froebelweb.org

Contributions:

"QUOTES"

"In the treatment of things of nature we very often take the right road, whereas in the treatment of man we go astray; and yet the forces that act in both proceed from the same source and obey the same law."

"If man is to attain fully his destiny, so far as earthly development will permit this, if he is to become a truly and unbroke living unit, he must feel and know himself to one, not only with God and humanity, but also with nature."

"A child who plays and works thoroughly, with perseverence, until physical fatigue forbids will surely be a thorough, determined peson, capable of self-sacrifice."

"If three hundred years after my death my method of education shall be completely established according to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven."

1836: Turned his attention early childhood education.

1849: Toured Germany about five years spreading the idea of kindergarten.

(Settled in Liebenstein and spent the remainder of his life combatting conservative forces critical of his educational theories)

1851: Conservative forces got the Prussian government to ban kindergarten.

Basic Beliefs:

How are is principles used today?

In today's world Froebel's principles and ideas are used everywhere in the United States. Children are taught to use and by using all of their senses. Kindergarten is a requirement which has to be met in order to move forward in school.

Preschool teachers are responsible for ensuring that children know and understand the use of their bodies and how they can learn from it by using activities such as blocks, clay, music, art, and dance among other things.

Froebel believed that anything God created was important and that is what the majority of us are taught and it is what we are inturn teaching.

Died on June 21, 1852, eight years before the Prussian government

lifted the ban on kindergarten.

*Respect with which the individuality and ability of each child should be treated.

*The importance of creating a happy, harmonious environment in which he or she can grow.

*The value of self activity and play as a foundation on which the integrated development of the whole person can be built.

Background:

1816: Opened the University of German Educational Institute at Keilham; a school based on his own educational theories.

1818: Married Henrietta Hoffmeister (she died in in 1836 and he remarried in 1851).