Contribution of Froebel the father of Kindergarten- towards pre-school education.

Contribution of Froebel the father of Kindergarten- towards pre-school education.

Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (1782-1852), the  German educationist and Psychologist, the father of the Kindergrten system, laid the foundation for modern education to cater to the unique needs and capabilities of children.  According to him, the goal of education is to expand the life of an individual, through participation in all activities of life.  Hence, development of human creativity and productivity should be given more emphasis than intellectual knowledge.  He emphasized the importance of educational environment as a tool in education. According to him, play is the highest expression of human development in childhood for it enables free expression of what is in a child’s soul.  Froebel’s original philosophy for the kindergarted was based on his belief in naural laws of learning.  He believed that young children, like plants, held the seeds of their own later development.  He thought kindergarten teachers could stimulate this potential growth thereby helping children to recognize and use the things they understood instinctively. 

Froebel was convinced that play and handling material objects were the best means to develop the childs’ physical, social, emotional and intellectual abilities.

To teach the above mentioned principles, Froebel designed special educational materials and activities that formed the core of the kindergarten curriculum.  These were called gifts occupations and mother plays. Froebel devised a series of ten ‘gifts’ which are listed below:

Gift 1- Yarn balls, 

Gift 2 – Sphere, Cylinder and Cube, 

Gift 3 – Divided Cube, 

Gift 4 – Rectangular Prisms, 

Gift 5 – Triangular Prisms, 

Gift 6- Classic building blocks, 

Gift 7 – The tablets of seven shapes, 

Gift 8 – Sticks and Rings, 

Gift 9 – The point and 

Gift 10 – the frame work gift.  

These gifts were influence by his studies in architecture and his important work in cystalography. He created three different ways to play with the gifts – 

1. Forms of life, 

2. Forms of knowledge and 

3. Forms of beauty.

By playing with these gifts child builds the foundation of symbolic learning by internalizing these experiences.  This is a natural process for every child.  Froebel only refined it by providing a prepared environment where children can explore and learn.  The teachers help children explore the world in a concrete way many years before they could appreciate and understand an abstract discussion on art, nature or geometry. 

Besides the gifts there were songs and movement games, gardening and various craft activities which include cutting, pasting, sewing, colouring, folding, etc. which he called occupations.  These various activities reinforced the ideas for the 5 senses.

Child’s desire for play was the nature’s way to stimulate the brain to grow.  The true nature of the child is that he is sincerely trying to make sense of the universe by exploring it. It only seems natural that the parent would give the child experiences designed for this purpose.  Play is the engine that powers education.  That is why during these formative years the Play Way technique is being used which is also his contribution.

The greatest contribution of Froebel to education was his establishing the idea of Kindergarten and his observation of children between the age group of 1 to 7 years, which are the formative years.  He established it 150 years ago even before science could stamp it.  Till date the Kindergarten remains the best to provide Early childhood education.