The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1880-07-29

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stance instead Of the shadow. He was
hardly the inventor, but the great pio~
neer in the department of object teach
ing, which has permeated and affected,
more or less, the modern methods Of
teaching every subject. When Pesta-
lozzi was teaching at Yvurdun, in 1907,
he received an application from n of
the most ardent and self>sacrifcing
teachers of his day to become an associ.
ate teacher in order to learn his system
of teaching. The applicant was none
other than the renowned Frederick Froe.
bel. Nine years afterwards the latter
opened a school in Thurugia and con
tinued an enthusiastic teacher, a shrewd
practical experimenter of educational
methods, and an ardent lover and stu
dent of the child and child nature, until
the day Of his death in his seventeen
year. Froebel was one of natures own
noblemen-a large hearted fervent lover
of humanity. "who labored ceaselessly,
and never knew a selfish aim; who read
the secrets of human nature in the child
that he might train to a more perfect
manhood; who reused woman in the
name Of the nation and the race to real
ize what was the power and duty entrus>
ted to them by Heaven: the man who
was too much in advance of his time to
be recognized as great while he lived,
and whose work, now spreading in all
lands, is the work which we have bands
ed ourselves together to forward among
our own homes, as a new hope for future
generations of our own people"
Each of these three names marks an
important advance step in the progress
of the art of education. Rosseau de-
nounced the passive reception by the
child of a mass of knowledge irrespec-
tive of comprehension or practicability.
He asserts the individuality Of mar and
bases all education on it. Pestalozzi,
while as fully acknowledging the indi-
viduality, makes development, manifest
ing itself in activity, the be,all and end,
all Of education, and holds that all true
knowledge must be gained effectively.
Froebel continually unites doing with
observing, does not rest with initiative
but trains to inventive activity, and de.
velops the moral and religious natures
equally with the intellectual and physi,
cal. He recognizes in play natures
means of physical and mental develop,
ment, the first childish activity. This
play ought to be guided, and that by one
always willing to answer the numerous
questions of those living interrogation
p~oints-the children.
Rosseau takes Emile alone; he is kept
from the companionship of his fellows
until he is fifteen years of age. Froebel
makes companionship an essential cons
dition of his education. To illustrate:
When, on one occasion of financial
strait, the Duke of Meningen proffered
him the remunerative position OF tutor to
his son, Froebel refused, because lit is
impossible to give a sound intellectual
education to a child who had not a true
moral development; and that it is impos.
sible for a child to receive that who is
separated from equals, and led to mag
Inc himself as having a superior nature,
Pestalozzi would have the man whom he
had trained do we'll. Froebel sought to
train hin 10 live we'll in the widest sense
Of the word.
To carry out these principles Froebel
founded a kind of school that he called
a children's garden-a kindergarten-in
which children were to be placed from A
to 6 or 7 years of age, The instruction
there given is designed to precede all
other school training, and to prepare the
child therefore by developing naturally
and ~agreeabiy all its potential self-activ.
tiles. The methods there adopted may
be best illustrated by an account of a
days visit to a genuine Froebel kinder
garten, which will be the subject Of a fu.
ture chapter.