Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel

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I. My First Meeting with Froebel . . . i

II. Froebel in Liebenstein ..... n

Chapter I. My First Meeting With Froebel

IN the year 1849, at the end of May, I arrived at the Baths of Liebenstein, in Thuringia, and took up my abode in the same house as in the previous year. After the usual salutations, my landlady, in answer to my inquiry as to what was happening in the place, told me that a few weeks before, a man had settled down on a small farm near the springs, who danced and played with the village children, and therefore went by the name of " the old fool." Some days after I met on my walk this so-called " old fool." A tall, spare man, with long gray hair, was leading a troop of village children between the ages of three and eight, most of them barefooted and but scantily clothed, who marched two and two up a hill, where, having marshalled them for a play, he practised with them a song belonging to it. The loving patience and abandoji with which he did this, the whole bearing of the man while the children played various games under his direction, were so moving, that tears came into my companion's eyes as well as into my own, and I said to her, " This man is called an * old fool ' by these people ; perhaps he is one of those men who are ridiculed or stoned by contemporaries, and to whom future generations build monuments."

The play being ended, I approached the man with the words, " You are occupied, I see, in the education oi the people. ^^

" Yes," said he, fixing kind, friendly eyes upon me, " that I am."

"It is what is most needed in our time," was my response. " Unless the people become other than they are, all the beautiful ideals of which we are now dreaming as practicable for the immediate future will not be realized."

"That is true," he replied; "but the * other people' will not come unless we educate them. Therefore we must be busy with the children."

" But where shall the right education come from ? It often seems to me that what we call education is mostly folly and sin, which confines poor human nature in the strait-jacket of conventional prejudices and unnatural laws, and crams so much into it that all. originality is stifled."

" Well, perhaps I have found something that may prevent this and make a free development possible. Will you," continued the man, whose name I did not yet know, " come with me and visit my institution ? We will then speak further, and understand each other better."

I was ready, and he led me across a meadow to a country-house which stood in the midst of a large yard, surrounded by outhouses. He had rented this place to educate young girls for kindergartners. In a large room, in the middle of which stood a large table, he introduced me to his scholars, and told me the different duties assigned to each in the housekeeping. Among these scholars was Henrietta Breyman, his niece. He then ' opened a large closet containing his play-materials, and gave some explanation of their educational aim, which at the moment gave me very little light on his method. I retain the memory of only one sentence: "Man is a creative being." /

But the man and his whole manner made a deep impression upon me. I knew that I had to do with a true Man, with an original, unfalsified nature. When one of his pupils called him Mr. Froebel, I remembered having once heard of a man of the name who wished to educate children by play^ and that it had seemed to me a very perverted view, for I had only thought of ernpty play, without any serious purpose.

As Froebel accompanied me part of the way back to Liebenstein, which was about half an hour's distance from his dwelling, we spoke of the disappointment of the high expectations that had been called forth by the movements of 1848, when neither of the parties was right or in a condition to bring about the desired amelioration.

" Nothing comes without a struggle," said Froebel ; " opposing forces excite it, and they find their equilibrium by degrees. Strife creates nothing by itself, it only clears the air. New seeds must be planted to germinate and grow, if we will have the tree of humanity blossom. We must, however, take care not to cut away the roots out of which all growth comes, as the destructive element of to-day is liable to do. We cannot tear the present from the past or from the future. Past, present, and future are the trinity of time. The future demands the renewing of hfe, which must begin in the present. In the children hes the seed-corn of the future ! "

Thus Froebel expressed himself concerning the movements of the time, always insisting that the historical (traditional) must be respected, and that the new creation can only come forth out of the old.

" That which follows is always conditioned upon that which goes before," he would repeat. " I make that apparent to the children through my educational process." (The Second Gift of his play-materials shows this in concrete things.)

But while Froebel, with his clear comprehension, cast his eyes over the movements of the time, neither joining with the precipitate party of progress nor with the party of reaction that would hinder all progress, he was counted by those in authority among the revolutionists, and condemned with his kindergartens. He repeated again and again : "The destiny of nations lies far more in the hands of women — the mothers — than in the possessors of power, or of those innovators who for the most part do not understand themselves. We must cultivate women, who are the educators of the human race, else the new generation cannot accomplish its task." This was almost always the sum of his discourse.

FROEBEL'S NORMAL TEACHING.

Already on this first day of my acquaintance with Froebel the agreement was made that I should take part as often as possible in the instruction given to the pupils he was training.

The fire with which he uttered and illustrated his views gave them a peculiar stamp, and the deep conviction with which he demonstrated their justice was sometimes overpowering and sublime. He became entirely another person when his genius came upon him ; the stream of his words then poured forth like a fiery rain. It often came quite unexpectedly and on slight occasions ; as in our walks, for instance, the contemplation of a stone or plant often led to profound outbursts upon the universe. But the foundation of all his discourses was always his theory of development, — the law of tmiversal development applied to the human being.

One needed to see Froebel with his class, in order to realize his genius and the strong power of conviction which inspired him. No one could avoid receiving a deep impression of it who saw him in that circle of young maidens, teaching with that profound enthusiasm which only an unswerving conviction of the truth uttered lends to the discourse, with a love for the subject which communicated his enthusiasm to his hearers, and an untiring patience.

The greater number of his scholars may not have fully comprehended his words, for that which he was teaching often far transcended their accustomed sphere of thought, and his strange mode of speech made it difficult for them to understand him ; but the spirit of the subject penetrated their hearts, and in the course of his teaching developed a partial understanding of it. This was true only of those who could understand with the heart, and in whom also love for the subject was really awakened.

Yet it cannot be denied that some of his scholars carried into their own subsequent activity nothing but the practical occupations of the kindergarten, and often, alas ! an assumption of a knowledge which is not real knowledge.

But the learning of the practical occupations and plays in their logical connection, and with their intellectual meaning, gave each of these young maidens at least a limited comprehension of the subject. The full measure of it, indeed, can be appreciated only by the highly gifted and highly developed.

The understanding of his often obscure style was facilitated by the accompanying demonstrations. Tears would often be seen in the eyes of his scholars, when with his overflowing love of humanity he would speak of the helplessness of children, exposed to all harms by the arbitrary way in which they are managed, but whom God has intrusted to the female sex to be moulded into true men and at the same time into children of God, to be led back consciously to him from whom they had come forth. And then he further emphasized the great responsibility which was imposed upon women as educators of the human race, — a responsibility doubled in our day, whose problems are so great and difficult to solve that the male sex alone is not able to solve them. " The immature must become mature; the immature are especially the women and children whose human dignity has not been in full measure recognized hitherto," he used to say, when he spoke of the new tasks of the female sex. He was most difficult to understand when he spoke of the application of his " law " through the gifts ; and also when he treated of tlie first impressions of the outward world upon the very young child, which were given by concrete things, symbols, as it were, for the later apprehension of spiritual facts.

Even the most developed of his scholars were hardly capable of clearly reproducing this truly most difficult and obscure side of his instruction. I saw this from their note-books in which they wrote down the contents of his lessons to them. On this account, therefore, I have ever since conducted this part of the instruction in quite another manner than he was accustomed to do.

But his eyes sparkled with delight when he pointed out to me, here and there, in these note-books, passages which showed a deeper insight and understanding of the subjects he had treated. Still more would his joy break forth when I would further develop and explain the illustrations which he privately gave to 7ne^ and when I showed that I had reflected upon what I had received from him.

" How did you know that ? " he often asked me when he was explaining the meaning of his play-materials, and I anticipated him. " I have not yet spoken of that." My answer, " I can infer it from my own recollection of the intellectual demands of my earliest childhood," made him quite happy, and he would reply, " You see, then, that it is true."

And so he would say, when I communicated to him at that time some of my own very short notes of his teachings, as, for example, an aphoristical statement like the following : " The first circle in the unfolding of the earliest child-life is unconscious nature bound by necessity."

" Childhood, in this first period of life, can only find its antitype in the external phenomena of the sensible world, from the crudest types of nature onward, which prefigure their organisms. The elementary finds itself again only in the elementary."

"These images wake the soul-germs that are related to all nature, which, on the other hand, is a symbol of the spiritual. The still unthinking mind of the child can be awakened and taught only through symbols or the higher mental images. Natural phenomena furnish these symbols, but not in the elementary form which corresponds with the still unarticulated simplicity of the child's soul. They must first be selected out of the great manifoldness of things by the thinking mind. They must reflect the universal law that gives its form to the smallest as well as to the largest object, to the flowers as well as to the celestial bodies."

"The simplest forms (types), which lie at the foundation of the fabric of the world, lay also the foundation in the minds of children for the understanding of the world, which expresses God's thought (spirit). These simplest and unarticulated forms are the fundamental forms of crystallization." (The solid forms of Froebel's second Gift.)

"The norms of all the organisms and all the phenomena of nature are the universal properties of things, that which is peculiar to them all in spite of the infinite variety of form ; and this universe, which expresses itself in form and color, in relations of size and weight, in tone, in number, etc., is to be stamped in the most elementary manner on the child's soul, through his eye, as fundamental form, fundamental color, fundamental tone, — archetypes as it were of ideas."

" Definite, clear, and sharply drawn conceptions follow such logically ordered ideas in the subsequent circle of development. A correct comprehension of external, material things is a preliminary to a just comprehension of intellectual relations."

"Only that knowledge furthers the ripening of the mind which mounts up through its own activity and effort from the perception and contemplation of external objects to the thoughts or the conceptions which dwell in things. Only through a gradual climbing up on the ladder of knowledge does the child's mind rise out of its own darkness to the light of its own consciousness. Only from the antitype which makes objective the child's own inner being can this consciousness be gained clearly. So that the A B C of things must precede the A B C of words, and give to the words (abstractions) their true foundations."

" It is because these foundations fail so often in the present time that there are so few men who think independently, and express skilfully their inborn, divine ideas. The instruction forced upon the child's mind, which does not correspond to its inner stage of development and its measure of power, robs him of his own original view of things, and with it of his greatest power and capacity to impress the stamp of his own individuality upon his being. Hence arises a departure from nature which leads to caricature," etc.*

So obscure and difficult to understand were Froebel's

* What is quoted here is only for those initiated into Froebel's system, and is referred for explanation to my writings, particularly to that which treats of the method. It has found no other relevance here than so far as it concerns the relation mentioned.

lO • REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL.

distinctions, and so much veiled was his " Idea " by his peculiar mode of speech, that one could cull out the peculiar meaning of it only after one had penetrated his method of intuition {Anschauimgsweise). Single lightning flashes often illuminated the dark way, and the truth which he himself received pre-eminently by inspiration was communicated to his hearers also intuitively as it were.

I had many opportunities to notice his intercourse with the princes of Meiningen and Weimar, whom I had interested in him and his subject, and who often accompanied me in my visits to him. He was truly modest, but it was a marked trait of character in him that he felt his dignity as a man and his own importance personally as the bearer of an idea.. Real appreciation, however, easily misled him to take for granted the full recognition of his " divine idea," and, rejoicing in that, he could undoubtedly appear arrogant and boastful to those who did not know that he never looked upon the idea as his own, but regarded himself only as the Godfavored bearer of it ; but the haughtiness of mediocrity was wholly foreign to him.

Therefore I was often vexed when some of the frequenters of the baths of Liebenstein, whom I took to see him, allowed themselves to treat him, on account of the plainness of his external appearance, which was not unlike that of an old village schoolmaster, in his old-fashioned long coat, with his hair parted, and of the childlike simplicity of his manners, with a degree of contempt, or indeed as an inferior ! But he was seldom moved by what concerned himself personally, though very much so by everything that undervalued or slighted

REMINISCENCES OF FROEBEL. H

his cause. When in conversation touching his idea, any learned scholasticism undertook to condemn it without having arrived at any understanding of it, a violent indignation was kindled in him. When he had taken for granted a capacity to understand him, and yet met a motiveless opposition, he could come crashing in, as I experienced in one case, when he defended the truth of his views like an enraged lion.

Chapter II. Froebel In Liebenstein

WOULD that men did not always demand of geniuses who bring the Great and Good into the world, that with this extraordinary gift they should unite all human perfections! This unreasonable requisition often causes them to be misunderstood and calumniated when it is discovered that as men they do not always stand upon the height of their genius. We forget that the heavenly light hardly ever illuminates to its possessor anything but the field whereon he is to build, but cannot penetrate through the whole mind ; and by the side of the divine inspiration the natural power stands as yet unpenetrated by the light, which leaves room also for the unspiritualized powers (^ddmojiisches) and likewise for human weaknesses.

Froebel was no exception to this rule, and not only in his lifetime, but even now, after his death, has had to suffer from manifold unjust judgments, among which are those of some of his earlier pupils in Keilhau (1817- 27), who cannot complain enough of what they call the defects of some of his branches of instruction, without considering all that stood in the way of bringing his method immediately into complete working order. The new always stands in opposition to established claims, and has first to clear the ground of what has become obsolete before it can be effective. In the introduction of new ideas, their representatives pay no regard to men and things that oppose them, and therefore often wound sensibly even those who are dearest.

Froebel often made his friends and relatives suffer when their views and interests did not harmonize with what he considered necessary or best for the good of his idea. But one must in this respect discriminate between the lack of sound judgment in a matter of human interest, and that in a matter which serves the end of self-seeking, the latter being the chief motive with the majority of mortals. This vulgar self-seeking is never known to the real genius, the genuine bearer of an idea, for he must offer himself as a sacrifice on the altar of this idea. Through his whole life Froebel sacrificed himself and his personal interests, also the interests of those nearest to him, to the development and propagation of his idea, and knew no other striving. This should not be forgotten by those who have to complain of him for some loss of their own.

In Keilhau, Froebel could only make experiments in order to get necessary data for the working out of this educational idea. The idea itself was grasped by him at first only in the germ, and was still unripe, as well as the means of its accomplishment. In the process of fermentation towards a new form in which Froebel found himself, he could not, in full measure, fulfil all the duties of the practical teacher, any more than could Pestalozzi or others of his predecessors. Therefore some complaints of his pupils as to gaps in their knowledge may be quite justified, since, moreover, the time for instruction was much curtailed by the practical labors superadded, and by excursions in the fields and woods of Keilhau. Yet, not to be unjust, the gain in respect to the formation of character and practical ability must be thrown into the balance. How very much Froebel did influence the moral culture of his pupils is made public by the unbounded love and gratitude expressed by the majority of them at the time of his death. Even on this side it is to be observed that his peculiar mission did not have reference to the improvement of instruction, which had already been turned into the true path by Pestalozzi, but rather consisted in creating a new foundation for education in general, and consequently in working more indirectly for the reform of instruction. The new truth concerning the nature of childhood which he brought out cannot be without influence upon all branches of education, and here it was that Froebel knew no yielding whenever the jewel of the truth intrusted to him was questioned or attacked.

But on the other hand, he would confess ignorance in the most childlike manner, when the application of his idea touched points not yet considered by him. He frequently said, upon such occasions, " I have not yet considered that side of the subject ; I will see j it may be so " : or, " That is new, but it must be right, and we must work it out," etc. He would even learn from children, — or others, — for he was wholly free from that pride of knowledge which covers so much emptiness. One day when I visited him, he said, his eyes lighting up, " To-day is a good day ; much that is new has come to me ; almost every morning when I wake this comes to me uncalled for, but to-day it was especially bright and clear. Yes, this truth is endless, and cannot be exhausted by thought."

It was generally extremely difficult to hold him fast to one train of thought, for if a new thought struck him he often followed it up without any regard for his particular theme, and without any consideration for his hearers. He was always learning himself as he spoke, and therefore the logic of his discourse suffered exceedingly, so that he gave to many the impression of disorderliness of thought. Added to this, his peculiar manner of expression, the doubling and trebling of words in order to make the matter clear, the often endless interweaving of sentences, — all this made him quite unintelligible to the ordinary public, and especially to women.

Sometimes at Liebenstein, when I introduced strangers to him to whom he tried to explain his method without succeeding according to his wish, he would call on me with the request to explain this or that, with the words, " They understand you better."

Now and then the word "confusion," or something similar, fell from the lips of his hearers, but the great majority of them were won by the power of the deep conviction which expressed itself in every word, even before a real understanding of the subject was possible. The great majority of women, especially, could not avoid being moved when he so strongly appealed to the maternal feeling.

Before Froebel was con\inced of my deep interest in his cause and of my understanding of it, there were moments of doubt and distrust on his part He had been deceived so often, both in his expectations of a correct comprehension of his method, and in the assistance promised him for the purpose of its introduction, that he feared dilettanteism, and a quickly blazing fire of straw, and would sometimes unjustly take these for granted. Only after I had written several anonymous articles for public journals which he used to praise beyond their desert, and after our intercourse had convinced him of the earnestness of my interest, was I unreservedly initiated into the subject.

After I had accepted Froebel's educational method in respect to its pedagogical principles and practical means, I still lacked the final basis and point of departure of his views. I begged him to disclose to me in full the deeper basis of his theory of the world ; he replied ; " No, my last word I take with me into the grave ; the time for it has not yet come."

In vain I urged on him the duty of uttering this last word, even if not publicly, until one day at my house he read some leaves of an old manuscript and begged permission to take with him the volume containing them. When I went to see him the next day he said : " Now you shall know my last word ; I have been reading in your book nearly the whole night, and see that you have my idea and therefore will not misunderstand me."

Although he construed several general theories in the sense of his idea when he found related ideas of others, yet he had found in mine some nearly related original views of things which facilitated a deeper penetration into his idea, and supplied me by degrees with the proper key for the understanding of it. His explanations alone could not bring this about ; they were too aphoristic and unintelligible in expression. Only a longer study and my own working led in the course of years to that, and even then only to the first beginnings of the understanding of an idea which still needs centuries for its development and maturity, — an idea which Froebel received from the hands of his predecessors as a seed from the flowers of the past, and which he left to the present only in germ, so that legions of thinkers of the following age and in different departments may develop it and bring it to maturity as an element of the general idea of the time. The present has only to make the first practical application to the child in the cradle and in the garden of children, and thus to prepare the ground for future generations, which alone can complete what the present has begun.

The reproach of mysticism applied to Froebel's system has a certain justification so long as the theory lying at the foundation of his educational idea is not completely understood and scientifically established ; and thus far there is little prospect that this will really happen very soon, since the great mass of the representatives of the cause can only comprehend its outside. The conflicts of the present must bring more of the problems of the time nearer to their solution before the solution of this problem which concerns mankind most deeply can come upon the stage. In spite of the slight understanding of his idea that Froebel found in his contemporaries, he was thoroughly convinced that the time for it would come.

" If three hundred years after my death my method of education shall be completely established according to its idea, I shall rejoice in heaven/' he replied to me once when I was lamenting over its slow and imperfect advance.

Froebel found in Liebenstein a haven of rest for his last days. The residence in large cities had always been harassing and irksome to him.

" I was born for country life and intercourse with nature," he declared very truly. He did not understand the language of the great world. Literary culture, according to the prescription of faculties and authorities, was foreign to his self-taught and original fashion of thought, and he was ill fitted for the discussion of the claims of science in this or that department. Still less was he fitted for the conflicts with intrigue, vulgarity, and malevolence which met him in the great centres. Therefore he was happy to have escaped them when he arranged his farm-house near Liebenstein, after he had given a course of instruction to kindergartners in Dresden the winter before.

Here he was again surrounded by the home atmosphere of Thuringia, and by beautiful nature, with which he had always held his most intimate and comforting communion ; and his trustful, receptive young scholars gave him an opportunity to state his method without meeting with opposition from an imperfect knowledge of the subject. Here he was able to lay the foundation for the general education of the female sex, — the educational vocation, — and every one who attended his instructions must have seen how the happiness that inspired him was reflected in the enthusiasm of his pupils.

The interest in his cause shown by the princes of Meiningen and AVeimar, especially by her Highness, my patroness and friend, the Duchess Ida of Weimar, who so often accompanied me to Froebel's institution, renewed his courage. I was obliged to mediate with the gracious and amiable princess for much that Froebel wished for in the interest of his cause. Through her a suitable location was at last obtained for his institution.

On a walk which I once took with him we came, in the neighborhood of Liebenstein, upon the small ducal shooting-castle of Marienthal, charmingly situated among the green fields. Froebel stood still, and said, " Look round about you, Frau Marenholz. This would be a beautiful place for our institution, and even the name would suit it so well, — Marienthal, the vale of the Marys, whom we wish to bring up as the mothers of humanity, as the first Mary brought up the Saviour of the world." .

I remarked to him that he might petition the duke to grant him the building which was standing unused, and that I would endeavor to assist him in the matter through the Duchess Ida. So it came to pass, yet only after a long delay, since many objections were raised by the authorities. Through the continual prompting of her brother by the duchess this end was reached only after months. I had the pleasure of surprising Froebel with the official permission after he had almost given up the hope. One circumstance contributed to bring about this permission sooner, by making still more clear to the duchess the in appropriateness of the farm-house inhabited by Froebel.