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Emily Shirreff 1814-1897

The Froebelian ideas of a Kindergarten were prevalent in the Girls’ Public Day School Company set up in the 1870s and Emily Shirreff, who was one of the founders of this company, was also the president of the Froebel society.

In 1850 Maria G. Grey and Emily Shirreff in their Thoughts on Self-Culture Addressed to Women, wrote that girls were trained to be dependent "distrusting their own conclusions and shrinking from responsibility, till they sink into mere puppets, useless to themselves and to others."

Emily Anne Eliza Shirreff Intellectual Education, and its Influence on the Character and Happiness of Women (1858) http://www.thoemmes.com/psych/female_edu.htm

Thoughts on Self-Culture. Addressed to Women. By Maria S. Grey and her sister Emily Shirreff. was reviwed in The United States Democratic Review, vol. 28, issue 156 (June 1851).

in 1872 Emily Shirreff and her sister Maria Grey founded the Girls' Public Day School Company, enabling schools to be owned by trusts or companies and controlled by a board of governors rather than by private individuals.

Emily Shirreff wrote an introduction to Reminiscences of Froebel (Erinnerungen an Fröbel) by Baroness Bertha Marie von Marenholtz Buelow.

Author Baroness Bertha Maria von Marenholtz-Buelow, Title Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel/translated by Mrs. Horace Mann Publisher Boston: Lee and Shepherd, 1895 Contents With a sketch of the life of Friedrich Froebel by Emily Shirreff.

Emily Shirref wrote this Hymn

Gracious Savior, Who didst honor
Womankind as woman’s Son;
Very Man, though God begotten,
And with God the Father One;
Grant our womanhood may be
Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.

Jesus, Son of human mother,
Bless our motherhood, we pray;
Give us grace to lead our children,
Draw them to Thee day by day;
May our sons and daughters be
Dedicated, Lord, to Thee.

Thou Who didst with Joseph labor,
Nor didst humble work disdain,
Grant we may Thy footsteps follow
Patiently through toil and pain;
May our quiet home life be
Lived, O Lord, in Thee, to Thee.

Thou Who didst go forth in sorrow,
Toiling for the souls of men,
Thou Who shalt draw all men to Thee,
Though despised, rejected then;
Humble though our influence be,
Use it in the world for Thee.

sugested tune:

"Motherhood," L. Meadows White (1860-1950)

Alternate tunes:

"All Saints Old," Darmstadt Gesangbuch, 1698
"Irby," Henry J. Gauntlett, 1849

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Origins of Nursery Education: The Froebelian Experiment

Routledge invited Dr Kevin J. Brehony to edit this collection Froebelian texts, which includes the following:

Shirreff, E. (1880) The Kindergarten Principles of Froebel's System and Their Bearing on the Education of Women. London, Swan Sonnenschein.

Shirreff, E. A. (1887) 'Infant Schools and Kindergartens' Journal of Education. Vol. IX. April. pp. 187-188.

Shirreff, E. (1888). "What is women's work in the world". Journal of Education X(232): 519-520.

Shirreff, E. (1889) 'Froebel's Principles of Education'. Journal of Education. Vol.XI. Dec. pp. 615-616.