Froebel Web

Online Forum: your views

You can have your say by sending your thoughts by e-mail - contributions will appear here.

Your site was very well organized and was a wonderful resourse of information on Froebel. CJ Cosner cjcosner@tqci.net

I am a kindergarten teacher educator and owner and director of Institute of early childhood developers in Kenya. I have read much about Froebel. I prefer his methods in my Amicus kindergarten and teacher training programmes my desire is to liase with international colleges or institutes who prefer his methods and offer international diplomas. I have had over 15 years experience in early childhood education. Kindly respond to me with any information through email: childhood@todays.co.ke mail: AMICUS SCHOOL, P.O.BOX, 41430, Nairobi, Kenya
Joyce K. Marangu B.A edu(Hull)

From 4th to 17th August 1999, two teachers from Barcelona will visit villages and cities where Fröbel lived and worked. We would like to contact people interested in Fröbel at each site. Marta Mata mmata@tinet.fut.es

I am writing a book on 11 historical figures of early childhood and would like to know where I could get an image of the grave stone of Froebel with the sphere, cylinder and cube. Jennifer Wolfe jwolfe@telusplanet.net

There are more images of the gravestones at this web site, the pictures are linked to larger copies.

Congratulations on starting the Friedrich Froebel webring. It's great working with you. Claudia

I find your site very interesting. I put your url in my homepage about education, technologies, and nature.

I'm so happy to have found you! I can't believe I haven't searched sooner! I'm a Froebel convert, and so are others I have shared the book Inventing Kindergarten with. A good friend introduced me to the book. I teach German to young children and was a regular classroom teacher for years. I want to spread the word about Froebel and his teachings. Lillie Kate Webb lkwebb@mail.utexas.edu

Your page on Johannes Itten and the Bauhaus was so interesting to read, I`m going to use it when I teach. Johannes Itten's theory of color is one of our main subjects at the college. Maybe it`s because he was trained an Froebel educator that he developed a theory that is so easy to teach, so logical and with an understandable progression? Nina Scott Frisch mailto:nsf@hinesna.no from Norway

Hello, from St. Louis, Missouri, USA. A few years ago, while taking a history of St. Louis class, the instructor told us about the origins of kindergarten in St. Louis. The founder of St. Louis kindergartens was a woman named Susan Blow, who studied Froebel's kindergartens in Germany. I could swear that the instructor told us that a Helen Froebel, a relation to Freidrich, cam to St. Louis to assist Susan Blow. No where have I been able to find any information to substantiate this fact. Currently I have a bet with friends that I am right. Do you have any information on a Helen Froebel. I would be indebted to you if you have any information to share. Karen Wittmayer JKWittmayr@stlnet.com

There is excellemt information available on this site.

I am interested in the Froebel concept of education. I am now a grandmother had I known more when my son was small, I would have investigated more at that time. What I could not offer my son, I would like to offer my grandson!

I am a teacher at PFH (Pestalozzi-Fröbel-Haus in Berlin). You may see a picture of the building in my homepage http://home.pages.de/~ralfD

Sean Griffin, email sgspsns@hotmail.com would be very interested to hear from practicising teachers who are implementing Froebelian principles in their classrooms at any grade level.

I am head of Balham Nursery School in South London. Our work today is still strongly influenced by the Froebelian idea of nature and unity ie our Garden is fundamental to all areas of the curriculum. We are quite close to Froebel College at Roehampton Institute - home of some examples of Froebel's Gifts and Occupations and Froebel Research Committee. Would be good to have more info about Froebel's influence on nursery education today - Montessori seems to be the best known pioneer!

In doing some web research on Froebel after seeing that great book by Norman Brosterman, I came across your site. Wow. I am putting together a small piece on Froebel on my education website and I'd like to point people to Froebel Web - it is such a great resource. Inventing Kindergarten blew me away. Froebel's work was so visionary. And as you or someone in your site mentions, his approach is very relevant today with its emphasis on play, sensitivity to nature, etc. I had no idea of his influence on people like Wright, and other artists. That's a great story about Wright's mother buying the blocks.

I have been asked by Routledge to edit a collection of Froebel's work and Froebelian texts relating to the English nursery school. A description of the project is to be found at: http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ESM/ESM/Froebel.html There is also a link to the proposed list of contents. If any one has any alternative suggestions or any comments at all on the selection please feel free to contact me. Dr Kevin J. Brehony, School of Education, The University of Reading, Bulmershe Court, Reading RG6 1HY, UK Telephone: +44 (0) 1734 875123 x 4873. Fax:+44 (0)1734 318863 e-mail: k.j.brehony@rdg.ac.uk
http://www.rdg.ac.uk/ESM/ESM/kjb.html

Please could you forward on to me the Ten Common Principles of Froebel's Pioneers as I cannot find them listed on the internet site, many thanks for your help in this urgent matter. Floragala@aol.com

This question isn't easy to answer, because Froebel never compiled a readable system of his pedagogics. In which context did you come across the "ten principles"? I think the ten principles are a compilation of his pupils like Eleonore Heerwart. I've never found a compilation of ten principles of education in the original writings of Froebel. Winfried Mueller

Froebel Institute in London or Froebel College in Dublin may be able to assist.

Is one structure for a kindergarten school day developmentally more appropriate than another based on the research? For example, half days five days per week, or all mornings, or full days, or alternating full days. Kathy Svoboda

I am a graduate student studying the effects of full day kindergarten vs. half day kindergarten. Your site has been a terrific help in establishing the history of kindergarten. Do you know of any other sites that would help my research? I greatly appreciate all of your hard work. Christine Marchand

update - Thanks for your help. I am getting some interesting facts on this topic. Currently the U.S. Department of Educatiopn has a 5 year longitudinal study that began this school year. That should be interesting. I'll let you know what else I can find. Christine Marchand

Just want to say hi! to all other Froebels. Have been working on getting my Froebel family web page, setup, but it is going very slow. Will be back here again soon (I hope) Love to all. Herbert H Froebel

First thank you for the wonderful treasures you are providing those of us interested in Froebel. I am a lecturer of education at Froebel College and Adlerian psychologist.

My interest in in the spirituality of education, connections between Froebel philosophy and the psychological theories of Alfred Adler. I would love to hear from anyone who shares these interests and my commitment to a spiritual-holistic view of education.

My thanks to you and I will continue to use your site as a resource. My home address is below:

Dr. David J. Carey
5 Grange Grove, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland
dcarey@tinet.ie
Phone/Fax: 01 2892846 Mobile: 086 8115764

I was just reading about Fröbel and the history of kindergarten in Finland. I'm currently teaching in a school for special children and thought that it would be interesting to make the Fröbel blocks in woodcraft classes. I've heard a lot about those blocks but never had a opportunity to play with them. That's a shame but now when I have graduated both preschool teacher and masters programeme in Education I do have an opportunity to do what ever interests me. Mikko Tiihonen mikko_tiihonen@hotmail.com

I came across the autobiography of Bertrand Russell and noticed, that Fröbel has not only been inspiration for architects etc. but allso for philophers. Russell writes about going to kindergarten where influence of Froebel was found. It must have been one of the first Froebel kindergartens in England. Russell writes little about positive experiences in the kindergarten and him learning to read in there. For close information see: Russell, B, The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell 1872-1914. George Allen & Unwin. (Chapter Childhood, and of course I have forgotten the refering pages -) Greetings from snowy Finland, Mikko Tiihonen mikko_tiihonen@hotmail.com
PS. I finally got my hands on the original Froebel Blocks.

My wife is doing a research on Friedrich Froebel for her teacher training course and wanted some details about him, his life style and method. Jimmy Tangree jkt@hotmail.com India

Please could you send me some information about any Froebel Kindergarten's in the UK? Also are there any internet sites about any Froebel Kindergartern's with online Kindergarten prospectuses for the schools? Stacey Matthews stacey5098@aol.com

I am doing a study of development psychology. This is as I see an advanced form of science, that gives us an understanding of how man develops from childhood to his death through several stages. In each stage he is experiencing a crises, that he can solve or fail to solve. This theory is mainly developed by Erik Erikson. In the highest state man is idetifying himself with the whole of society. In this Marvellous theory I am missing the mystical idea that man can go further and identify with something even greater, the whole, or the universe. I remember several years ago reading about Fröbel saying that children by nature want to learn, by nature want to help. This mean that we don't have to teach children to become good citizens, we have only to stimulate what is already inside them. I thank you for your page! By giving out the deep ideas of Friedrich Fröbel you contribute to the improvement of humanity. I believe that the bad conditions that are in society all over the world today only can be cured, as your ancestor rightly told two hundred years ago, by stimulating the soul in ourselves and other people and thereby get a connection to God and universal love. Torgny Jansson astrologi@kurir.net

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