When Friedrich Froebel came up with the idea of a kindergarten for children, he could not have envisaged that the word would become such a household word that people around the world would readily understand.
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It was a word that was adopted under the German name that Froebel gave it.
Friedrich wanted to create a garden for children, a place where they could develop their intelligence by playing games, singing and engaging in other activities appropriate for little children.
It was a big idea when Froebel thought about the first kindergarten in 1837, grounded in “play and activity” and the nurturing of creativity through the systematic deployment of a sequence of “gifts”, such as coloured balls and mosaic tiles. Froebel was using nature as the model of perfection to educate children.
The kindergarten that many grown-ups remember is one of songs, games, playing with blocks, finger painting and nature walks.
But today, some kindergartens have become simply smaller first grades. In his book Inventing kindergarten, Norman Brosterman makes a strong argument that the inspiration for much of modern art and architecture can be linked to the invention of the kindergarten.
With a history of caring for young children, Froebel Froebel moved to Blankenburg, Germany, in 1837 where he set up his school, that later he named a kndergarten.
Froebel called for German women to come together and support the kindergarten. Because he described children as plants and teachers as gardeners, the term kindergarten emerged, kinder meaning child and garten meaning garden.
His books were burned by the German community. They did not believe children needed to play in order to learn. They thought his theories were outrageous.
Some attempts have been made to describe the kindergarten system as kindergartenism. A kindergarten pupil has sometimes been referred to as a kindergartenism pupil.
The book Sydney and the Bush, which the Department of Education published in May 1980, quotes Froebel as saying that his system was based on the principle that education practices should be suited to the nature of children.
Very few words have attached to kindergarden.
Did you know, however, that a group of young men were recruited by Lord Milner to aid with South African reconstruction after the war of 1890-1902 and they were called Milner’s kindergarten?
No? But we can all understand the German word kindergarten, no matter what part of the world we are in. A garden for children.
lauriebarber.com; lbword@midcoast.com.au.
