“The education of a man commences at his birth; before he can speak, before he can understand, he is already instructed.... Trace the progress of the most ignorant of mortals from his birth to the present hour and you will be astonished at the knowledge he has acquired.”[8]
[8] “Emilius and Sophia,” Vol. I., p. 54. London: 1767.
And this further proposition, also of Rousseau—
“The common profession of all men is humanity; and whoever is well educated to discharge the duties of a man cannot be badly prepared to fill up any of those offices that have a relation to him.”[9]
[9] Ibid., Vol. I., p 13.
The truth of these propositions being admitted, some conception may be formed of the tremendous influence exerted by woman upon the destinies of the human race. It extends literally from the cradle to the grave. All other influences combined are less potent, less comprehensive than this single, persistent force that creates the very atmosphere in which the infant mind develops, holding the ground alone and undisturbed until the child’s plastic character has been formed, receiving ineradicable impressions. What a crime, then, was the neglect of the people of past ages to educate woman! It is in vain that the education of man is attempted if that of woman is neglected. It was Rousseau who in despair exclaimed:
“How can a child be properly educated by one who has not been properly educated himself?”
Since, therefore, the education of the man begins while he lies helpless in his mother’s arms, and since the first steps in this direction are the most important, and since some sort of education proceeds with almost inconceivable rapidity through all the early years of life, it follows that the kindergarten fills a place in the educational field entirely unoccupied until the time of Froebel. He first applied the ideas of Rousseau to school life. But when the kindergarten receives the child, three or four of the most precious educational years have already passed away, and at the still tender age of seven the child is surrendered to a very different system of training. The kindergarten is therefore only a brief episode in the educational period of the child’s life. But if it be the true education, it is susceptible of universal application. Throughout all nature the order of development is constant and harmonious, and the child-nature cannot in reason constitute an exception to this rule. Froebel said, “The end and aim of all our work should be the harmonious growth of the whole being.” If his principle is the true one, his method is susceptible of such modification and expansion as to render it applicable to the whole educational period. All mothers should therefore be trained in the principles and methods of the new education—the kindergarten system should prevail in all schools, and the kindergarten curriculum should be extended and adapted to all ages and grades of pupils.
Several great minds, separated by considerable intervals of time, have united in condemning the old systems of education—Bacon, Comenius, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Froebel. Bacon, himself a university man, said, “They learn nothing at the universities but to believe;” and he proposed that a college be appropriated to the discovery of new truth, “to mix like a living spring with the stagnant waters.” Three of these great men—Comenius, Pestalozzi, and Froebel—were professional teachers. Theoretically they were in accord with and followers of Bacon, and in practice they were substantially agreed. Comenius said, “Let things that have to be done be learned by doing them.” Pestalozzi said, “Education is the generation of power,” and Froebel said, “The end and aim of all our work should be the harmonious growth of the whole being.”
These are very high authorities, and they are buttressed by seemingly impregnable educational propositions. The record of Froebel’s life is worthy of great weight in support of his theory. His devotion to the cause of education was absolute. He never knew a selfish aim. He struggled for the race, not for self. He was the victim of many misfortunes, but none disturbed the serenity of this great soul devoted to the greatest of great causes—the cause of education. And education to his apprehension was the thorough training of every faculty of the mind and every power of the body for the duties of actual practical life. His love embraced the world in its entirety and in all its parts. Dying, he said, “I love flowers, men, children, God! I love everything!” It was his profoundly philosophic conception of the innate lovableness of every natural object that made him shudder at the cruel distortion wrought in the natures of little children by false methods of education. Hence his intense devotion to the subject of infant training, and hence the excellence of the system which bears his name.