Friedrich Froebel Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Friedrich Froebel - Research Paper ExampleFriedrich Froebel (1782-1852) was born in the Oberweibach area of Thuringia, Germany on 21 April 1782. His father was an orthodox Lutheran parson who ran the parish there. So it was not surprising that the Church and the Lutheran religion became the first pillars of Froebels own reading. To his bad luck, the health of Froebels mother began to fail before long after his birth and she died within nine months. Froebels father also passed away in 1802 and he was sent to live with an uncle in the adjoining crossroads of Stadt-Ilm. Froebel started his career as an educationist in 1805 as a secondary direct teacher in Frankfurt. At this time he was impressed by the work of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, also working with him in Switzerland to further develop his ideas. In 1811 Froebel once again went to Berlin and became a teacher at a boarding school for boys that specialized in pedagogy and patriotism. After serving in the Napoleonic wars of 18 13-14, he was employed in the Institute of Mineralogy by Christian Samuel Weiss. However he did not hold this job for long and ultimately founded the German General Educational Institute in Arnstadt, Thirungia. He began publishing pamphlets about the need for education in 1820. In 1826 he published the Education of Man, his main work, followed by the Educating Families in 1828. In 1840, he finally started the first kindergarten concept in Germany at the Play and Activity Institute which he had established in 1837 (Rusk & Scotland, 1979 32). He also designed toys and activity materials dubbed Froebels Gifts for these young kids. He died at Mariental on 21 June 1852. Important Contri exclusivelyions Froebel was instrumental in including the concept of play and free association for kids in the classroom. He also trained people in his pedagogy methods and discipline. Following the success of his methods, his student Margaret Schultz opened up a kindergarten at Wisconsin in 1856 and Eli zabeth Peabody in Boston in 1860. By 1911, kindergarten education was officially recognised in Germany under its own state and regulatory laws. Froebel College in South West London in the UK was started in 1892 to respect and follow his traditions. He also was the first to train women in pedagogy at the premises granted by the Duke of Meiningen for this purpose(Weber, 1969 13). According to Sniegoski (1994 3), Froebel can be credited for ignoring the idea that the child was same(p) a plant or a lump of clay into which education can be implanted. This concept originated by Locke was in vogue at the time, but the tireless efforts of Frobel and his followers soon brought in a new concept, namely the importance of play and larn at ones own pace. severally new activity grew out of a previously available idea and thus a child was able to grow in stages of intellectual development. more than the same thing has been recognized and identified by other thinkers such as Jean Piaget. Froebe l regarded play as the most important basis for the impulsive development of the child. Another idea Froebel encouraged was self activity. He preferred that the learner educate himself. The task of the teacher was just to create a learning environment for the child, and shield the child from danger or unwanted processes. Froebel opined that for the first year of life, the mother was a childs most important teacher, era they depended on the whole family for support and contentment. As the child