[Illustration: FRIEDRICH FROEBEL]
It was Froebel who said, "The clearer the thread that runs through our
lives backward to our childhood, the clearer will be our onward glance
to the goal;" and in the fragment of autobiography he has left us, he
illustrates forcibly the truth of his own saying. The motherless baby
who plays alone in the village pastor's quiet house, the dreamy child
who wanders solitary in the high-walled garden; the thoughtful lad,
neglected, misunderstood, who forgets the harsh realities of life in
pondering the mysteries of the flowers, the contradictions of
existence, and the dogmas of orthodox theology; who decides in early
boyhood that the pleasures of the senses are without enduring
influence and therefore on no account to be eagerly pursued;--these
presentments of himself, which he summons up for us from the past,
show the vividness of his early recollections and indicate the course
which the stream of his life is to run.
The coldness and injustice of the new mother who assumed control of
the household when he was four years old, his isolation from other
children, the merely casual notice he received from the busy father
absorbed in his parish work, all tended to turn inward the tide of his
mental and spiritual life. He studied himself, not only because it was
the bent of his nature, but because he lacked outside objects of
interest; and to this early habit of introspection we owe many of the
valuable features of his educational philosophy. Whoever has learned
thoroughly to understand one child, has conquered a spot of firm
ground on which to rest while he studies the world of children; and
because the great teacher realized this truth, because he longed to
give to others the means of development denied to himself, he turns
for us the heart-leaves of his boyhood.
It would appear that Froebel's characteristics were strongly marked
and unusual from the beginning. Called by every one "a moon-struck
child" in Oberweissbach, the village of his birth, he was just as
unanimously considered "an old fool" when, crowned with the experience
of seventy years, he played with the village children on the green
hills of Thuringia. The intensity of his inward life, the white heat
of his convictions, his absolute blindness to any selfish idea or aim,
his enthusiasm, the exaltation of his spiritual nature, all furnish so
many cogent reasons why the people of any day or of any community
should have failed to understand him, and scorned what they could not
comprehend. It is the old story of the seers and the prophets repeated
as many times as they appear; for "these colossal souls," as Emerson
said, "require a long focal distance to be seen."
At ten years old the sensitive boy was fortunately removed from the
uncongenial atmosphere of the parental household; and in his uncle's
home he spent five free and happy years, being apprenticed at the end
of this time to a forester in his native Thuringian woods. Then
followed a year's course in the University of Jena, and four years
spent in the study of farming, in clerical work of various kinds, and
in land-surveying. All these employments, however, Froebel himself
felt to be merely provisional; for like the hazel wand in the
diviner's hand, his instinct was blindly seeking through these
restless years the well-spring of his life.
In Frankfort, where he had gone intending to study architecture,
Destiny touched him on the shoulder, and he turned and knew her.
Through a curious combination of circumstances he gained employment in
Herr Gruner's Model School, and it was found at once that he was what
the Germans love to call "a teacher by the grace of God." The first
time he met his class of boys he tells us that he felt inexpressibly
happy; the hazel wand had found the waters and was fixed at last. From
this time on, all the events of his life were connected with his
experience as a teacher. Impelled as soon as he had begun his work by
a desire for more effective methods, he visited Yverdon, then the
centre of educational thought, and studied with Pestalozzi. He went
again in 1808, accompanied by three pupils, and spent two years there,
alternately studying and teaching.
There was a year of lectures at Goettingen after this, and one at the
University of Berlin, accompanied by unceasing study and research both
in literary and scientific lines; but in the fateful year 1813 this
quiet student life was broken in upon, for impelled by strong moral
conviction, Froebel joined Baron von Luetzow's famous volunteer corps,
formed to harass the French by constant skirmishes and to encourage
the smaller German States to rise against Napoleon.
No thirst for glory prompted this action, but a lofty conception of
the office of the educator. How could any young man capable of bearing
arms, Froebel says, become a teacher of children whose Fatherland he
had refused to defend? how could he in after years incite his pupils
to do something noble, something calling for sacrifice and
unselfishness, without exposing himself to their derision and
contempt? The reasoning was perfect, and he made practice follow upon
the heels of theory as closely as he had always done since he became
master of his fate.
After the Peace of Paris he settled down for a time to a quiet life in
the mineralogical museum at the University of Berlin, his duties being
the care, arrangement, and investigation of crystals. Surrounded thus
by the exquisite formations whose development according to law is so
perfect, whose obedience to the promptings of an inward ideal so
complete, he could not but learn from their unconscious ethics to look
into the depths of his own nature, and there recognize more clearly
the purpose it was intended to work out.
In 1816 he quietly gave up his position, and taking as pupils five of
his nephews, three of whom were fatherless, he entered upon his life
work, the first step in which was the carrying out of his plan for a
"Universal German Educational Institute." He was without money, of
course, as he had always been and always would be,--his hands were
made for giving, not for getting; he slept in a barn on a wisp of
straw while arranging for his first school at Griesheim; but outward
things were so little real to him in comparison with the life of the
spirit, that bodily privations seemed scarcely worth considering. The
school at Keilhau, to which he soon removed, the institutions later
established in Wartensee and Willisau, the orphanage in Burgdorf, all
were most successful educationally, but, it is hardly necessary to
say, were never a source of profit to their head and founder.
Through the twenty succeeding years, busy as he was in teaching, in
lecturing, in writing, he was constantly shadowed by dissatisfaction
with the foundation upon which he was building. A nebulous idea for
the betterment of things was floating before him; but it was not until
1836 that it appeared to his eyes as a "definite truth." This definite
truth, the discovery of his old age, was of course the kindergarten;
and from this time until the end, all other work was laid aside, and
his entire strength given to the consummate flower of his educational
thought.
The first kindergarten was opened in 1837 at Blankenburg (where a
memorial school is now conducted), and in 1850 the institution at
Marienthal for the training of kindergartners was founded, Froebel
remaining at its head until his death two years after.
With the exception of that remarkable book 'The Education of Man'
(1826), his most important literary work was done after 1836;
'Pedagogics of the Kindergarten,' the first great European
contribution to the subject of child-study, appearing from 1837 to
1840 in the form of separate essays, and the 'Mutter-und-Kose Lieder'
(Mother-Play) in 1843. Many of his educational aphorisms and
occasional speeches were preserved by his great disciple the Baroness
von Marenholtz-Buelow in her 'Reminiscences of Froebel'; and though two
most interesting volumes of his correspondence have been published,
there remain a number of letters, as well as essays and educational
sketches, not yet rendered into English.
Froebel's literary style is often stiff and involved, its phrases
somewhat labored, and its substance exceedingly difficult to translate
with spirit and fidelity; yet after all, his mannerisms are of a kind
to which one easily becomes accustomed, and the kernel of his thought
when reached is found well worth the trouble of removing a layer of
husk. He had always an infinitude of things to say, and they were all
things of purpose and of meaning; but in writing, as well as in formal
speaking, the language to clothe the thought came to him slowly and
with difficulty. Yet it appears that in friendly private intercourse
he spoke fluently, and one of his students reports that in his classes
he was often "overpowering and sublime, the stream of his words
pouring forth like fiery rain."
It is probable that in daily life Froebel was not always an agreeable
house-mate; for he was a genius, a reformer, and an unworldly
enthusiast, believing in himself and in his mission with all the ardor
of a heart centred in one fixed purpose. He was quite intolerant of
those who doubted or disbelieved in his theories, as well as of those
who, believing, did not carry their faith into works. The people who
stood nearest him and devoted themselves to the furthering of his
ideas slept on no bed of roses, certainly; but although he sometimes
sacrificed their private interests to his cause, it must not be
forgotten that he first laid himself and all that he had upon the same
altar. His nature was one that naturally inspired reverence and
loyalty, and drew from his associates the most extraordinary devotion
and self-sacrifice. Then, as now, women were peculiarly attracted by
his burning enthusiasm, his prophetic utterances, and his lofty views
of their sex and its mission; and then, as now, the almost fanatical
zeal of his followers is perhaps to be explained by the fact that he
gives a new world-view to his students,--one that produces much the
same effect upon the character as the spiritual exaltation called
"experiencing religion."
He was twice married, in each case to a superior woman of great gifts
of mind and character, and both helpmates joyfully took up a life of
privation and care that they might be associated with him and with his
work. Those memorable words spoken of our Washington,--"Heaven left
him childless that a nation might call him father," are even more
applicable to Froebel, for his wise and tender fatherhood extends to
all the children of the world. When he passed through the village
streets of his own country, little ones came running from every
doorstep; the babies clinging to his knees and the older ones hanging
about his neck and refusing to leave the dear play-master, as they
called him. So the kindergartners love to think of him to-day,--the
tall spare figure, the long hair, the wise, plain, strong-featured
face, the shining eyes, and the little ones clustering about him as
they clustered about another Teacher in Galilee, centuries ago.
Froebel's educational creed cannot here be cited at length, but some
of its fundamental articles are:--
The education of the child should begin with its birth, and should be
threefold, addressing the mental, spiritual, and physical natures.
It should be continued as it has begun, by appealing to the heart and
the emotions as the starting-point of the human soul.
There should be sequence, orderly progression, and one continuous
purpose throughout the entire scheme of education, from kindergarten
to university.
Education should be conducted according to nature, and should be a
free, spontaneous growth,--a development from within, never a
prescription from without.
The training of the child should be conducted by means of the
activities, needs, desires, and delights, which are the common
heritage of childhood.
The child should be led from the beginning to feel that one life
thrills through every manifestation of the universe, and that he is a
part of all that is.
The object of education is the development of the human being in the
totality of his powers as a child of nature, a child of man, and a
child of God.
These principles of Froebel's, many of them the products of his own
mind, others the pure gold of educational currency upon which he has
but stamped his own image, are so true and so far-reaching that they
have already begun to modify all education and are destined to work
greater magic in the future. The great teacher's place in history may
be determined, by-and-by, more by the wonderful uplift and impetus he
gave to the whole educational world, than by the particular system of
child-culture in connection with which he is best known to-day.
Judged by ordinary worldly standards, his life was an unsuccessful
one, full of trials and privations, and empty of reward. His
death-blow was doubtless struck by the prohibition of kindergartens
in Prussia in 1851, an edict which remained nine years in force. His
strength had been too sorely tried to resist this final crushing
misfortune, and he passed away the following year. His body was borne
to the grave through a heavy storm of wind and rain that seemed to
symbolize the vicissitudes of his earthly days, while as a forecast of
the future the sun shone out at the last moment, and the train of
mourners looked back to see the low mound irradiated with glory.
In Thuringia, where the great child-lover was born, the kindergartens,
his best memorials, cluster thickly now; and on the face of the cliffs
that overhang the bridle-path across the Glockner mountain may be seen
in great letters the single word _Froebel_, hewn deep into the solid
rock.
[Signature: Nora Archibald Smith]