The History of Pedagogy

by Gabriel Compayré

Now Frœbel’s method has precisely for its object the satisfaction of these different instincts.

“To place the child before a common table,” says Gréard, “but with his own chair and a place that belongs to him, so that he feels that he is the owner of his little domain; to excite at the very beginning his good will by the promise of an interesting game; to develop in succession under his very eyes the marvels of the five gifts: to teach him in the first place, from concrete objects exposed to his sight, balls of colored worsted and geometrical solids, to distinguish color, form, material, the different parts of a body, so as to accustom him to see, that is, to seize the aspects, the figures, the resemblances, the differences, the relations of things; then to place the objects in his hands, and to teach him to make with the balls of colored worsted combinations of colors agreeable to the eye, to arrange, with matches united by balls of cork, squares, angles, triangles of all sorts, to set up little cubes in the form of crosses, pyramids, etc.;—then, either by means of strips of colored paper placed in different directions, interlaced into one another, braided as a weaver would make a fabric, or with the crayon, to drill him in reproducing, in creating, designs representing all the geometrical forms, so that to the habit of observation is gradually joined that of invention; finally, while his hand is busy in concert with his intelligence, and while his need of activity is satisfied, to take advantage of this awakened and satisfied attention to fix in his mind by appropriate questions some notions of the properties and uses of forms, by relating them to some great principle of general order, simple and fruitful, to mingle the practical lesson with moral observations, drawn in particular from the incidents of the school—this, in its natural progress and its normal development, is the method of Frœbel.”

543. Defects in Frœbel’s Method.—There is ground for thinking, notwithstanding all, that Frœbel’s method is a little complicated, a little artificial, and that it sometimes proceeds in opposition to the natural disposition of children. Their soul, he said, cannot in the first period of its development, recognize itself, apprehend itself, save in the perception of the simplest forms of the exterior world, presented in a concrete manner. Now nature of herself does not offer these elementary forms; it is necessary to know how to extract them from the infinite diversity of things. And Frœbel found these simple forms in the sphere, the cube, and the cylinder.

But these forms, we reply, are but abstractions; it does not suffice to say that the cube and the sphere are material and palpable,—they are none the less the product of abstract thought on this account; nature does not present these simple geometrical forms; everything in them is complex. Now the nascent thought is employed at first on real things, on the living and irregular forms of animals and vegetables; then in this case, the mind proceeds naturally from the complex to the simple, from the concrete to the abstract. It seems, on the contrary, that Frœbel begins with the abstract in order to arrive at the concrete.

In the school of Frœbel other defects have been developed. An abuse has been made of the exercises in imitation and invention. The child has been made to produce marvels of construction which take too much of his time and demand of him too much effort. It has been forgotten that these employments should be preparatory exercises,—means, and not the end of education.

544. The Last Establishments of Frœbel.—Towards 1840, the ideas of Frœbel began to become popular. His methods attracted attention. Then he wished to transform his school at Blankenburg into a model establishment. He addressed an appeal to the German nation in favor of his work, but it was only slightly successful. Obliged in 1844 to close his institute, through lack of resources, he then travelled through Germany in order to make known his methods. He did not derive from his journey the profit that he expected from it, and, discouraged, he returned once more to Keilhau, where he opened a course in method, or a normal course, for the use of young women who were preparing themselves for the education of infants. This association with women, in which Frœbel lived till his death, exercised a profound influence on the development of his system. A much greater share of attention was given to the practical exercises, and the mathematics was put in the background.

In 1850 he obtained through the intervention of the Baroness von Marenholtz, one of his most ardent admirers, the lease of the Castle of Marienthal, and to this he transferred his establishment. A long period of activity seemed opening before him. He personally directed the games of the children, and trained the teachers; but he died suddenly in 1852.

545. Frœbel and Diesterweg.—However, before his death, Frœbel was able to witness the growing success of his work. Each day he received eminent adhesions; for example, that of Diesterweg.[227] It was through the mediation of the Baroness von Marenholtz that Frœbel and Diesterweg, the celebrated director of the normal school of Berlin, became acquainted. Diesterweg was a strong and practical spirit, who contributed much to the development of instruction in Prussia. At first he had a contempt for Frœbel, whom he treated as a charlatan; but on his first conversation with him he changed his opinion. He was taken to the school-room in which Frœbel was teaching; but wholly intent on his work, Frœbel did not observe the presence of the visitor. Diesterweg was impressed by seeing this old man devoting himself entirely to his little pupils, and his prejudices disappeared. To a certain extent he became the propagator of Frœbel’s ideas. He agreed with him on his general conception of the needs of the child, and of the province of woman as the earliest educator.

546. Success of Frœbel’s Work.—Frœbel had other imitators. Like Pestalozzi, he inspired a large number of minds by his writings, and through the zeal of Madame von Marenholtz, and of some other disciples, his practical work prospered. The Kindergartens have been multiplied in many places, and particularly in Austria.

547. The Père Girard (1765-1850).—The Père Girard is the most eminent educator of modern Switzerland. Less celebrated than Pestalozzi and Frœbel, he yet has this advantage over them, of having been better prepared for his profession as an educator. After having finished a thorough and complete course of classical study, he for a long time taught the same subjects in the same school. He acquired experience and wrote his treatises only in an advanced age, at a time when he was in complete possession of his ideas. He was in fact seventy-nine years old when he published his book On the Systematic Teaching of the Mother Tongue. It is a work of mature thought, and sums up a whole lifetime of labor. Less addicted to system than Frœbel and Pestalozzi, the Père Girard still carries mere system too far, and makes a misuse of the principle which consisted in making of all the parts of instruction the elements of moral education.