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diff --git a/old/54277-0.txt b/old/54277-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index aa45176..0000000 --- a/old/54277-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,8250 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychology, by -Elsie Riach Murray - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org/license - - -Title: Froebel as a pioneer in modern psychology - -Author: Elsie Riach Murray - -Release Date: March 3, 2017 [EBook #54277] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROEBEL *** - - - - -Produced by MWS and the Online Distributed Proofreading -Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from -images generously made available by The Internet -Archive/American Libraries.) - - - - - - - - - - -FROEBEL AS A PIONEER IN MODERN PSYCHOLOGY - - - - - FROEBEL AS A PIONEER - IN MODERN PSYCHOLOGY - - BY - E. R. MURRAY - - _Author of “A Story of Infant Schools and Kindergartens”_ - - “Through the battle, through defeat, moving yet and never stopping. - Pioneers! O Pioneers!” - - BALTIMORE Md. WARWICK & YORK, INC. 1914 - - (_All rights reserved_) - - - - -PREFACE - - -Some day Froebel will come to his own, and the carefulness of his -observation, the depth of his thought, the truth of his theories, and the -success of his actual experiments in education will all be acknowledged. - -There are few schools nowadays so modern as the short-lived Keilhau, -with its spirit of freedom and independence and its “Areopagus” in which -the boys themselves judged grave misdemeanours while the masters settled -smaller matters alone. There are few schools now which have such an -all-round curriculum, including, as it did, the mother tongue as well as -classics and modern languages; ancient and modern history; Nature study -and Nature rambles; school journeys, lasting for two or three weeks and -extending as far as Switzerland for the older lads, while the younger -boys visited German towns and were made acquainted with peasant life; -definite instruction in field-work, in building and carpentry, etc.; -religious teaching in which Middendorf endeavoured “to show the merits of -the religions of all nations”; physical training with the out-of-doors -wrestling ground and shooting stand and gymnasium “for every spare moment -of the winter,” and organized games; and dramatic teaching where “classic -dramas” and other plays were performed, and for which the boys built the -stage and painted the scenes. There was even co-education, “flirtation -being unknown,” because all had their heads so full of more important -matters, but where free intercourse of boy and girl “softened the -manners of the young German savages.” - -The purpose of this book is to show that all these things, besides the -Kindergarten and the excellent plan for the Helba Institute, did not come -into being by chance, but were the outcome of the deep reflection of a -man who combined the scientific with the philosophic temperament; and -who, because his ideal as a teacher was “Education by Development,” had -made a special study of the instinctive tendencies, and the requirements -of different stages of child development, as I have tried to prove in -Chapters VI and VII. - -I should like to explain one or two points, first, that though for all -quotations I have referred to the most commonly used translations of -Froebel’s writings, yet I have frequently given my own rendering when -the other seemed inadequate; secondly, that I have endeavoured to give -the context as often as possible, and have also given the actual German -words, that I might not be accused of reading in modern ideas which are -not really in the text; and, lastly, that I have purposely repeated -quotations rather than give my readers the trouble of turning back to -another page. - -In conclusion may I take this opportunity of paying grateful thanks -first to Miss Alice Words and to Miss K. M. Clarke, without whose -kind encouragement I should never have completed my task, and also to -Professor Alexander for several helpful suggestions, and to Miss Ida -Sachs for friendly help. - - E. R. MURRAY. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAP. PAGE - - I. FROEBEL’S ANTICIPATION OF MODERN - PSYCHOLOGY 1 - - II. FROEBEL’S ANALYSIS OF MIND 12 - - III. WILL AND ITS EARLY MANIFESTATIONS 22 - - IV. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLIEST CONSCIOUSNESS 36 - - V. HOW CONSCIOUSNESS IS DIFFERENTIATED.--THE PLACE - OF ACTION IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF PERCEPTION - AND OF FEELING 47 - - VI. INSTINCT AND INSTINCTS 66 - - VII. PLAY AND ITS RELATION TO WORK 122 - - VIII. FROEBEL’S PLAY-MATERIAL AND ITS ORIGINAL - PURPOSE 148 - - IX. WEAK POINTS CONSIDERED 168 - - X. SOME CRITICISMS ANSWERED 190 - - APPENDIX I. ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD - “ACTIVITY” 213 - - APPENDIX II. COMPARISON OF PLAYS NOTED BY FROEBEL - WITH THE ENUMERATION GIVEN BY GROOS 219 - - INDEX 225 - - - - -EXPLANATION OF REFERENCES - -To the Works of Froebel quoted in the text - - - E = EDUCATION OF MAN. TRANSLATED BY W. N. HAILMANN. - - M = MUTTER U. KOSE LIEDER. TRANSLATED BY F. AND E. LORD. - - P = PEDAGOGICS OF THE KINDERGARTEN. TRANSLATED BY JOSEPHINE JARVIS. - - L = LETTERS. } TRANSLATED BY EMILIE MICHAELIS - A = AUTOBIOGRAPHY. } AND H. KEATLEY MOORE, B.A., B.MUS. - - - - -CHAPTER I - -FROEBEL’S ANTICIPATION OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY - -“_A great man condemns the world to the task of explaining him._” - - -The purpose of this little book is to show that Froebel’s educational -theories were based on psychological views of a type much more modern -than is at all generally understood. It is frequently stated that -Froebel’s psychology is conspicuous by its absence, but in a somewhat -close study of Froebel’s writings I have been again and again surprised -to find how much Froebel seems to have anticipated modern psychology. - -A probable reason for the overlooking of so much sound psychological -truth is to be found in the fact that much of it is obscured by details -which seem to us trivial, but which Froebel meant as applications of the -theories he was endeavouring to make clear to minds not only innocent of, -but incapable of, psychology. - -Most educationists have read “The Education of Man,” but few outside the -Kindergarten world are likely to have bestowed much thought on Froebel’s -later writings. It is in these, however, that we see Froebel watching -with earnest attention that earliest mental development which is now -regarded as a distinct chapter in mental science, but which was then -largely if not entirely ignored. - -With the same spirit of inquiry and the same field for investigation--for -children acted and thought then as they act and think now--it is -only natural that Froebel should have made at least some of the same -discoveries as the genetic psychologist of to-day. - -It would be unfair at any date to expect a complete psychology from a -writer whose subject is not mental science, but education. Mistakes, too, -one must expect, and these are not to be ignored.[1] Still there remains -a solid amount of psychological discovery for which Froebel has had as -yet but little credit. - -Indeed, just as his disciples have been inclined, like all disciples, -to think that their master has said the last word on his own subject, -so have opponents of Froebelian doctrines, irritated perhaps by these -pretensions, made direct attacks on somewhat insufficient grounds. In a -later chapter, an attempt has been made to deal with what seems unfounded -in such attacks.[2] - -The major part of the book, however, is intended to show the correctness -of Froebel’s views on points now regarded as of fundamental importance, -and generally recognized as modern theories. For this purpose passages -from Froebel’s writings are here compared with similar passages from such -undoubted authorities as Dr. James Ward, Professor Stout, Professor Lloyd -Morgan, Mr. W. Macdougall, Mr. J. Irving King, and others. - -In the first place, it should be noted that Froebel was fully aware of -the necessity for a psychological basis for his educational theories. - -Writing in 1841, he says: - - “I am firmly convinced that all the phenomena of the child - world, those which delight us, as well as those which grieve - us, depend upon fixed laws as definite as those of the - cosmos, the planetary system and the operations of Nature; it - is therefore possible to discover them and examine them. When - once we know and have assimilated these laws, we shall be able - powerfully to counteract any retrograde and faulty tendencies - in children, and to encourage, at the same time, all that is - good and virtuous.”--_L., p. 91._ - -Nor was Froebel in any doubt as to how these laws are to be discovered, -and his order of investigation is very similar to that prescribed by -Professor Stout. The latter, though regarding genetic psychology as -“the most important and most interesting,” considers that it should -be preceded by:--1, A general analysis of consciousness, analytic and -largely introspective; 2, An investigation of the laws of mental process, -“analytic also, inasmuch as we endeavour to ascertain the general laws of -mental process by analysis of the fully developed mind.” - -Froebel, too, regards the analytic as a necessary preparation for the -genetic, and says that parents and teachers, who wish to supply the needs -of the child at different stages of development: - - “are to consider life _firstly_ through looking into - themselves, into the course of their own development, its - phenomena and its claims--through the retrospection (Rückblick) - of the earliest possible years of their own lives, and also - the introspection (Einblick) of their present lives, that - their own experience may furnish a key to the problem of the - child’s condition (den Zustand des Kindes in sich zu lösen). - _Secondly_, by the deepest possible search into the life of the - child, and into what he must necessarily require according to - his present stage of development.”--_P., p. 168._ - -Professor Stout adds later that anthropology and philology may ultimately -yield results as important as those yielded by physiology. Froebel could -have no idea of the physiological parallel to mental process, but he did -not omit the anthropological inquiry, for in another passage he enlarges -his first point, declaring that: - - “It is essential for parents and teachers, for the sake of - their children, and that their educational efforts may meet - with a rich reward, not only to recall as far as possible the - first phenomena, the course and conditions of the development - of their own lives, but that they should compare this with the - phenomena, the course and conditions of the development of - the world, and of life in general in Nature and History, and - so by degrees raise themselves to a knowledge of the general - as well as of the particular laws of life development, that - the guidance of the child may find in these laws a higher - and stronger--their true foundation, as well as their surest - determination.”--_P., p. 66._ - -Even his detractors generally allow that Froebel had a wonderful insight -into child-nature, but this is too often spoken of as if it were due to -some specialized faculty of intuition, not known to psychology. - -Froebel’s knowledge of child-nature came to him precisely as it comes -to the psychologist of the present day, through patient observation of -the doings of little children, and thoughtful interpretation of their -possible meaning. It is true that he drew his conclusions from too -narrow a field, but of this he was well aware. In a letter to a cousin -thanking her for the “comparative account of the various manifestations -of children,” which she had sent him, he complains, _and this, be it -remembered, in 1840_, that “it is a subject to which one can rarely get -even cultivated parents to pay attention,” and he adds: - - “I would beg of you to collect as many observations for me as - you can, both things which you yourself have observed, and - also remarks made by your Robert and the other children when - at play. If you have the time for this, pray do it for the - furtherance of the cause; other friends are at work for me in - the same way.”--_L., p. 67._ - -In another letter to this cousin he says: - - “It would delight me greatly if you could confide to me what - you remember of your feelings, perceptions, and ideas as a - mother greeting the new-born life of her infant, and your - observations of the first movements of its limbs and the - beginning of the development of its senses.”--_L., p. 110._ - -To another friend he writes: - - “In the interests of the children I have still another - request to make--that you would record in writing the most - important facts about each separate child. It seems to me most - necessary for the comprehension, and for the true treatment - of child-nature, that such observations should be made public - from time to time, in order that children may become better and - better understood in their manifestations, and may therefore - be more rightly treated, and that true care and observation of - unsophisticated childhood may ever increase.”--_L., p. 89._ - -Froebel made these requests, as he made his own observations, as the -result of the conviction with which he declares himself “thoroughly -penetrated,” - - “that the movements of the young and delicate mind of the - child, although as yet so small as to be almost unnoticeable, - are of the most essential consequence to his future - life.”--_P., p. 53._ - - “Why do we observe the child less than the germ of a plant? Is - it to be supposed that in the child, the capacity to become - a complete human being is contained less than in the acorn - is contained the capacity to become a strong, vigorous and - complete oak?”--_P., p. 62._ - - “We cannot pass over unmentioned the fact, essential for - the whole life of the child, for the whole course of his - development, that phenomena and impressions which seem to us - insignificant, and which we generally leave unnoticed, have for - the child, and especially for his inner world, most important - results, since the child develops more through what seems to - us small and imperceptible, than through what appears to us - large and striking … hence--wholly contrary to prevailing - opinion--nowhere is consideration of that which is small and - insignificant of more importance than in the nursery.”--_P., p. - 125._ - -Professor Dewey, one of the few important educational writers who do -justice to Froebel as a pioneer, gives as a general summary of his -educational principles: - -“1. That the primary business of school is to train children in -co-operative and mutually helpful living; to foster in them the -consciousness of mutual interdependence, and to help them practically in -making the adjustments that will carry this spirit into overt deeds. - -“2. That the primary root of all educative activity is in the -instinctive, impulsive attitudes and activities of the child, and -not in the presentation and application of external material, whether -through the ideas of others or through the senses; and that, accordingly, -numberless spontaneous activities of children, plays, games, mimic -efforts, even the apparently meaningless motions of infants--exhibitions -previously ignored as trivial, futile, or even condemned as positively -evil--are capable of educational use, nay, are the foundation-stones of -educational effort. - -“3. That these individual tendencies and activities are organized and -directed through the uses made of them in keeping up the co-operative -living already spoken of; taking advantage of them to reproduce on the -child’s plane the typical doings and occupations of the larger maturer -society into which he is finally to go forth; and that it is through -production and creative use that valuable knowledge is secured and -clinched.”[3] - -So little, however, are these principles understood as Froebel’s, that -in the Pedagogical Seminary for July, 1900, a paper was published on -“The Reconstruction of the Kindergarten,” wherein it was maintained -that the basis of reconstruction must be the child’s natural instincts. -The writer, Mr. Eby, had apparently no idea that the Kindergarten was -originally based on this very foundation. He evidently did not know -that Froebel has given, in his “Education of Man,” a very fair account -of these instincts, omitting nothing of great importance, and pointing, -at least, to a better principle of classification than that adopted by -Mr. Eby.[4] It is, however, only fair to Froebel to mention that he -himself regarded his own account as far from being commensurate with -the importance of the subject, for the year following that of the -publication of “The Education of Man” he writes: - - “Since these spontaneous activities of children have not yet - been thoroughly thought out from a high point of view, and - have not yet been regarded from what I might almost call their - cosmical and anthropological side, we may from day to day - expect some philosopher to write a comprehensive book about - them.”--_A., p. 76._ - -The problems Froebel endeavoured to solve are precisely those which are -absorbing the genetic psychologist of the present day, as stated, for -example, in Mr. Irving King’s “Psychology of Child Development,” viz.: -“to examine the various forms of the child’s activity, to get some -insight into the nature of the child himself”--“to get at the meaning of -child-life in terms of itself.” - -Every reader of “The Education of Man” will remember how Froebel uses his -own boyish reminiscences to help others to understand childish actions -often utterly misunderstood. In his paper on “Movement Plays” he writes: - - “In that nurture of childhood which is intended to assist - development, it is by no means sufficient to supply - play-material in proportion merely to the stage of development - already outwardly manifest. It is at the same time of the - utmost importance to trace out the inner process of development - and to satisfy its demands.… In the nurture, development, and - education of the child, and especially in the attempt to employ - him, his own nature, his own life and energy must be the main - consideration. The knowledge of isolated and external phenomena - may occasionally be a guide-post pointing our direction, but - it can never be a path leading to the specific aim of child - culture and education; for _the condition of education is none - other than comprehension of the whole nature and essence of - humanity as manifested in the child_.”--_P., p. 239._ - -Just as Mr. Irving King, writing in 1904, says that we must take as our -starting-point the child’s bodily activities, so did Froebel too declare, -that: - - “The present time makes upon the educator the wholly - indispensable requirement--to comprehend the earliest activity, - the first action of the child.”--_P., p. 16._ - -To this first action, Froebel devotes a whole paper, “Das erste -Kindesthun,” the opening sentence of which contains the words: - - “As the new-born child, like a ripe grain of corn, bears - life within itself which will be developed progressively - and spontaneously, though in close connection with life in - general, so activity and action are the first manifestations of - awakening child-life.”--_P., p. 23._ - -Writing in 1847, Froebel says that “decision, zeal, and perseverance” -must be brought to bear upon his plan, in order that: - - “(_a_) More careful observation of the child, his relationships - and his line of development, may become general amongst us; and - thereby - - “(_b_) A better grounded insight be obtained into the child’s - being, mental and physical, and the general collective - conditions of his life.… Deeper insight will be gained into - the meaning and importance of the child’s actions and outward - manifestations.”--_L., p. 248._ - -This quotation is important as showing that Froebel was deliberately -looking for “_a line of development_,” that he might better understand -“the child’s being, mental and physical.” Considering that Froebel wrote -between 1826 and 1850, the important points on which he may be said to -have successfully anticipated modern psychology are, his recognition that -the mind is what he calls “a tri-unity” of action, feeling, and thought; -his treatment of early mental activity and his definition of will; his -conception of the earliest consciousness as an undifferentiated whole; -his recognition of the importance of action not only in the realm of -perception, but also in that of feeling; and his surprisingly complete -account of instinct. Such anticipations are due to the fact that the idea -of development then new to the scientific world possessed his very soul. - - “Humanity, _which lives only in its continuous development_ and - cultivation, seems to us dead and stationary, something to be - modelled over again and again in accordance with its present - type. We are ignorant of our own nature and the nature of - humanity.…”--_E., p. 146._ - - “God neither ingrafts nor inoculates. He _develops_ the - most trivial and imperfect things in continuously ascending - series and in accordance with eternal self-grounded and - self-developing laws. And God-likeness is and ought to be man’s - highest aim in thought and deed.”--_E., p. 328._ - -Justice has already been done to Froebel’s philosophy by Dr. John Angus -MacVannel, who says in his closing paragraph: - -“Froebel’s system has that unmistakable mark of greatness about it -that makes it worth our faithful effort to understand it, and turn -its conclusions to our advantage.… His philosophy of education taken -as a whole seems, perhaps, the most satisfactory we have yet had. One -cannot but believe, however, that the candid reader will at times -find conclusions in his writings sustained by reasonings, that are -inadequately developed and important questions by no means satisfactorily -answered.… On the other hand we must not forget that it is insight, -rather than exactitude, that is the life of a philosophy; herein lies the -secret of Froebel’s lasting influence and power.”[5] - - - - -CHAPTER II - -FROEBEL’S ANALYSIS OF MIND - - -It is probably due to the emphasis which Froebel laid upon the careful -observation and equally careful interpretation of the very earliest -manifestations of mental activity, that his views as to mental analysis -approach so closely to more modern ideas. His psychology cannot possibly -be dismissed as “faculty psychology” in which the mind of a child is -regarded as a smaller and weaker replica of the mind of an adult. The -older psychologies, Professor Stout points out, are based chiefly, if not -entirely, on introspection alone, while Froebel, as we have already seen, -demanded close observation of children in general, and of “each separate -child,” as well as consideration of mental development in the race, in -addition to introspection. - -This “too exclusive reliance upon introspection” to which Professor Stout -refers as “the fundamental error” of the faculty psychology, caused the -older writers to infer that just as a child is possessed of legs, arms -and hands, smaller and weaker, but otherwise apparently the same as those -of an adult, even so did he possess mental “faculties,” such as memory -and imagination, which, like the little legs and arms, only required -exercise in order to grow strong. “It never occurred to them,” writes -Professor Stout, “that the powers of understanding, willing, imagining, -etc., instead of existing at the outset, might have arisen as the result -of a long series of changes, each of which paved the way for the next.” -It did more than “_occur_” to Froebel, it was a cardinal point with him. -Professor Stout points out that the idea of development is essential -to mental science, and Froebel was a biologist actually studying -development, before he became a psychologist. He came to the study of -mind prepared to find just such a series of changes.[6] In speaking of -evolution in general, he says: - - “Each successive stage of development does not exclude the - preceding, but takes it up into itself, ennobled, uplifted, - perfected.”--_P., p. 198._ - - He speaks of: - - “the master thought, the fundamental idea of our time, that is, - the education and development of mankind.”--_L., p. 149._ - -And in his “Education of Man,” in a long and eloquent passage on the need -for continuity of training from the tiniest of beginnings, he says: - - “It is highly pernicious and even destructive to consider the - stages of human development as distinct, and not as life shows - them, continuous in themselves, in unbroken transitions.”--_E., - p. 27._ - -The analysis of mind which Froebel recognizes, is the still commonly -accepted “tri-partite,” but he never fails to refer to this as a unity or -a tri-unity. Indeed, his constant harping upon this string becomes almost -wearisome, in spite of the ingenuity with which he continually varies his -terms. - - “The early phenomenon of child-life, of human existence in - childhood, is an activity, one with feeling and perception - (Wahrnehmen).”--_P., p. 23._ - - “That the nature of man shows itself early in the life of - the child, as feeling, acting and representing, thinking and - perceiving, and that in this tri-unity is included the whole of - his life utterance and activity, we have said repeatedly, and - it lies open for any one to notice.”--_P., p. 122._ - -Disguised as Love, Life, and Light, this trinity is made the connection -of man, on the one side with Nature, on the other side with God. God--who -is Life, Love, and Light, the All--shows Himself in Nature, in the -universe as life (energy), in humanity as love, and in wisdom or in the -spirit as light. Energy or life man shares with Nature; by love he is -united with humanity; and by light or wisdom he is at one with God. - -For his “gift plays” Froebel claims that they “take hold of the child in -the tri-unity of his nature”: - - “As now each of the single plays separately considered takes - hold of the child early, in the tri-unity of his nature, as - doing, feeling, and thinking, so yet more do the employments as - a whole.”--_P., p. 56._ - -And a forcible passage runs: - - “Only if the child is treated through fostering his instinct - for activity in the tri-unity of his nature, as living, loving, - and perceiving, in the unity of his life, only thus can he - develop as that which he is, the manifold and organized, but in - himself single, whole.”--_P., p. 12._ - -This development of the threefold yet single nature constitutes -the “harmonious development,” reiterated _ad nauseam_ and without -explanation, in Kindergarten text-books. It is also the key to much that -seems to us useless detail as to the toys and games of early childhood. -The mother is told that: - - “It is of the highest importance for the nurse to consider the - earliest and slightest traces of the organization (Gliederung) - within itself of the child’s mind as bodily, emotional and - intellectual, that in his development from mere existence - to perception and thought, none of these directions of his - nature should be fostered at the expense of the other … the - real foundation, the starting-point of human development is - the heart and the emotions, but cultivation of action and - thought (die Ausbildung zur That und zum Denken) must go side - by side with it, constantly and inseparably: and thought must - form itself into action, and action resolve and clear itself - into thought; but both have their roots in the emotional - nature.”[7]--_P., p. 42._ - -The first part of the following quotation from a letter written in -1851 towards the close of Froebel’s life might almost be taken from a -text-book of the present day: - - “We find also three attitudes, spheres of work, and regions of - mind in man: - - “(1) the region of the soul, the heart, Feeling; - - “(2) the region of the mind, the head, Intellect; - - “(3) the region of the active life, the putting forth to actual - deed, Will. - - “As mental attitudes these three divisions seem the wider apart - the more we contemplate them; as spheres of work and regions - of mind they seem quite separate and perfect opposites. But - the highest and most absolute opposition is that which most - needs, and necessitates reconciliation; complete opposites - condition their uniting link. The need for the uniting link - appears in almost every circumstance of life.… To satisfy that - need is the most imperative need now set before the human - race, … you will realize that the strengthening of character - which we all agree to be a necessity of the age, is to be - gained not only by stimulating and elevating the soul and - the emotions, but by raising the whole mind, by training the - intellect and the will.… Then the heart would acknowledge and - esteem the intellectual power, just as the intellect already - recognizes feeling as that which gives true warmth to our - lives; and life as a whole would make manifest the soul which - quickens existence, and gives it a meaning, as well as the - intellect which gives it precision and culture. _Intellect_, - _feeling_ and _will_ would then unite, _a many-sided power_, - to build up and constitute our life. In the room of the - unstable character which must result from the mere cultivation - of the one department of emotion; in the room of the doubt, - or, I might say empty negation, which too often proceeds from - the mere cultivation of the intellect; in the room of the - materialism, animalism, and sensuality which must come from the - mere attention to the body, and physical side of our nature; - we should then have the harmonious development of every side - of our nature alike, we should then be able to build up a life - which would be everywhere in touch with God, with physical - nature, with humanity at large.”--_L., p. 300._ - -In his article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Dr. Ward says, that -in taking up the question of what we exactly mean by _thinking_, “we -are really passing one of the hardest and fastest lines of the old -psychology--that between sense and understanding. So long as it was the -fashion to assume a multiplicity of faculties the need was less felt for -a clear exposition of their connection. A man had senses and intellect -much as he had eyes and ears; the heterogeneity in the one case was no -more puzzling than in the other.” - -In this connection it can again be shown that Froebel was in advance of -the old psychologists. In the first of the two games in the Mother-Play -book dealing with sense-training--two out of forty-nine, the remainder -dealing chiefly with action--he makes it very clear that he draws no hard -and fast line between sense and understanding. He tells the mother that -Nature speaks to the child through the senses, which act as gateways to -the world within, but that light comes from the mind: - - “Durch die Sinne, schliesst sich auf des Innern Thor - Doch der Geist ist’s der dies zieht ans Licht hervor.” - -And when he says that the baby in the cradle should not be left -unoccupied if it wakes, he uses a pronoun in the singular in referring to -“the activity of sense and mind.” He suggests hanging a cage containing a -lively bird in the child’s line of vision and adds: - - “This attracts the activity of the child’s senses and mind and - gives _it_ nourishment in many ways.”[8]--_E., p. 49._ - -The faculty psychology and the formal discipline theory that came from -it, says Professor Horne, did not admit the possibility of training one -faculty, e.g. perception, by training another, e.g. reason, “it was not -the mind that was trained, but its faculties.” - -It is, however, of the merest infant that Froebel uses such expressions -as “the awakening power of thought,” “the tenderest growth of mind,” -and tells the mother that he “shows trace of thought, and can draw -conclusions.” The ball is given to the baby to help him “to find himself -in the midst of his perceptive, operative, and his comparing (thinking) -activity.”[9]--_P., p. 55._ Long years before this he had written of the -teaching of drawing, “this instruction addresses itself to the senses, -and through them to the power of thought.”--_E., p. 294._ - - “He who does not perceive traces of the future development of - the child, who does not foster these with self-consciousness - and wisdom, when they lie hidden in the depths and in the - night, will not see them clearly, will not nourish them - suitably, at least, not sufficiently, when they lie open before - him.”--_P., p. 58._ - -Instead of ready-made faculties Froebel recognizes possibilities, -conditions, which will remain possibilities if the necessary stimulus is -not forthcoming, for in noting how the mother talks to her infant, though -she is obliged to confess that there can be no understanding of her -words, he says the mother’s instinctive action is right: - - “for that which will one day develop, and which must originate, - begins and must begin when as yet nothing exists but the - conditions, the possibility.”--_P., p. 40._ - -Elsewhere he asks: - - “Is it to be supposed that in the child the capacity for - becoming a complete human being is contained less than in the - acorn is contained the capacity to become a strong, vigorous - and complete oak?”--_P., p. 62._ - -And he speaks of how the mother appeals to the infant as - - “understanding, perceptive and capable, for where there is not - the germ of something, that something can never be called forth - and appear.”--_P., p. 31._ - -It is true that in the same passage in which he speaks of “the tenderest -growth of mind,” he does speak of mental powers (Geisteskräfte), -as indeed every one does, but a few lines above he has spoken of -“the cultivation of the mental power of the child in different -directions.”[10] Besides, the mental powers to which he here alludes, and -which are to be awakened and fostered in the infant, are the powers “to -compare, to infer, to judge, to think.”--_P., p. 57._ Here, too, Froebel -gives a description of what he means by memory, and it is clearly not a -separate faculty considered apart from another faculty, viz. imagination: - - “The plays carried on with the ball awaken and exercise the - power of the child’s mind to place again before himself - mentally a vanished object, to see it mentally even when the - outer perception is gone; these games awaken and practise the - power of re-presenting, of remembering, of holding fast in - remembrance an object formerly present, of again thinking of - it; that is, they foster the memory.”--_P., p. 57._ - -So even the infant is to think, and the progress is well described in the -Mother Plays as - - “from experience of a thing, joined with thought about it, up - to pure thought.”--_M., p. 121._ - -In a lecture[11] given many years ago, Dr. Ward sought to drive home to -teachers the futility of this hard and fast line between sense training -and training to think. And there are some interesting parallels between -Dr. Ward’s metaphors here and Froebel’s writing in “The Education of -Man.” Dr. Ward said: - -“Training of the senses, as it is not very happily called, is, if it -is anything, so much intellectual exercise.… And nothing can be more -absurd than to suppose it is not necessary.… By a judicious training in -observation you begin to make a child think when it is five years old.… -If a child is to think to any purpose, he must think as he goes on; as -soon as the material he has gathered begins to oppress him he must think -it into shape, or it will tend to smother intellectual life at its dawn, -as a bee is drowned in its own honey, for want of cells in which to store -it.” - -It is in describing how the little child collects pebbles, twigs, leaves, -etc., that Froebel writes: - - “The child loves all things that enter his small horizon and - extend his little world. To him the least thing is a new - discovery; but it must not come dead into the little world, nor - lie dead therein, lest it obscure the small horizon and crush - the little world.… It is the longing for interpretation that - urges the child to appeal to us … the intense desire for this - that urges him to bring his treasures to us and lay them in our - laps.”--_E., p. 73._ - -The help we are told to give at first is merely to supply the child with -a name, for “through the name the form is retained in memory and defined -in thought.” Later the mother is told to provide “encouragement and help, -that the child may weave into a whole what he has found scattered and -parted.” As a type of the help considered necessary we have: - - “‘Mother, are the pigeons and hens birds, for the pigeons live - in pigeon-houses and the chickens don’t fly?’ ‘Have they no - feathers, child; have they no wings? Haven’t they two legs like - all birds?’ ‘Are the bees and butterflies and beetles birds, - too: for they have wings and fly much higher.…’ ‘Look, they - have no feathers, they build no nests.’”--_M., p. 56._ - -In another passage Froebel calls it not only advisable but necessary -that the parents, without being pedantic or over-anxious, should connect -the child’s doings with language, because this “increases knowledge, -and awakens that judgment and reflection (die Urtheilskraft und das -Nachdenken), to which man, left to Nature, does not attain sufficiently -early.”--_E., p. 79._ - -Giving names, and helping in classification is surely a sufficient -parallel to Dr. Ward’s “thinking the material into shape,” and just as -the latter says that by such training you can “make a child think” when -it is five years old, so Froebel in his chapter on “Man in Earliest -Childhood” makes his ideal father “sum up his rule of conduct in a few -words,” declaring that: “To lead children early to think, this I consider -the first and foremost object of child-training.”--_E., p. 87._ - -Froebel’s theories, then, cannot be dismissed as based on “faculty -psychology,” since it seems clear that wherever he found them his views -on mental analysis were very similar to those now generally accepted. -It is more remarkable, however, that he should have modern views about -Conation and Will. - - - - -CHAPTER III - -WILL AND ITS EARLY MANIFESTATIONS - - -It is open to doubt whether any modern psychologist has yet given a -better definition of fully developed Will than that given by Froebel -eighty-seven years ago: - - “Will is the mental activity of man ever consciously proceeding - from a definite point, in a definite direction, to a definite - conscious end and aim, in harmony with the whole nature of - humanity.”--_E., p. 96._ - -With this definition compare what Professor Stout has to say: - -“In its most complex developments, mental activity takes the form of -self-conscious and deliberate volition, in which the starting-point is -the idea of an end to be attained, and the desire to attain it; and the -goal is the realization of this end, by the production of a long series -of changes in the external world … it belongs to the essence of will, not -merely to be directed towards an end, but to ideally anticipate this and -consciously aim at it.”[12] - -Between these two definitions the difference is in the omission in -Froebel’s definition of any mention of desire, and this is supplied a -little later, when, having stated that “by school here is meant neither -the schoolroom, nor school-keeping, but the conscious communication of -knowledge for a definite purpose, and in definite connection,” he ends up -with: - - “By this knowledge, instruction and the school are to lead man - _from desire to will_, from activity of will to firmness of - will, and thus continually advancing, to the attainment of his - destiny, of his earthly perfection.”--_E., p. 139._ - -Now Professor Stout’s whole psychology is founded on his conception of -mental activity. Towards the end of his second volume he says: “The -reader is already familiar with my general doctrine. It has pervaded -the whole treatment of psychological topics in this work. The aim of -the present chapter is to present it in a more systematic form, and to -guard it against objections. Our starting-point lies in the conception of -mental activity as the direction of mental process towards an end.” - -It is distinctly significant, therefore, to find how closely Froebel’s -ideas on the subject resemble Professor Stout’s conception of mental -activity. - -“Conscious process,” writes Professor Stout, “is in every moment directed -towards an end, whether this end be distinctly or vaguely recognized by -the conscious subject, or not recognized at all.” - -Froebel writes: - - “In all activity, in every deed of man, even as a child, - yes the very smallest, an aim is expressed, a reference to - something, to the furthering or representing of something; … - thus the child strives, even if unconsciously, to make his - inner life objective, and through that perceptible, that so he - may become conscious of it.”--_P., pp. 237-240._ - -The same idea, that conscious process is directed to an end, though there -may be no consciousness of that end, is given in another passage, where -Froebel is speaking of the need for satisfying a child’s normal desire -for playthings. - - “Very often the child seeks for something, nevertheless he - himself does not know at all what he seeks; at another time he - puts something away from him and again knows not why.”--_P., p. - 168._ - -Of the earliest mental activity Professor Stout writes: - -“In its earliest and simplest form, mental activity consists in those -simple reactions which without being determined by any definite idea of -an end to be realized, tend on the whole to the maintenance of immediate -pleasure and the avoidance of immediate pain.” - -The movements of the organism at this earliest stage “seem primarily -adapted to the conservation and furtherance of vital process in -general.”[13] - -Froebel speaks of the child’s efforts: - - “to put far from him that which is opposed to the needs of his - life and yet would break in upon it.”--_P., p. 167._ - -He tells the mother that, in the first stages at least, the restlessness -and tears of the infant will warn her of the presence of anything in his -surroundings hurtful to his development, while his laughter and movements -of pleasure will show “what according to the feeling of the child is -suited to the undisturbed development of his life as an immature human -being.” - -Mr. Stout goes on to say that such simple reactions are adapted -“secondarily and by way of necessary corollary to the conservation and -furtherance of conscious life.” He tells us that: “The primary craving -with which the education of the senses begins, so far as it does not -involve such practical needs as that of food, may be described as a -general craving for stimulation or excitement … this conation being in -the first instance in the highest degree indeterminate.” - -Froebel, who speaks of the nurse “soothing the restless child _vaguely -striving_ for definite and satisfactory outward activity,” tells us that: - - “if his bodily needs are satisfied and he feels himself well - and strong, the first spontaneous employment of the child is - spontaneous taking in (selbstthätiges Aufnehmen) of the outer - world.”--_P., p. 29._ - -He writes to Madame Schmidt, the cousin for whose assistance he has -begged in observing children: - - “This spontaneous activity of limb and vividness of sensation - natural to infancy, and I may say inseparable from it, must - also be carefully studied.”--_L., p. 110._ - -And, in the Mother Songs, he says: - - “You can see how his bodily activity, the movement and use of - his limbs, like the activity of his senses, all turn towards - one point: Life must be grasped, experienced and perceived … - he wants to appropriate the outer and to re-embody it … his - susceptibility for all that gives and takes up life will strike - you as something that elevates his life in every way; even - as young plants and animals are susceptible to the faintest - workings of light and warmth, or the impressions of their - environment, however delicate. Moreover, this receptivity - is most closely related to great general excitability and - sensibility (Erregbarkeit, Reizbarkeit).”--_M., pp. 119-121._ - -Froebel’s views as to the nature both of early and of later mental -activity then bear a strong resemblance to the modern view as stated by -Professor Stout.[14] - -In searching Froebel’s writings to find what he has to say about the -stages lying between early mental activity and fully developed will, -between what he calls “natural activity of the will, and true genuine -firmness of will,” it soon becomes clear that it is impossible to -separate what is said about will development, from what is said about -intellectual development.[15] This is a natural consequence of Froebel’s -constant insistence on the unity of consciousness, and it is the position -of modern psychology, whether written from the analytic or the genetic -point of view. Mr. Irving King writes: “The functional point of view -emphasizes first of all the intimate inter-relation of all forms of -mental activity and the impossibility of describing any one aspect -of consciousness except with reference to consciousness as a whole.” -Professor Stout, in his “Analytic Psychology,” has a section entitled -“Conation and Cognition developed co-incidentally,”[16] while Froebel -says: - - “Thought must form itself in action, and action resolve and - clear itself in thought.”--_P., p. 42._ - -Froebel speaks of his projected institution at Helba as “fundamental,” - - “inasmuch as in training and instruction it will rest on the - foundation from which proceed all genuine knowledge and all - genuine practical attainments; it will rest on life itself - and on creative efforts, _on the union and interdependence of - doing and thinking_, representation and knowledge, art and - science. The institution will base its work on the pupil’s - personal efforts in work and expression, making these, again, - the foundation of all genuine knowledge and culture. Joined - with thoughtfulness, these efforts become a direct medium of - culture.”--_E., p. 38._ - -Professor Stout’s account of how the unconscious mental activity of early -childhood becomes transformed into the definite and conscious activity of -fully developed will is, stated briefly, something to this effect. It is -of the essence of conation to seek its own satisfaction, and this is only -possible as the conation becomes definite. “Blind craving gives place to -open-eyed desire,” as the original conation tends to define itself. So -“the gradual acquisition of knowledge through experience is but another -expression for the process whereby the originally blind craving becomes -more distinct and more differentiated.” The grouping of cognitions is not -produced by the conscious needs: “It is the way in which the conation -itself grows and develops.” - -For this account we can find a wonderfully exact parallel in one of -Froebel’s less well-known papers, that on “Movement Plays.” - - “All outer activity of the child has its ultimate and - distinctive foundation in his inmost nature and life. - The deepest craving of this inner activity is to behold - itself mirrored in some outward object. In and through such - representation, the child himself grasps and perceives the - nature, direction and aim of his own activity, and learns - also further to regulate and determine his life, that is his - activity, according to these outward phenomena.”--_P., p. 238._ - -This craving for outward representation, by satisfaction of which the -child gains knowledge of the ends of his activity, is an exact equivalent -of Stout’s blind craving which gives place to open-eyed desire as -it tends to define itself. Froebel’s conclusion, that only as this -unconscious or blind craving for action is satisfied does the child -become “conscious of the nature, direction and ends of his own activity,” -is but another way of stating Professor Stout’s conclusion, that the -grouping of cognitions, which is the gradual acquirement of knowledge -through experience, is “the way in which the conation itself grows and -develops.” So, cognition and conation are developed simultaneously, or, -to repeat Froebel’s own phrase, “Thought forms itself in action, and -action resolves and clears itself in thought.” - -Professor Stout goes on to say that in this defining process one conation -springs out of another, whereby as one conation is satisfied and so comes -to an end, another becomes in its turn the end of activity. He takes as -illustration the child learning to walk, saying, “The mental attitude of -the child learning to walk is one of conscious endeavour. When he has -become habituated to the act, he performs it without attending to his -movements, his mind being fixed on the attainment of other ends.” Froebel -proceeds in the same way, using the very same example. He has already -said that at first the child: - - “cares for the use of his body, his senses and limbs, merely - for the sake of their use and practice, but not for the sake of - the results of this use. He is wholly indifferent to this; _or, - rather, he has as yet no idea whatever of this_.”--_P., p. 48._ - -Now, in the paper on movement, he goes on: - - “Each sure and independent movement gives the child pleasure, - because of the feeling of power which it arouses in him. - Even simple walking produces this effect, for it gives the - child a threefold feeling, a threefold consciousness: First, - the consciousness that he _moves_ himself; secondly, that he - moves himself from one place to another; third, that through - this movement he attains or reaches something.… It is a - well-established fact that his first walking gives the child - pleasure as an expression of his power. _To this pleasure, - however, are soon added the two joy-bringing perceptions of - coming to something, and of being able to attain something._ - These several perceptions should all be fostered at the same - time … he should get his limbs, and indeed his whole body, - into his own power. He should learn to use his bodily strength - and the activity of his limbs for definite purposes.… _The - effort to reach a particular object may have its source in the - child’s desire to hold himself firm and upright by it, but we - also observe that it gives him pleasure to be actually near - the object, to touch it, to feel it, to grasp it, and perhaps - also--which is a new phase of activity--to be able to move it._ - Hence we see that the child when he has reached the desired - object, hops up and down before it, and beats on it with his - little arms and hands, in order, as it were, to assure himself - of the reality of the object and to notice its qualities. It is - well, _while the child is making these experiments_, to name - the object and its parts. _The object of giving these names is - not primarily the development of the child’s power of speech, - but to assist his comprehension of the object_, its parts and - its properties, _by defining his sense-impressions_.”--_P., p. - 241._ - -Another passage runs: - - “The present effort of mankind is an endeavour after freer - self-development.… Therefore the more or less clear aim of the - individual is to attain to clearness about himself and about - life, to comprehension and right use of life, to both insight - and accomplishment.… Therefore the educator must understand the - earliest activity and encourage the impulse to self-culture, - through independent doing, observing and experimenting.”--_P., - p. 16._ - -To say that a conation tends to define itself is only to say that -unconscious ends tend to be replaced by conscious ends, and we have -seen that both Froebel and Professor Stout give unconsciousness or -consciousness of the end, as the difference between earlier and later -forms of mental activity. Professor Stout’s conclusion is that “apart -from the perpetual germination of one conation out of another, the -characteristic features of the mental life of human beings would be -inexplicable.” - -Now, to be conscious of one’s ends or aims is, in a certain sense, to be -self-conscious, so the transition from earlier to later forms of mental -activity is practically the development of self-consciousness. It is -interesting, therefore, to see that just as Professor Stout gives as his -explanation of human life, the perpetual germination of one conation out -of another, so Froebel gives as his explanation, his meaning of life, the -gradual development of self-consciousness. - -Self-consciousness, involving true volition, or self-determination, is to -Froebel “the end of man, for which he first was planned.” It is, as he -constantly put it, man’s “destination.” - - “To become clearly conscious of all the conditions and - relations in which and by means of which man exists makes man - first become man in consciousness and in action.”--_P., p. 12._ - - “For man is destined for consciousness, for freedom, for - self-determination.”--_E., p. 136._ - - “Self-consciousness belongs to the nature of man, is one with - it; to become conscious of itself is the first task in the life - of the child as a human being, as it is the task of his whole - life.”--_P., p. 40._ - -“Who amongst us,” exclaims Professor Royce, “conceives himself in his -uniqueness except as the remote goal of some ideal process of coming -to himself and of awakening to the truth about his own life? Only an -infinite process can show me who I am.”[17] - -Froebel never loses sight of this. In his Autobiography he tells how -he began “unwillingly” to write something in the album of a friend who -was the owner of a beautiful farm, and he concludes: “Then my thoughts -grew clear and I continued, ‘Thou givest man bread; let my aim be to -give man himself.’” That he verily believed that the gradual development -of self-consciousness is the first task in the life of the child is -abundantly evident. In the very beginning of his Mother Songs he tells -the mother to give her child something to push against, “to bring the -child to self-knowledge as soon as possible,” and at the end he says, -“When a child or human being has found himself and has firm hold over -himself, he is ready to walk joyfully through life.” - -In “The First Action of a Child,” Froebel writes: - - “The nature of man, as man, is that he is self-conscious, and - this is stamped with distinctness enough to be observed in - the quite peculiar character of childish activity,[18] in - his impulse to busy himself self-actively, spontaneously: an - impulse which awakens simultaneously with mind, and which is - in harmony with feeling and perception. If this tendency to - spontaneous activity is fostered, man’s triune nature--energy, - emotion and intellect--is satisfied.”--_P., p. 21._ - -A realization of what Sir Oliver Lodge calls “the universal struggle for -self-manifestation and corporeal realization, which plays so large a part -in all activity,” underlies all that Froebel has to say of the progress -from unconscious activity to self-conscious volition. His view of the -Universe is exactly that tentatively suggested by Professor Lodge, viz. -that something akin to this universal struggle “is exhibited in a region -beyond and above what is ordinarily conceived of as ‘Nature.’ The process -of evolution can be regarded as the gradual unfolding of the Divine -Thought or Logos, throughout the universe, by the action of Spirit upon -matter.” - -This takes us out of the region of psychology, but Froebel’s subject was -not psychology, _per se_, but child development, as a part of the whole -plan of evolution, man being the most highly developed of creatures. - -The whole universe is an expression of the Divine, but man alone can -become conscious of his origin. - - “All things are destined to reveal God in their external and - transient being.… It is the special destiny of man, as an - intelligent and rational being to become conscious of his - divine essence and to render this active, to reveal it in his - life, with self-determination and freedom.”--_E., p. 2._ - -“Made in the image of God,” meant to Froebel self-conscious and -self-determined. The relation of man to God is expressed by Froebel as -the relation of the thought to the thinker “_could the thought but become -conscious of itself_.” In a letter of 1843, he says: - - “At the basis of the Kindergarten lies an idea which serves - alike for all the interstellar spaces, for all systems of the - sun; the fulfilment of the divine will and the manifestation - of the same. _In order to become such a manifestation - of the divine, man has first to attain the basis of - self-consciousness_; to which end serves the early culture of - the spirit of humanity in the world of childhood.”--_L., p. - 133._ - -In a paper entitled “A Second Review of the Plays,” which really deals -chiefly with evolution, we read: - - “We must see clearly the conditions of development in Nature - and then employ them in life. Thus only can we raise man upon - his own plane, that is, the spiritual plane, at least to such a - degree of perfection as is shown on their plane by the types of - Nature. - - “Man--the all-surveying--must develop himself by gradual growth - of consciousness, must raise himself eventually to clear - consciousness of the foundation, conditions and goal of his - life.”--_P., p. 198._ - -It was as clear to Froebel as to Professor Lloyd Morgan that the lower -animals are kept from reaching self-consciousness by the definiteness -of their instincts,[19] but to Froebel as to Browning “in completed Man -begins anew a tendency to God.” Like Browning again, Froebel finds that -man has “somewhat to cast off, somewhat to become,” he, too, “finds -Progress man’s distinctive mark alone, not God’s, and not the beasts’; -God is, they are, man partly is, and wholly hopes to be.” - - “Man in his first period of life on earth is to be regarded - while a child in three separate relations, which are united in - themselves. - - “(_a_) As a child of Nature, that is according to his - earthly and natural conditions and connections, and in this - relation bound, chained, unconscious, subject to impulses - (als ein gebundenes, gefesseltes, unbewusstes, den Trieben - unterworfenes). - - “(_b_) As a child of God, and in this relation as a free being, - destined to self-consciousness. - - “(_c_) As a child of Humanity, and in this relation, as - a being struggling from bondage toward freedom, toward - consciousness.”--_P., p. 11._ - -And the beginning of all he finds in “The First Action of the Child.” In -the paper to which he gives this title Froebel writes: - - “Helplessness and personal will, a mind of one’s own, soon - become therefore the turning-points of child-life, the fulcrum - of which is free spontaneous activity, self-employment.”--_P., - p. 27._ - -It is because Froebel believes this, that we hear so much of creative -activity. Consciousness, which Meredith calls “the great result of mortal -suffering,” is the outcome of all the unconscious striving. - - “The child, although unconsciously, strives to make his life - outwardly objective, and thus perceptible and so to become - conscious of it.”--_P., p. 240._ - - “Man only comes to the power of self-examination and - self-knowledge in any relation whatever with the greatest - difficulty, and must first learn to study himself … in the - mirror of Nature and of all creation.”--_L., p. 57._ - - “The child must perceive and grasp his own life in an objective - manifestation before he can perceive and grasp it in himself. - Such mirroring of the inner life, such making of the inner life - objective, is essential, for through it, the child comes to - self-consciousness and learns to order, determine and master - himself.”--_P., p. 238._ - -Froebel realizes then, that true volition is the outcome of unconscious -striving, that it can only come through action, and, what is most -important, through action which is the outcome of feeling, “worthy his -effort.” So, while stating that the formation of “a pure, strong and -enduring will” is the main object of education, he takes care to point -out that unless the boy is allowed to carry out in action “that which is -within,” ideas which have appealed to him, and which he has already made -his own, that main object will not be easily attainable. - - “To raise activity of will to firmness of will, and so to - arouse, and form a pure, strong and enduring will, for the - representation of a characteristic humanity, is the chief aim, - the main object of the school.… The starting-point of all - mental activity in the boy should be energetic and healthy, - the direction should be simple and definite, the aim certain - and conscious, and worthy of his effort. Therefore to raise - the natural activity of the will to true genuine firmness of - will, all the boy’s activities should have reference to the - development and accomplishment of what is within him. Activity - of will proceeds from activity of the feelings, and firmness - of will from firmness of the feelings, and where the first is - lacking, the second will be difficult of attainment.”--_E., p. - 96._ - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -CHARACTERISTICS OF THE EARLIEST CONSCIOUSNESS - - -It is in the emphasis he lays upon the mental activity of the child from -the very first, that Froebel approaches so closely to the position of the -modern psychologist, and in his account of the earliest consciousness he -distinctly resembles Professors Ward and Stout. - -Only to “some of our most distinguished modern psychologists” does -Professor Stout attribute a strong disposition to recognize in the -elementary processes of perception and association, the rudimentary -presence of these mental operations which in their higher form we call -reasoning and constructive imagination. - -Now Froebel writes: - - “One can recognize and watch, even in the first stages of - childhood, though only in their slightest traces and tenderest - germs, all the mental activities which certainly do not stand - out prominently till later life. Say not, ye parents, How can - such tendencies lie already in the life of the child still so - unconscious and so helpless? If they did not lie in it they - could never be developed from it … for where there is not - the germ of something, this something will never be called - forth and appear.… As man is a being intended for increasing - self-consciousness, so shall he also become an inferring and - judging being (schliessendes und urtheilendes). Man has also a - quite characteristic power of imagination, and--what must never - be forgotten, but continually kept before the eyes as important - and guiding--the new-born child not only will become man, but - the man with all his qualities, and with the unity of his - being, already appears and indeed is in the child.”--_P., pp. - 30-49._ - -Psychologists in general, says Professor Stout, show a tendency, which he -regards as erroneous, “to ignore the constructive aspect of early mental -process, to recognize mental productiveness only in complete and advanced -stages of mental development.” - -But Froebel, in speaking of the mother’s play with a mere infant, when -the coloured ball may present “the perception of an object as such,” most -distinctly states that the child’s “first impressions, as it were the -first cognitions,” come to him in these early plays by _means of his own -activity_, an activity of body emphatically, as we shall see presently, -but an activity also of mind, of perception, “durch Wahrnehmen … durch -dunkles Auffassen … durch Selbst-thätigkeit.”[20] - -Froebel uses such expressions as “the spontaneous reception” and even -“the critical reception of the outer world,” just as Dr. Ward, in -refusing to recognize an internal sense, says “the new facts … are due to -our mental activity, and not to a special mode of what has been called -our sensitivity.” - -The active, rather than the passive attitude, strikes Froebel so forcibly -that he calls the two modes of consciousness, the receiving of, and -reacting upon impressions, a “double expression.” - - “The first voluntary needs of the child, if its bodily needs - are satisfied and it feels well and strong, are observation - of its surroundings, spontaneous reception of the outer world - (selbstthätiges Aufnehmen der Aussenwelt) and play, which is - spontaneous expression, or acting out of what is within. This - double expression (Diese Doppeläusserung) of taking in and - expressing outwardly is necessarily grounded in its nature, as - in human nature in general; since the child’s first earthly - destiny is to attain by critical reception (durch prüfende - Aufnahme) of the outer world into itself, by manifold inward - impressions and outward expressions of its inner world, and - by critical comparison of both, to the recognition of their - unity.…”--_P., p. 29._ - -Professor Stout attributes this ignoring by certain psychologists of -the constructive aspect of early mental process to a false view of the -nature both of association and of construction, the fundamental fallacy -of the associationists lying in their disposition to explain the nature -and existence of a whole by reference to the nature and existence of the -parts which are contained in it, so that “the parts must be supposed -to pre-exist before they are combined, and to pre-exist in such a way -that they need only to be in some manner externally brought together or -associated in order to constitute the whole which contains them.” - -In like manner Dr. Ward accuses psychologists of having “usually -represented mental advance as consisting fundamentally in the combination -and recombination of various elementary units, the so-called sensations -and primitive movements, or, in other words, in a species of mental -chemistry.” - -That Froebel seems to have avoided the error thus pointed out by those -two psychologists, is surprising enough, but it is even more surprising -to find that this is probably due to the fact that his conception of the -earliest possible consciousness is very much like theirs. - -In rejecting “the atomistic view,” Professor Ward maintains that “the -further we go back, the nearer we approach to a total presentation, -having the character of one general continuum in which differences are -latent.” - -Froebel’s account, as given in “The Education of Man,” is very similar: - - “Although in itself made up of the same objects and of the same - organization, the external world comes to the child at first, - out of its void, as it were, in misty, formless indistinctness, - in chaotic confusion, even the child and the outer world merge - into one another.”--_E., p. 40._ - -This description reminds us of Professor James’ picturesque expression, -“big, blooming, buzzing confusion,” which is so often quoted, but which -does not really convey so true a picture as Dr. Ward’s account, for where -there is no distinction there can surely be no confusion. But a few pages -further on we find Froebel describing the infant consciousness before -speech begins, as “_still an unorganized, undifferentiated unity_” (noch -eine ungegliederte mannigfaltigkeitslose Einheit). This is identical with -the expression used by Professor Stout, who, in speaking of the stage to -which he gives the name “implicit apprehension,” the apprehension of an -unanalysed whole, uses the phrase “distinctionless unity.” Froebel talks -of the child feeling himself a whole and “so also, though unconsciously, -seeking to grasp a whole, never merely a part as such.” And just as Dr. -Ward claims for psychology as well as for biology “what may be called a -principle of progressive differentiation or specialization,” so Froebel -writes: - - “The child mind develops according to the law which governs - world development, viz.: that of progression from the unlimited - to the limited, from the general to the special, from the whole - to the part.”--_P., p. 170._ - -In this, of course, lies the reason for Froebel’s correct apprehension -of the infant mind, he was biologist first, and his mind was full of the -idea of development. - - “At the same time there begins in the child, as in the - seed-corn, a development towards complexity.”--_P., p. 172._ - - “Whether we are looking at a seed or an egg, whether we - are watching feeling or thought, what is definite proceeds - everywhere from what is indefinite and this is the way in which - your child’s life is sure to show itself.”--_M., p. 121._ - -Professor Ward goes on to discuss what is implied in this process of -differentiation or mental growth, saying that if analogies are to be -taken from the physical world at all, the growth of a seed or embryo, -will furnish far better illustrations of the unfolding of the contents of -consciousness than the building up of molecules. - -It was the endeavour, and quaint enough it seems to us, to translate this -psychological truth into educational practice, that led Froebel to lay so -much stress on the fact that the earliest of his so-called “Gifts” are -indivisible wholes: - - “Let us place ourselves at the nursery table, and try to - perceive what the child is impelled to do in the beginning - of his self-employment. Let us sit ourselves as unnoticed as - possible considering how the child, after he has examined the - self-contained tangible object in its form and colour, has - moved it here and there and proved its solidity, how he then - tries to divide it, at least to change its form.… Thus _after - perception of the whole, the child desires to see it separated_ - into parts.… Let us stop at this significant phenomenon and - try to discern through it what plaything following on the - self-contained ball, hard and soft, and the solid hard cube, we - should for inner reason and without arbitrariness give to the - child.”--_P., p. 117._ - -Then come directions as to the manner in which the toy is to be presented: - - “in order to give the child _the impression of the whole_ (den - Eindrück des Ganzen). _From this as the first fundamental - perception_ (der ersten Grundanschauung) _everything proceeds - and must proceed_.”[21] - -Starting from the conception of an undifferentiated totality or objective -continuum, Dr. Ward says, “Of the very beginnings of this continuum we -can say nothing, absolute beginnings are beyond the pale of science. -Actual presentation consists in this continuum being differentiated; -every differentiation constitutes a new presentation. Hence the -common-place of psychologists: ‘We are only conscious as we are conscious -of change.’” … - -As to absolute beginnings, Froebel too writes that these are past -finding out, but he does so in order to call the mother’s attention to -the importance of the very earliest steps: - - “Do not say, It is much too early.… Too early? Do you know - when, where and how your child’s intellectual development - begins? Can you tell when and where is the boundary of - existence that has not yet begun, and of its actual beginning, - and how this boundary manifests itself?”--_M., p. 154._ - -Coming now to what Froebel has to say as to how his “unorganized unity” -becomes differentiated, we shall not find that his brief account differs -in any really fundamental way from that of Professor Ward. Some of his -expressions have a very modern sound, such as: “how the outer world -begins to divide and analyse itself”; how “out of the indefinite outside -and around the child comes the definite”; or again how the child gains -“the three great perceptions of object, space and time, which at first -were one collective perception.” (“Die drei grossen Wahrnehmungen von -Gegenstand, Raum und Zeit; welche anfangs in einer Gesammtwahrnehmung in -dem Kinde ruhten.”)--_P., p. 37._ - -Commenting upon the phrase “We are only conscious as we are conscious -of change,” Dr. Ward remarks that the word change does not sufficiently -explain what happens in differentiation, for this implies that the -increased complexity is due to the persistence of former changes; -such persistence being essential to the very idea of growth or -development.… At the same time he is careful to point out that neither -in “retentiveness” nor in assimilation is there “any confronting of the -old with the new,” any “active comparison.” Without change of impression -consciousness would be a blank, but “a difference between presentations -is not at all the same as the presentation of that difference. The former -must precede the latter; the latter, which requires active comparison, -need not follow … we must recognize objects before we can compare them.” - -Froebel says that: - - “All the development of the child has its foundation in - almost imperceptible attainments and perceptions … the first - perceptions, in the beginning almost imperceptible and - evanescent, are fixed, increased and clarified by innumerable - repetitions, and _by change_.”--_P., p. 38._ - -Froebel, too, goes back to this very earliest stage, the stage when a -baby “begins to notice.” He says that this indication of an intellect -(Seelenaeusserung) begins when the child is a few weeks old, and is -occasioned at first by the movement, that is change in position, of a -bright object, “in and by means of the motion the child first perceives -the object.”--_P., p. 64._ - -In another passage Froebel speaks of change as “a dim conception of -sequence, and thus of dim comparison.” - - “These first impressions come to the child by means of - perception and seeing, and by means of coming, staying and - vanishing (of the ball); _by means of change_, thus also, in - a certain point of view by means of early dim conceptions of - sequence, of foundation and result, of cause and effect, and - thus of dim comparison.”--_P., p. 65._ - -A change or difference which does not imply active comparison, and a -change or sequence which does imply dim comparison are not very far -apart, and Froebel makes his meaning clearer still by using the words -“unconsciously comparing” (unbewusst vergleichend). - - “By this play his attention is called to the precise shape - of the cube; and he will look at it sharply, unconsciously - comparing it with the hand, to which his eyes were first - attracted.”--_P., p. 84._ - -Nor does Froebel omit to notice the necessary close connection of the new -with the old, which Dr. Ward emphasizes. - - “The child very often seeks for something without at all - knowing what he seeks; in like manner he repels something - without at all knowing why. Yet the child does not for this - reason turn away accidentally, neither does he seek the - accidental. Generally it is the new for which the child - seeks, but not a novelty which has no connection with what - has hitherto been, for that, should it appear, would obstruct - development. He seeks the new which has developed from the - old, like a bud from a branch. He seeks a new unexpected turn, - a new unexpected use of a thing, new unexpected properties, - new and yet unconsciously anticipated development, a new - unexpected connection with his life.… The child indeed seeks - for the new that is outside of himself, but not on account - of its externality. Really he is seeking the new of which he - feels premonitions in himself, in his own development. Since, - however, he does not yet know this, and so cannot give an - account of it, _the child seeks especially for change_, in - order to gain a means of growing up within himself, and of - growing forth outwardly from himself. - - “Above all, therefore, it is the old within the child which - clarifies, unfolds and transmutes itself, thus developing that - which is new. The whole process takes place according to a - definite law resting in the child himself, in his life, in life - as such.”--_P., p. 168._ - -We have seen that Froebel draws no hard and fast line between sensation -and thought. On more than one occasion, he does refer to something less -definite than a perception, in one passage using the word “Eindrück,” -and in another the term “Vorentwickelung,” translated by Miss Jarvis as -“preliminary impression,” of which he says it is “to be raised later, at -the right time, by look and by word, to a clear perception.”--_P., p. 86._ - -In “The Education of Man,” Froebel’s earlier work, he deals with the -function of language, “the word,” in differentiating “the misty formless -darkness,” the nothing, the mist. - - “At an early period there come, too, on the part of the - parents, corresponding words which at first separate the child - from the outer world, but afterwards re-unite them. With the - help of these words, these objects present themselves, at first - singly and rarely, but later in various combinations and more - frequently in their self-contained definite individuality. At - last man--the child--beholds himself as a definite individual - object, wholly distinct from all others.”--_E., p. 40._ - -The function of the name, as calling attention to the thing, seemed to -Froebel of so much consequence, that he says, “the name creates the thing -for the child.” It is in connection with the development of speech in -the stage just following on infancy that he says: “Up to this stage, the -inner being of man is still an unorganized undifferentiated unity. With -language, organization sets in.” - - “This period is pre-eminently the period of the development - of the faculty of speech. Therefore it was indispensable - that whatever the child did should be clearly and definitely - designated by the word. Every object, every thing, became - such, as it were only through the word; before it had been - named, although the child might have seemed to see it with the - outer eyes, it had no existence for him. The name, as it were, - created the thing for the child.--_E., p. 90._ - - “The object of giving names is not primarily the development of - the child’s power of speech, but to assist his comprehension - of the object, its parts and properties, by defining his - sense-impressions.”--_P., p. 242._ - -Professor Stout also speaks of the casual naming of the object, by those -around the child as “a means of fixing the attention of the child on the -object when it would otherwise pass unnoticed,” and he guards against the -misconception that the name at the outset is a name for the child. He -calls it “merely a special sound associated with a special percept in a -quite casual and indefinite way.” - -Froebel, too, is careful when he says: - - “A definite tone is to be connected with a definite perception, - and the tone when heard again may recall the perception.” - -Though Froebel has little to say about the separate senses, and what -little he has is worthless, yet on the other hand he has a great deal to -say, especially in his later writings, about the child’s bodily activity, -and the experiences and perceptions (Erfahrung-Wahrnehmen) he gains from -it. Indeed he makes so much of this, and it is so essentially a modern -way of thinking that it has been given a chapter to itself. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -HOW CONSCIOUSNESS IS DIFFERENTIATED.--THE PLACE OF ACTION IN THE -DEVELOPMENT OF PERCEPTION AND OF FEELING - - -Once objects have begun to emerge, differentiated out of the formless -indistinctness, comes what Froebel calls the “sucking-in stage,” where -the child “makes the external internal.” - -Here, more than anywhere perhaps, Froebel shows his genius, his -originality as a student of child psychology, in that he perceived that -this mental sucking-in is not merely a matter of sense organs, but that -it is also a muscular performance. - -Who, before Froebel, understood the importance of motor activity from the -very earliest days, as a means of gaining ideas, or realized as we now -begin to do, that this is the true explanation of the “endless imitation -which is the child’s vocation”? - -In speaking of the “new-born child,” it is activity or action which -is again and again repeated and emphasized as the outstanding -characteristic, “an activity and action devoted to working with and -prevailing over the outer.” - - “As rest appears to be the earliest requirement of the bodily - life, so movement soon appears as the demand of the soul - life.”--_P., p. 63._ - -The baby’s “feeble strength” is to be drawn into the game, where -possible, “particularly that he may experience and perceive, directly -through and in his own activity” (durch und in Eigenthätigkeit -unmittelbar selbst erfahre und wahrnehme).--_P., p. 78._ - -It is “through spontaneous activity, as well as through the mother’s -instinctive knowledge of his needs” that the child gains “the first -impressions of the soul, as it were, the first cognitions.” - -Out of forty-nine Mother Songs, two only deal specifically with the -senses, though all deal with action, and Froebel takes care to point out -the close connection of sense and movement. - - “Limbs and senses seem to have very different provinces of - activity, and so they have; yet so deep-seated is their linked - interchange that neither of them fails to react on the other. - And no Games for the limbs have presented themselves to us, not - even the ‘Kicking Song’ which have not also made demands upon - the sense of sight.”--_M., p. 168._ - - “The use of the body and of the limbs is developed - simultaneously and in the same proportion as the use of the - senses, the order being determined by their own nature and the - properties of the material world. Outer objects are near, or - moving away, or fixed at a distance, and either invite rest, - seizure and holding fast, or invite him who would bring them - nearer to move towards them.”--_E., p. 47._ - -Froebel’s account of the significance of the ceaseless activity of -the young child anticipates to a certain extent that of Mr. Irving -King, who, in his most interesting “Psychology of Child Development,” -deals expressly with “the functional relation of consciousness to -activity.” But the views of Professor Stout as expressed in his “Analytic -Psychology,” and with which Froebel’s writing has already been compared, -and those of Mr. Irving King do not appear to clash in any way. - -Mr. King begins by discussing the “sort of consciousness” a young child -must have, and concludes that it must from the very first be a unified -consciousness, however vague, any discreteness being on the part of the -object. He also states that the consciousness of a human being must -differ from that of the animal entering life with many “ready-made -complexes of adjustment,” because “Consciousness is related not to -activity, but to the growth of activity.” We have just seen that Froebel -too insists on a unified consciousness, that he too says that “the -external world,” though composed always of the same variety of objects, -“comes to the child as ‘an undifferentiated unity.’” Froebel is also -quite sound as to the difference between the mental possibilities of the -animal “whose instincts, as they are called, are at birth so definite -and strong,” and that of the child “born in the extreme condition of -helplessness,” by whom “everything external is to be overcome.”[22] - -Reflex and instinctive acts which the child brings into the world -with him, says Mr. King, are unconscious, as are reflex and habitual -activities to the adult, but “the checking of a movement must make the -child more definitely conscious of it … it is no longer mere movement, -but movement-stopped-by-something. As soon as movement stands out, as -soon as the consciousness of it is interwoven with something that is not -movement, we have the basis for indefinite advance.” - -Froebel says the same thing in the first of the Mother Songs, where -he takes as the point of departure for all future training this -movement-stopped-by-something, to which Mr. King refers as the earliest -beginning of consciousness. The mother is told that when her baby -“strikes out with his small arms, as he kicks with his feet,” it is a -challenge, to which she instinctively responds by giving him her hand or -her chest, “against which he tramples with alternate feet and so measures -and increases his strength.” So, he reaches “that first consciousness of -self, which is born of physical opposition to and connection with the -external world.”--_P., p. 171._ - -Every one knows that Froebel laid much stress on the necessity for what -is usually called “expression,” which he called _Darstellung_--often -translated “representation.” One of his reasons for this emphasis is, -however, by no means always understood, viz. that it “induces clear -perception.” - -It is in discussing and criticizing Professor Baldwin’s description of -imitation as a circular process, that Mr. Irving King brings out two -points of view from which we may regard imitation, that of the observer -and that of the so-called imitator. Imitation, he says, is a term for -the observer only, and not a term for psychology at all. Baldwin says -that “real or persistent imitation is the reaction that will reproduce -the stimulating impression and so tend to perpetuate itself.” But as Mr. -King shows in the case of the child who imitates his mother’s poking of -the fire, “the response of the child to the copy does not reinstate the -original stimulus.… What the child gets is not a reproduced stimulus, but -a new experience.” - -In “The Education of Man,” written years before his whole attention -was given to the young child, Froebel had emphasized the necessity for -“representation” which “induces and implies clear perception.” - - “For what man tries to represent or do, that he begins to - understand.”--_E., p. 76._ - -As we have seen that Froebel sets before himself the self-same task which -Mr. King states as the business of the genetic psychologist, so it should -be no surprise that he gives virtually the same answer to the question: -What do the imitative activities mean to the child? - -Mr. King’s answer is that the child’s emphasis is not on the copying of -a certain act, but on the attainment of a certain experience that comes -through the copying or imitating. “The child,” he says, “is seldom or -never imitating from his own point of view, but is always trying to sort -out some of his own ill-organized experiences.” - -Froebel’s words are: - - “The child, though unconsciously, strives to make his inner - life outwardly objective and thus perceptible, and so to become - conscious of it, to see it mirrored in the outward phenomena. - It is for this reason that the child tries to do himself - whatever he sees done.”--_P., p. 240._ - - “If your child is to understand any action, you must let him - carry it out himself, deeply rooted in this fact is his prompt - and delighted imitation of whatever he finds around him.”--_M., - p. 16._ - - “Thought must form itself in action, and action resolve and - clear itself in thought.”--_P., p. 42._ - -Every stimulus, says Mr. King, is a suggestion to activity, and it is -interesting to notice how two minds working on the same lines, though -separated not only by years but by difference of language, can fall into -almost the same phrases. Mr. King unconsciously uses almost Froebel’s -very words when he writes: “_The sight of the object tends to set the -activity free_.” - -Froebel writes: - - “As the ball stirs, moves, goes, runs and rolls, the child who - is playing with it begins to feel the desire to do likewise.… - The smallest child moves joyfully, springs gaily, hops up and - down or beats with his arms when he sees a moving object. This - is not merely delight in the movement of the object before him, - but it is the working of the inner activity wakened in him by - the sight of outer activity. _Through such vision the inner - life has been freed._”--_P., p. 239._ - -We have seen that according to Froebel the earliest consciousness is a -kind of self-consciousness. Mr. Irving King says that the very beginning -of consciousness is “movement-stopped-by-something,” and Froebel says -that when the baby kicks out or tramples with his feet and the mother -responds by giving him her hand or chest to push against, the child -reaches that “first consciousness of self which is born of physical -opposition to and connection with the external world.” Here again we -come to a point in which Froebel’s insight shows well in comparison -with a typical modern genetic psychologist. “Many writers,” says Mr. -Irving King, “have tried to select out certain kinds of activity as -peculiarly connected with the development of the infant’s sense of -self.” Preyer, for instance, connects this development specially with -painful sensations; Baldwin, with experience associated with people, as -contrasted with experience of things. His own conclusion is that “it -seems more correct to say that all the child’s activities are factors -of very nearly equal importance for developing the sense of self, as -distinct from things and other people,” and it is this view that we find -in Froebel’s writings. Even in “The Education of Man” we find: - - “If man, in accordance with his destiny, is truly and - thoroughly to know each thing of the surrounding world; if - _with the aid of each thing he is truly and thoroughly to know - himself_.…”--_E., p. 92._ - -And among his later writings, in connection with the child’s play with -bricks Froebel says: - - “True and early knowledge of Nature and of the outer world - and _especially clear self-knowledge_ come to the child by - this early dismembering and reconstruction and perception - of real things, though not as yet, by any means, through - verbal designation of the various productions of childish - activity.”--_P., p. 123._ - -“Self-consciousness,” says Mr. King, “is essentially a relative and -variable term for all of us. It stands for a process of definition, that, -strictly speaking, proceeds till maturity, or even later.” And Froebel, -writing about how, through the mother’s play with a ball, a child may -gain his earliest perceptions of object, space and time, says that by the -coming and going of the ball, etc., - - “there goes forth to the child the object, recognized as such - by the mind and so held fast, the consciousness of the object, - and so consciousness itself awakens in the child.” - -And without a pause he goes on: - - “Self-consciousness belongs to the nature of man, and is one - with it. To become conscious of itself is the first task in - the life of the child, as it is the task of the whole life of - man. That this task may be accomplished the child is, even - from his first appearance, surrounded by a definite place and - by objects: by the air blowing around all living creatures, as - well as by the arousing, human, spiritual language of words.… - Thus it is with the attainment of man to consciousness and - the speech required and conditioned by that attainment to - consciousness.”--_P., p. 39._ - -It is rather interesting to notice that in her translation of this -passage in which Froebel declares that self-consciousness comes to -a child as a result of all his surroundings, Miss Jarvis omits the -word “self.” She begins her paragraph with “Bewusstsein,” instead of -“Selbstbewusstsein” as it stands in the original. To quote Mr. King, -“It is generally held that these are two distinct attitudes, that -consciousness may exist without an accompanying consciousness of the -self as separate from the objects, activities and persons of the rest of -the world.” Probably this was Miss Jarvis’s own view, and she left out -the word “self” as having no place or meaning in the context. It was, -however, not meaningless to Froebel himself. - -Mr. King continues: “The really important point is not to be able -to put the finger down on some one thing that proves a developed -self-consciousness, but to be able to show at every point that the -process of definition is a function of the growing complexity of the -child’s activities.” And, in “The First Action of a Child” Froebel writes: - - “The nature of man as a being intended for self-consciousness, - shows itself in the quite distinctive nature of the child’s - activity, even at the end of the so-called three months’ - slumber, in the totality of the first childish action. This - cannot be better comprehended than by the expression ‘to busy - himself’ (sich beschäftigen) in the impulse of the child--an - impulse awakening simultaneously with his inner life--an - impulse in close union with feeling and perception, to be - active for the increasing development of his life: in this - lies the nature of man as a being intended to grow towards and - ultimately to become self-conscious.”--_P., p. 22._ - -Speaking of his second plaything, intended for a child six months old, he -says: - - “And so his play, and through his play, his - surroundings--finally Nature and Universe--may become a mirror - of himself and of his life. But this cannot be too early - facilitated, that the child at once, from the first beginning - of his self-developing feeling of life, may grow up in exchange - and comparison with Nature and life, and as he impresses his - life in form, and as form on things outside, so he may again - perceive his life therein.”--_P., p. 95._ - -Froebel was bound to watch for early developments of self-consciousness, -because his whole philosophy and pedagogy are based on his firm belief -that while everything in the universe is an expression of the Divine, man -alone is “destined” to express the God within “with self-determination.” -So, of the little child, he writes: - - “Because the child himself begins to represent his inner being - outwardly, he imputes the same activity to all about him, to - the pebble and chip of wood, to the plant, the flower, and - the animal. And thus there is developed in the child at this - stage his own life, his life with parents and family, and - particularly his life in and with Nature, as if this held life - _like that which he feels within himself_.”--_E., p. 54._ - -As the child grows older, the mother, Froebel continues, tries to teach -him to feel the complexity of his own body, “Give me your arm,” “Where is -your hand?” she says, and she “playfully leads him to a knowledge of the -members which he cannot see,” and the passage ends: - - “The aim of all this is to lead the child to - self-consciousness, to reflection about himself in the - approaching period of boyhood. Thus, a boy ten years old, - similarly guided by instinct, believing himself unobserved, - soliloquized: ‘I am not my arm, nor my ear; all my limbs - and organs I can separate from myself, and I still remain - myself; I wonder what I am; who and what is this which I call - myself?’”--_E., p. 56._ - -Nor does Froebel forget the idea of the self as the boy grows older. - -Once the activities of running, jumping, etc., are familiar, the boy’s -play takes on a new complexion. His games are now “trials of strength,” -or “displays of strength.” - - “The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to feel - himself in them, to weigh and measure himself by them, to know - and find himself by their aid.”--_E., p. 114._ - - “The life of the boy has, indeed, no other purpose but that - of the outer representation of his self: his life is in truth - but an external representation of his inner being, of his - power, particularly through plastic material. In the forms he - fashions, he does not see outer forms which he is to take in - and understand; he sees in them the expression of his spirit, - of the activities of his own mind.”--_E., p. 279._ - -Surely it is another touch of genius that makes Froebel spring to the -nascent idea of self as _the_ reason for the child’s craving for tales of -all kinds. - - “Knowledge of a thing can never be attained by comparing it - with itself. Therefore the boy cannot attain any knowledge of - the nature and meaning of his own life, by comparing it with - itself … everybody knows that comparisons with somewhat remote - objects are more effective than those with very near objects. - Only the study of the life of others can furnish such points - of comparison with the life he has himself experienced.… It is - the innermost desire and need of a vigorous boy to understand - his own life.… This is the chief reason why boys are so fond - of stories, legends and tales.… The story concerns other men, - other circumstances, other times and places, yet the hearer - seeks his own image, he beholds it, and no one knows that he - sees it.”--_E., p. 305._ - -As Froebel shows so much insight into the paramount importance of action -in the development of self-consciousness, it is not surprising to find -that he recognizes also its special importance in the development of -feeling. - -It is probably to the late Professor James and his sparkling paradoxes -that the educational world owes its grasp of the importance of expression -in connection with feeling; we feel because we act, we are told, we do -not run away because we are afraid, but we are afraid because we have run -away. But all Froebelians had already learnt the truth at the bottom of -this from Froebel’s Mother Songs. - -When he wrote his earliest and greatest book, “The Education of Man,” -Froebel was already far enough advanced to point out the necessity for at -least verbal expression of feeling. He then advocated giving to young -boys simple prayers or words by which they can express childish gratitude -for care and protection, so that these feelings may be retained and -deepened. - - “It is natural that religious feelings and thoughts should - spring up.… In the beginning these sentiments and feelings will - only manifest themselves as an effect, a fullness without word - or form, without any adequate expression of what they are, - merely as something that uplifts our being and fills the soul. - At this juncture, it is most beneficial, strengthening, and - uplifting for the boy to receive words--a language for these - sentiments and feelings--_so that they may not be stifled in - themselves, vanish for lack of expression_.”--_E., p. 246._ - -The same remark is made in connection with the teaching of poems and -songs. When feeling is aroused by the contemplation of Nature, it must be -expressed. When Spring brings “gladness,” and Autumn “longing and hope,” -and when Winter awakens “courage and vigour,” then: - - “Man, too, would express the thoughts and feelings that are - awakened in him and for which he cannot find words, and these - should be given him.… the thoughtful teacher can easily - interpret the thoughts and feelings of the boys, as well as - the phases of Nature, in living fitting words.… In general, - all that was said concerning the appropriation of religious - expressions is true here.”--_E., p. 267._ - -Froebel had also noted even thus early how “the natural mother” from the -very beginning cultivates feeling through expression, through gesture or -action. - - “Mother love seeks to awaken and to interpret the feeling of - community between the child and the father, brother and sister, - when she says, ‘Dear Daddy!’ as she caressingly passes the - child’s hand over the father’s cheek. ‘Love daddy, love little - sister,’ etc.”--_E., p. 69._ - -In the Mother’s Songs, written much later and after Froebel had made -careful observation of young children, he is more emphatic, and his ideas -of expression are both wider and more definite. In “The Education of Man” -he had said that literature exercises and tests judgment and feelings, -and he had added that this should be followed up by some constructive -action. But now he knows that feeling when stirred ought to express -itself in actual service, just as James suggests “speaking genially to -one’s grandmother, or giving up one’s seat in a horse car, if nothing -more heroic offers.” - -The mother is told that at first she should help her little one -to understand her care of him and his dependence on her by “the -looking-glass of outer life,” by letting him, for instance, watch the hen -caring for her chickens, and the parent birds feeding and brooding over -their young in the nest. In the rhymed motto of “The Nest” she is told: - - “Already the baby likes to see pictures showing the loving care - of a mother. Let him do so often, that his life experience may - become clear to him.” - -But the longer explanation has an important addition: - - “The way lies through our imaginative, tender and emotional - observation of Nature and of man’s life, and through the - child’s affectionately taking their most intimate meaning into - the life of his own heart, _and expressing by representation - what he thus takes in_.”--_M., p. 149._ - -So, as the child begins to realize what he owes, comes the next little -play, “The Flower Basket,” the key-note of which is given in its motto: - - “Try to let the child give outward form to what stirs his - feelings, for the love even of a child dies away if not - carefully fostered.”--_M., p. 38._ - -And the baby makes of his tiny hands a basket for flowers wherewith to -celebrate the father’s birthday in orthodox German fashion. In Froebel’s -own phrase, the “inner meaning” of the little finger play with its -picture, is “to cherish thoughtfully the bond, which is invisible, yet -which can be felt, whereby the life of humanity is bound together, the -first opportunity for which is afforded by the life of the child and the -family.” What is important here is that Froebel has pointed out the way -in which this bond can be strengthened, that is by expression, by giving -“outward form to what stirs feeling.” - -This idea of service as expression of feeling comes into Froebel’s -description of the ideal child, “merry, happy, strong and busy,” when the -mother: - - “Kissed upon his brow her blessing, - Then, his love for her expressing, - Off he starts his mother serving - All he can do, she’s deserving.”--_M., p. 191._ - -Again, in connection with childish productions, the little baskets, -napkin rings, etc., that they have made, Froebel wrote: - - “The use made of these little productions is very important to - the civilizing and nourishing of the child’s being and mind, - for I consider the fact that many children receive so much - and can give hardly anything to be one of the most essential - causes of the frequent retrogression of childish love and - sensibility.” - -Froebel always emphasizes the essential importance of family bonds in the -development of feeling, and he not only instructs the mother to see to -it that the child recognizes the family circle, but he tells her that he -will realize his “kinship” by service done for the family. - - “Family, family, you are more than School or Church … without - you what are Altar and Church.…”--_M., p. 159._ - - “That many things are in a whole - Soon dawns upon a childish soul. - Then let the mother teach him carefully - To know the circle of the family.”--_M., p. 46._ - - “Duties are not burdens, duty fulfilled leads to light, this is - why every healthy child likes and enjoys doing duties, provided - they speak to him clearly and simply, above all inexorably.… - See how happy a child is feeling he has done his small duties. - He already feels his kinship with you thereby. Cherish this - feeling, and it will be salvation and blessing to him.”--_M., - p. 174._ - -As the feeling of the adult is called out by the helplessness of a child, -so, too: - - “the child’s sympathy is roused by the young creatures’ - necessities more than by anything else, and among these - chiefly by their nakedness and softness: ‘… Mother, the poor - little birds are so lonely, I am so sorry for the poor little - things.’”--_M., p. 150._ - -And in this connection too comes the warning that feeling must not be -allowed to evaporate without action: - - “If your child’s to love and cherish - Life that needs him day by day, - Give him things to tend that perish - If he ever stops away.”--_M., p. 84._ - -The child is “to feel within himself Nature’s close interdependence”: - - “Whenever opportunity occurs, make this inner dependence of - life clear, visible, impressive, tangible and perceptible to - your child, even though it be in only a few of the essential - links of this great chain, until you come to the last ring that - holds all the rest, God’s Father-love for all. The baker cannot - bake if the miller brings him no flour, the miller can grind no - flour if the farmer brings him no corn, the field can yield no - crop if Nature does not work towards it in harmony, and Nature - could not work in harmony if God had not placed in her power - and material, and if His love did not guide everything to its - fulfilment.”--_M., p. 148._ - -And again, as always, follows the need for expression of some kind. The -children are not to be disturbed while they “say grace” over their doll’s -feast. - - “It is no drawing down of the sacred into outer life; no, this - is the germ which gives the outside actions of life the inner - meaning and higher consecration, which life so much needs. For - how is your child to cultivate innocently in himself a lively - feeling for what is holy, if you will not grant that it takes - form for him even in his innocent games.”--_M., p. 148._ - -It may be as well before leaving the subject to notice here one or two -other points in connection with feeling that are touched upon by Froebel. - -Though, as we have seen[23], the feeling side is always kept in closest -connection with those of knowledge and action, yet the fundamental -importance of the emotional side is stated quite distinctly. The child -is “living, loving and perceiving,” or “creating, feeling and thinking,” -still: - - “The cultivation of boyhood rests wholly on that of childhood; - therefore activity and firmness of the will rest upon activity - and firmness of the feelings and of the heart. Where the latter - are lacking, the former will scarcely be attainable.”--_E., p. - 97._ - -This is put more strongly in connection with the child’s imitation of the -music of the bell note, the “bim-baum” or “ding-dong” sung by the mother, -while she swings the ball to and fro, which according to Froebel “serves -the emotional side.” - - “The children thus early and definitely point out that the - centre, the real foundation, the starting-point of human - development is the heart and the emotions, but the training - to action and thought, the corporeal and mental, goes on - constantly and inseparably by the side of it; and thought - must form itself into action, and action resolve and clear - itself in thought; but both have their roots in the emotional - nature.”--_P., p. 42._ - -Another point Froebel makes in this connection, is that feeling alone can -awaken feeling, and that those who complain of want of feeling in their -children have probably themselves to blame. Want of good feeling and the -prevalence among boys of egotism, unfriendliness, etc., is explained as: - - “clearly due not merely to the failure of arousing at an early - period, and of subsequently cultivating in the child a feeling - of common sympathy, but also to the early annihilation of this - feeling between parents and children.”--_E., p. 122._ - -The elders must show sympathy with the child’s thoughts and feelings, -they must not rest content with caring for his bodily welfare. If the -child fails to find sympathy, for example in connection with his interest -in Nature, if he “fails to find the same feelings among adults who -suppress his germinating inner life” then, says Froebel: - - “a double effect follows, loss of respect for the elder and a - recoil of the original anticipation.”--_E., p. 164._ - - “Mothers and Fathers, is it not almost incredible how early - the child appears to distinguish inner intellectual and loving - gifts from outer bodily ones, or, rather, to be conscious of - the heart and mind of the giver to feel the giving spirit? - Who does not see this in the effect of a friendly glance, of - a sympathizingly spoken word, of a tender care which often - affords little more than sympathy and companionship?… It is a - remarkable fact that the mere love for the outward person, the - mere bodily care, does not satisfy him; indeed, the nobler the - child is in his nature the less does he cling to the giving - person. Through this consideration we have found and recognized - what we sought, namely, that the respect and love--yea, the - reverence--of children and youth are gained and secured to - parents in proportion to what the latter are doing for the - education of the mental life of the children.… If the lively - appreciation of what has been done to cultivate his inner world - fill the soul of a child, then will true love and gratitude - towards parents, respect and veneration for age, germinate in - the mind of a child.”--_P., p. 111._ - -We have spoken in this chapter of what is popularly called the instinct -of imitation, and we have seen that Froebel makes much of what he calls -the instinct or impulse of activity (Thätigkeitstrieb), or the instinct -for employment (Beschäftigungstrieb). - -It may be well now to consider what, considering the ideas of his day and -generation, Froebel could find to say on a subject so important as the -instinctive activities of human beings and of other animals, concerning -which so much has now been written and which, according to Professor -Dewey, Froebel regarded and rightly regarded as the foundation-stones of -educational method. - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -INSTINCT AND INSTINCTS - - -“The older writings on Instinct are ineffectual wastes of words,” -writes Professor James, “because their authors never came down to this -simple and definite idea (that the nervous system is to a great extent -a pre-organized bundle of reactions), but smothered everything in vague -wonder at the clairvoyant and prophetic power of animals--so superior to -anything in Man.”[24] - -Froebel was certainly not in a position to know much of the nervous -system, but what he wrote about instinct cannot be classed with these -older writings. For even without modern knowledge, he waxes indignant -over the opinions of those who created James’ “ineffectual wastes -of words.” Far from allowing that instinct in the lower animals is -superior to anything in man, Froebel maintains that the very weakness, -indefiniteness of man’s instincts or impulses (Triebe) is a sign of his -superiority. - - “Notwithstanding the early manifestation in the human infant - of the impulse to employment (Beschäftigungstriebe), much - has been said from an entirely wrong point of view about - man’s helplessness at birth, and his slow development to - independence, which necessitates for so long a period the - care and help of the mother. It has even been said, that, - in this respect, man’s position is behind and below that of - other animals. But that very point, which has been cited as - evidence of man’s imperfection, is a proof of his worth. For we - recognize through this helplessness, that man is called to ever - higher self-consciousness.”--_P., p. 24._ - -At the same time it should be pointed out that Froebel does not make -the opposite mistake of supposing that man has no instincts. Since he -approached psychology from the biological side, so far as it could be -known to him, Froebel was bound to have faith in instinct, in race-habit, -in tendencies which, because they have been of use to the race, are -bedded in the nature of each individual. It is to Froebel’s later -writings and especially to the little paper, on “The First Action of a -Child,” that we must turn to see how wonderfully correct are his views on -the whole question of instinct. - -It may be better to give first the position of modern writers on the -subject by quoting from the last chapter of Professor Lloyd Morgan’s -“Habit and Instinct,” a clear and concise passage showing that the -contrary schools of thought represented on the one hand by the Darwin and -Romanes and on the other by Professors James and Wundt, can after all be -resolved into a matter of definition. - -“If, then, the question be asked, whether man has a large or a small -endowment of instinct, the answer will depend upon the precise definition -of ‘instinct.’ If we take congenital definiteness as characteristic -of instinct, we shall agree with Darwin, that ‘the fewness and the -comparative simplicity of the instincts of the higher animals are -remarkable as compared with those of lower animals;’ and with Romanes -that ‘instinct plays a larger part in the psychology of many animals -than it does in the psychology of man.’ If, on the other hand, a broader -definition of instinct be accepted, so as to include what is innate, -in the sense before defined, we shall agree with Professor Wundt that -human life is ‘permeated through and through with instinctive action, -determined in part, however, by intelligence and volition;’ and shall not -profoundly disagree with Professor Wm. James, who says that man possesses -all the impulses that they (the lower animals) have and a great many more -besides.” - -In Mr. McDougall’s important contribution to the discussion of human -instinct, he says that the view which is rapidly gaining ground is that -the gradual evolution of intelligence “did not supplant and lead to the -atrophy of the instincts, but controlled and modified their operation.” -As Mr. McDougall goes on to state his belief “that the recognition of the -full scope and function of the human instincts will appear to those that -come after us as the most important advance made by psychology in our -time,” it is important to the purpose of this book, to make clear to what -extent Froebel’s views on the subject approach those of modern writers. - -Mr. McDougall makes a very clear distinction between specific tendencies -to which he limits the word instinct, and non-specific or general -tendencies. Naturally Froebel did not reach this standpoint, but he -does seem to have thought out his terminology. He felt strongly as -to the use of words of foreign origin, and generally uses “_Trieb_,” -“_Lebenstrieb_,” “_Drang_” or “_Lebensdrang_,” where we might use -instinct. But he does occasionally use “instinct,” notably in a passage -quoted below “whose impulses, powers and abilities, whose instincts -as they are called” (dessen Lebenstriebe Kräfte und Anlagen, dessen -Instincte wie man es nennt), where he seems to be feeling about for -the right expression. Other words in constant use are “_Neigung_,” -“_Streben_” and “_Richtung_,” probably best translated by “tendency.” It -can be argued, however, that to the word Trieb Froebel does seem to have -attached a more definite meaning, and his use of this word is certainly -limited. - -Professor James’ account of instinct begins with the statement that -“Every instinct is an impulse,” a driving to action, but the use of the -words “_Trieb_” and “_Drang_” makes such a pronouncement unnecessary to -a German writer, and if this root idea is not implied by the noun, it -generally, in Froebel’s writings, makes its appearance in the verb. Thus -we frequently read of “a longing which drives the child to,” etc. (die -Sehnsucht die das Kind treibt). - -The merest glance through Froebel’s writings is enough to show his belief -in the existence of instinct in the human being. His references to it are -constant. It is an impulse (Trieb) “which the child did not give himself, -which came without his will, in later life even against his will,” but -which “urges to action” (drängt ihn dazu). It is a force so strong, that -it “holds captive mind and body.” The child is described as “driven by -impulse” (des von Lebensdrang getriebenen Kindes). The boy again is “held -captive by harmless, even praiseworthy, impulses” (sogar lobenswerten -Triebe), or “gives himself up entirely to the impulses of his inner life” -(dem Treibenden innern Leben). - -In his earlier work, “The Education of Man,” Froebel is first concerned -with urging that the young human being, “a product of Nature,” has -instincts quite as trustworthy as those of any other young animal, and -the following eloquent passage is very well known: - - “The undisturbed working of the Divine Unity is necessarily - good, and this implies that the young human being, still as it - were in the process of creation, would seek as a product of - Nature, though still unconsciously, yet decidedly and surely - that which is in itself best: and, moreover, in a form wholly - adapted to his condition, disposition, powers and means. Thus - the duckling hastens to the pond, while the young chicken - scratches the ground, and the young swallow catches his food - upon the wing and scarcely ever touches the ground. We grant - space and time to young plants and animals because we know that - in accordance with the laws that live in them they will develop - properly and grow well. Arbitrary interference with their - growth is avoided because it is known that this would disturb - their development; but the young human being is looked upon as - a piece of wax, a lump of clay, which man can mould into what - he pleases.… Thus, O parents, could your children, on whom you - force in tender years forms and aims against their nature, - thus could your children too unfold in beauty and develop in - harmony.”--_E., p. 7._ - -It is true that to Froebel evolution is “the working of Divine Unity.” -But there seems to be no special reason why this should invalidate -what Froebel has to say, any more than Sir Oliver Lodge should be -disqualified as a scientist, because he has produced a book in which he -writes: “Development means unfolding latent possibilities … growth and -development are in accordance with the law of the universe … the law -of the universe and the will of God are here regarded as in some sort -synonymous terms.” - -This is exactly Froebel’s position; he writes that - - “Nature and man have their origin in one and the same eternal - Being, and their development takes place in accordance with the - same laws, only at different stages.”--_E., p. 161._ - -That Froebel not only recognized the presence of instinct in human -beings, but that he also saw, as Professor Wundt puts it, that this -is “determined in parts by intelligence and volition,” he states very -plainly: - - “Natural instinct and good example will do much, but here, - as in all human concerns, one must proceed by extension of - knowledge, and by careful scrutiny, or both the one and the - other may mislead or be misdirected. Experience cries aloud - to us, to warn us of this danger. _Assuredly man ought not to - neglect his natural instincts, still less abandon them, but he - must ennoble them through his intelligence, purify them through - his reason._”--_L., p. 222._ - - “In the progress of development three stages differentiate - themselves and fall apart; and these stages are seen both in - individual men, and in the race as a whole. They are: - - (1) _Unconsciousness, the merely instinctive stage_; - - (2) _Vague Feeling, the tendency upwards towards - consciousness_; and - - (3) _Relatively clear Conscious Intelligence_. - - Everything that is acquired by a great unity, say by a family, - a community, a nation, must in its beginnings be acquired by - the single members of that unity; and further it will take - them in one of the three grades of development, either that of - mere unconsciousness, or of vague feeling, or in the third and - highest grade, that of conscious intelligence, so far as it has - been maintained by mankind up to the present time.”--(Letter to - Madame D. Lutkens, dated March, 1851.) - -It is in “The First Action of a Child” that we find Froebel contrasting -the instincts of the lower animals with those of man. Here curiously -enough, Froebel, according to Professor Stout, is almost more correct -than Professor Lloyd Morgan himself, whose statement “that animals do not -perceive relations” Professor Stout regards as misleading. His correction -is, “unless an artificial restriction is put on the meaning of the term -_relation_, this statement would imply that animals cannot perceive the -position of objects in space or their motion.… Hence we should say, -not that the perception of relation is deficient in animals, but only -that definite perception of relations is deficient which depends on -comparison.” - -Now it is this very point of comparison which Froebel takes as the -essential intellectual difference between the animal independent from -birth thanks to fully developed instinct, and the child helpless and -apparently inferior at first, yet destined for progress “self-active and -free.” He writes: - - “The animal whose life impulses, powers and abilities, whose - instincts as they are called (dessen Lebenstriebe, Kräfte - und Anlagen, dessen Instincte wie man es nennt) are at once - so definite and strong, that in natural conditions it never - fails, indeed cannot fail to overcome every hindrance within - its life’s reach, the animal just on this account can never - arrive at a knowledge of its powers, its qualities, its nature - … _for it lacks all points of comparison. It lacks all points - of comparison, which, in the case of man proceed from the fact - that the weakest output of strength meets with obstacles_ which - increase as the strength increases, and which will only with - difficulty be conquered or overcome and annihilated. - - “It is quite different in the life of man, in the beginning - of which practically nothing can be accomplished without help - from without. Nothing especially can be accomplished through - a preponderance of inner power such, for example, as the - newly hatched duckling shows on the water. Thus everything - external must, by Man, with his preponderance of helplessness, - be overcome as an obstacle solely through inner advancing, - and outer strengthening and increasing of power through free - activity of the will.”--_P., p. 25._ - -With this passage from “The First Action of a Child” we can compare the -following from Stout’s “Analytic Psychology”: - -“The peculiar feature in the life of animals which prevents progressive -development is the existence of instincts which do for them what the -human being must do for himself. Their inherited organization is such, -that they perform the movements adapted to supply their needs on the -mere occurrence of an appropriate external stimulus.… In man, a blind -craving has to grope its way from darkness into light in order to become -effective; in the animal the means of satisfaction are provided ready -made by Nature at the outset.” - -After having stated that “Every instinct is an impulse,” Professor James -goes on to say that instinct depends upon the biological fact that the -nervous system is “a pre-organized bundle of re-actions,” and that when -impulses block one another, an animal with many impulses, and whose mind -is elevated enough to discriminate, “loses the instinctive demeanour and -appears to live a life of hesitation and choice, an intellectual life.” - -Notwithstanding the very obvious fact that Froebel could know but little -of the nervous system and its re-actions, it is still quite evident -that his observation had led him to a clear recognition of the earlier -stage, when “hesitation and choice” are impossible. The child, he says, -“acts in obedience to an instinct which holds captive mind and body,” -he is “incredibly short-sighted in his obedience to instinct.” That he -also recognized the beginning of hesitation and choice is shown in his -defence of the child who “in spite of abandonment to momentary impulse,” -may have “an intense inner desire for goodness,” which, “if it could -be appreciated in time,” would make of him a good man (_E., p. 125_); -and also in his plea for the early awakening and training “of judgment -and of that reflection which avoids so many blunders and which, _in a -natural way_ (i.e. without training), does not come to man sufficiently -early.”--_E., p. 79._ - - “Another source of boyish faults is in the precipitation, - want of caution, indiscretion, in a word the thoughtlessness, - the acting according to an impulse quite blameless, even - praiseworthy, which holds captive all activity of mind and - body, but whose consequences have not as yet entered into his - experience, indeed it has not yet entered into his mind to - define the consequences.”--_E., p. 122._ - -Froebel gives from real life a few well-chosen examples of what the -boy so “incredibly short-sighted in his obedience to impulse” may do; -telling how one deliberately aims a stone at a window “with earnest -effort to hit it, yet without even saying to himself that if it does -so, the window must be broken,” and how he “stands rooted to the spot” -when this happens. Another, a “very good-hearted boy, who dearly loved -and took care of pigeons, aimed at his neighbour’s pigeon on the roof, -without considering that if the bullet hit it the dove must fall.” No -wonder that he urges the early awakening of that reflection (Nachdenken) -which would avoid so much, and in this connection it must be remembered -too that Froebel emphasized the indefiniteness of human instinct which -makes comparison possible. It is also worth remarking that Froebel knew -that it is only by noting consequences of actual deeds that reflection -comes, and this he shows in one of his quaint parallels between “the -history of creation and the development of all things.” - - “Similarly in each child there is repeated the deed which marks - the beginning of moral and human emancipation, of the dawn - of reason--essentially the same deed that marked the dawn of - reason in the race as a whole.”--_E., p. 41._ - -It must have been a somewhat unorthodox view in 1826, but some pages -further on Froebel speaks even more boldly of “the fall or--since the -result is the same--the ascent of the mind of man from simple emotional -development into the development of externally analytic and critical -reason.”--_E., p. 193._ - -Professor James goes on to state two other principles which make for -non-uniformity of instinct. The first of these is that instincts are -inhibited by habits, and the second that instincts are transitory. - -The physiological fact of “plasticity” in which these principles are -grounded, was of course quite out of Froebel’s ken. Nevertheless, the -principles themselves do not escape his shrewd observation. Mr. McDougall -points out that even acquired habits of thought and action, so important -as springs of action in the developed human mind, are in a sense -derived from and secondary to instincts. He goes on to say that “in the -absence of instincts no habits could be formed,” so it is interesting -to find Froebel arguing that the phenomena of habit is a proof of the -existence of what in the infant he calls the impulse to activity or to -self-employment. - - “The helplessness of the new-born human being in regard to - all outer things is the opposite of his future ability--since - life is a whole--to help himself through the enhancing of - his will-power.… Helplessness and personal will, therefore, - become the two points between which the child’s life turns, and - the fulcrum is free activity. Herein lies for the educator a - key to phenomena of child-life which seem to contradict each - other. For out of the impulse to activity (Thätigkeitstriebe) - and to free self-employment, or rather out of the united - three--helplessness, personal will, and self-employment--soon - proceed custom and habit, often indolence and too facile - yielding. - - “Consideration of custom, and of the spontaneous acquiring - of habit in the child, especially in regard to what causes - it, and to its effect upon the child, is just as important - for the educator, as is the consideration and guidance of his - instinct of activity. This very phenomenon that the child so - early accustoms and inures himself to something, this early - phenomenon of child life, the growing together and becoming - one, as it were, with his surroundings, is a proof of the - existence and inner working, even thus early, of the impulse - for activity or employment, even where the child appears - outwardly inactive and passive: in that the child accommodates - himself to outer surroundings, relations and requirements in - order to provide more scope for his inner activity.”--_P., p. - 27._ - -This proof may not be quite so clear to others as it was to Froebel, -but at least the passage shows the close connection in his mind between -instinct--the impulse towards activity and employment--and habit, and -that he had noted the interaction between the two. - -There are many references to the transitory nature of at least childish -impulses. - - “What delight a child takes in noticing what is smooth, woolly, - hairy, sparkling, round, etc.… But if you do not cherish this - and do not set it going in the right way, it becomes a lost - thing; it grows rusty, and loses its power as a magnet loses - its power when it is not sufficiently used. Power that is not - at once used, effort that does not at once meet the right - object--perishes.”--_M., p. 181._ - - “Now, at last, we would fain give another direction to the - energies, desires and instincts (Kräfte, Neigungen und Triebe) - of the child growing into boyhood; but it is too late. For the - deep meaning of child-life passing into boyhood we not only - failed to appreciate, but we misjudged it; we not only failed - to nurse it, but we misdirected and crushed it.”--_E., p. 75._ - - “See parents, the first impulse to activity, the first - constructive impulse (Bildungstrieb) comes from man according - to the nature of the working of his mind, unconsciously, - unrecognized, without his will, as man can indeed perceive - in himself in later life. If, however, this inner summons to - activity (diese innere Aufforderung zur Thätigkeit) meets - with outer hindrance, especially such a one as the will of - the parents, which cannot be set aside, the power is at - once weakened in itself, and with many repetitions of this - weakening, falls into inaction.”--_E., p. 100._ - - “The neglect of inner power causes the inner power itself to - vanish.”--_E., p. 133._ - - “It is true there are few such children; but there would be - more, were we not ignorantly blunting so many tendencies in our - children, or starving them into inanition.”--_E., p. 220._ - -Writing of the origin of boyish faults Froebel says: - - “When we look for the sources of these shortcomings … we find - a double reason, first, complete neglect of the development - of certain sides of human life, secondly early misdirection, - early unnatural stages in development, and distortion, through - arbitrary interference with human powers, qualities and - tendencies good in their source.… Therefore at the bottom of - every shortcoming in man, lies a crushed, frustrated quality or - tendency, suppressed, misunderstood or misguided.”--_E., pp. - 119-121._ - -When we come to the enumeration of the various human instincts we find -that Froebel can hardly be said to have omitted any that are important -from an educational point of view, except perhaps the instinct of fear, -and to this he would be loth to appeal.[25] Moreover, it can be shown -that his explanation of certain tendencies suggests a better basis of -classification than is supplied by certain recent writers, who might be -expected to surpass him with ease. - -Before the publication of Mr. McDougall’s “Social Psychology,” there were -but few attempts at any classification of instincts within at least the -reach of English readers. In July, 1900, there appeared an article in -“The Pedagogical Seminary” in which Mr. Eby proposed to reconstruct the -Kindergarten on the basis of natural instinct. The writer had apparently -no dawning idea that this was the original basis[26] of the institution -he proposes to reform, but Froebel’s account of Instinct shows in certain -ways a clearer understanding of the subject than does his own. - -Mr. Eby’s tabulation was: - - I. Language--with gesture and expression. - - II. Curiosity, or Instinct for Knowledge. - - III. Play Instinct. - - (_a_) Motor Plays. - (_b_) Hunting and Wandering. - (_c_) Imitative. - (_d_) Constructive. - (_e_) Agricultural. - (_f_) Improvised. - - IV. Artistic and Aesthetic Instincts. - - V. Social Instinct. - - VI. Instinct of Acquisition and Ownership. - - VII. Number Instinct. - - VIII. Interest in Stories. - -Another classification, well known at least to teachers, is that given by -Mr. Kirkpatrick in his “Fundamentals of Child Study.”[27] - -His list comprises: - - I. Individual or Self-preserving Instincts. - (Feeding, Fear and Fighting.) - - II. Parental Instincts. - - III. Social or Group Instincts. - (Gregariousness, Sympathy, Love of Approbation, Altruism.) - - IV. Adaptive Instincts. - (Imitation, Play, Curiosity.) - - V. Regulative. - (Moral, Religious.) - - VI. Resultant and Miscellaneous. - (Including such tendencies as those of - collecting and constructing, and the - tendency to adornment, with the - æsthetic pleasure of contemplating - beautiful objects.) - -Interesting, helpful and suggestive as these lists are, they both serve -as examples of the difficulty, if not impossibility, of any hard-and-fast -lines of classification. For example, regulative instincts, which Mr. -Kirkpatrick divides into moral and religious, must be derived from social -instincts; gregarious instincts cannot be satisfactorily separated from -instincts of self-preservation, and surely all instincts must be adaptive. - -Froebel’s account of the instincts of a child in some ways resembles that -of Mr. McDougall, and it is certainly in some points more enlightening -than either of the others. - -Under the heading of Investigation, Froebel brings both the Number -Instinct, and the Interest in Stories, to which Mr. Eby gives a position -as fundamental as that of the Social Instinct. The constructive instinct -which Mr. Kirkpatrick brings under “Resultant and Miscellaneous,” has a -very special place in Froebel’s account, as being one way of imitating, -that is another mode of investigating the surroundings, and also what is -equally important, a way by which the child gains a knowledge of his own -power, reaches Self-Consciousness. - -It is because of the emphasis Froebel continually lays upon the -developing self-consciousness that his views somewhat tend to resemble -those of Mr. McDougall, though it would be absurd to attempt to draw -any parallel. For Froebel, though he in no way minimizes the importance -of Imitation, and although it is as the apostle of Play that he is -most widely known, yet, like Mr. McDougall, he never speaks either of -an Instinct of Play nor of Imitation, that is, he never uses for these -his special word Trieb; nor has he any Instinct for Religion. Curiously -enough, too, Froebel, with his constant insistence on the threefold -aspect of mind, partly forestalls Mr. McDougall’s view that “instinctive -action is the outcome of a distinctly mental process, one which is -incapable of being described in purely mechanical terms, … and one which, -like every other mental process, has and can only be fully described in -terms of the three aspects of all mental process, the cognitive, the -affective, and the conative aspects.” - -It is in connection with the very earliest activity that Froebel writes: - - “The first phenomenon of awakening child-life is activity. - It is an inner activity, showing itself by consideration of - and working with what is outer, by overcoming hindrances and - subduing the outer. The nature of man as growing towards, and - destined to reach self-consciousness, is shown in the quite - peculiar character of childish activity even as early as when - the infant awakes from its so-called three months’ slumber. It - is shown in the child’s impulse to busy himself (in dem Triebe - sich zu beschäftigen) in the instinct, _one with feeling and - perception_, to be active for the progressive development of - his own life. - - “We are repeatedly impressed with the conviction that - everything that is to be done for the specifically human - development of the child must be connected with the fostering - of this instinct to employ himself. For _this instinct - corresponds to man’s triune activity of doing, feeling and - thinking. It corresponds to the essential nature of humanity, - which is to have power and understanding, to become ever more - and more self-conscious and self-determining._”--_P., p. 24._ - -In the last sentence of this passage, which refers to the merest infant, -and which immediately precedes Froebel’s comparison of human instincts -with those of the lower animals, are indicated the lines on which we -may say Froebel classified though he never did so formally. He deals -only with the “purely” or “specifically” human, as he never tires of -reiterating, so that fundamental animal instincts, self-preserving and -race-preserving, such as feeding and the sexual impulse, are little -noticed, and only in connection with the necessity for self-control. - -But, as with Mr. McDougall much is made to depend on self-feeling, -so with Froebel still more does everything centre round that -self-consciousness which to him is of the very nature of man, and which -is made possible by the undefined or undeveloped character of human -instinct. - -The instincts and impulses noted by Froebel, all, be it clearly -understood, in the service of the growing self-consciousness, and -self-determination are: the instinct to independent activity (der -Trieb zur Frei- und Selbst-thätigkeit), the instinct to investigation -(Forschungstrieb), with which Froebel deals very thoroughly and by which -he explains a great deal, the impulse of acquisition, the instinct of -construction or formation (Bildungstrieb Gestaltungstrieb), the social -instinct and the maternal instinct. - -Froebel himself never tabulates, yet his apparently careful use of the -word Trieb, taken along with his convincing explanations of various -tendencies (Richtungen, Neigungen, Streben) seems to show that in -relation to instinct there were in his mind two pairs of ideas, so -closely related as to be inseparable, viz.: - -(_a_) Investigation and Control of Surroundings, and (_b_) Consciousness -of Self and Self-Determination. - -It is impossible to become conscious of one’s self except by becoming -conscious of a world of objects.[28] It is equally impossible to -become self-determining without gaining control over these objects, -over the surroundings. In order to control the surroundings, one -must first investigate them, and this investigation brings with it -self-consciousness, knowledge of one’s own powers and consequent -self-determination. All this seems fully in accordance with what has -been already stated as to the close connection between volitional and -intellectual development. - -The two main lines on which instinctive action must run, if it is to be, -as it must be, adaptive, are given in Froebel’s words, “to have power -and understanding.” To adapt ourselves to our surroundings we must first -know them, and secondly, have power over them. Even this separation -into firstly and secondly is more a matter of words than of reality. -No one knew more clearly or emphasized more strongly than Froebel that -action, by which alone we gain power, is also the child’s royal road to -knowledge. This he states very plainly in the “Plan” which he drew up for -the school at Helba, which unfortunately never came into existence. - - “The institution will be fundamental inasmuch as in training - and instruction it will rest on the foundation from which - proceed all genuine knowledge and all genuine practical - attainments; it will rest on life itself and on creative - effort, on the union and interdependence of doing and thinking, - representation and knowledge, art and science. The institution - will base its work on the pupil’s personal efforts in work and - expression, making these, again, the foundation of all genuine - knowledge and culture. Joined with thoughtfulness these efforts - become a direct medium of culture; joined with reasoning, they - become a direct means of instruction and thus make of work a - true subject of instruction.”--_E., p. 38._ - -Knowledge of his surroundings is however not the only knowledge that the -child gains through action; this is his only way of gaining knowledge of -himself, of his power and of his weakness. It is through outward activity -that, as Froebel says, he “comes to self-consciousness and learns to -order, determine and master himself,” and it is in connection with the -earliest Impulse to Activity that Froebel writes: - - “The present effort of mankind is an effort after freer - self-development, freer self-formation, freer determining of - one’s own destiny.… Therefore the more or less clear aim of - the individual is Consciousness, the attaining of clearness - about himself and about life in its unity as well as in its - thousand ramifications, to attain to _comprehension and right - use_ of life.… That this highest aim may be accomplished, - the present time lays upon the educator the indispensable - obligation--to understand the earliest activity, the first - action of the child, the impulse (Trieb) to spontaneous - activity, which appears so early; to foster the impulse (Trieb) - for self-culture and self-instruction, through independent - doing, observing and experimenting.”--_P., p. 15._ - - “The first spontaneous employments of the child are noticing - his environment, and play, that is, independent outward action, - living outside himself.… The deepest foundation of all the - phenomena, of the earliest activity of the child is this; that - he must exercise the dim anticipation of conscious life, and - consequently must exercise power, test and thus compare power, - exercise independence, test and thus compare the degree of - independence.”--_P., pp. 29-31._ - - “All outer activity of the child has its distinctive and - ultimate ground in his inmost nature and life. The deepest - craving of this inner life, this inner activity, is to behold - itself mirrored in some external object. In and through - such reflection the child learns to know his own activity, - its essence, direction and aim, and learns also to order - and determine his activity in correspondence with the outer - phenomena. Such mirroring of the inner life, such making of the - inner life objective is essential, for through it the child - comes to self-consciousness, and learns to order, determine and - master himself. The child must perceive and grasp his own life - in an objective manifestation before he can perceive and grasp - it in himself.”--_P., p. 238._ - -It may seem very presumptuous to venture to discuss here the -classification of instincts adopted by Mr. McDougall, yet there are in -it a few points which would not have appealed to Froebel, and it is -conceivable that Mr. McDougall might make alterations in a future edition -and attach even more importance to positive self-feeling as Froebel -would undoubtedly have done. It is impossible to imagine Froebel having -any dealings with an Instinct of Self-Abasement, though the Instinct of -Self-Assertion is in full accordance with his ideas. And while it is hard -to see the biological utility of an Instinct of Self-Abasement, it does -seem as if the frustration of the Instinct of Self-Assertion might be -made to cover all that is brought under its opposite. - -It is difficult, too, to imagine Froebel allowing an Instinct of -Pugnacity, and Mr. McDougall allows that this presupposes the other -instincts, and that it cannot strictly be brought under his own -definition of instinct. He allows, too, that this instinct is “lacking in -the constitution of the females of some species,” and it seems impossible -not to notice the difference between little boys and girls in this -respect. Surely it puts too much to the credit of mere pugnacity to say: -“A man devoid of the pugnacious instinct would not only be incapable -of anger, but would lack this great source of reserve energy, which -is called into play in most of us by any difficulty in our path.”[29] -The Instinct of Self-Assertion, if it is worth anything, ought to be -sufficient not only to produce anger,[30] but also to call up reserve -energy to deal with difficulties. Certainly Froebel would have said so. -No doubt it is because of her weaker physique that the woman has not -the pugnacity of the man, but Froebel too wrote mainly of the boy, and -he puts boyish tussling and fighting down to the instinctive desire to -measure and to increase power and this can easily be matched on the -female side, though the power measured may not be that of muscle. - - “At this age the healthy boy brought up simply and naturally - never evades an obstacle, a difficulty; nay he seeks it and - overcomes it. ‘Let it lie,’ the vigorous youngster exclaims to - his father, who is about to roll a piece of wood out of the - boy’s way--‘let it lie, I can get over it.’ With difficulty, - indeed, the boy gets over it the first time; but he has - accomplished the feat by his own strength. Strength and courage - have grown in him. He returns, gets over the obstacle a - second time, and soon he learns to clear it easily.… The most - difficult thing seems easy, the most daring thing seems without - danger to him, for his prompting comes from the innermost, from - his heart and will.”--_E., p. 102._ - - “Many of the plays and occupations of boys at this age are - predominantly mere practice and trials of strength, and many - aim simply at display of strength.… _The boy tries to see - himself in his companions, to feel himself in them, to weigh - and measure himself by them, to know and find himself with - their help._”--_E., pp. 112-114._ - -In passing, it may be suggested that it hardly seems worth while to -postulate an Instinct of Repulsion with the impulses or actions of -rejecting evil-tasting substances from the mouth and of shrinking from -objects which are slimy or slippery. Surely the rejection of unsuitable -food might be a compound reflex action tending to the preservation of -health; while shrinking from slimy objects, and even from the touch of -fur, might have had their uses in the case of children left in caves, and -might be drawn under the instinct of fear. - -There does not seem to be anything to which Mr. McDougall would take -exception in what Froebel has to say about Play or about Imitation. - -As to play, Froebel must be regarded as a pioneer in the attempt to -explain a subject all important to educators, and by his explanation -certain kinds, and notably imitative play find an appropriate place under -his instinct of investigation (Forschungstrieb). - - “The means of shadowing forth to the child his own nature and - that of the cosmos are his play and playthings.”--_P., p. 201._ - -As the word Investigation certainly implies activity, it may be -permissible to wonder why Mr. McDougall has not made use of the terms -“The Instinct of Investigation and the Emotion of Curiosity,” the more -so that he himself has clearly a strong inclination to use the word -curiosity to express emotion.[31] - -Imitation, as we have seen,[32] is, according to Froebel, action which -renders a child conscious of what is around him, conscious of his inner -life of perceptions, ideas and feelings, conscious of his own power. -Froebel also points out that imitation, as well as habit, is the outcome -of a more fundamental impulse to activity. - - “It is just as important to notice the habits of a child, - especially with regard to cause and effect, as it is to notice - and to foster its impulse to activity.… As now habit springs - from free and spontaneous activity, so too does imitation, and - it is no less important for the fostering of child-life to keep - in view this origin of imitation, than it is to keep in view - the phenomena of habit, custom and independent activity. For - we see the whole inner life of the child manifest itself as a - tri-unity in the threefold phenomenon of spontaneous activity, - habit and imitation. These three phenomena are closely united - in early childhood, and give us most important discoveries - concerning child-life, as to foundation and result and surest - guides for the early correct treatment of the child.”--_P., p. - 27._ - -Mr. McDougall notes “at least three distinct classes” of imitative -actions. The first class consists of expressive actions, secondary to -the sympathetic induction of the emotions they express, as when a child -responds to a smile with a smile, and here we remember how Froebel notes -the child’s first smile to his mother as the earliest sign of what he -calls “the feeling of community.” The third class is the deliberate and -voluntary imitation of an admired person, which does not concern us here. -The second class are “simple ideo-motor actions evoked by the visual -presentation of a movement,” and as a parallel to this we have Froebel’s -“working of the inner activity wakened by the sight of outer activity.” - - “The smallest child moves joyfully, springs gaily, hops up and - down, or beats with his arms when he sees a moving object. This - is certainly not merely delight in the movement of the object - before him, but _it is the working of inner activity wakened in - him by the sight of outer activity_. Through such vision the - inner life has been freed.…”--_P., pp. 239-40._ - -A point to which exception may well be taken is that in the infant -Froebel notes what he seems to regard as a fundamental tendency, the -impulse or instinct of activity, or as he frequently puts it, the impulse -to busy oneself, which, however, soon differentiates into two more -specific tendencies, viz. the impulse to investigate and the constructive -impulse. - - “What formerly the child did only for the sake of activity, - the boy now does for the sake of the result or product of his - activity. The child’s impulse to activity (Thätigkeitstrieb) - has in the boy become a constructive, a formative impulse - (Bildungs-Gestaltungstriebe), in which the whole outer life of - the boy finds at this stage its outlet.”--_E., p. 99._ - -It may be worth mentioning that Groos would like to assume a “universal -impulse to activity,” and though he “can only hold fast to the primal -need for activity,” yet according to him Ribot approaches this -assumption.--(“The Play of Man,” _p. 3_). - -Even in the infant, however, this instinct or impulse to activity is -devoted to “penetrating what is outer,” and the Kindergarten, meant for -children from three to six, is intended to foster the three instincts, -activity, investigation and construction, as well as to cultivate the -social instinct by placing a little child among his equals. Froebel -describes it in his plan as: - - “An Institution for fostering of family life and for shaping - the life of the nation and human life generally, through - cultivating the human instincts of activity, of investigation - (Forschungstrieb), and of construction in the child, as a - member of the family, of the nation, and of humanity.…”--_P., - p. 6._ - -As regards the child, the word Trieb, which is exactly equal to impulse, -seems to be applied only in one other direction, to what we would call -the social instinct, and here again Froebel shows his recognition of the -vagueness and indefiniteness of early consciousness. As he attributes to -the infant the one impulse to activity which differentiates later into -Investigation and Construction, so in the infant he recognizes a “feeling -of community” (Gesammtgefühl), but says that it differentiates later into -something more definite.[33] - - “The development of man constitutes an unbroken whole, steadily - and continuously progressing, gradually ascending. The feeling - of community (Gemeingefühl) awakened in the infant, develops - in the child into impulse, inclination (entwickelt sich in dem - Kinde der Trieb, die Neigung).”--_E., p. 95._ - -Under the important Instinct of Investigation, or the Instinct for -Self-Instruction, Froebel includes a great deal. Many different -activities until recently somewhat carelessly talked of collectively -as “play,” Froebel has separated and explained as the child’s way of -investigating his surroundings. Even “the earliest activity and first -action of the child,” Froebel says, shows “the instinct to self-teaching -and self-instruction.” - -Imitative action or imitative play is always referred to as action which -helps towards understanding of the surroundings. In the “Mother Songs” we -read: - - “Your child will certainly understand all the better if you - make him take a part--though it be only by imitation--in - what grown-up people are doing in their anxiety to maintain - life.…”--_M., p. 141._ - - “I have already said that this little game arose because people - felt that a child’s love of activity, and his striving to get - the use of his limbs, ought to be carried on in such a way - as to lift him at once into the complexity of the life which - surrounds him.… Pray do not disturb them in their ingenious - charming play (saying grace over the dolls’ feast), but rather - avoid noticing it if you cannot identify yourself with its - charm.… For how is your child to cultivate in himself the - feeling of what is holy, if you will not grant that it takes - form for him in all its purity in his innocent games.”--_M., p. - 148._ - - “What man tries to represent he begins to understand.”--_E., p. - 76._ - -Representation, however, may be carried out in many ways, by the use of -material, as well as by bodily action so that the constructive instinct -also subserves that of investigation. - - “To grasp a thing through life and action is much more - developing, cultivating and strengthening than merely to - receive it through the verbal communication of ideas. - Similarly, representation of a thing by material means, in life - and action, united with thought and speech, is more developing - than merely verbal representation of ideas.”--_E., p. 279._ - - “The child must perceive and grasp his own life in an objective - manifestation before he can perceive and grasp it in himself. - This law of development, prescribed by Nature and by the - essential character of the child, must always be respected and - obeyed by the true educator. Its recognition is the aim of my - gifts and games apprehended relatively to the educator.”--_P., - p. 38._ - -Here Froebel has plainly stated the main object of his specially selected -play-material. The ordinary parent not being “the man advanced in -insight,” who “makes clear to himself the purpose of playthings,” Froebel -often saw children supplied with expensive but unsuitable toys, toys -which would not bring the child any nearer his destination, “to have -power and understanding, to become ever more and more self-conscious and -self-determining.” - - “Here, then, we meet as a great imperfection in ordinary - playthings, a disturbing element which slumbers like a viper - under roses, viz. that it is too complex, too much finished. - The child can begin no new thing with it, cannot produce enough - variety by it; his power of creative imagination, his power of - giving outward form to his own idea is thus actually deadened. - When we provide children with too finished playthings, we - deprive them of the incentive to perceive the particular in - the general (_P., p. 122_).… What presents are most prized - by the child? Those which afford him a means of unfolding - his inner life most freely and of shaping it in various - directions.”--_P., p. 142._ - - “The man, advanced in insight, should be as clear as possible - in his own mind about all this before he introduces his - child into the outer world. Even when he gives the child a - plaything, he must make clear to himself its purpose, and the - purpose of playthings and occupation material in general. This - purpose is, to aid the child freely to express what is in - him and to bring the phenomena of the outer world nearer to - him.”--_P., p. 171._ - - “To realize his aims, man, and more particularly the child, - requires material, if it be only a bit of wood or a pebble with - which he makes something or which he makes into something. In - order to lead the child to the handling of material, we gave - him the soft ball, the wooden sphere and cube, etc., discussed - in the chapters on the Kindergarten Gifts. Each of these gifts - incites the child to free spontaneous activity, to independent - movement.”[34]--_P., p. 237._ - -As the child grows older his constructions advance, but still they -connect themselves with investigating: - - “Here he makes a little garden under the hedge; there he - represents the course of the river in his furrow and in his - ditch; there he studies the effects of the fall or pressure of - water upon his little water-wheel.”--_E., p. 105._ - -Investigating naturally leads to exploring, “external objects invite him -who would bring them nearer to move toward them,” and so the child once -he is able to stand begins to travel: - - “When the child makes his first attempts at walking he - frequently tries to go to some particular object. This effort - may have its source in the child’s desire to hold himself - firm and upright by it, but we also observe that it gives him - pleasure to be near the object, to touch it, to feel it, and - perhaps also--a new phase of activity--to be able to move it. - Hence we see the child hops up and down before it and beats - on it with his little hands, in order to assure himself of - the reality of the object, and to notice its qualities.… Each - new phenomenon is a discovery in the child’s small and yet - rich world--e.g. one can go round the chair, one can stand - before, behind, beside it, but one cannot go behind the bench - or the wall. He likes to change his relationship to different - objects, and through these changes he seeks self-recognition - and self-comprehension, as well as recognition of the different - objects which surround him, and recognition of his environment - as a whole. Each little walk is a tour of discovery; each - object is an America--a new world, which he either goes around - to see if it be an island, or whose coast he follows to - discover if it be a continent.”--_P., p. 243._ - -The boy has lost none of this tendency to explore, but he goes further -afield, and it is worth noting that because the boy has a distinct -purpose in view his exploring is distinctly called work. - - “If activity brought joy to the child, work now gives delight - to the boy. Hence the daring and venturesome feats of boyhood; - the explorations of caves and ravines; the climbing of trees - and mountains; the searching of heights and depths; the roaming - through fields and forests.… To climb a new tree means to - the boy the discovery of a new world.… Not less significant - of development is the boy’s inclination (Neigung) to descend - into caves and ravines, to ramble in the shady grove and dark - forest.”--_E., pp. 102-5._ - -Even the baby shows trace of the collecting or acquiring instinct, but to -Froebel this still falls under the head of investigation. The child who -has just learned to walk is: - - “attracted by the bright round smooth pebble, by the quaint - brilliant leaf, by the smooth piece of wood, and he tries to - get hold of these with the help of the newly acquired use of - his limbs. Look at the child that can scarcely keep himself - erect and that can walk only with the greatest care--he sees - a twig, a bit of straw; painfully he secures it.… See the - child laboriously stooping and slowly going forward under the - eaves. The force of the rain has washed out of the sand small, - smooth, bright pebbles, and the ever-observing child gathers - them.”--_E., p. 72._ - -The boy, still only from six to eight years old, keeps up the collecting -habit with more method and with a wider range, and he demands assistance. - - “Not less full of significance, nor less developing, is the - boy’s inclination to descend into caves and ravines, to ramble - in the shady grove and in the dark forest. It is _the effort_ - (_Streben_) to seek and find the new, to see and discover the - hidden, the desire to bring to light and _to appropriate_ that - which lies concealed in darkness and shadow. - - “From these rambles the boy returns with rich treasures of - unknown stones and plants, of animals--worms, beetles, spiders - and lizards, that dwell in darkness and concealment. ‘What - is this? What is its name?’ etc., are the questions to be - answered; and every new word enriches his world and throws - light upon his surroundings. Beware of greeting him with the - exclamation, ‘Fie, throw that down, that is horrid!’ or ‘Drop - that, it will bite you!’ If the child obeys, he drops and - throws away a considerable portion of his power.”--_E., p. 104._ - -This quotation brings us to another mode of investigation, that of asking -questions, which Froebel was not likely to miss. - - “The child, your child, ye fathers, follows you wherever you - go. Do not harshly repel him. Show no impatience about his - ever-recurring questions. Every harshly repelling word crushes - a bud of his tree of life.… Question upon question comes from - the lips of the boy thirsting for knowledge--How? Why? When? - What for? and every satisfactory answer opens to him a new - world.”--_E., p. 86._ - -Professor O’Shea has an interesting section on what he calls “The -Sense of Location,” which he says is “at the bottom of one of the most -interesting and important phenomena of adjustment--the questioning -activity.” So it may be worth while to notice that Froebel, whom the -Professor has dismissed with one slighting reference, has been beforehand -with him here, and has dealt with this same early beginning in one of his -earliest Mother Songs, viz. “It’s all Gone,” where he says to the mother: - - “How can the child understand that anything is “all gone,” yet - he must see sense in it or he will not be satisfied. What he - saw just now is there no longer, what was above is below, what - was there has vanished.”--_M., p. 18._ - -Questioning implies language, but Froebel has no language instinct. He -does, however, call speech immediate (unmittelbar), usually translated -“innate,” and he does say that because others talk to him, the child’s -capacity for speech will develop of necessity and will break forth -spontaneously. - -It is in connection with the child’s earliest investigations that Froebel -brings in the learning to speak. In “The Education of Man,” he notes -how the young child brings all his discoveries, “his treasures,” to the -mother’s lap, and she is warned to give the right kind of help and at the -right time. - - “It is the longing for interpretation that urges the child to - appeal to us, it is the intense desire for this that urges him - to bring his treasures to us and to lay them in our laps. The - child loves all things that enter his small horizon and extend - his little world. To him the least thing is a new discovery; - but it must not come dead into the little world, nor lie dead - therein lest it obscure the small horizon and crush the little - world.”--_E., p. 73._ - -All the help the mother need give at first is to supply names, since as -Froebel says, “the name, as it were, creates the thing for the child.” -Later she must help him to compare and classify. - - “How little is needed from those around the child to aid him - in this tendency (to seek for knowledge). It is only necessary - to name, to put into words what the child does, sees and - finds.”--_E., p. 75._ - - “It is as well while the child is making these first - experiments (at walking about the room) to name the - objects--e.g. There is the chair, the table, etc.… The object - of giving these names is not primarily the development of - the child’s power of speech, but to assist his comprehension - of the object, its parts and its properties by defining his - sense-impressions. By a rich store of such experiences - the capacity for speech develops of necessity, and speech - breaks forth of itself, as it were, through heightened mental - self-activity in accordance with the nature of mind.”--_P., p. - 242._ - -Expression, of course, of which speech is but one form, is to Froebel -all-important. “Speech,” he says, is “required and conditioned by -the attainment to consciousness,” and as self-consciousness is the -characteristic of humanity, so speech is “the first manifestation of -mankind.” In his “Autobiography” Froebel writes: - - “Mankind as a whole, as one great unity, had now become my - quickening thought. I kept this conception continually before - my mind. I sought after proofs of it in my little world within - and in the great world without me; I desired by many a struggle - to win it, and then to set it worthily forth. And thus I was - led back to the first appearance of man upon our earth, and to - the first manifestation of mankind, his speech.”--_A., p. 84._ - -In talking of the mother’s play with an infant he says that she -accompanies every action with words, “even if obliged to confess that -there can be no understanding of the spoken word,” as “the general sense -of hearing is not yet developed, still less the special sense of hearing -words.” Froebel says she is right: - - “for that which will one day develop and which must originate, - begins and must begin when there is as yet only the conditions, - the possibility thereof. Thus it is with the attainment of - the human being to consciousness, and the speech required and - conditioned by consciousness.”--_P., p. 40._ - -Words, says Froebel, first separate the child from the world outside him. - - “Up to this stage (the beginning of speech), the inner being - of man is still an unmembered, undifferentiated unity. With - language, the expression and representation of the internal - begin; with language, organization, or a differentiation with - reference to ends and means sets in.”--_E., p. 50._ - -Both in the earlier “Education of Man,” and in his later writings Froebel -uses the strong expression that “the word creates the thing” for the -child, and in one passage he adds that by language the idea is defined -and retained. - - “This period is pre-eminently the period of the development of - speech. Therefore in all the child did, it was indispensable - that what he did should be clearly designated by words. Every - object, every thing became such, as it were, only through the - word; before it had been named although the child might have - seemed to see it with the outer eyes, it had no existence for - the child. The name, as it were, created the thing for the - child; hence the name and the thing seemed to be one.”--_E., p. - 90._ - - “Through her little rhymes the mother will make clear to the - little one what he has done, and so his accidental productions - will become a point of departure for his self-development. Word - and form are opposite and yet related. Hence the word should - accompany the form as its shadow. In a certain sense, giving - a form a name really creates the form itself. Through the - name, moreover, the form is retained in memory and defined in - thought.”--_P., p. 192._ - -Of very early speech Froebel says that it shows: - - “the peculiarity and requirement of the human mind to render - itself intelligible to clarify itself by communication with - others.”--_P., p. 56._ - -Having investigated his surroundings, near or far, and collected -what seems to him attractive, the child, whether older or younger, -arranges his treasures in some way, and this arrangement implies some -comparison. “Like things must be ranged together and things unlike must -be separated,” says Froebel of the child “scarce able to walk,” who has -collected “the small, smooth, pebbles washed out of the sand by the -rain.” This “arranging objects of each kind singly in a row” is at first -no doubt only a recognition of the like and unlike, but Froebel notes -that it is also one way in which the child may arrive at “the capacity -for counting” by which his sphere of knowledge is again extended. - - “The knowledge of the relations of quantity adds much to a - child’s life.… At first he places together similar objects.… - Who has not had frequent opportunity to observe how the child - arranges the objects of each kind singly in a row. Let the - mother supply the quickening word, saying Apple, apple, apple, - etc. All apples. Pear, pear, pear, etc. All pears.… One pear, - another apple, another apple.… Instead of the indefinite word - “another” the mother subsequently uses the numerals, counting - together with the child, thus: One apple, two apples, three - apples, etc.”--_E., p. 80._ - -To many children, however, counting may come through efforts to draw. I -have seen a child of four-and-a-half, in drawing a man, make a line for -the arm, then lay down her pencil to count her own fingers and then draw -five lines for the man’s hand. Froebel says: - - “The representation of objects by drawing, and the exact - perception conditioned and required by the representation, soon - leads the child quickly to recognize the constantly repeated - association of certain numbers of different objects--e.g. two - eyes and two arms, five fingers, etc. Thus the drawing of the - object leads to the discovery of number.… By the development of - the capacity for counting, the child’s sphere of knowledge, his - world, is again extended.… He was unable to determine relative - quantities, but now he knows that he has two large and three - small pebbles, four white and five yellow flowers,” etc.--_E., - p. 80._ - -Yet another mode of Investigation is that of Experimenting; every normal -child is what Froebel calls “a self-teaching scientist.” - - “The material must be known not only by its name, but by its - qualities and uses.… For this reason the child examines the - object on all sides; for this reason he tears and breaks it; - for this reason he puts it in his mouth and bites it. We - reprove the child for his naughtiness and foolishness; and - yet he is wiser than we who reprove him. An instinct which - the child did not give himself, the instinct which rightly - understood and rightly guided would lead him to know God in his - works, drives him to this.”--_E., p. 73._ - -It may well be through his ceaseless experimenting that the little child -begins to draw, gains what the late Mr. Ebenezer Cooke called “a language -of line,” or as Froebel puts it, notices “linear phenomena, which direct -his attention to the linear properties of surrounding objects.” - - “A child has found a pebble, a fragment of lime or chalk. In - order to determine by experiment its properties, he has rubbed - it on a board near by, and has discovered its property of - imparting colour. See how he delights in the newly discovered - property, how busily he makes use of it! … but soon he begins - to find pleasure in the winding, straight, curved, and other - forms that appear. These linear phenomena direct his attention - to the linear properties of surrounding objects. Now the - head becomes a circle, and now the circular line represents - the head, the elliptical curve connected with it represents - the body; arms and legs appear as straight or broken lines, - and these again represent arms and legs; the fingers he sees - as straight lines meeting in a common point, and lines so - connected are, for the busy child, again hands and fingers; the - eyes he sees as dots, and these again represent eyes; and thus - a new world opens within and without. For what man tries to - represent, that he begins to understand.”--_E., p. 75._ - -I have watched a child go through the process of discovering “linear -phenomena,” just as Froebel describes it, no doubt from his own -observation. A boy of three, having folded a piece of paper for the roof -of a house, was colouring it, by rubbing on red chalk, when he called -out, “Oh! I’m making lines.” The other children went on rubbing, but Phil -made “lines” till the roof was finished. - -But Froebel does not leave unnoticed the fact that the very earliest -“drawing” is an outgrowth of the muscular action to which his instinct -of activity is urged by the stimulus of contact. - - “Would you know how to lead the child in this matter? Watch - him, he will teach you what to do. See! he is tracing the table - by passing his fingers along its edges and outlines as far as - he can reach, he is sketching the object on itself. This is - the first and the safest step by which he becomes aware of the - outlines and forms of objects. In this way he sketches and so - studies the chair, the bench, the window. But soon he advances. - He draws lines across the four-cornered bit of board, across - the leaf of the table, or the seat of the chair, in the dim - anticipation that so he can retain the forms and relations of - the surfaces. Now, already he draws the form diminished. - - “See! there the child has drawn table, chair and bench on a - leaf of the table. Do you not see how he spontaneously trained - himself for this? Objects which he could move, which were in - sight, he laid on the board, and drew their form on the plane - surface, following the boundaries of the objects with his - hands. Soon scissors and boxes, and later leaves and twigs, - even his own hand and the shadows of objects will thus be - copied. - - “Much is developed in the child by this action, more than - it is possible to express--a clear comprehension of form, - the possibility of representing the form separate from the - object, the possibility of retaining the form as such, and - the strengthening and fitting of hand and arm for the free - representation of form.”--_E., p. 77._ - -Here, perhaps, is the right place to introduce what Froebel had to say -about the artistic tendencies of children, since Art, to him, is always -expression. - - “Absolutely nothing can appear, nothing visible and sensible - can come forth, that does not hold within itself the living - spirit; that does not bear upon its surface the imprint of the - living spirit of the being by whom it has been produced, and - to whom it owes its existence. And this is true of the work - of every human being--from the highest artist to the meanest - labourer--as well as of the works of God, which are Nature, the - creation, and all created things.”--_E., p. 153._ - -So, when Froebel comes to speak of art as a subject of the school -curriculum he says: “Here, art will be considered only as the pure -representation of the inner … differentiated according to the material -it uses, whether motion, as such, audible in sound, or visible in lines, -surfaces and colours, or massive”; and he adds: - - “We noticed that even at an earlier stage children have the - desire to draw, but the desire also to express ideas by - modelling and colouring is frequently found at this earlier - stage of childhood, certainly at the very beginning of the - stage of boyhood (from six years old). _This proves that art - and appreciation of art constitute a general capacity or talent - of man_, and should be cared for early, at latest in boyhood. - - “This does not imply that the boy is to devote himself chiefly - to art, and is to become an artist; but that he should be - enabled to understand and appreciate true works of art. At - the same time, a true education will guard him from the error - of claiming to be an artist unless there is in him the true - artistic calling.”--_E., p. 227._ - -In connection with the mother’s instinctive rhythmic crooning and -dandling of the infant, Froebel says: - - “Thus the genuine natural mother cautiously follows in all - directions the slowly developing all-sided life of the - child. Others suppose him to be empty.… Thus those means - of cultivation that lead so simply and naturally to the - development of rhythm are lost.… Nevertheless an early - development of rhythmic movement would prove most wholesome.… - Even very small children, in moments of quiet, and particularly - when going to sleep, will hum little strains of songs they have - heard; and this should be heeded and developed as the first - germ of future growth in melody and song. Undoubtedly this - would soon lead in children to a spontaneity such as is shown - by children in the use of speech.”--_E., p. 71._ - -In the “Mother Songs,” too, Froebel writes: - - “Hence it is so very important to rouse at least the germs - of all this (the perceiving of harmony in sound and form and - colour) early in a human being. If they do not develop and take - shape as independent formations in life, they at least teach - how to understand and recognize those of other people. This is - life-gain enough. It makes a person’s life richer--richer by - the lives of others. And how could our earthly life be long - enough to form our being with equal perfection on all sides. - We can only do it by knowing and respectfully recognizing in - the mirror of the lives of others what we should like to carry - out ourselves. And this is as it should be, for it is by means - of knowledge, regard for and respectful recognition of others, - that the whole of humanity ought to represent the whole of a - God-like harmonious human being.”--_M., p. 162._ - -In what he says of the Interest in Stories, Froebel again seems to -show deeper insight than either Mr. Eby or Professor Kirkpatrick. Mr. -McDougall does not touch upon the subject. It is still the outcome of the -child’s instinctive desire to understand himself and his surroundings. -Froebel says very truly that he can only understand others in proportion -as he understands himself, and can only learn to understand himself, -his own life, by comparing it with that of others. The desire for -stories is “a striving, a longing, a demand of the mind” (ein Streben, -eine Sehnsucht, eine Forderung des Gemüthes). For the little one, the -simplest story of the mother bird feeding her young ones is a help to the -understanding of his own life, makes his own life objective; the mother’s -“effective story will hold up a looking-glass to the child, especially -if it be told at the right time.” For the boy the story does the same -and also answers to his instinctive demand not only to understand the -present, but the past: - - “It is the innermost desire and need of a vigorous, genuine boy - to understand his own life, to get a knowledge of its nature, - its origin and outcome. Only the study of the life of others - can furnish such points of comparison with the life he himself - has experienced. In these the boy, endowed with an active life - of his own, can view the latter as in a mirror and learn to - appreciate its value. This is the chief reason why boys are - so fond of stories, legends and tales; the more so when these - are told as having actually occurred at some time, or as lying - within the reach of probability, for which, however, there are - scarcely any limits for a boy.”--_E., p. 305._ - - “The existence of the present teaches him the existence of the - past. That, which was before he was, he would know; he would - know the reason, the past cause of what now is. Who fails to - remember the keen desire that filled his heart when he beheld - old walls, and towers, ruins, monuments and columns on hill and - the roadside--to hear others give accounts of these things, - their times and causes … thus is developed the desire and - craving for tales, legends, for all kinds of stories, and later - for historical accounts.”--_E., p. 115._ - -Even the fairy story seems to have found its legitimate place under -the same heading, the instinct for investigation. Froebel sees that it -covers for the little child the ground occupied by myth in the primitive -consciousness. It explains the otherwise inexplicable. - - “Even the present in which the boy lives still contains much - that at this period of development he cannot interpret, and yet - would like to interpret; much that seems to him dumb, and which - he would fain have speak; … and thus there is developed in him - the intense desire for fables and fairy tales which impart - language and reason to speechless things--the one within, the - other beyond the limits of human relations. Surely all must - have noticed this if they have given more than superficial - attention to the life of boys at this age. Similarly, they must - have noticed that if the boy’s desire is not gratified by those - around him, he will spontaneously hit upon the invention and - presentation of fairy tales, and either work them out in his - own mind or entertain his companions with them. These fairy - tales and stories will then very clearly reveal to the observer - what is going on in the innermost mind of the boy, though - doubtless the latter may not himself be conscious of it.”--_E., - p. 116._ - - “The child, like the man, would like to learn the significance - of what happens around him. This is the foundation of the Greek - choruses, especially in tragedy. This, too, is the foundation - of very many productions in the realms of legends and fairy - tales, and is indeed the cause of many phenomena in actual - history. This is the result of the deeply-rooted consciousness, - the deeply slumbering premonition of being surrounded by that - which is higher and more conscious than ourselves.”--_P., p. - 146._ - -The outcome of the instinct of construction, which is also so closely -connected with the instinct of investigation, is that “sense of -power” which _is_ self-consciousness. Without this there can be no -self-determination, but, says Froebel, “the sense of power must precede -its cultivation.” With this growing personality, too, Froebel connects -what is called the instinct of Acquisition, which begins when the little -child “painfully secures his bit of straw,” and the boy of six to eight -shows “the tendency to appropriate what he finds in the darkness of cave -and forest.” - - “The same tendency that urges the boy to seek knowledge on - the mountain and in the valley, attracts and holds him to - the plain. Here he makes a garden, there he represents the - course of the river, and studies the effect of the presence of - water … here he has dammed up the water to form a pool.… He - is particularly fond of busying himself with clear running - water and with plastic materials. In these the boy who - seeks self-knowledge beholds his soul as in a mirror. These - employments are to him an element of his life, for now, because - of a previously acquired sense of power he seeks to control and - master new material. Everything must submit to his constructive - instinct; there in that heap of earth he digs a cellar and on - it he places a garden and a bench. Boards, branches and poles - must be made into a hut, the deep, fresh snow must be rolled up - to form the walls and ramparts of a fort, and the rough stones - on the hill are heaped together to form a castle.… And thus - each one soon forms for himself his own world; for the feeling - of his own power requires and conditions also the possession - of his own space and his own material belonging exclusively to - him. Whether his kingdom, his province, his estate, as it were, - be a corner of the yard, or of the house, or whether it be the - space of a box, the human being must have at this stage an - external point to which he refers all his activities, and this - is best chosen and provided by himself.”--_E., p. 106._ - -And here, just when he is emphasizing the fast developing consciousness -of self, with its demand for its own space and its own material, Froebel -brings out the strength of the social instinct in boyhood. It is here -that he points out that this effort to construct has a uniting, not a -separating, tendency. Continuous with the last quotation comes: - - “When the space to be filled is extensive, when the province - to be ruled is large, when the whole to be represented is - composed of many parts, then brotherly union of those who are - of one mind is displayed. And when those who are of one mind - meet and put their hearts into the same effort, then either - the work already begun is extended or begun again as a joint - production.”--_E., p. 107._ - -Froebel describes such joint work first in the Keilhau schoolroom--his -own phrase is “education room”--where the younger boys are using building -blocks, sand, sawdust, and moss, which they have brought in from the -forest around and then among the older boys. - - “Down yonder by the brook, how busy are the older boys with - their work! They have made canals with locks, bridges and - seaports, dams and mills, each undisturbed by the others. But - now the water is to be used to carry ships from one level to - another, and now, at every stage, each boy asserts his own - rights while recognizing the rights of others. How can they - settle their difficulties? Only by making agreements, and so, - like States, they bind themselves by strict treaties.”--_E., p. - 111._ - -Of games of physical movement, running, wrestling, etc., Froebel writes: - - “It is the sense of power, the sense of its increase, both as - an individual and as a member of a group, that fills the boy - with joy, in these games.… The boy tries to see himself in his - companions, to weigh and measure himself by them, to find and - know himself by their help. Thus the games directly influence - and educate the boy for life, they awake and cultivate many - civic and moral virtues. Every town should have its common - playground for the boys. Glorious would be the results from - this for the entire community. For at this stage of development - games whenever possible are held in common, thus developing - the sense of community and the laws and requirements of a - community.”--_E., p. 113._ - -Froebel had studied boys to some purpose, and he tells us not, however, -to expect too much in the way of social virtues. Justice, self-control, -honesty, courage and “severe criticism of pleasant indolence” may be -expected, but mutual forbearance and consideration for those who are -weaker or less familiar with the game, though not entirely lacking, are -referred to as “the more delicate blossoms” of the playground. It is here -that he says with wise moderation, “The feeling of power must precede its -cultivation.” - -The social instinct does not suddenly spring into existence in boyhood. -It has its roots in what Froebel calls the Feeling of Community which -unites the child first with the mother, then with father, brothers and -sisters. - - “We cannot deny that there is at present among children and - boys little gentleness, mutual forbearance … indeed, there is - much egotism, unfriendliness and roughness. This is clearly due - not only to the absence of early cultivation of the feeling of - community, but this sympathy between parents and children is - too often disturbed, yes even annihilated.”--_E., p. 119._ - -The sympathy of the little child ought to be trained and is trained by -the wise mother always through action. - - “Mother love seeks to awaken and to interpret the feeling - of community, which is so important, between the child and - the father, brother and sister, saying while she draws the - child’s little hand caressingly across the face of the father - or of the little sister, ‘Love the dear father--the little - sister.’”--_E., p. 69._ - -In the Finger Play called “The Nest,” Froebel tells the mother: - - “The way lies through our imaginative, tender and emotional - observation of Nature and of man’s life, through the child’s - taking their meaning into his own heart and expressing by - representation what he thus takes in.… The child’s sympathy - is roused by the young creatures’ necessities more than by - anything, and chiefly by their nakedness and softness.”--_M., - p. 149._ - -And the action which fosters the growth of sympathy is not to be merely -representative; The Garden Song has this motto: - - “If your child’s to love and cherish Life that needs him - day-by-day, Give him things to tend that perish If he ever - stays away.”--_M., p. 84._ - -It is because “the desire for unity is the basis of all true human -development” that the child is to be encouraged to help in the work he -sees going on around him. - - “Family, family--let us say it openly and plainly--you are more - than School and Church, and therefore more than all else that - necessity may have called into being for the protection of - right and property … without you, what are Altar and Church?… - Therefore, Mother, in the little finger game, teach your - child some notion of the nature of a whole, especially of a - family-whole.”--_M., p. 159._ - - “We have not yet touched nor even considered an important side - of child-life, the side of association with father and mother - in their domestic duties, in the duties of their calling.… - (_E., p. 84_). Do not let the urgency of your business tempt - you to say, ‘Go away, you only hinder me.’ … After a third - rebuff of this kind scarcely any child will again propose to - help and share the work.”--_E., p. 99._ - -It is an essential part of the Kindergarten to consider the child as a -member of the human family. It is described in one place as: - - “An establishment for training quite young children, in their - first stage of intellectual development, where their training - and instruction shall be based upon their own free action - or spontaneity, acting under proper rules … such rules as - are in fact discovered by the actual observation of children - when associated in companies. (_L., p. 251_).… Practice in - combined games for many children, which will train the child, - by his very nature eager for companionship, in the habit of - association with comrades, that is, in good fellowship and all - that this implies.”--_L., p. 252._ - -Among his Group Instincts Mr. Kirkpatrick mentions the Love of -Approbation, and this receives special attention from Froebel at a -surprisingly early stage. It is in the “Mother Songs,” in connection with -his adaptation of an old German nursery rhyme about knights who come to -visit “a good child,” that Froebel tells the mother that: - - “A new life stage has begun, and you, dear Mother, must use - your best and most watchful care, when first the child listens - to a stranger.” - -In the same connection he writes: - - “The child must be roused to good by inclination, love and - respect, _through the opinion of others around him_, and all - this must be strengthened and developed.… When, therefore, - Mother, observation as to the judgment of others awakes in your - child--when, separating himself and on the watch _he brings - himself before the judgment of others_, then you really have a - double task to perform.…”--_M., p. 190._ - -The Love of Approbation cannot be separated from what Mr. Kirkpatrick -calls the Regulative, i.e. the Moral and Religious Instincts, for it is -both social and regulative, and in the social instincts Froebel sees the -foundation of the religious instincts or tendencies, to which we shall -come presently. But he also notes a “sense of order,” as Mr. Sully does -in his delightful “Studies of Childhood,” and this he traces back to very -early beginnings, connecting it with the tendency towards rhythm. - - “That disorder and rough wilfulness may never enter the games, - it is a good plan wherever it is possible to accompany each - change in the play by rhyme and song; so that the latent sense - of rhythm and song, _and above all the sense of order in the - human being and child_, may be aroused and strengthened to an - impulse for social cooperation.”--_P., p. 267._ - -One of the earliest Mother Plays, “Tic-tac,” deals with rhythmic -movement, and in “The Education of Man” Froebel takes the beginning -of “conscious control” still further back. His ideal mother fosters -“all-sided life,” that is, she fosters the cognitive, emotional and -conative, the first by calling the child’s attention to his own body and -his immediate surroundings, and the second by “seeking to awaken and to -interpret the feeling of community between the child and the father, -brother and sister,” and Froebel goes on: - - “In addition to the sense of community as such, the germ of - so much glorious development, the mother’s love seeks also - through movements to lead the child to feel his own inner - life. By regular rhythmic movements--and this is of special - importance--she brings this life within the child’s conscious - control when she dandles him up and down on her hand or arm in - rhythmic movements and to rhythmic sounds. Thus the genuine - natural mother cautiously follows in all directions the slowly - developing all-sided life in the child, strengthening and - arousing to ever greater activity, and developing the all-sided - life within. Others suppose the child to be empty and wish to - inoculate him with life, and thus make him as empty as they - think him to be.”--_E., p. 69._ - -It is surprising to find that Froebel, writing so early, has nothing -at all resembling any special “moral faculty.” His references to -“Conscience” are decidedly interesting, though given in quaint connection -with games and rhymes for mere babes. He asks why the “Where’s Baby?” -game gives such delight, and shows his psychological insight in the -answer he finds, viz. that it is the feeling or recognition of self, of -personality, which gives such joy. - - “Why, now, is my child so happy over the hiding game? It is the - feeling of Personality which already so delights the child, it - is the feeling of recognition of his own self.”[35] - -The game which follows this repeats the hiding experience, but this time -with the cry of “cuckoo,” from some one unseen, and this is likened to -the conscience call, which is described as “consciousness of union in -separation and of separateness, that is personality, in union.”--_M., p. -98._ - - “In ‘Where’s Baby Been?’ parting and union seem more separate, - as though in order that each may become more and more clearly - conscious of itself; in ‘Cuckoo,’ parting and union are, as - it were, joined. It is parting in union and union in parting - that makes ‘Cuckoo’ such a peculiar game and so delightful - to a child. But consciousness of union in separation, and - of separateness--that is personality--in union, is also the - essence, the deep foundation of conscience.”--_M., p. 197._ - -Mr. Kirkpatrick’s second Regulative instinct or tendency is that of -Religion, but Froebel again, like Mr. McDougall, finds that Religion has -its roots in an instinct “not specifically religious,”[36] viz. in the -Social Instinct. He says this in “The Education of Man” in the plainest -of terms. - - “This feeling of Community first uniting the child with - father, mother, brothers and sisters, and resting on a higher - spiritual unity, to which later on is added the discovery that - father, mother, brothers and sisters, human beings in general, - feel and know themselves to be in community and unity with a - higher principle--with humanity, with God--this is the very - first germ, the very first beginning of all true religious - spirit, of all genuine yearning for unhindered unification with - the Eternal, with God.”--_E., p. 25._ - -It seems quite in accordance with this that Froebel should write that he -likes better the German word _Gott-einigkeit_--union with God--than the -foreign word religion; and also that he should speak of “developing the -sense of kinship with man in every child, and the sense of kinship with -God in every man.” So, in his “Mother Songs,” he tells the mother to give -her child duties to perform, that so he may “feel his kinship” with her: - - “Every age, even the age of childhood, has something to cherish - that is plain, and from doing so no exemption can be procured; - it has therefore its duties. Happy is it for a child if he - be led to deal with them adequately, and for the present - unconsciously. Duties are not burdens.… Fulfilment of duty - strengthens body and mind, and the consciousness of duty done - gives independence; even a child feels this. See, Mother, how - happy your child is in feeling he has done his small duties. He - already feels his kinship with you thereby.”--_M., p. 174._ - -There is never a separation between Morality and Religion: - - “Religion without industry, without work, is liable to be lost - in empty dreams, worthless visions, idle fancies. Similarly, - work or industry without religion degrades man into a beast - of burden, a machine. Work and religion must be simultaneous; - for God, the Eternal has been creating from all eternity.… - Where religion, industry and self-control, the truly undivided - trinity rule, there indeed is heaven upon earth.”--_E., p. 35._ - -There is only one other instinct mentioned by Froebel, and that is the -parental, or, rather, the maternal instinct. He is eager that this -should be recognized as an instinct, but he is equally eager that, like -other human instincts, its action should be determined by intelligence. -In describing the “Plan” for his Kindergarten, Froebel pleads for more -careful observation of the child and his relationships, and says that -“thereby”: - - “Deeper insight will be gained into the meaning and importance - of the child’s actions and outward manifestations and - also into the way of dealing with children which has been - evolved naturally by the mother led by her pure maternal - instinct.”--_L., p. 248._ - -As to the early beginnings of the instinct in the little girl we can find -just a few references, sufficient to show that it did not pass unnoticed, -and it seems here legitimate to say that “the girl anticipates her -destiny,” as Froebel does in speaking of doll-play, though certainly this -does not cover all such play: - - “The joy of the child in its doll has a far deeper human - foundation than is generally supposed--a foundation by no - means resting merely in the external resemblance … the girl - anticipates her destiny--to foster Nature and life.”--_P., p. - 93._ - -The boy’s destiny is “to penetrate and rule Nature,” so in the “Mother -Songs” Froebel describes how the boy is “cowering that no sign of life -in the chicken family may escape him, while the girl starts up, _all her -care of things stirred_, in order to beckon or call the hen or cock not -to forget their chickens.”--_M., p. 143._ - -In all his writings, Froebel refers to how much he has learned from -mothers: “It was in watching your clever mother-doings that I learnt.” -But, as he says of himself, it was “a necessary part of me to be -irresistibly driven to search out the ultimate or primary cause of every -fact of life,” and so he writes: - - “The natural mother does all this instinctively without - instruction or direction; but this is not enough: it is needful - that she should do it consciously, as a conscious being - acting upon another which is growing into consciousness, and - consciously tending toward the continuous development of the - human being.”--_E., p. 64._ - - “Motherly and womanly instinct does much of its own accord; but - it often makes mistakes.”--_L., p. 63._ - - “Women’s work in education must be based not upon natural - instinct, so often perverted or misunderstood, but upon - intelligent knowledge.… Some mothers level the taunt at me that - I, a man, understanding nothing of a mother’s instinct, should - dare to presume to instruct mothers in their dealings with - their own children.… How could such a thought enter my head - as to attempt anything against the course of Nature? My whole - strength is exerted on the contrary, to the work of getting the - natural instinct and its tendencies more rightly understood, - and more acknowledged; so that women may follow its leadings - as truly as possible aided by the higher light of intelligent - comprehension, and yet at the same time in all freedom, and - with complete individuality.”--_L., p. 259._ - -So, in what he says of this last instinct, Froebel is faithful to what he -has said of all human instincts. - - “Man shall assuredly not neglect his natural instincts, still - less abandon them, but he must ennoble them through his - intelligence and purify them through his reason.” - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -PLAY AND ITS RELATION TO WORK - - -To write even a small book on Froebel without directly touching on the -subject of play would be impossible, though in dealing with instincts and -the carrying out of natural activities we have necessarily considered -much that comes under this heading. - -On the educative value of play, Froebel is recognizedly original, and -his views have influenced and are influencing schools for young children -in most civilized countries. Indeed, it would be difficult to show that -modern writers on play, in spite of the scientific thoroughness of their -investigations, classifications and terminology, have made much advance -upon Froebel’s theories. Rather do they tend to show how remarkable was -his insight, and how surprisingly well grounded his theories. - -Nothing, however, has yet been said as to the relation of play to work, -no direct definition has yet been given, nor has any reference been made -to the now familiar theories of play. - -In Froebel’s day, these, as clearly formulated theories, were -non-existent. His work was that of a pioneer, and his theory might -have been called that of “Preparation through Recapitulation.” He -would, however, have allowed that play is sometimes, though not always, -recreative, and he makes clear the necessity for what he calls “healthy -vital energy” (gesunden Lebensmuthe), but he would never have called -this mere “surplus energy,” because he thought it was not more than was -required: - - “The genuine schoolboy should be full of life and spirit, - strong in body and mind.… Would that, in judging the power of - children and boys, we might never forget the words of one of - our greatest German writers: that there is a greater advance - from the infant to the speaking child than there is from the - schoolboy to a Newton! Now, if the advance is greater, the - power, too, must be greater; this we should consider.”--_E., p. - 134._ - -Ebers, the Egyptologist, tells us that when he was a boy at Keilhau full -provision was made for this abounding energy. We read of walks long and -short, of botanizing and geologizing rambles, of climbing trees and -cliffs for birds’ eggs, of which only one might be taken from a nest. -We hear of Indian games out of Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales, -of classic and other dramas on winter evenings, and of Homeric battles, -which Froebel, he says, would have called “signs of creative imagination -and individual life.” There was swimming and skating and coasting and -“the spacious wrestling ground with the shooting stand and the gymnasium -for every spare moment of the winter”; and a piece of ground “assigned -to each pupil, where he could wield spade and pickaxe, roll stones, sow -and reap.” But the great game was the Bergwacht, where the boys, divided -into four parties that all might be active, actually constructed, and -then attacked and defended stone fortresses. “How quickly,” says Ebers, -“we learned to use the plummet, to take levels, hew the stone and wield -the axe.” The weapons were blunted stakes. It was forbidden to touch the -head, but it was a point of honour among the boys to yield as prisoner if -touched by the pole, “and what self-denial it required!” These combats -were held on fine Saturday evenings, and when all was over “the women,” -probably the girls of the school community, had lighted fires and made -supper ready, and the lads slept in their fortresses while two sentinels -marched up and down, relieved every half-hour. On the Sunday following -the boys were not required to go to church, “where we should merely have -gone to sleep.” - -It has frequently been brought as an accusation against Froebel that -he makes no clear cut distinction between work and play, and that is -true, but who nowadays does? Common sense would probably join hands -with the philosopher in saying that the feeling of freedom is the chief -distinction of play as opposed to work, and this is the definition quite -distinctly given by Froebel. The definition is given in his detailed -enumeration of “the various directions of an active life of instruction -and education,” and after mentioning religious training, cultivation of -the body as the means of expressing mind, the study of Nature, etc., -etc., he comes to: - - “Play, that is, spontaneous representation and exercise of - every kind.”--_E., p. 236._ - -Another definition given in “The First Action of a Child” is: - - “Play, which is independent outward expression of what is - within.”--_P., p. 29._ - -It is because it is spontaneous that Froebel calls play, during the -period of earliest childhood, when the child is gaining control of -language, “the highest phase of human development at this stage.” - - “Play and speaking form the element in which the child lives - at this time.… Play is the highest stage of child-development, - of human development at this stage, because it is spontaneous - (freithätige) representation of the inner, representation of - the inner out of the need and desire of the inner itself. This - is implied in the very word Play.”--_E., p. 34._ - -For modern views on play we turn to the exhaustive study made by Karl -Groos in his two volumes, “The Play of Animals,” and “The Play of Man.” -Here we find the writer taking “the conception of impulse life as a -starting-point,” and reaching the conclusion “that among higher animals -certain instincts are present which, especially in youth, but also in -maturity, produce activity that is without serious intent, and so give -rise to the various phenomena which we include in the word ‘play.’” In -this play, Groos goes on, “opportunity is given to the animal through -the exercise of inborn dispositions, to strengthen and increase his -inheritance in the acquisition of adaptations to his complicated -environment, an achievement which would be unattainable by mere -mechanical instinct alone.” In the treatment of human play he considers -“an analogous position is tenable,” but, for the word instinct, with its -particular reactions, he must substitute “natural or hereditary impulse.” - -We have already seen that though Froebel recognized the existence -and importance of human instinct, still he distinguished between it -and the “definite and strong instincts” which belong to the animals -lower than man. We have seen that he regarded the play of childhood as -“spontaneous self-instruction” based on the instincts of investigation -and of construction or representation, action being regarded as the -principal means of investigating, as well as of gaining control over -the surroundings and over the self. We have noticed, too, that Groos -feels inclined to assume a universal “impulse to activity,” and points -out that Ribot approaches such an assumption, though for himself he can -only venture to “hold fast to the fact of the primal need for activity.” -Froebel does, as we have seen, attribute to the infant the one instinct -of activity, which in one place he calls “the natural longing for some -mode of activity inherent in all children,” and this he says becomes -differentiated at a later period. - -The special place given by Groos to imitation as “the link between -instinctive and intelligent conduct” is also noteworthy. For we have -seen that Froebel regards imitation in precisely the same light, never -calling it an instinct, but saying that it is the outcome of spontaneous -activity, and that it leads on to understanding. - - “For what man tries to represent or do he begins to - understand.”--_E., p. 76._ - - “As now, habit in the child proceeds from spontaneous and - independent activity, so also does imitation; … the whole - inner life of the child shows itself as a tri-unity in the - three-#fold phenomenon of spontaneous activity, habit and - imitation.”--_P., p. 28._ - -It is impossible to make plain how Froebel regarded play, until it is -known how he regarded work, work, too, not only for a child but for a -human being. What he desired for all was work which produces joy; he -calls it “a debasing illusion that man works, produces, creates, only in -order to preserve his body, only to secure food, clothing and shelter.” -Man, he says, works “primarily and in truth that his real essence may -assume outward form,” and one of his sayings is that “the true spirit of -life is the genuine spirit of play.” In an ideal state of affairs, no -human being would be condemned to entirely mechanical work. Work “worthy -of the nature of man” is to Froebel work which in some way expresses -the man; mechanical work is dismissed as “degrading man into a beast of -burden or a machine.” It is because man is of God that he must work, must -produce. “Nearer we hold of God who gives, than of his tribes who take, I -must believe,” is Froebel’s thought in Browning’s words: - - “Each thought of God is a work, an act, a result.… God created - man in His own image. Therefore man must create and work - like God. Man’s spirit must hover over the unformed and move - it that figure and form may come forth. This is the higher - meaning, the deep significance, the great purpose of work and - industry, of working, and, as it is truly significantly called, - of creating. We become like God by diligence and industry, by - work and action, which are accompanied by the clear perception - or even the least anticipation that thereby we represent the - inner by the outer; that we give body to spirit and form to - thought, make visible the invisible, give an outward transient - existence to the eternal that lives in the spirit.… Early work, - guided in accordance with its inner meaning, confirms and - elevates religion. Religion without work is apt to become empty - dreaming.”--_E., p. 30._ - - “The boy is to take up his future work which now has become his - calling, not indolently in sullen gloom, but cheerfully and - joyously, trusting God, himself and Nature, rejoicing in the - manifold prosperity of his work.… Nor will the father say that - his son must take up his own business … he will see that every - business may be ennobled and made worthy of man.”--_E., p. 233._ - -It is too cheap a jibe to throw at Froebel and his educational theories -that he makes little distinction between work and play. It ought never -to come from any one who has made even a slight study of psychology. -The sting is meant to lie in the suggestion that play is trifling and -easy and that it requires no exertion, while work is serious and demands -concentrated effort, but this view will not bear any consideration. Every -one knows that the play even of an adult, where the differentiation -between work and play ought to be more possible, is often most -exhausting, either to body or to mind. As to the play of childhood, one -of the best known passages in “The Education of Man” is the one in which -Froebel protests that: - - “Play at this time is not trivial, it is highly serious and of - deep significance.”--_E., p. 55._ - -It is in this passage, too, that he speaks of the child “wholly absorbed -in play,” who after “playing enduringly even to the point of fatigue” has -fallen asleep “while so absorbed,” and calls this “the most beautiful -expression of child-life at this stage.” - -It is Froebel’s glory that as early as 1826 he had applied the theory of -development to education and, rightly or wrongly, he believed that if we -could but supply to our school children material suited to their needs -according to their stage of development, they would respond with the same -eagerness that the younger child shows in what we call his play, but what -Froebel called his “self-culture and self-education.” He states this -view quite distinctly: - - “We have considered the object and aim of human life in - general.… It now remains to show in what sequence and - connection the life impulses of the boy develop at this stage, - how and in what order and form, the school should work in order - to satisfy human instincts in general, and especially the - instincts of the boy at this stage of school-life. - - “From a consideration of _the means of instruction and manner - of teaching thereby conditioned, which necessarily coincide - with the striving of man toward development_, what is necessary - for the knowledge of number, of space, of form, of exercises - in speech, of writing and of reading comes out clearly and - definitely.”--_E., p. 229._ - -The view that “the material of instruction and the manner of teaching” -are necessarily conditioned by the child’s stage of development is a -view that has rapidly gained ground. Froebel did his best to apply it, -and it had a partial application in the “culture epochs” theory of the -Herbartians. It has received a stronger impetus into what seems at -present a much truer direction, from the experimental work carried out at -Chicago, under the auspices of Professor Dewey. Froebel maintained that -it was a condition of satisfactory work in every subject. For example, in -connection with the teaching of writing he says: - - “Here, as in all instruction, we should start from a definite - need of the boy, a need, which must, to a certain extent, - have been previously developed, if he is to be taught with - profit and success. This is the source of a multitude of - imperfections in our schools, that we teach without having - awakened any need for it, nay even after having repressed what - need was already there! How can instruction and the school - prosper?”--_E., p. 223._ - -Froebel speaks in the same way of work in colours, saying “children feel -the need of a knowledge of colours.” Of poetry in general, including -religious verses and prayers, he says “these must be given according to -the requirements of the development of the child’s mind, and must give -expression to what is already there.” - -Returning now to the subject of play as such, we find that Groos retains -as “general psychological criteria of play,” but two “of the elements -popularly regarded as essential--namely, its pleasurableness, and the -actual severance from life’s serious aims.” Of these he says: “Both are -included in activity performed for its own sake.” - -It is in connection with very young children that Froebel speaks of -activity for its own sake, and here he does not differentiate between -work and play. He is true to his theory that in all things capable -of development, “what is definite proceeds everywhere from what is -indefinite.” So he says that: - - “Play is at first just natural life.”--_E., p. 54._ - -He maintains that: - - “The activity of the senses and limbs is the first germ or bud, - and play, building and shaping (Gestalten) the first tender - blossoms of the formative instinct, and that this is the point - of time, at which man is to be prepared for future industry, - diligence, and productive activity.”--_E., p. 34._ - -But, in the case of the boy a little older, though still only seven or -eight, Froebel does distinctly differentiate, giving the definition of -play already quoted, “spontaneous expression and practice of every kind,” -and saying of work, that: - - “Boys of this age should have definite domestic occupations, - indeed they could be actually instructed by mechanics and - farmers as has already been done by many a father with active - natural insight. Boys of a somewhat advanced age should be - often placed in a position to accomplish something with their - own hands and their own judgment … should devote daily at - least one or two hours to an occupation with outward results - … after such a refreshing _work bath_, I cannot better - designate it, the mind goes with new life to its intellectual - employments.”--_E., p. 236._ - -Of the infant, Froebel writes: - - “At this stage of development the man-to-be (dem erschienenen - werdenden Menschen) _uses his body, his senses, his limbs, - entirely for that use, practice and exercise, not at all for - its results_, to which he is quite indifferent, or, to speak - more correctly, of which he has as yet no idea. Out of this - comes what begins at this stage, the child’s play with his - limbs; with his hands, fingers, lips, tongue and feet, and also - with the movements of his eyes and of his face.”--_E., p. 48._ - -Of the older child Froebel very distinctly insists that he wants more -than the activity, that he wants outward result. But the result of which -he speaks is one which Groos himself would not disallow. It is only the -outward product of the impulse which has been gratified, a result which -is present to the mind of the older child, while to the infant no such -consciousness is possible. - - “What at an earlier stage of childhood was action for the - sake of the activity, is now, in the boy, activity for the - sake of the visible result; the child’s instinct of activity - has developed into an instinct for shaping or giving form, - and herein lies the solution of the whole outer life or outer - manifestation of boy life at this stage.”--_E., p. 99._ - -Inquiring into the kind of pleasure derived from play, Groos finds that -it rests primarily on the satisfaction of inborn impulses, which press -for discharge, and he gives three special “inborn necessities which -ground our pleasure in play--namely, the exercise of attention, the -demand to be an efficient cause, and imagination.” - -As to attention, he suggests that it lends a meaning to the vague idea -of a general need for activity, speaking of “the pitiable condition of -boredom” if opportunity is withheld. - -Froebel, of course, has much to say about the instinct of activity, -or, as he usually calls it in “The First Action of a Child,” the -instinct of employment (Beschäftigungstrieb), which is noticeable “even -when the so-called three months’ slumber has just ended.” He, too, -frequently refers to “the ennui and pernicious lack of occupation,” -to the “mischievous idleness which results from our not satisfying or -misdirecting the natural longing for activity inherent in all children.” -It is because Froebel’s thoughts always run on conscious revelation of -the self within as the explanation of human life, that he makes so much -of “the child’s instinct to employ itself” (Triebe des Kindes, sich zu -beschäftigen). This also explains how so much that he says corresponds -with what Groos brings forward with regard to “the joy in being a cause,” -and its modifications. These modifications are (_a_) pleasure in the mere -possession of power, (_b_) emulation, when a model is copied, and (_c_) -in the case of imitative competition there is pleasure in surpassing -others as well as the enjoyment of success resulting from that pleasure -of overcoming difficulties which comes under the combative instinct. - -Froebel is warning parents that they must provide for their children -opportunity for the exercise of the impulse to formative activity by -letting them help, even if their help is really a hindrance, and he says: - - “If his earlier activity was only imitation of what he saw - around him, now it is sharing in the business of the house, - lifting, pulling, carrying, digging, and wood-splitting. In - everything the boy will exercise, measure and compare his - strength that his body may grow stronger, _that his power may - increase, and that he may know its measure_.… At this age the - healthy boy, brought up simply and naturally, never avoids a - difficulty, never goes round a hindrance: no, he seeks it out - and overcomes it. ‘Let it lie,’ calls the vigorous youngster - to the father, who offers to remove an obstacle; ‘Let it lie: - I can get over it.’ … As activity gave pleasure to the child, - so work gives pleasure to the boy. Hence the daring feats of - boyhood.… Easy is the most difficult, without peril the most - adventurous, for the impulse comes from the innermost nature, - from his heart and will.”--_E., p. 101._ - - “But it is not only the impulse to use and to measure his - power that urges the boy to roam and to climb--it is the need - to widen his mental horizon.… The same desire holds him to - the plain … he occupies himself with water and with plastic - materials. For he seeks now _because of the feeling of power - over material already gained_ to master these. Everything - must serve his impulse towards construction.… And so each - forms for himself his own world, _for the feeling of his own - power demands his own space and his own material_.…”--_E., pp. - 102-107._ - - “But all the plays and occupations of boys do not by any means - aim at representing objects and things. On the contrary, _in - many pure exercise of strength and measuring of strength - predominate_, and many have no further aim than the display - of strength. Yet the play of this age has always its peculiar - characteristic, namely, as during the period of childhood, - the aim of play consisted simply in activity as such, so - now its aim is always a definite conscious purpose, which - characteristic develops more and more as the boys increase in - age. This is observable even with all games of bodily movement, - of running, boxing, wrestling, with ball-games, goal, hunting, - and war games, etc.” - - “_It is the sense of sure and reliable power, the sense of its - increase_ both as an individual and as a member of the group - _that fills the boy with all-pervading jubilant joy_ during - these games.”--_E., p. 113._ - -It is evidently difficult even for practised thinkers to grasp the -importance of what we so glibly call play in the case of the young child. -Mr. Kirkpatrick, for instance, fully recognizes its importance in regard -to children somewhat older, and he makes a suggestive distinction between -play and amusement, calling play active, while amusement is passive. -Others, he says, work for our amusement. But when he speaks of the -infant, he slips into the mistake of saying that the infant, even though -active, “amuses” itself. To the ordinary observer the whole life of a -young child is play, but it would be as correct to say that it is all -work. - -Professor Stout, true to what he calls the tendency of the moderns to -see in the little child what is writ large in the adult, allows “purely -intellectual curiosity” on the part of the infant. We have no right to -call an infant passive and therefore amused even when the mother shakes -the rattle for his edification. He may be striving hard to accommodate -his organs of sight, he may be recalling previous sounds similar and -dissimilar, he may be watching and comparing different movements and -different positions. He has so much to learn “with the world so new and -all,” and, to judge from his seriousness, it is at times a most momentous -inquiry. The baby to whom the activity of throwing is new, and who -spends full twenty minutes in throwing a tram ticket on the floor of the -car--which the patient mother restores each time--throwing, too, with -such force and evident purpose, cannot properly be said to be playing. -Nor can the infant who stares with such concentration at the lighted lamp -and who, when the mother moves out of the direct range of the light, -strives with all its feeble strength to readjust its position to that -entrancing brightness. - -Of the very young child, Froebel writes: - - “The first voluntary employments of the child are observation - of its surroundings, spontaneous taking in of the outer world, - and play, which is independent outward expression … it is - evident therefore how important is the training … and also - the kind of voluntary playful occupation of the child.… For as - the life of man is continuous one can recognize even in the - first baby life, though only in the slightest traces and most - delicate germs, all the mental activities which in later life - become predominant.”--_P., p. 29._ - -When Groos reaches the pedagogical standpoint, he says: - -“We have repeatedly found in the course of this inquiry that even the -most serious work may include a certain playfulness, especially when -enjoyment of being a cause and of conquest are prominent. Between -flippant trifling, and conscientious study there is a wide chasm which -nothing can bridge, but not all play is such trifling. Who would forbid -the teacher’s making the effort to induce in his pupils a psychological -condition like that of the adult worker, who is not oppressed by the -_shall_ and _must_ in the pursuit of his calling, because the very -exertion of his physical and mental powers in work, involving all his -capabilities, fills his soul with joy? Since play thus approaches work, -when pleasure in the activity as such, as well as its practical aim, -becomes a motive power (as in the gymnastic games of adults), so may work -become like play, when its real aim is superseded by enjoyment of the -activity itself. And it can hardly be doubted that this is the highest -and noblest form of work.”[37] - -It is beyond dispute that this is the kind of work that Froebel desired -for all humanity, so it is not surprising if he drew no hard and fast -line between work and the “_play_” which he insists “_is not trivial_,” -and which he urges parents to protect and guide. Of play at the stage of -boyhood he writes: - - “Joy is the soul of every activity at this period.”--_E., p. - 304._ - -And in reference to the right kind of instruction he says: - - “The union of school and life is the first and indispensable - requirement … if men are ever to free themselves from the - oppressive burden and emptiness of merely extraneously - communicated knowledge, heaped up in memory, if they would ever - rise to the joy and vigour of a knowledge of the real nature - of things, to a living knowledge of things.… Mankind is meant - to enjoy a degree of knowledge and insight, of energy and - efficiency, of which at present we have no conception; for who - has measured the limits of God-born mankind! The boy is to take - up his work which has now become his calling, not indolently in - sullen gloom, but cheerfully and joyously.”--_E., pp. 230-233._ - -One distinct line of division is that drawn by Groos when he says that -with young animals and probably with children “their first manifestation -of what is afterwards experimentation, fighting and imitative play, etc., -is rarely conscious, and therefore we cannot assert with assurance that -it is pleasurable.”[38] In this case he says the biological but not the -psychological germ of play is present. Froebel never lost sight of the -psychological point of view in so far as his desire always was to see -what the action meant to the actor, what the child’s play meant to the -child, and also in that he desired all the activity to be joyous, to be -performed for its own sake. But it was really the biological view that -he endeavoured to reach and to set forth. - -Coming now to the Theories of Play, it seems clear that, if he had -ever heard of them, Froebel would have endeavoured to combine those of -Recapitulation and Preparation. He states quite plainly that these are -not incompatible, recognizing that in any work or play, by which the -child retraces past stages of human development, he gains what is most -necessary for his own future life, control over his surroundings as well -as over himself, something after the manner in which these have been -gained by the race. - - “The observation of the development of individual man and its - comparison with the general development of the human race - show plainly that, in the development of the inner life of - the individual man, the history of the mental development of - the race is repeated, and that the race in its totality may - be viewed as one human being, in whom there will be found the - necessary steps in the development of individual man.”--_E., p. - 160._ - - “Indeed each successive generation and each successive - individual human being, inasmuch as he would understand the - past and present, must pass through all preceding phases of - human development and culture, and this should not be done in - the way of dead imitation, or mere copying, but in the way of - spontaneous self-activity.”--_E., p. 18._ - - “Man should, at least mentally, repeat the achievements of - mankind, that they may not be to him empty dead masses, that - his judgment of them may not be external and spiritless; he - should mentally go over the ways of mankind, that he may learn - to understand them. However it may be said of this growing - activity of boyhood, which by spirit and law are destined for - a conscious aim, ‘My son does not require this.’ Perhaps you - are right, I do not know, but you do know that your sons need - energy, judgment, perseverance, prudence, etc., and that these - things are indispensable to them; and all these things they are - sure to get in the course indicated.…”--_E., p. 282._ - -It is often said that traditional games are mere survivals, degenerate -imitations of ancient customs, and therefore not worth encouraging. But -children are not bound by tradition, and Froebel is probably right when -he says: - - “It is my firm conviction that whenever you find anything that - gives children lastingly and ever freshly a joy belonging - to a true pure life--anything where innocence and mirth - predominate--you have found something which has at the bottom - of it a higher and more important meaning for a child’s - life.”--_M., p. 172._ - -We cannot always tell why children enjoy the game, or what they gain -from it. Such games are at least the earliest and simplest introduction -to “the rules of the game,” and they contain the elements of choosing -sides and of whispered secrets. These things may seem small to the -ordinary onlooker, but not to the real observer, who sees the amount -of self-control required by a child of four or five, that he may not -proclaim the secret aloud, the difficulty he has in whispering, and the -importance to him of the choice between oranges and lemons or whatever it -may be. There are certainly some which most thinking persons, Froebelian -or otherwise, would wish to discourage. As Froebel himself said of some -that he found in use: - - “I thought some were too empty and silly and some said a great - deal that I would not willingly have said to children. Yet the - counting games themselves seemed to me important in many ways, - as I hope will appear from comparing the way I have dealt with - them, and above all, as the mottoes are meant to point out. I - even wished to keep the sound of the well-known popular words, - at least in the opening words.…”--_M., p. 157._ - -Certainly, Froebel would have had no dealings with either work or -play which would interfere with progressive development, he wanted -recapitulation because he regarded that “great necessary highway” as the -road to sure progress. - - “Only if in each particular we tread again the great necessary - highway of humanity as a whole, does the great and vigorous - early life of humanity come back to us in and through the - children.”--_E., p. 222._ - - “Education must be much more tolerating[39] and following than - predetermining and prescribing, for by the full application of - the latter method of instruction we should entirely lose the - characteristic, the sure and steady progressive development of - mankind.”--_E., p. 10._ - -Some educators who have made much of the “culture epochs” might have -avoided mistakes and exaggerations if they had taken to heart Froebel’s -repeated warning that the child has “living relations” not only with the -past, but with the future, besides being at the same time the child of -the present generation. - - “Parents should view their child in his necessary connection, - in his obvious and living relations to the past, present, - and future development of humanity, in order to bring the - education of the child into harmony with the past, present and - future requirements of the development of humanity and of the - race.… Man, humanity in man, as an external manifestation, - should therefore be looked upon not as perfectly developed, - not as fixed and stationary, but as steadily and progressively - growing, in a state of ever-living development, ever ascending - from one stage of culture to another toward its aim, which - partakes of the infinite and eternal. - - “It is unspeakably pernicious to look upon the development of - humanity as stationary and completed and to see in its present - phases only repetitions and greater generalizations of itself. - For the child, as well as every successive generation, becomes - thereby exclusively imitative, an external dead copy--a cast, - as it were, of the preceding, and not a living ideal of the - stage which it has attained in human development considered - as a whole, to serve future generations in all time to - come.”--_E., p. 17._ - -Underlying all that Froebel has to say of play, is the idea that it is -a preparation for future life activities. This is implied even in the -definition given of the play of the child of three years old, viz. that -it is “spontaneous self-instruction”; it is most evident in the passage: - - “Play, building and modelling are the first tender blossoms, - and this is the period when man is to be prepared for future - industry, diligence and productive activity.”--_E., p. 34._ - - “The whole later life of man has its source in the period of - childhood, be this later life bright or gloomy, gentle or - violent, industrious or lazy, rich or poor in action, passed - in dull stupor or in keen creativeness, in stupid wonder or in - intelligent insight, productive or destructive.”--_E., p. 55._ - -Of his later institution, the Kindergarten, Froebel says: - - “The great end and aim of the whole undertaking is the - Education of Man from its earliest beginning, by means of - action, feeling, and thought, in accordance with his own - inward being and outward relations, … _this to be attained by_ - the right care of child-life, _the encouragement of childish - activities_.”--_L., p. 164._ - - “For the object is twofold: Firstly the realization in as - clear and perfect a manner as possible, of _the fundamental - conception of a mode of education_ based upon the early and - complete training of human life, and _satisfying the needs - of children by a genuine encouragement of their spontaneous - activity_ through the medium of a normal institution which we - have symbolically named a Kindergarten.”--_L., p. 166._ - -About the play of boyhood Froebel says: - - “Play to the boy is a mirror of the combat of life awaiting him - in the future: therefore, in order to strengthen himself for - the combat, the human being both in early and later boyhood - seeks out obstacles, difficulty and combat in his play.… Many - of his actions have an inner significance.… How wholesome it - would be if parents and child, for their present and future, - if parents believed in this, if they would observe the life of - their children in this respect, what a new living bond would - unite parents and child, what a new thread of life would be - drawn between their present and their future life!”--_E., p. - 118._ - -Of his own Keilhau boys he writes: - - “One thing is certain, these plays are the outcome of the - spirit of boyhood. And the boys who played thus were good - scholars, intelligent, and willing to learn, seeing and - expressing clearly, diligent and full of zeal. Some are now - capable young men with well trained heads and hearts, quick - in expedients and dexterous in action; some are capable, - clear-sighted men, and others will become so.”--_E., p. 111._ - -In America at least the authorities are beginning to realize the truth -of Froebel’s words as to the importance of playgrounds, and actual -experiment has shown that he was right in saying that “even the plays -should be under right guidance,” not for purposes of repression, but for -the encouragement of real play which “must necessarily break forth in joy -from within.” - - “Justice, moderation, self-control, truthfulness, loyalty, - brotherly feeling and again, strict impartiality--who, when - he approaches a group of boys engaged in such games, could - fail to catch the fragrance of these delicious blossomings - of the heart and mind and of a firm will; not to mention the - beautiful, though perhaps less fragrant, blossoms of courage, - perseverance, resolution, prudence, together with the severe - elimination of indolent indulgence? Flowers of still more - delicate fragrance bloom … forbearance, consideration, sympathy - and encouragement for the weaker, younger and more delicate; - fairness to those who are as yet unfamiliar with the game. - - “Would that all who, in the education of boys, barely tolerate - playgrounds might consider these things! There are, indeed, - many harsh words and many rude deeds, but the sense of power - must needs precede its cultivation. Keen, clear and penetrating - are the boy’s eyes; keen and decided therefore, even harsh and - severe is his judgment of those who are his equals, or who - claim equality with him in judgment and power. - - “Every place should have its own common playground for the - boys. Glorious results would come from this for the entire - community. For at this period, games, whenever it is feasible, - are common, and thus develop the feeling and desire for - community and the laws and requirements of community. - - “The boy tries to see himself in his companions, to feel - himself in them, to weigh and measure himself by them, to know - and find himself with their help. Thus the games directly - influence and educate the boy for life, awaken and cultivate - many civil and moral virtues.”--_E., p. 113._ - -It was in watching boys one day--“boys,” he says, “of the right age for -these plays, but whose life is not awakened, or has been dulled, and who -now idly lounge around, getting in their own way, as it were”--that a -friend said to him, “I do not understand how these boys cannot play, how -many plays we had at their age!” And it is here that Froebel gives his -version of the “surplus energy” theory when he writes: - - “In every case the plays of this age are or should be pure - manifestations of strength and vitality, they are the product - of fullness of life, and of pleasure in life. They presuppose - actual vigour of life, both inner and outer. Where these are - lacking, there cannot be true play, which, bearing life in - itself, awakens, nourishes and heightens life.… This shows - clearly that even the plays at this age should be under - guidance[40], and the boy made ready for them, i.e. his life, - his experience both in school and out of it, must be made so - rich that it must necessarily break forth in joy from within, - like the blossom from the swelling bud. Joy is the soul of - every activity of boyhood at this period.”--_E., p. 303._ - -It is here, too, in the section entitled, “Play or Spontaneous Expression -and Practice of Every Kind” that Froebel begins a general classification -of boy’s play: - - “The plays, or spontaneous occupations, of this age are of - three kinds, they are either (_a_) imitations of life, or (_b_) - spontaneous applications of what has been learned, or they - are (_c_) perfectly spontaneous expression with all kinds of - material. These last are either governed by the material, or by - the thought and feeling of the human being.… They may be and - are either Physical plays, exercising strength and dexterity, - or else mere buoyancy of life; or Sense plays exercising the - hearing, e.g. in hiding games, etc., or the sight, as in - shooting plays or colour plays, etc.; or Intellectual plays, - games of reflection and judgment, e.g. draughts, etc. As such - they are already arranged, but the true aim and spirit of the - play is rarely understood and the games are seldom managed - according to the needs of the boy.”--_E., p. 304._ - -This general classification is very much the same as that of Groos, who -divides Play first into two main classes, viz. Playful Experimentation -and Playful Exercise of the Second or Socionomic Order. Under the first -heading come I. Playful Activity of the Sensory Apparatus; II. Playful -Use of the Motor Apparatus; and III. Playful Exercise of the Higher -Mental Powers. The first two correspond to Froebel’s Sense Plays and -Physical Plays, and the third to his Intellectual Plays. Under the second -heading, Groos brings Fighting Plays, which as we have seen Froebel -attributes to the unconscious desire to measure and increase strength; -Imitative Play, which to Froebel is the child’s way of learning by -action; Love Plays of which Froebel takes no notice at all, and Social -Play. Under this comes what has been given as to the importance of -Playgrounds, and much of what Froebel wrote as to the Kindergarten Games. -For instance, as part of the work of the students in his Training Course -comes: - - “The acquisition of little games arranged to exercise the - limbs and senses of the child.… The acquisition of other games - arranged to suit special ends and suited to varied grades of - development.… Practice in combined games for many children, and - particularly action games, which will, from the first, train - the child (by his very nature eager for companionship) in the - habit of association with comrades, that is, in good fellowship - and all that this implies.… To games for individual children - succeed games for the whole Kindergarten together. The child in - these associated games alternately appears first as taking some - individual or separate part, and then as merely one of several - closely knit and equally important members of a greater whole, - so that he becomes familiar with both the strongly opposed - elements of his life; namely the individual determining and - directing side, and the general ordered and subordinated - side.”--_L., p. 253._ - -Games of this kind have been much misused, especially by being given a -rigidity of form which, Froebel wrote: - - “Would quite destroy that fresh merry life which should animate - the games … the games would cease to be games and lose their - full educational power. The main thought must be held fast; but - the precise form and style in which the games are played must - be the outcome of the moment. The freer and more spontaneous - the arrangement, the more excellent is the effect of the - game.”--_L., p. 85._ - -The number and variety of plays and games noted by Froebel is quite -surprising. Of the long list given by Groos there are few indeed which -he does not mention.[41] The plays for older children are given in “The -Education of Man,” but other games encouraged at Keilhau are to be found -in the accounts given by Ebers. Even in his earlier work Froebel shows -how closely he had been observing the play of little children, but this -he worked out later in his Mother Songs, in the papers on his various -“Gifts,” and in that on Movement Play. These later books were written and -the play material was planned because Froebel saw that the children who -do not play are those “in whom life has not awakened or has been dulled,” -just because “the true aim and the spirit of play is rarely understood -and the games are seldom managed according to the needs of the boy.” - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -FROEBEL’S PLAY-MATERIAL AND ITS ORIGINAL PURPOSE - - -To one who believed, as Froebel did, that “the means by which the child -gains his first ideas of his own nature and life and the nature and life -of the cosmos, are his play and playthings,” these playthings could not -be indifferent. - - “It has been stated as a fundamental truth that the plays - and occupations of children should by no means be treated as - offering merely means for passing, we might say for consuming, - time, hence as mere outer activity, but rather that by means of - such plays and employments the child’s innermost nature must be - satisfied.”--_P., p. 108._ - -Froebel was speaking of his own Play-material--known by the name of -“Froebel’s Gifts” because he thought them the most suitable gifts for -little children--when he wrote: - - “To realize his aims, man, and more particularly the child, - requires material, though it be only a bit of wood or a - pebble with which he makes something or which he makes into - something.”--_P., p. 235._ - -And although his opinion of the importance of that particular series of -playthings, which he chose from among those he saw in general use, may -have been exaggerated, still there is a good deal of sound psychology -in what he says about them. In speaking of imitative action and -construction, we have already touched upon what were perhaps the most -important ideas underlying this series.[42] - - “What presents are most prized by the child? Those which afford - him a means of unfolding his inner life most freely and of - shaping it in various directions.”--_P., p. 142._ - -But Froebel also writes of his Gifts that “they will cover the whole -ground of training in sense perception,” and he has managed to think -out a very fair number of the points which Dr. Ward, in his Analysis of -Perception, notes as important. - -One of Froebel’s frequent Reviews of his play-material begins: - - “How has the child developed up to this point? How has the - world, the objects and things around him developed? How has - the child developed himself _especially through the toys_--the - means of play and employment--which have thus far been given - him? The brightening light in the child’s mind illuminates the - objects around him. In proportion as the inner light increases, - the nature of external objects grows clear to him … the law - of development is that of progress from the unlimited to the - limited, from the whole to the part, from an undifferentiated - to a membered totality … the outer world comes to meet the - inner world, it does not hinder, but helps the inner world. - - “The man advanced in insight should be clear about all this - before he introduces his child to the outer world. Even when he - gives his child a plaything he must make clear to himself its - purpose, and the purpose of playthings and occupation material - in general. This purpose is to aid the child freely to express - what lies within him--to bring the phenomena of the outer world - nearer to him, and thus to serve as mediator between the mind - and the world.”--_P., pp. 169-171._ - -Then Froebel explains in so many words the really psychological aim or -meaning of his sequence of “Gifts,” so well known by name--and even -better known in most _un_-psychological practice--but little understood -in their real and original significance, as a means of perception, the -earlier ones at least, for children much below even Kindergarten age. - - “Recognizing the mediatorial character of play and playthings, - we shall no longer be indifferent either to the choice, the - succession, or the organic connection of the toys we give - children. In these I offer them, I shall consider as carefully - as possible, how the child may in using them develop his nature - freely and yet in accordance with law (laws of mind), and - how through such use he may also learn to apprehend external - things correctly and to employ them justly. As the child’s - first consciousness of self was born of physical opposition to - and connection with the external world, so through play with - the ball, the external world itself began to rise out of chaos - and to assume definiteness. In recognizing the ball the child - moved from the indefinite to the definite, from the universal - to the particular, from mere externality (compare Prof. - Ward’s ‘mere thing stuff’) to a self-included space-filling - object. In the ball, especially through movement, through - the opposition of rest and motion, through departing and - returning, the object came forth out of general space as a - special space-filling object, as a body: just as the child by - means of his life (activity) also perceives himself, his bodily - frame, as a space-filling object, as a body. The child has - thus obtained two important terms of comparison for his first - intellectual development; body and body, object and object.… At - the same time there begins in the child, as in a seed-corn, a - development advancing towards manifoldness. For this reason he - should receive a corresponding seed-corn in the object which he - first detaches as object from the external chaos. Such object - should, like himself, include an indefinite manifoldness, and - be susceptible of a progressive development. Such an object is - the ball (Gift I).”--_P., p. 171._ - -The very first “intimation of an intellect,” Froebel writes, is when the -child is seen to “keep his gaze fixed upon the motion of a bright object. -This begins a few weeks after birth.” The ball is to be given to the baby -“when the starting-point of recognition and knowledge (Erkennens und -Erkenntniss), viz. perceiving, noticing, thinking (das Gewahrwerden, das -Bemerken und Beachten) becomes perceptible”: when the child “can freely -move its little arms and hands, when it can perceive and distinguish -tones, and can turn its attention and gaze in the direction from which -these tones come.” - -In his analysis of Perception, Dr. Ward distinguishes (i) Assimilation or -Recognition, (ii) Localization or Spatial Fixation, and (iii) Objective -Reference, or Intuition of Things. Of these, the first, Assimilation, has -already been taken up in Chapter IV, and we have seen that, according to -Dr. Ward, it involves Retention and Differentiation, though in itself -there is no active comparison, and we have seen that Froebel also -spoke of the earliest impressions as “almost imperceptible, but _fixed_ -by repetition and by change,”[43] and of a “perception of sequence” -involving “dim” or “unconscious comparison.” - -Of the second process Dr. Ward writes: “To treat of the localization -of impressions is really to give an account of the steps by which the -psychological individual comes to a knowledge of space,” and he goes -on to say that psychologists may have been too apt to examine “the -conception of space and not our concrete space perceptions.” Now Froebel -did consider concrete space perception, and with a certain amount -of care. That he saw its importance is clear from the fact that in -discussing his “means of employment” he says: - - “They will cover the whole ground of training in sense - perception but _will begin with the observation of space and - the knowledge that comes from that, since the child first - feels and finds himself in space and finds others occupying - space around him_. They are to go on by development of limbs - and senses and by means of language to understand Nature in - all directions, so that finally man _who at first could find - himself only in space and by means of space_, may learn to - know himself as an existent, feeling, thinking, intelligent, - rational being, and as such to try to live.”--_P., p. 19._ - -And although Froebel may not fully have realized that, as Dr. Ward puts -it: “The infant’s earliest lessons in spatial perception are in exploring -his limbs,” still we do find him writing from Blankenburg, in a letter -accompanying the first sketch of his Nursery Songs: - - “I soon felt that some important connecting link was - imperatively required to prepare the newly awakening life of a - child for its later activity with the ball. It was through the - ball itself that I discovered this link: in general terms it - may be described as _the first development of muscular movement - and sensation_ specially distinguishing infancy. The link - between the infant, still an undivided self-sufficient whole - of peaceful life, and the ball, which is something external - given to him to play with, lies in the child’s own limbs, the - child’s own senses; and _the first toys and occupations of the - child come from himself; he plays with his own limbs_, and - uses them as the material for representing his ideas. This - spontaneous activity of limb and vividness of sensation natural - to infancy must also be studied; for a considerable degree of - cultivation of these powers is already necessary in the use - of the ball, etc.… To help the child to use his own body, his - limbs and sensations, and to assist mothers to a consciousness - of their duties … I have carefully preserved several little - songs and games and send this collection to you for your severe - criticism.”[44]--_L., p. 108._ - -Having said that “the child first perceives himself, his corporeal -frame, as a space-filling object, as a body, by means of his life,” -or his activity, the first two of this collection naturally deal with -large body movements. In the one the mother alternately lowers and -raises the infant, “letting him really feel a slight shock,” and in the -other the baby tramples with his feet, and she is told to supply the -object of resistance. This resistance, as we have seen, gives him “the -dim consciousness of self, which comes out of physical opposition to, -and connection with, the outer world,” which Dr. Ward speaks of under -the head of Localization of Impressions. Dr. Ward writes that “the -distinction between his own and foreign bodies begins when the child -feels the difference between a series of movements accompanied by passive -touches, and one without passive touches,” but Froebel goes no further -than noting what comes through “resistance.” The ball, however, as we -have just seen, is to be used so as to assist the child’s comprehension -of “a self-included space-filling object,” and through play with the ball -he is to gain the “three great perceptions of object, space and time.” - -In the Intuition of things, Dr. Ward distinguishes five points -“concerning which psychology may be expected to give an account: (_a_) -the reality; (_b_) solidity or occupation of space; (_c_) permanence, -or, rather, continuity in time; (_d_) unity and complexity; and (_e_) -substantiality and the connection of its attributes and powers.” - -(_a_) _Reality_ he disposes of as “not strictly an item by itself, but -a characteristic of all the items that follow.” Of (_b_), _Solidity -or Impenetrability_, he writes that “here our feelings of effort come -specially into play. They are not entirely absent in those movements of -exploration by which we attain a knowledge of space; but it is when these -movements are definitely realized, or are only possible by increased -effort, that we reach the full meaning of body as that which occupies -space.” Dr. Ward goes on to add as “in the highest degree essential,” -that muscular effort should meet with something which seems to be “making -an effort the counterpart of our own.” - -Besides telling the mother to give the required definite resistance, by -opposing her hand or chest to the little trampling feet, Froebel gives a -“new play, a new perception of the object,” when he tells the mother that -“as soon as the child is sufficiently developed to perceive the ball as -a thing separate from himself,” she should tie a string to it and pull -gently. - - “The child will hold the ball fast, the arm will rise as you - lift the ball, and as you loosen the string the hand and arm - will sink back from their own weight; the feeling of the - utterance of force, as well as the alternation of the movement, - will delight the child. From this, however, soon springs a - quite new play, that is also something new to the child, when, - through a suitable drawing and lifting, the ball escapes from - the child’s hand and then quietly moves freely before him as an - individual object. Through this play is developed in the child - a new feeling, the new perception of the object as a something - now clasped, grasped and handled, and now as a freely active - opposite something.”--_P., p. 36._ - -_Unity and Complexity_, “the remaining factors in the psychological -constitution of things,” says Dr. Ward, “might be described in general -terms as the time-relations of their opponents.…” - -And Froebel, going straight on from “the opposite something,” comes in -like manner to time-relations. - - “One may say with deep conviction that even this simple - activity is inexpressibly important for the child, for which - reason it is to be repeated as a play with the child as often - as possible. What the little one has up to this time directly - felt so often by the touch of the mother’s breast--union and - separation--it now perceives outwardly in an object which - can be grasped and clasped. Thus the repetition of this play - confirms, strengthens, and clears in the mind of the child a - feeling and perception deeply grounded in, and important to the - whole life of man--the feeling and perception of oneness and - individuality, and of disjunction and separateness; also of - present and past possession.… The idea of return or recurrence - soon develops to the child’s perception, from the presence and - absence; that of reunion from the singleness and separateness; - of future repossession from present and past possession, and so - the idea of being, having and becoming, are the dim perceptions - which first dawn on the child. - - “From these perceptions there at once develop in the child’s - mind the three great perceptions of object, space and time, - which were at first one collective perception. From the - perceptions of being, having and becoming in respect to space - and object, and in connection with them, there soon develop - also the new perceptions of present, past and future in respect - to time. Indeed, these ninefold perceptions which open to the - child the portals of a new objective life, unfold themselves - most clearly by means of his constant play with the one single - ball.”--_P., p. 36._ - -Dr. Ward gives as the first step “in the psychological constitution of -distinct things”--as opposed to what he calls “mere thingstuff”--“the -simultaneous projection into the same occupied space of the several -impressions, which we thus come to regard as the qualities of the body -filling it.” - -Froebel writes: - - “We gave, therefore, to the mother the brightly coloured soft - ball to make a unity of touch and perception through sight, - for through the brightness it makes itself known to sight, and - through warmth (softness?) to touch, as an objective phenomena, - a thing in itself.”--_P., p. 65._ - -To reach unity and complexity, says Ward, “it is essential that objects -should recur, and recur as they have previously recurred, if knowledge -is ever to begin.” The constituent impressions must also “be again and -again repeated in like order to prompt anew the same grouping,” and -the constancy of one group must present itself “along with changes in -other groups, and in the general field.… It is only where a group, as a -whole, has been found to change its position relatively to other groups, -and--apart from causal changes--to be independent of changes of position -among them, that such complexes can become distinct unities and yield a -world of things.” - -Froebel writes of one of his early plays: - - “It is really important for the human being, especially as - a child, that the essential perceptions of things should be - _repeated frequently_ under different forms, and _if possible - in a particular order_, so that the child may easily learn to - distinguish the essential from the unessential and accidental, - and the abiding from the changing. Unnoticed and unrecognized - though the phenomena are to the child, yet the impression of - them will be certain and firm, and this so much the more when - the repetition has been precise and clear.”--_P., p. 88._ - -Later, speaking of a child’s earliest attempts at walking, he says: - - “The smallest child who begins to exercise the power of - walking, loves to go from place to place--i.e. _he likes to - turn about and to change the relationships in which he stands - to different objects, and in which they stand to him. Through - these changes he seeks self-recognition and self-comprehension, - as well as recognition of the different objects which surround - him, and recognition of his environment as a whole_.”--_P., p. - 243._ - -Dr. Ward requires still more and says that “the unity of a thing” carries -us over to temporal continuity, and this he attributes to “the continuous -presentation of such a group as the bodily self, which makes us infer -continuity of existence, for presentations which have been presented, -removed and re-presented.” - -We have seen already that Froebel says the child perceives the ball -“through departing and returning, as a space-filling object, as a body, -just as he perceives himself, his corporeal frame, as a space-filling -object, as a body.” And there is also a quaint, but interesting reference -to something of this kind in one of the earliest Nursery Songs called -“All Gone,” where the mother is distinctly told that she must help her -child to realize continuity through change. - - “How can the child understand what you mean when you say ‘It’s - all gone, Baby’? He will not be contented unless you put - meaning into it. What he saw just now he sees no longer, what - was above is below, what was there is just now vanished. Where, - then, has it gone?” - -And the baby is supposed to be quieted by the mother’s playful tale of -the present whereabouts of his bread and milk, a German version of the -homely “Down red lane.” - -Professor Ward’s last point in the intuition of things is -“substantiality.” “What is it,” he says, “that has thus a beginning and -continues indefinitely?” The answer is that “of all the constituents -of things only one is universally present, that of physical solidity, -which presents itself according to circumstances, as impenetrability, -resistance or weight.… In other words, that which occupies space is -the substantial; the other real constituents are but its properties or -attributes, the marks or manifestations which lead us to expect its -presence.” - -Froebel, again, sums up the ideas he intends the child to gain from play -with the ball: - - “The ball shows contents, mass, matter, space, form, size - and figure; it bears within itself an independent power - (elasticity) and hence it has rest and movement, and - consequently stability and spontaneity; it offers even colour, - and at least calls forth sound; it is indeed heavy--that is, - it is attracted--and thus shares in the general property of - all bodies.… Therefore, it places man, on his entrance into - the world, furnished with activity of limbs and senses, in - the midst of all phenomena and perceptions of Nature and of - all life … to place man through a skilful education in the - understanding of Nature and life, and to maintain him in it - with consciousness and circumspection cannot be done too - early.”--_P., p. 53._ - -The soft ball of the first gift is supposed to be given to the child when -he is three or even two months old, but when he reaches six or eight -months, he is supposed to be ready for something which “makes itself -known especially through noise, sound, tone, as it were through speech.” -The second gift therefore consists of a wooden sphere and a cube, which -are intended not only to please the child by the noise they make, but -to serve as material for comparison. The mother is told to roll the -sphere and then, in order to make this oppositeness between sphere and -cube perceptible to the child, to place the cube steadily before him and -presently to take one of his little hands, pushing gently at first, but - - “finally overcoming the gravity of the cube and pushing it - away with the child’s hand and fingers … drawing the child’s - strength, although yet so feeble, into the play, that his - limbs may be trained, his strength increased, and that he may - experience and perceive much through his own activity.”--_P., - p. 77._ - -By even these few representations the mother can present to her child: - - “The quiet, firm sure-standing on a relatively larger surface; - the filling of space by each object; heaviness which is - expressed by pressure; the final overcoming of heaviness - (gravity); and the possibility of moving away the body by the - use of a proportionately greater strength. The perception of - all these and many other facts, showing themselves merely as - changing phenomena in oft-recurring repetition, will give - pleasure even to the child who is scarcely half a year, or at - least not a whole year old, especially when the play is placed - in intimate connection with the child’s life, and with his - impulse to activity.”--_P., p. 78._ - -Many plays are suggested, all to be accompanied by song or rhyme, only, -says Froebel, “one must not go on in opposition to the wish of the child, -but always follow his requirements and needs and his own expressions of -life and activity.” - -It is in this connection that Froebel notices how early a child begins to -note cause. - - “Even the child whose capacity for speech is as yet undeveloped - will remark the cause of the fall of the cube, at least - experience has shown us that children of this age drew away the - holding support, and, as the cube then fell over, turned toward - their mother with face and body as in joyous triumph.”--_P., p. - 80._ - -The sphere and cube are also to be compared as to shape: - - “Through all that has been done hitherto, the child’s attention - has been predominantly called to the object, as filling space, - and acting, but only incidentally to the object as being the - identical one; nor yet to the figure and shape, nor to the - members and parts. But attention to the form and figure of the - object can also be utilized for the child in play.”--_P., p. - 83._ - -So the mother is directed to hide the cube in her hand and show it -again--so that the child will watch for its reappearance. - - “By this play the child is not only again made to notice that - the cube fills space, but his attention is also called to its - precise form; and he will look at it sharply, _unconsciously - comparing_ it with the hand to which his eyes were first - attracted.”--_P., p. 84._ - - “Each object speaks constantly to man by its qualities and - attributes, and still more to the child, though in mute - speech.… It is essential for the intellectual development - of man that the surroundings should speak to him by their - qualities and attributes.”--_P., p. 95._ - -Froebel’s “Gift III” is a little box containing eight-inch cubes for -building purposes, and after the child has clearly gained the idea of -“outer object” Froebel says: - - “Let us first of all hasten to place ourselves together in - the children’s play corner, and there seek to discover what - attracts the child, or, rather, in what direction he himself - turns his attention, what he would like to do and what he needs - for the purpose. Let us take our place there as quietly and as - unnoticed as possible, observing how the child, between the - ages of one and three years, after he has clearly gained the - idea of “outer object,” has contemplated the form and colour of - the self-contained body which he can handle, has moved it here - and there in his hands, and experimented upon its solidity, - now tries to pull it apart, or at least to alter its form in - order to discover new properties in it, and to find out new - ways of using it. If the little one succeeds in his attempt - to separate the object, we see that he then tries to put the - parts together, to form the whole which he had at first, or to - arrange them in a new whole. We see that he will unweariedly - and quietly repeat this for a long time. - - “Let us linger over this significant phenomenon and seek to - recognize through it what we have to furnish to the child from - inner grounds and without arbitrariness. This is: something - firm which can be easily pulled apart by the child’s strength, - and just as easily put together.”--_P., p. 117._ - -The time when the child wants this something to arrange is given as -any time “between the ages of one and three.” It is the time when “his -greatest delight consists in the quick alternation of building up and -tearing down.”--_P., p. 106._ - -At first the little one will be satisfied with arranging and rearranging -the cubes, piling them one upon another, “placing one before, behind, -beside another.” Soon, however, he will try to make something definite, -and “the intelligent nurse interprets the dim idea and sees whether -a something, a table, a chair, etc., can be perceived in what is -represented.” Then the something must have a purpose, so the chair is -grannie’s chair, the table is ready for the soup, and so on. - -There is nothing here which is not quite a usual proceeding. Froebel’s -peculiarity of treatment comes from his desire to give the blocks to -the child as a whole which he can take to pieces. This is the reason -of the traditional proceeding, perhaps still kept up in old-fashioned -kindergartens, when the children first slip the lid out a little way, -then reverse the boxes, pull out the lid and lift it off the box. The -directions are Froebel’s own, and are given: - - “in order to furnish to the child at once clearly and - definitely, the impression of the whole, of the self-contained; - from this perception, as the first fundamental perception - (Grundanschauung) all proceeds and must proceed.”--_P., p. 123._ - -It is clear that this meaning is quite lost when the same proceeding is -forced on older children, who are quite accustomed to pull down and build -up. - -Froebel emphasizes the fact that the pieces are of the same cubical form -as the whole thus presented, and adds: - - “Thus fundamental perceptions, whole and part, form, and size, - are made clear by comparison and contrast, as well as deeply - impressed by repetition.”--_P., p. 119._ - -It is in speaking of this simplest of toys that Froebel enters a strong -protest against the complex and useless toys which afford no scope for -childish activity. - - “Here, then, we meet a very great imperfection and - inadequateness--indeed in reference to the inner development - of the child an obstructing element in that which is now so - frequently provided as a plaything for children; an element - which slumbers like a viper under roses--it is, in a word, the - already too complex and ornate, too-finished plaything. The - child can begin no new thing with it, cannot produce enough - variety by means of it; his power of creative imagination, - his power of giving form to his own idea, are thus actually - deadened. For when we provide children with too finished - playthings we at the same time deprive them of the incentive to - perceive the particular in the general, and of taking the means - to find it.… What presents are the most prized by the child as - well as by mankind in general? Those which afford him a means - of unfolding his inner life most purely and of shaping it in - a varied manner, giving it freest activity and presenting it - clearly.”--_P., p. 122._ - -This quotation sets forth quite plainly the main idea underlying all the -varied toys or play-material known as the “Gifts and Occupations” of the -Kindergarten. - -According to Mr. Hailmann and other writers, the gifts are material by -which the child can gain ideas, and the occupations furnish material for -gaining skill. But Mr. Hailmann allows that this distinction, which to -him seems important, was never formulated by Froebel. - -Froebel’s psychological knowledge, in fact, was in advance of that of his -interpreters. He knew that it was by action, by manipulation of material, -that the child gains his ideas and that the clear distinction between -gift and occupation which to Mr. Hailmann is “very important” is on the -contrary actually non-existent. - -Gifts III to VI are boxes of building blocks, intended to present -sequence in difficulty of manipulation, and also increasing variety of -form. Because of the stress he laid on self-expression, Froebel thought -very highly of the educational possibilities of a box of bricks. In “The -Education of Man” he writes: - - “Look into this education room of eight boys, seven to ten - years old. On the large table stands a chest of building - blocks, in the form of bricks, each side about one-sixth of the - size of actual bricks, the finest and most variable material - that can be offered a boy for purposes of representation. Sand - or sawdust, too, have found their way into the room, and fine - green moss has been brought in abundantly from the last walk in - the beautiful pine forest. It is free time, and each one has - begun his own work. There in a corner stands a chapel … there a - building which represents a castle.…”--_E., p. 108._ - -After the bricks come the coloured tablets of Gift VII, which children -from four and upwards, _if left free_, often highly appreciated as -material for making patterns; and the Sticks or splints of various -lengths of Gift VIII, with which they used to lay outlines of familiar -objects. English children often use burnt matches for this, sometimes -they do the same thing with “mother’s pin-box,” and a child quite -innocent of Kindergarten ideas has been seen to appropriate the various -nails of a tool-box to the same purpose. Along with the sticks Froebel -supplied rings of metal or paper; the little English child who used the -nails took small curtain rings for the petals of her flower and screw -nails for its stalk. In Gift IX the child is presented with very small -articles for stringing or arranging--beads, coloured beans, pebbles, -etc. A child’s pleasure in this material and in the sticks and rings -probably shows that he is ready to practise movements of the thumbs and -forefingers. Froebel said that the use of these sticks called the child’s -attention to “linear phenomena,” and I have already mentioned that many -years ago, when we were still using Froebel’s play-material, I heard a -child call out, “Oh, I’m making lines!” just after he had been using the -sticks. The other children contentedly went on rubbing with the crayons; -but this young discoverer continued to make laborious lines, always from -left to right, till the work was completed to his satisfaction. - -The remaining “Gifts” include coloured paper to fold and cut either to -produce such objects as boats, boxes, purses, chairs, etc., or to form -patterns, or to weave together for the well-known paper mat; drawing and -paper materials; modelling clay and sand, and so on. - -The weakness of the series is the semi-psychological semi-mathematical -arrangement, which has been dealt with in the following chapter. What -Froebel meant to do was to pick out from among the material he saw given -to children, or appropriated by them, those things which seemed to him -best adapted to call out the activities of children at various ages or -stages, in accordance with his idea that “the man advanced in insight -should make clear to himself the purpose of playthings, viz. to help the -child to express himself, and to bring the phenomena of the outer world -nearer to him.” - -Surprise has often been expressed that Froebel did not include such toys -as dolls in his series. - -One reason is that he did not live long enough, for he does speak of -doll-play and says that later the time will come “when we shall speak of -the doll and the hobby-horse as the plays of the awakening life of the -girl and of the boy.” In his brief reference he does speak of the child’s -own nature becoming objective through the doll-play, and he adds that by -such play she “anticipates and feels her destiny.” He notes, too, with -interest that: - - “Little girls make their favourite dolls of the heavy bootjack - or like piece of wood. I was informed by a mother that a heavy - sandbag which she accidentally found became her most cherished - doll, because it had in it the weight of an actual child, and - so she gave herself up to the illusion and imagined herself to - be carrying a real child.” - -Undoubtedly Froebel was right in demanding simple toys and in -characterizing the “too complex toy” as a “viper under the roses,” and -also in demanding that toys should be carefully considered and chosen so -as to meet the needs of the child’s developing mind. But the plays and -the toys of a developing child cannot be definitely prescribed, and every -similar attempt is likely to fail, as Froebel’s has done. In his choice, -Froebel was biased by the great idea which obsessed him, the idea of -development. Like all human beings, he had the defects of his virtues, -and it is to these defects that we must now turn our attention. - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -WEAK POINTS CONSIDERED - - -An honest attempt to show what credit is due to Froebel, for the -remarkable anticipations of modern theories on which he based his -pedagogy, seems to involve the opposite process of inquiring whether or -not any of his practices can be shown to have an unsound basis. - -The modern boys’ school, with a few, and a very few exceptions, does not -even approach the school at Keilhau as a place of real education, as any -one may see who reads the account given of it by Georg Ebers. On the -other hand, the modern Kindergarten is probably in many ways an advance -upon the original attempts. Many practices of which Froebel approved -are now discarded, some no doubt because of progress in physiological -discovery; we know now that a child is not fitted as regards nervous -development and muscular control to deal with fine pricking or drawing in -chequers. - -But a better knowledge of physiology does not account for all the -changes that have taken place. Important as they undoubtedly were in -Froebel’s eyes, the modern Kindergartener is inclined to smile over -her predecessors’ “worship of the ‘Gifts’”; and, though we are agreed -as to the importance of games, the modern teacher chooses from a wide, -perhaps too wide a range, and no longer reposes blind faith in certain -circle-games with their supposed “symbolic” virtue. - -To some, the word symbolic will at once suggest Froebel’s weakest point, -others will resent any such idea, for symbolism appeals strongly to one -and repels another. For Froebel himself, undoubtedly the whole world was -symbolic, in so far as he regarded the universe as one expression of the -Divine. To him, as to Browning: - - “The earth has speech of God’s writ down, no matter if - In cursive script or hieroglyph.” - -But this has not affected his educational practice to the extent -generally supposed. - -At the same time it does seem as if one, if not two, psychological errors -lie at the root of certain practices which the modern Froebelian has -discarded. - -It would be most unfair to Froebel not to emphasize what is often -overlooked, viz. that the “Gifts” were important in his eyes -solely because he believed that in them he was presenting toys, or -“play-material,” exactly suited to the succeeding stages of the child’s -development, bodily and mental. “The new gift,” he says, “corresponds -both to the child’s increasing constructive ability, and to his growing -capacity to comprehend the external world.” And he writes: - - “But such a course of training and occupations for children - answering to the laws of development and the laws of life, - demanded a thoroughly expressive medium in the shape of - materials for these occupations and games for the child: - therefore to meet this point I have arranged a series of play - materials under the title of: ‘A complete series of gifts for - play.’”--_P., p. 250._ - -It should also be noted that Froebel did not commit the mistake of -inventing new toys. What he attempted to do was what we are all -attempting now, viz. to use what natural instinct has already selected, -as a basis for conscious educational work. Balls and building blocks, -coloured tablets and papers, sand and clay, are all spontaneously -appropriated by normal children. Even these materials which seem to us -unchildlike are not so in different surroundings. For instance, in the -Black Forest, one may watch children playing with long slivers of wood -exactly like Froebel’s laths, and these they take from the cut logs which -are being hauled up for winter storage. - -Again, it is only fair to point out that Froebel’s followers have -appropriated material which he suggested as suited to children aged from -three months to five or six years, and have used them with children from -four or five to six or seven and even older.[45] Teachers have also found -it convenient to disregard Froebel’s frequent warnings not to interfere, -to let the child “bang and pound” when he wants to, to let him “play -quietly and thoughtfully by himself as long as he will,” to give him -“the greatest possible freedom of expression.” In some, at least, of the -original text-books on Kindergarten practice, written by Froebel’s early -disciples, this advice is totally disregarded, and we find prescribed the -most formal of object lessons, dealing with the properties of the ball in -set questions and answers; only at the end comes “If there is time, the -children may be allowed to roll the ball.” - -Still, when all due allowance is made, there remains the fact that -Froebel attributed far too much importance to the series of toys he -arranged, and in addition to this he must be held in large measure -responsible for the extraordinary amount of mathematical perceptions of -which young children have been considered capable, and beneath which many -gleams of intelligence may have been extinguished. - -The psychological error which seems to underlie both these mistakes in -pedagogy seems to have been that of making too much of the outer factor -in the process of perception. Froebel was quite right and quite modern -in refusing to draw any hard and fast line between sense perception and -thinking, in saying that the child moves “from perception of a thing, -joined with thought about it, up to pure thought.” But he must have -failed somehow, sufficiently to grasp the fact that all that is present -to sense is not necessarily perceived, that perception depends not -merely upon what is presented, but upon previous mind content. The word -“apperception,” though apparently somewhat fallen into disfavour of late, -has certainly been of service in emphasizing this point. - -What seems strange is that in the very book, in which we find the theory -disregarded in practice, we find Froebel stating the theory itself in the -plainest of terms: - - “The properties and nature of the outer world unfold themselves - in exact proportion to the capacities of the child.”--_P., p. - 120._ - - “The child creates his own world for himself; it is at once - the expression of his inward realization of the external world - and its surroundings, and also the outward representation - of his internal mental world, the world of his own - subjectivity.”--_L., p. 141._ - - “Above all, it is the old within the new, which clarifies, - unfolds and transmutes itself, thus developing what is new.… We - must not require of the child anything not conditioned by his - previous achievements.”--_P., p. 169._ - -No one, surely, can maintain that these words are carried into effect in -e.g.: - - “Could forms of knowledge (mathematical forms) be, for a - child of one to three, play forms, and thus forms produced - by spontaneous activity? Well, why not? Arrange the eight - part-cubes together, and say, ‘One whole.’ But divide it - immediately and say, ‘Two halves.’… Or, comparing and - connecting and describing by song at the same time that the - objects are manipulated: - - ‘Look here and see! One whole two halves. - One half two fourths, two halves four fourths. - One whole four fourths. - Four fourths eight eighths. - Eight eighths one whole.’”--_P., p. 138._ - -There is certainly no “old within the child” of one to three, which can -condition this achievement, nor is there any spontaneity. For the child a -little older we have: - - “The hints that are here given suffice to show that the - knowledge forms are adapted to children of three and four years - of age, and that they incite plays which are both spontaneous - and nourishing to heart and intellect.… These few indications - for the use of these forms must suffice; they already show - sufficiently clearly that the observation and comprehension - of them are perfectly suited to the active, intellectual and - emotional sides of children three and four years of age, - and to actual free play which strengthens intellect and - feeling.”--_P., p. 185._ - -Now the “hints” refer to making clear to the child, always in justice, be -it remembered, in the concrete, “as perceptible facts only,” such points -as “similarity of size with dissimilarity of shape and position, in such -words as: - - “Twice as long and half as wide, - Half as long and twice as wide, - The same size are we two.” - -Certainly children differ very much, and some have a special aptitude for -mathematical relations, but to most children under five these words would -convey nothing. _Half_ may have a meaning, though at that age and for -some time after we hear of “a fair half” and “quarter” is generally used -as a name for any fraction recognized as not a half, even if it should -be greater. Such words as _fourth_ and _eighth_ can have no meaning for -a child who shows no consciousness of difference when shown six, seven -or eight objects. At the age of three, an average child recognizes three -objects, but when a fourth is added, he proceeds to count one by one, he -does not recognize three plus one. - -Again, we must repeat that Froebel never intended any mathematical ideas -to be forced upon unwilling children. He constantly tells the mother not -to force, and he frequently speaks of the child’s “accidental productions -which will become a point of departure for his self-development,” through -the explanatory rhymes, to be sung by the mother in order to call the -child’s attention to the results of his own action. It is true, too, that -it is in connection with this kind of work, or play, that Froebel writes -of “the knowledge-acquiring side of the game, which is the quickly tiring -side.” - -But the fact remains that either Froebel made a miscalculation as to -what mathematical ideas are within the grasp of children of tender age, -or else he attributed too much consequence to what is outside. It is -indeed quite possible to present to a child of any age, by means of the -cubes of his Fifth Gift, several particular instances of the Theorem of -Pythagoras, as Froebel suggests. But though the construction is present -to the sense of both child and adult, the career of the child of five -or six, who perceives or apperceives the relationship of the squares so -presented, may be watched with interest. He is likely to distinguish -himself in mathematical research, should he live long enough. Froebel -ought to have known, indeed he did know, for he taught it to others, -that the child does not “quickly tire” of acquiring knowledge suited to -his stage of development by methods equally suitable. From the houses -and railway trains, of which at this stage they seem never to tire, -children probably gain as much knowledge as Nature means them to absorb -by such means. In Froebel’s own hands, with his real and sympathetic -understanding of the need for freedom of action, probably no harm was -done, but it is easy to see how the ordinary teacher would grasp at the -possibility of producing mathematical prodigies through what was supposed -to be play. - -The same error seems to show itself in various ways, e.g., in some of -the reasons Froebel gives for choosing his First Gift, though there is -no fault to be found with the choice. He was right in saying that the -child first takes in a whole, not a variety of elements, to be combined -later. Because of this fact, the ordinary coral and bells, with all its -complexity, is just as much a whole to the infant as the woollen ball. -But Froebel does seem to have thought that he must make the “outer -objects,” or toys from which the child is to gain his earliest ideas, -as simple as these ideas, and this certainly implies a wrong view of -perception. The same objection might be taken to Froebel’s directions as -to how the Third Gift--an 8-inch cube, cut once in each direction--is -to be presented; how in order “to furnish to the child clearly and -definitely the impression of the whole, of the self-contained, from -which fundamental perception everything must proceed,” the box is to be -reversed, the lid slipped out and the box is to be lifted “that the play -thing may appear as a cube closely united.” But in this case Froebel is -“presenting” the first divided unit, “something which may be taken to -pieces, arranged and re-arranged and finally re-constructed,” for it is -“by this dismembering and re-constructing, and perception of real objects -that true knowledge and especially self-knowledge comes to the child.” - -A second psychological error, or at least an inconsistency, seems to lie -at the root of certain practical directions Froebel gives with regard -to the use of his toys. In spite of his iteration and re-iteration that -the child’s mind is a unity, that though separation is “permitted for -the thinking mind,” there is none in reality, yet in his anxiety for the -due fostering of the whole, of the “doing, feeling and thinking” his -harmonious development, in actual practice he has an attempted separation -which has had bad results. A Kindergarten practice, now discontinued, -was to make the children build, either on different occasions, or during -different parts of one lesson, what Froebel called (_a_) Life-forms or -Objects (Lebens oder Sachformen), i.e. houses, churches, etc.; (_b_) -Beauty or Picture forms (Schönheits oder Bildformen), i.e. symmetrical -designs; and (_c_) Knowledge or Instruction forms (Erkenntniss oder -Lernformen), i.e. squares, triangles, etc. Though this classification is -based on the familiar and important “knowing, willing and feeling,” yet -it is plain that a child may experience quite as much emotion, probably -more, in building a house as in making a star pattern, and that the -active side is involved in every kind of construction. Froebel draws -a parallel, legitimate to a certain extent, between intellect, feeling -and will on the one hand, and truth, beauty and usefulness on the other. -Here, however, we can quote him against himself; “Separation is only -permitted for the thinking mind.” The useful ought to be beautiful, there -is beauty in all truth, and the æsthetic revelation of the world is the -world in order. Beauty degenerates into mere ornament and artificiality, -when separated from life and use. “Mathematics,” as Froebel wrote -himself, “is neither foreign to life, nor deduced from life; it is the -expression of life as such: its nature may be studied in life, and -life may be studied with its help.… Mathematics should be studied more -physically and dynamically as the outcome of nature and energy.”--_E., p. -206-7._ - -The result of this suggested separation has in past times been -disastrous. Failing to recognize that a young child is of necessity -exercising his intellectual power in constructing his castle or bridge -of blocks, and failing still more to realize that ornament is far from -synonymous with beauty, teachers have wearied and stupefied children -with mathematical forms for which they were not ready, and have forced -upon them symmetrical designs when their souls hungered for “puffer -trains.”[46] - -It is easy to show that what Froebel wanted was only due attention -to what we now call the affective and conative as well as to the -intellectual. From the very first he insists on this, and justly, though -his way of doing it may seem to us quaint. About the child’s imitation -of the clock he writes: - - “As soon as the child’s first capacity for speech is somewhat - developed, we notice how he tries, in and by the movement, - to listen to the tone and to imitate it with the tone of his - own voice. _Tic tac_, we hear him say, imitating the movement - of the pendulum; _pim paum_ (ding dong?) he says when the - sound is more noticed.… So we must observe that even when - he first begins to speak the child expresses and retains - the physical part of the movement by _tic tac_, but by _pim - paum_ he perceives the movement more, if one may say so, - from the feeling in the mind, and if I may be allowed so to - express myself, by the ‘here and there’ which comes later, - the child catches hold (festhalten) of the movement more as - a thing of comparison, of recognition, and in his dawning - thought, more intellectually.… It is most important that the - mother should observe the first and slightest traces of the - articulation (Gliederung) of the child as an active, emotional - and intellectual being, and watch it in his development from - existence to experience and thought, so that in his development - no side of his nature should be cultivated at the cost of - the others, nor should any be repressed or neglected for the - sake of the others. It seems important, and we believe that - all who quietly observe the child have remarked, or will yet - remark, that from the first the child expresses the swinging - movement in a singing tone, in a tone which approaches song and - so serves the emotional nature. Thus early is it shown that - the real foundation, the starting-point for the education of - humanity and so of the child, is the heart and the emotions - (das Gemüth u. die Gemüthliche), but that training to - action and thought (zur That u. zum Denken), the physical - and the intellectual goes with it side by side constantly - and inseparably. Thought forms itself in action, and action - clears itself in thought, but both must have their roots in the - emotions.”--_P., p. 41._ - -Two further reasons may be given for Froebel’s belief in his selected -series of toys: (_a_) his delight in the theory of development, and -(_b_) his eagerness to bring the child as soon as possible to that -consciousness of self which differentiates man from the lower animals. - -Every sign of unity of plan within the universe gave Froebel real joy, -and he traces development from the simple to the complex, from the -undifferentiated to the differentiated, not only in plant and animal -life, but also in the inorganic. Much of what he says on crystals may be -fanciful, but much is beautiful and suggestive. “Chemical combination” is -to him “the life of the inorganic world,” and he writes: - - “We have in this a new confirmation of the law of development - in crystals, the passing from special-sidedness to - all-sidedness, from imperfection to perfection as the law of - all development in nature. Man, then, appears as the most - perfect earthly being, in whom all that is corporeal appears - in highest equilibrium and in whom the primordial force is - fully spiritualized, so that man feels, understands, and knows - his own power. But while man externally and corporeally has - attained equilibrium and symmetry of form, there heave and - surge in him, viewed as a spiritual being, appetites, desires - and passions. - - “As in the world of crystals we noticed the heaving and surging - of simple energy, and in the vegetable and animal worlds, the - heaving and surging of living forces, so here the heaving and - surging of spiritual forces. Therefore man with reference to - spiritual development has returned to a first stage as crystals - are in a first stage with reference to the development of - life.… For this reason the boy should at an early period be - taught to see Nature in all her diversity as a unit, as a great - living whole, as a thought of God. The integrity of Nature, as - a continually self-developing whole must be shown him at an - early period.”--_E., p. 198._ - -Although this particular passage was written in connection with Nature -Study for older boys, yet it is from thoughts such as these that Froebel -seems to have taken an idea that man-in-infancy ought to meet, if it may -be so expressed, matter-in-infancy. Though everything in the surroundings -was to help to bring about self-consciousness, “the air blowing about all -living creatures, as well as the arousing spiritual language of words,” -yet that definite thing-in-itself, which is to help the child to an early -dim consciousness of self is to be “the counterpart of himself,” a simple -undifferentiated whole “susceptible of a progressive development.” - -And now we must come to the question of Froebel’s “Symbolism,” a thorny -subject, because one into which the personal equation enters largely. -Some writers, notably Miss Susan Blow, author of “Symbolic Education,” -regard this symbolism as all-important, Froebel’s glory rather than his -weakness. Others consider that it appeals to adults alone and that where -it is supposed to affect children it tends towards artificiality and -sentimentality. In so far as this is true, it must be regarded as a weak -point. - -It is, however, not an easy task to settle what ideas are covered by -the term “Froebel’s symbolism.” The dictionary meaning for symbol is -“a visible sign or representation of an idea; anything which suggests -an idea, as by resemblance or convention; an emblem; a representation; -a type; a figure; as the lion is the symbol of courage and the lamb of -meekness or patience.” - -It certainly passes my comprehension how anything can symbolize an -idea not yet acquired, however much it may help in calling up ideas -already more or less clearly gained. The crown may symbolize power to -an adult, but not to the child, who when told that Stephen and Matilda -fought for the crown, innocently inquired: “Couldn’t they have had -another one made?” The Union Jack may symbolize British nationality or -British freedom, or even British Jingoism to adults who already possess -these ideas, but not to a little child. On the other hand, any kind of -celebration appeals to children, as to more primitive people, and to -be allowed to march round the playground on Empire Day carrying a flag -arouses a joyous emotion, which will later be interwoven with patriotic -ideas of various kinds. It is decidedly open to question whether as -regards the child Froebel himself intended much more than this, whatever -his followers may have done. - -Professor Thorndyke gives us to understand that Froebel says a -child plays with a ball because it symbolizes “infinite development -and absolute limitation.” Now it is true that Froebel wrote in his -“Aphorisms”--quoted in a footnote to Hailmann’s “Education of Man”--“The -spherical is the symbol of diversity in unity and of unity in diversity.… -It is infinite development and absolute limitation.” But the “Aphorisms” -were not written for children, and Hailmann quotes the passage in -speaking of Froebel’s philosophical doctrines as to the ultimate nature -of force and matter! - -To Froebel, Spirit is everywhere striving for utterance. The -Universe--the Manifold--is the revelation of one great mind, and -everything in Nature, “though soundless it be to the ear, a message can -give emblematic (sinnbildlich) but clear.” Certainly, he would have the -boy study Nature, “the writing and book of God,” but it is not to the boy -that he says: - - “The works speak, by the form the Spirit manifests itself. By - that which has been produced and created, the nature and spirit - of the producer and creator make themselves known. The world - must therefore necessarily manifest the nature of its original - cause--the spirit of its Creator.” - -For Froebel as for Goethe, the Time Spirit “weaves for God the garment -we see Him by.” He calls “the temporal an expression of the eternal, -the material a manifestation of the spiritual.” He speaks of “the Power -which reveals itself by uniting all things, in Nature in the Universe -as weight, in human life as Love,” and it pleases him to put into the -hand of the boy--in that picture of a family group by which he typifies -Humanity--a ball hanging by a string, and this he calls an emblem or -symbol (Sinnbild). - -There is nothing in all this with which any one need quarrel. Froebel -was assuredly an idealist, but in these days that is no longer a term of -reproach. No one, to whom it does not appeal, need use the suggestion, -but to those of us who believe that right guidance of a child’s delight -in fairy tales is one way of developing his sense of reverence, there is -nothing so very far fetched even in Froebel’s way of trying to bring to -the child’s consciousness, the spirit striving for utterance not only -in every beautiful form, but in everything beautiful as he does in “The -Smell Song.” - -Of fairy tales Froebel says: - - “The child, like the man, would like to know the meaning of - what happens around him. This is the foundation of the Greek - choruses, especially in tragedies. This, too, is the foundation - of many legends and fairy tales, and it is the result of the - deeply-rooted consciousness of being surrounded by that which - is higher and more conscious than ourselves.”--_P., p. 147._ - -So, when the child delights in the scent of the flower, Froebel says to -the mother: “Let your child find in all things a mind, a struggle for -being. Colour form and spicy smell all forthtell the One ruling hand -which called all into existence.” But all she is told to pass on to the -child is only the thought that an angel has put the scent there and is -saying: “The little one does not see me, but without me there would be no -fragrance.” - -Although in one sense the educator of young children need have no -dealings at all with “symbolism,” yet in another, a walking-stick does, -for the boy who bestrides it, symbolize, a horse, as a piece of wood -may symbolize for his little sister the infant whom she may nurse and -caress, with what Froebel calls “the dim and transferred perception of -inner life.” Here Froebel seems quite right, as when in speaking of a -child’s visit to a toyshop he says, “a true child is content with very -little of the outer, he is satisfied by a doll or cart, a whistle or a -sheep, provided only that in or through it he can find his own world and -represent it in actual deeds.”--_M., p. 199._ - -It may be said, too, that there is symbolism in children’s drawings, the -animal or object is symbolized by that which to the child is the most -outstanding characteristic. One small boy drew a camel with a rider so -small that some one protested he could not see over the hump, so the -artist promptly drew a second rider in front. Being asked if he could -draw an elephant, he assented cheerfully and added a trunk to his camel. -By the addition of claws the elephant became a cat, but at that point he -paused, remarking, “It’s not very like a cat, it’s more like a bird,” and -a pair of wings completed the transformations. In like manner by help of -a walking stick a child becomes his own father, and a pair of spectacles -transforms him into his grandmother. But in all such cases the child is -dealing with ideas he has already grasped. - -To say that circle or ring games help a child to gain an idea of -unity--Ring a Ring of Roses may give the first dim idea of corporate -unity--is a very different thing from saying that a circle is to the -child a symbol of unity. This is the kind of thing, however, that -Froebel is supposed to have said, but after careful investigation one -is surprised to find how little there is, and to what extent Froebel’s -disciples and translators seem to have read in their own interpretations. - -For instance, in searching for passages about symbolism, we find in -the English translation of the paper on Movement Plays, a passage -stating that the “Snail Game” forms a frequent conclusion to a “games” -period, because it yields the form of the circle, “which is symbolic of -wholeness.” On comparing this with the original, however, we find that -this phrase is an addition of the translator’s. No doubt she considered -it explanatory, but all that Froebel himself says is that the game -is suitable “because it finally unites all the players in a lively -and completely finished whole.” To practical teachers, who know the -difficulty of getting a number of children to settle down after a game, -this may bear a very different meaning. - -It seems to me that Froebel’s translators have been altogether too fond -of the word “symbolic.” The German words usually translated “symbol” -and “symbolic” are “Sinnbild” and “Vorbild,” with their respective -adjectives. After considering innumerable passages in which these words -occur it seems plain that Froebel’s meaning would often have been -better expressed by “typical,” or by “significant,” and sometimes by -“metaphorical.” - -For instance, it is quite legitimate to say of such perceptions as -Froebel intended a child to gain from his second “Gift”--resistance, -weight, hardness and softness, noise, etc.--that the ball and cube -give, and are only intended to give, “normal, fundamental and _typical_ -perceptions” (nur die normalen, begründenden und vorbildlichen -Anschauungen), and Froebel goes on to say that the same perceptions must -come from many other objects. There is nothing _symbolic_ here, and there -is no reason for using this word. - -That in many passages _significant_ would be a much more correct -translation than symbolic is abundantly evident. Froebel was convinced, -and most people will now agree with him, that there is real meaning or -significance in those activities, which are common to children of all -countries, and this meaning he endeavours to discover. Small blame to him -if, though wonderfully correct on the whole, he sometimes hits upon a -wrong meaning, in which case we are apt to fall back upon that convenient -scapegoat, his symbolism. - -In one of his letters he thanks his cousin for describing to him how she -had watched a tiny child “who quietly let his eye travel from the ball -hanging at the end of its cord, up to the hand which held it,” and he -adds: - - “I am convinced, and I wish that all teachers, and especially - all mothers, shared in the conviction, that the very earliest - phenomena of child-life are _full of symbolic meaning_, that - is to say, they indicate the higher, the intellectual life in - the child and his individual peculiarities at the same time. - Our duty is to search in everything for its ultimate basis, - its point of origin, its well-spring; and to make clear the - connection between the outward manifestation and its inward - cause.”--_L., p. 101._ - -What Froebel deduced from the incident was that the child looks not only -at the appearance of the swinging ball, but for the cause of the swinging -phenomenon, the supporting, moving hand. So it is plain that for “full -of symbolism” we should here read “full of significance.” Or, again, in -his excellent sketch of early boyhood, with its desire to share the work -of the father, its desire to explore, to collect, to construct, etc., -Froebel concludes: - - “Thus it is certain that very many of the boy’s actions have - an inner, an intellectual importance, that they indicate his - mental tendencies and are therefore _symbolical_.”--_E., p. - 118._ - -Here, again, _significant_ would be a better English translation than -_symbolical_. - -Again, in accordance with his belief in instinct, Froebel declares that -it is his “firm conviction that wherever we find anything that gives -children ever freshly a joy belonging to real life there is at the bottom -of it something important for a child’s life.” When he sees that children -often enjoy going to church and joining in the singing at an age when -the words can have no meaning, he says: “All the spontaneous activity of -child-life is _symbolical_ (Sinnbildlich).” But there is not a word of -anything that is ordinarily called “symbolical” in what follows, so far -as the child is concerned. The little one is supposed to have “reached -a new life-stage,” viz. “the dim anticipation that he is not alone in -life, but one amid mankind.” Consequently he is attracted by “assembly -life.” The most ardent believer in symbolism can make little of the very -practical answers the mother is told to give to the child’s questions. -He is to be answered “out of the range of his own experience, feelings -and ideas, his own intellectual development and necessities.” He is to be -told that when he is old enough to go to church, he will not only like to -hear the organ, but will find out “why flowers bloom and birdies sing and -why we still remember Christmas Day.” - -There is another child in the Mother Songs, who wants to visit the -moon, and drags his mother towards the ladder that he may climb up. -According to the translator Froebel says he wants to point out “the -higher symbolical meaning.” But what he says is that one remark presses -itself upon him, how “we ought to cultivate intelligently the child’s -observation of and pleasure in the moon, and in the night sky, and not -let this sink into the formlessness and emptiness of mere wonder.” For -example, it is, he says, quite as easy to tell a child that the moon is a -beautiful bright swimming ball, as to say it is a man; or that the stars -are sparkling suns which look small because they are far away, as to call -them “golden pins,” and he adds “Truth never injures, but error always -does.” - -There are certainly some instances in which Froebel found for the -tendencies and actions of children, a meaning that does not commend -itself to common sense, but as a rule he only “ventures to suggest” -rather than insists, and his practical application is generally -unobjectionable. We assent willingly, when Froebel tells us that -rhythmic movement, passive as well as active, is the earliest beginning -of all ordered activity. But we smile when, in accounting for the -childish interest in clocks, after allowing for the mystery, he goes on: - - “Let me hold the opinion that a deeply slumbering notion of the - importance of time lies at the bottom of the pleasure children - take in playing with a clock.”--_M., p. 139._ - -As he truly and naïvely remarks, “this opinion of mine hurts, as an -opinion, neither the child nor any one else,” and the application may, -even in this instance, be useful as he says it is, viz. that we should -use this pleasure to instil the beginnings of punctuality or law and -order. As an opinion it is not worthy of Froebel’s insight, and we can -only say that instances of this kind are really negligible, though some -have been unnecessarily emphasized by certain Froebelians to whom they -appeal. - -There are, it is true, a few instances which deserve the strictures which -have been heaped up somewhat rashly. It is only put as a question, but -Froebel does say of children’s pleasure in circle games, “May not their -delight spring from the longing and efforts to get an all-round, or -all-sided, grasp of an object?” - -As to metaphor, Froebel delights in this; his bent of mind is to take -pleasure in all analogies, and he suggests that the mother should make -more use of the metaphors implied in ordinary language. For example, he -speaks of “the transferred moral meaning of such words and phrases as -‘_straight_ and _straightforward_,’ and of ‘_walking in crooked paths_.’” -In using little finger plays to give a child control over his hands, -the mother is told to think how important for later life is “the right -handling of things, in the actual as well as in the figurative sense.” -The wise mother is represented as cherishing the child’s love of light -and brightness, saying, “Never shrink away from light”; and while she -shows the picture she says, “Here is a boy who has broken the window and -now he must go a long way to fetch the glazier unless he can content -himself with a dark board that will keep out the dear bright light. You -must not heedlessly stop Light’s entering your heart and mind, for if you -do, you will have to buy it back by trouble and loss of time lest heart -and mind become dark. Open your door and little window to the light.” -Thus she makes the child “see inner things through the outer,” and uses -his pleasure in light to make him hate deeds of darkness. But there is no -harm in all this, the words are used as a clergyman uses the half-dozen -words of his text, as a germ of thought which he cultivates, as a -finger-post pointing the way in which our minds may travel. And Froebel, -like the clergyman, sometimes travels far from the branching of the roads. - -Froebel’s curious attempts at etymology ought perhaps to be mentioned -as a weak point, though they really do not affect his theories, -psychological or educational, one way or another. The ball, as the -child’s first object through which he gains his first perceptions of -solidity, weight, mass, etc., is described as on that account “an image -of the universe” (der B--all ist der Bild des Alles). The thought is -worth having, the pseudo-etymology does not much matter. - -To sum up, then, there is mysticism in Froebel’s writings as addressed -to the adult, and with this no one has any right to quarrel even if it -should not appeal to him or her personally. But an undue preponderance -has been given to this side of Froebel by those to whom it appeals, or -so it seems to me. It does not appeal to me, nor can I perceive that it -affects to any appreciable extent the educational theories based on the -psychological grounds so carefully considered by Froebel. To writers -like Miss Blow, the author of “Symbolic Education,” such a statement -would no doubt seem outrageous. With intellectual people possessed of -Miss Blow’s philosophic insight, children may be safe from artificiality -and sentimentality. But the average teacher is incapable of philosophy, -and when the uncultured mind is supplied with food it cannot digest, -that mind is starved. The teacher who glibly uses phrases which she -does not understand has reached a state of mind immeasurably below -plain ignorance, for it is destructive of honest thought and common -sense.[47] The main business of the Froebelian is to forward the cause -to which Froebel devoted his life “to bring about a more general use of -progressive development in the culture and education of children. We must -throw overboard everything that hampers action and set before ourselves, -as in his day Froebel tells us he attempted to do, the definite task of -“founding anew the practical methods of actual teaching so as to bring -them into satisfactory relation with the needs of our life of to-day.” - - - - -CHAPTER X - -SOME CRITICISMS ANSWERED - - -Professor Adams ends the first chapter of his delightfully witty -“Herbartian Psychology” with a challenge to all educational thinkers to -come out of their caves and defend their idols. Throughout the book, -there is many a side-thrust at Froebel, all of a more or less disparaging -nature, in spite of the humorous twinkle which has a fairly permanent -abode in the eye of the writer. - -Some of the accusations are tolerably sweeping, for example, that -Froebelianism “as a psychology is simply non-existent”; that Froebel -has failed to correlate theory and practice; that although in “The -Education of Man” “we have beautiful, if obscurely expressed, truths -about education,” yet the Kindergarten cannot be evolved from it, in fact -“between the two there is a great gulf fixed, a gulf that Froebel has not -bridged.” - -But the main contention is that Froebel disapproves in theory of any -interference with the natural course of development. The Froebelian -teacher is thus, according to Professor Adams, reduced to the position -of a “humble under-gardener” who merely watches with interest and -admiration, and education becomes “a general paralysis.” - -Mr. Graham Wallas, whose objections to Froebel, or at least to -Froebelianism[48], as he understands it, are well known, bases these on -the ground that because he was a pre-Darwinian evolutionist, Froebel -was bound to overrate the importance of the innate as a factor in -development, and to undervalue the other factor of environment. - -Professor O’Shea disposes of Froebel in one sentence and in much the same -way, as an advocate of what he calls “the doctrine of Unfoldment,” where -“everything is inner and self-relating,” as opposed to the conception -gained from Biology, which “implies that the business of a human being is -to get properly related to the world--religious, social and physical--of -which he is an integral part.” - -If Froebel really believed that development is entirely from within, as -stated by Professor O’Shea, or if he failed to realize the importance of -the surroundings, as Mr. Graham Wallas expresses it, he would naturally -disapprove of any interference, as Professor Adams says he does. The -Froebelian, being thus reduced to passive watching, the mere provision -of a Kindergarten would be an interference with the surroundings and -a contradiction in practice of the theory of non-interference. If -non-interference is really the theory propounded in “The Education of -Man,” there certainly is a gulf between it and the Kindergarten, a gulf -it would be difficult to bridge. - -But Froebelians are not prepared to admit the premises of any of these -critics. It seems to many of us that these and all similar criticisms -are due to misunderstanding. This is sometimes clearly due to careless -reading, and consequent want of attention to the context, but even -where this is not the case, misunderstandings occur. Few, of late -years, have made any real study of Froebel’s writings as a whole, such -as is necessary to get at his real meaning, which is often obscured -by prolixities and repetitions, and sometimes hidden among apparent -trivialities. - -Professor O’Shea, for example, does not seem to be aware to what extent -Froebel, like himself, derived his educational aim and principles -from biology. He has probably never realized the deep interest taken -by Froebel in the then all-absorbing question of natural development. -Clearly he has no idea that Froebel has given expression to a conception -of education, practically identical with that given above which he -himself draws from biology,[49] and sets in contrast with the one he -unjustly attributes to Froebel. - -There is no doubt whatever that Froebel laid much stress on what is -innate. In his generation, he tells us the child was looked upon “as a -piece of wax, or lump of clay, which man can mould into what he pleases.” -Because Froebel was a student of biology he knew better. He knew, as -we have seen, that human beings have instincts, innate tendencies or -dispositions differing from those of the lower animals chiefly in their -indefiniteness. We are not so afraid of the word “innate” nowadays, -when both innate ideas and innate faculties are safely buried, and that -Froebel had no dealings with these has been amply shown. - -But that this stress on innate tendencies implies that the child is to -unfold from within, the educator standing by passive[50], or that Froebel -imagined that the developing process could go on with little or no -reference to the environment, is quite another matter. - -Few of Froebel’s critics have taken the trouble to look up the original -German before pronouncing condemnation, and this explains part of the -injustice that has been done to him. The passage upon which much, perhaps -most, of the adverse criticism is based is the one in which Froebel -applies to education the term “leidend,” translated “passive” in both the -English, or, rather, American editions of “The Education of Man.” The -translation of “leidend” as “passive” is not a happy one. Moreover, the -translators have endeavoured to help the reader by dividing the text into -numbered sections, a proceeding which though often helpful, sometimes -tends to break the continuity of Froebel’s thought. This effect is -heightened in Hailmann’s translation by the interpolated notes, however -valuable as some of these are in themselves. This passage, however, opens -with “_therefore_,” and those who take exception to it ought to have -considered the preceding argument. Fair criticism looks back to see why -and under what circumstances education is to be “passive or following,” -as opposed to “dictating and limiting.” - -In the first place, absolutely passive education is a contradiction in -terms. Froebel begins by stating that: - - “Education consists in leading man as a thinking, intelligent - being, growing into self-consciousness, to a pure, conscious - and free representation of the law of his being, and in - teaching him ways and means thereto.” - -He defines the _Theory of Education_ as “the system of directions derived -from the knowledge and study of that law to guide human beings in the -apprehension of their life-work”; and the _Practice of Education_ as -“the self-active application of this knowledge in the direct development -and cultivation of rational beings towards the attainment of their -destiny.” - -To go on from this to say, on the next page but one, that the educator is -to do nothing, to stand aside and be truly passive, would be absurd. - -That our word “passive” is not the equivalent of Froebel’s word -“leidend,” is easily proved, for in another passage where Froebel does -mean “passive” he couples “leidend” with “inactive,” and puts passive -in a bracket beside it. The passage runs: “wo das Kind äusserlich als -unthätig, leidend (passiv) erscheint.” In the passage under discussion -“passiv” does not appear at all, and “leidend” is coupled, not with -“inactive,” but with “following,” and is contrasted with “dictating, -limiting and interfering.”[51] - -A few lines further we read how the gardener may even destroy the vine -“if he fail _in his work_ passively and attentively to follow the nature -of the plant.” He cannot surely “work” and be inactively passive at the -same time. - -A more correct translation of “leidend” here would perhaps be “tolerant” -or “suffering” in its old sense of “permitting,” “bearing with,” or -having patience with. - -As to immediate context, Froebel has just stated that education ought “to -lift man to a knowledge of himself and mankind, to a knowledge of God -and Nature, and to the pure and consecrated life conditioned thereby.” -“But,” he goes on, “education must be founded on what is essential or -innermost, and though the real nature of things can only be known by -outer manifestations, yet it behoves the educator to be very careful -how he judges, for the child that appears good outwardly, is often not -really good, i.e. does not will the good from his own determination, or -from love, respect for or recognition of it,” while “the outwardly rough -self-willed child often has within him a vigorous struggle to do what -seems to him right.” Judging from outer manifestations furnishes constant -occasion for false judgments concerning the motives of children, for -endless misunderstanding between parent and child, and for unreasonable -demands made upon children. - -And here comes the force of the conjunction: “_Therefore_,” says Froebel, -“education, instruction and training in their fundamental principles -must necessarily be tolerant, following, not dictating, not limiting or -defining, not interfering.” - -What is it, then, that Froebel is telling us to follow almost passively, -interfering, in our ignorance, as little as possible? Simply the natural -order of development, the natural instincts of childhood, which in this -very passage he is arguing are as trustworthy as those of other young -animals. Here, as everywhere, man can only control Nature _by following_, -by obeying her laws. - - “As the duckling hastens to the pond and the chicken scratches - the ground, so will the human being, still young, still, as it - were, in the process of creation, though as unconsciously as - any Nature product, yet definitely and surely desire what is - best for him. We give plants and animals time and space and - freedom to develop, but the young human being is to man a piece - of wax, a lump of clay, from which he can mould what he will. O - man, who roamest through garden and field, through meadow and - grove, why dost thou close thy mind to the silent teaching of - Nature?”--_E., p. 8._ - -Surely we have here a plea to “suffer (leiden) little children,” to -bear with the little one, still, as Froebel describes him, “still, as -it were, in the process of creation,” nay, more, a plea for the actual -recognition and fostering of these instinctive tendencies which Professor -Dewey calls “the foundation-stones of educational method,” rather than -a recommendation to “gratify every youthful impulse,” or to stand aside -altogether. For the context, the whole, is not yet complete. - -Froebel goes on to say that if we are certain of any tendency to -unhealthy development we are to interfere with full severity (so tritt -geradezubestimmende, fordernde Erziehungsweise in ihrer ganzen Strenge -ein). - -And now comes a sentence apparently quite overlooked by Mr. Graham -Wallas, who blames Froebel for underestimating the environment. In the -mean-time, until we are sure that our interference is justifiable, -“nothing is left for us to do but to bring the child into relations and -surroundings in all respects adapted to him.”[52]--_E., p. 11._ - -In many other passages Froebel shows plainly that he had no thought of -the “gratifying of every youthful impulse” in the sense of individual -caprice. - -In his plea for monetary help to establish Kindergartens and training -establishments connected with them, he complains that in existing -institutions children are either “repressed and their energies crippled, -_or else we are confronted with the wild and uncontrollable character -which results when children are uncared for and are left altogether to -their own impulses_.”--_L., p. 159._ - -“Life has no room for wilfulness and whims,” he says in his Mother Songs; -“Boyhood is the age of Discipline” he states in “The Education of Man.” -But, as he himself sums up this discussion: - - “All true education is double-sided, prescribing and following, - active and passive, positive yet giving scope, firm and - yielding.… Between educator and pupil should rule invisibly a - third something to which both are equally subject. The third - something is the right, the best … the child, the pupil has a - very keen apprehension whether what father or teacher requests - is personal and arbitrary or the expression of general law and - necessity.”--_E., p. 14._ - -The proof of whether or not the educator has succeeded in rightly -adjusting the claims of freedom and authority, Froebel expresses in words -recalling Kant’s, “When the ‘Thou Shalt’ of the Law becomes the ‘I will’ -of the doer, then we are free.” - - “In good education, in genuine instruction, in true teaching, - necessity must and will call forth freedom, law will call forth - self-determination, and outer compulsion inner free-will. - - “Where necessity produces bondage, where law brings fraud - and crime, and outer compulsion causes slavery, there every - effect of education is destroyed. There oppression destroys and - debases, severity and harshness bring obstinacy and deceit, and - the burden is more than can be borne.”--_E., p. 14._ - -To emphasize the fact that Froebel did realize the importance of -environment, and to anticipate the criticism that this shortened -rendering is an interpretation in the light of modern educational -theories, of Froebel’s somewhat cumbrous phrases, we can turn to a -passage in his later writing, part of which has been quoted elsewhere: - - “Through the child’s efforts to repel that which is contrary to - the needs of his life, indignation and discontent are awakened; - and on the other hand, from the fact that his normal desires - are ungratified, they become inordinate and mischievous. How - may parents avoid these evil results? Most satisfactorily - through a threefold yet single glance at life. Let them look - into themselves, and their own course of development and its - requirements, let them recall their own earliest years, then - later stages of development, and look deeply into their present - life. Next, let them look equally deeply into the life of - the child and what he must require for his present stage of - development. Having scrutinized what the child needs, _let them - scrutinize his environment_, and first observe what it offers - and does not offer for the fulfilment of such requirements. - Let them utilize all offered possibilities of meeting normal - needs; and when such needs cannot be met, let them recognize - this fact, and show the child plainly the impossibility of - their fulfilment. Finally, let them clearly recognize whatever - _in the child’s environment_ tends to awaken antagonism and - discontent, remove it if it be removable, and admit its defect - if it be not removable.”[53]--_P., p. 167._ - -It is, of course, true that Froebel was pre-Darwinian in time, but it is -equally true that he was post-Darwinian in many of his beliefs. - -To find out whether or not his educational doctrines are really based -on false or exploded theories of development, as the Criticism of Mr. -Graham Wallas implies, we must gather together from Froebel’s various -writings, his most important references to the subject. - -The key-note to his interest in it lies probably in the yearning for -unity and union in all relations, which was a part of his individuality. -This may have dated back to the time when, a puzzled little mortal of -eight or nine years old, he was most unwisely allowed to hear his father -exhorting and rebuking his parishioners. It seemed to the boy that most -of the trouble arose from the fact that human beings, and human beings -alone, so far as he knew, were divided into two sexes, and he felt that -he would have arranged matters differently. Comfort came to him when his -older brother, by showing him the male and female flower of the hazel, -gave him some idea of a great law of Nature. Strange comfort, too, it -seems, for a boy not yet ten years old! - -The late Mr. Ebenezer Cooke pointed out long ago[54] that Mr. Graham -Wallas had not only overshot the mark in saying that “Darwin transferred -the cause of development from within to without,” but that he had himself -failed to draw any distinction between the facts of development, as -seen in the individual, and the theory of the origin or development -of species, which we associate with the names of Darwin and Wallace. -Mr. Cooke pointed to Froebel’s connection with Batch, the founder of a -Natural History Society, of which Goethe was a member, as showing that -he was in direct touch with those who were working out the theory of -development of the individual. - -Froebel himself refers to this Natural History Society in his -Autobiography, saying that “students,” of whom he was one, “who had -shown living interest and done active work in Natural Science,” were -invited to become members, and that this awoke within him “a yearning -towards higher scientific knowledge.” At this time Froebel was but a -youth of seventeen, with no idea that education was to be his life work. -Three years later, he meets a private tutor, “a young man quite out of -the common, with actively inquiring mind,” who was “especially fond of -making comprehensive schemes of education.” The year after this we find -him reading what he can of anthropology and history, and saying of his -reading: “It taught me of man in his broad historical relations and set -before me the general life of my kind as one great whole.” - -One year more, and while he is looking for a situation with an -architect--in spite of uneasy communing with himself as to how -architecture was to be used “for the culture and ennoblement of -mankind”--Grüner claps him on the shoulder with “Give up architecture, it -is not your vocation at all! Become a teacher.” - -It is perhaps because Froebel passed thus from interest in biology to -interest in education that at this time he gives to his own question, -What is the purpose of education?--almost the identical answer that -Professor O’Shea puts into the mouth of his biologist[55], and which he -sets in opposition to Froebel’s supposed opinions: - - “In answering the question, What is the purpose of education? - I relied at that time on the following observations: Man lives - in a world of objects, which influence him and which he desires - to influence; therefore he ought to know these objects in - their nature, in their conditions and in their relations with - each other and with mankind.… I sought, to the extent of such - powers as I consciously possessed at that time, to make clear - to myself the meaning of all things through man, his relations - with himself, and with the external world … it seemed to me - that everything which should or could be required for human - education must be necessarily conditioned and given, by virtue - of the very nature of the necessary course of his development, - in man’s own being and in the relations amidst which he is set. - A man, it seemed to me, would be well educated when he had been - trained to care for these relationships and to acknowledge - them, to master them and to survey them.”--_A., p. 69._ - -In the very beginning, then, of his educational career, Froebel -emphasized rather than overlooked “the relationships amidst which man is -set,” but he was to learn more yet about development. - -Six years later he is back at a university, and “just at this time,” he -says, “those great discoveries of the French and English philosophers -became generally known through which the great manifold external world -was seen to form a comprehensive outer world.” - -The English writer may have been Erasmus Darwin. The French writer was -no doubt Lamarck, to whom belongs “the immortal glory of having for the -first time worked out the theory of Descent as an independent scientific -theory of the first order and as the philosophical foundation of the -whole science of Biology.” - -From some such source, at any rate, Froebel must have gained -“the key-note of development,” viz., that it is always from the -undifferentiated to the differentiated. We have already seen that he -applied this to mental development and so gained his modern conception -of the earliest infant consciousness, “an undifferentiated unorganized -unity.” - -In “The Education of Man” he speaks of - - “the all-pervading law of Nature according to which the general - gives rise to the particular,”--_E., p. 167._ - -and in the Mother Songs he says: - - “Whether we are looking at a seed or an egg, whether we - are watching feeling or thought, what is definite proceeds - everywhere from what is indefinite.”--_M., p. 121._ - -Or, again: - - “In the child as in the grain of seed, there begins a - development proceeding towards complexity.”--_P., p. 172._ - -Such quotations fully exonerate Froebel from belief in any -“pre-formation” theory, whether physical or mental, as indeed Mr. Cooke -made abundantly plain. - -It is in one of his later papers[56] that Froebel generalizes and states -very plainly how everything is developed under the influence of its -environment. - - “Taking Nature as our guide, let us endeavour to find the - essential nature of material objects and the conditions under - which this develops, for the process of development shows the - essence of the developing object. - - “_Firstly_, each thing and each object manifesting existence - and life, develops itself in accordance with the highest and - simplest, the general laws of life. Thus everything manifests - these laws and their primeval cause. - - “_Secondly_, each thing and each object in Nature develops - itself according to its own individuality and the laws of its - being. - - “_Thirdly_, everything in Nature develops itself under the - collective influence of all things. If any object seems to be - withdrawn from this collective influence, such withdrawal is - only mediate.… - - “In Nature, and in everything, all things develop as members - of the world-whole, the universal life, as members of a whole, - each perfect in its kind, because each, while standing in - the centre of the collective influence streaming upwards and - inwards--nay, in a certain sense, as the receiver, yielding - itself to this influence--yet also acts (as assimilative and - formative) and develops itself, faithful to the indwelling - laws of life universal and particular. We must see clearly the - conditions of perfect development in Nature, and then employ - them in human life. Thus only can we help man to attain, - upon the plane of human development--which means spiritual - development--a degree of perfection corresponding to that which - the forms and types of Nature show upon the plane of physical - development.”--_P., p. 196._ - -When child development is in question, far from minimising, as he is -supposed to do, the importance of environment, parents and teachers are -told: - - “We must hold fast for consideration in life this fact, that - in the spontaneous occupation and playing of the child, not - the germ only, but the growing point of his life also, is - formed _in union with his surroundings, and under their silent - unremarked influence_ (im Vereine mit der Umgebung und unter - deren stillen unbemerkten Einwirkung).”--_P., p. 108._ - -Or, again: - - “As the new-born child, like a ripe grain of seed dropped from - the mother plant has life in itself, and as it spontaneously - develops life _in progressive connection with the common - life whole_; so activity and action are the first phenomena - of his awakening life. This activity bears the impress of - what is innermost, it is an inner activity whose purpose is - manifestation of the inner through the outer, and, as leading - up to this, devoted to consideration of and working with the - outer to penetrating the outer and overcoming hindrances as - such.”--_P., p. 23._ - -This account surely makes plain, that whatever Froebel may have believed -with regard to the origin of species, he in no way believed that -development in general was a one-sided process, in which the environment -went for nothing. - -In his “Criticism,” Mr. Graham Wallas remarked: “Whoever divorced his -educational system from his philosophy, would have seemed to Froebel to -have taken all force and meaning out of his work.” This is most true, and -it approaches absurdity to attribute so limited a view to a man imbued as -Froebel was with the philosophical doctrine of the reconciliation of the -opposites.[57] That all development was the result of a harmony between -opposites was one of his cardinal doctrines. - -“We are living in an age,” he writes, “when we are consciously under a -law of development acting by the reconciliation of opposites.” - -Mr. Hailmann gives a long footnote where Froebel is quoted as comparing -his idea of the law of connection or unification with the ideas of Fichte -and Hegel, and saying: - - “It is both of these, and yet has nothing in common with either - of them; it is the law which the contemplation of Nature has - taught me.… And where do we find absolute contrasts that have - not somewhere and somehow a connection? In action and reaction - the contrasts that we see everywhere give rise to the motions - in the universe as they do in the smallest organism. This - implies for all development a struggle which however sooner - or later will find its adjustment; and this adjustment is the - connection of contrasts.”--_E., p. 42._ - -What Froebel knew of Hegel’s philosophy was probably gained from -discussions among his friends, for in the hearing of Madame von -Marenholz, he said, “I do not know how Hegel formulates and applies this -law, for I have had no time for the study of his system,” and he went -on to say of “the philosophical systems of others” that “most of them -belong to a theory of the world that is passing away, whose one-sidedness -becomes more apparent every day” (Reminiscences, 225). Ebers, too, speaks -of Froebel’s ideas as opposed to those of Hegel. - -Even Mr. Graham Wallas allows that Froebel’s casual references to the -development of species are “surprisingly modern.” No orthodox views as -to the exact date of the creation of the world keep him from accepting -the newly discovered testimony of the rocks as to “the remains of -perished ages.” Ardent as his religious convictions were, they had a -philosophic width unusual indeed in his day. The Garden of Eden is to -him a parable, repeated “in the experience of every child from the time -of his appearance on earth to the time when he consciously (by the help -of names) beholds himself in beautiful Nature spread out before him.” In -each child he sees “repeated at a later period, the deed which marks the -beginning of moral and human emancipation, of the dawn of reason.” - -He refers calmly to - - “the fall, or, since the result is the same, the ascent of - the mind of man, from simple, uniform, emotional development, - into the development of externally analytic and critical - reason.”--_E., p. 194._ - -Not Stanley Hall himself insists more that the development of the -individual shall follow the development of the race, and this in 1826, -two years before Baer, and four years before Comte, to whom Herbert -Spencer attributed the doctrine. “Humanity,” he says, “lives only in its -continuous development.” - - “Each successive generation and each successive individual - human being, inasmuch as he would understand the past and - present, must pass through all preceding phases of human - development and culture, and this should not be done in the way - of dead imitation or mere copying, but in the way of living - spontaneous self-activity.”--_E., p. 18._ - -There is certainly no ground for assuming that Froebel held any such -pre-Darwinian views as a special creation of each species, for there -is no point on which he insists more emphatically than that in Nature -development is continuously progressive. - - “In God’s world, just because it is God’s world, by Him - created, one thing constant is expressed to which we give the - name of unbroken progression of development in all and through - all.”[58]--_M., p. 154._ - - “God neither ingrafts nor inoculates, He develops the most - trivial and imperfect things in continuously ascending - series and in accordance with eternal self-grounded and - self-developing laws.”--_E., p. 328._ - -Mr. Winch makes merry over Froebel’s sentence: - - “As Man and Nature have one origin, they must be subject to the - same laws,” - -and remarks that “this conception is almost completely given up.… Our -view now rather is one in which God and Nature are at strife, in which -the ethical interest overcomes Nature.…” - -But Froebel is far ahead of this. The great law to him is the Law of -Development to which Man and Nature, which includes Man, are subject. The -ethical interest is not, as Mr. Winch intimates, something transcending -Nature, but is itself evolved. Morality, Froebel distinctly tells us, is -“rooted” in Instinct, and “human development means spiritual development.” - -Professor O’Shea says of the doctrine of Unfoldment which he attributes -to Froebel that it “regards man on his spiritual side as an entity set -apart from everything in the universe.”[59] - -Froebel, however, writes: - - “Difficult, very difficult, would it be to define where the - purely physical ends and the purely intellectual begins. It - is precisely on account of this close welding or flowing into - one another of the Physical and Psychical, the bodily and - mental, the material and spiritual, the vital (des Vitalen) - and intellectual, instinct and morality; it is because of - this rooting of the higher in the lower that the training - and ennobling of the senses, such as smell and taste, are so - important.”--_M., p. 183._ - -“Training and ennobling,” these words bring us back to the educational -doctrines Froebel based upon what he knew of development, physical and -mental, from whatever source he may have gained his information. - -“From the beginning of the Darwinian reconstruction of the moral -sciences,” says Mr. Graham Wallas, “it was absurd, while speaking -of ‘environment,’ to ignore the fact that the deliberate care and -contrivance of the parent must form a large part of the environment of -the child.” Undoubtedly. - -But it was because Froebel exalted “the deliberate care and contrivance -of the parent” that he wrote “The Education of Man,” to tell his -generation how best to care and contrive. It was because he realized -that this deliberate care and contrivance must begin from the very first -that he wrote his Mother Songs. He tells the mother here that “if she is -wise, in all she does a noble meaning lies”; that she must “do nothing -aimlessly or she’ll create a child she cannot educate.” He tells her that -it is “by watching what makes the child’s eyes bright, that she will know -how best to give delight,” and that she must “seek to strengthen power -and mind in all things.” - -In very truth the Kindergarten itself, with all its imperfections, is -nothing more nor less than an attempt to supply that very environment -which its founder is supposed to undervalue--an attempt to foster, -by providing suitable conditions, those innate tendencies or natural -activities, to which Froebel attached infinite importance. - -This is why the discovery of the name Kindergarten gave Froebel the -pleasure expressed in his cry, “Eureka, I have it! Kindergarten shall be -its name.” The original designation contained the actual words “through -the culture of the instinct for activity, inquiry and creation, inherent -in man,” but this original title spreads over several lines of print. -“Garden” to Froebel expresses just what he wanted, “As in a garden under -God’s favour, and _by the care of a skilled, intelligent gardener_, -growing plants are cultivated in accordance with Nature’s laws, so here, -in our child-garden, shall the noblest of all growing things, _men_ -(that is, children, the germs and shoots of humanity), be cultivated in -accordance with the laws of their own being, of God and of Nature.”--_L., -p. 161._ - -This is why he urges on his pupil, Ida Seele, to retain the name in spite -of the prejudices it aroused. It is to her that he writes: - - “Is there really such importance underlying the mere name of - a system?--some one might ask. Yes, there is: … It is true - that any one carefully watching your teaching would observe - a new spirit … you would strike him as personally capable, - nay, as extremely capable, but you would fail to strike him - as priestess of the idea, and of the struggle towards the - realization of the idea--education by development--the destined - means of raising the whole human race. For, after all, what do - we mean by ‘Kindergarten’?… No man can acquire fresh knowledge - beyond the measure which his own mental strength and stage - of development fits him to receive. But little children have - no development at all.… Infant schools are nothing but a - contradiction of child nature. Little children ought not to be - _schooled_ and taught, they merely need to be developed. It is - the pressing need of our age, and only the idea of a garden can - serve to show us symbolically the proper treatment of children. - This idea lies in the very name of a Kindergarten. … How much - better had you been able to call your work by its proper name, - and to make evident by that expression, the real nature of the - new spirit you have introduced.”--_L., p. 290._ - -There is no gulf between the Kindergarten, and “The Education of Man,” -with its appeal to educators to follow instead of interfering with -Nature’s methods, to foster instead of repressing the “instincts of -activity and of construction,” to foster play, which though “merely -natural life,” yet holds “the seed leaves of all later life.” - -Froebel’s gardener is “skilled and intelligent,” and a skilled gardener -is supposed to have scientific knowledge of his plants, of the conditions -of soil, exposure, etc., best suited to them. Professor Adams says that -“to call a child a plant does not advance matters much, and it certainly -does not account for the use of the cubes, spheres and such like.” This, -however, it does most certainly if these cubes and spheres are the right -food material for the child’s mind, as Froebel at any rate believed. - -All the employments of the Kindergarten, all the varied materials, -the sand and clay, the pencil and paint brush, the building blocks, -cardboard, sawdust, moss, nut-shells, etc., for constructive or -“representative” play are definitely mentioned and definitely commended -in “The Education of Man.” They are commended because they are the -employments and the material which children everywhere find for -themselves; because Froebel had sufficient knowledge of biology to know -that instinctive action must somehow benefit the individual and the race; -and also because he had psychological insight enough to see that by such -activities children gain not merely skill, but clear ideas and “firmness -of will.” - -Professor Adams writes: “Not Philosophy, but common sense, experience -and loving observation, have led Froebel and his followers to adopt -certain apparatus and certain methods, which are excellent in themselves, -and which in capable hands produce admirable results. For this he -deserves all the honour that has been heaped upon him--but he has not -explained John.” - -True enough, Froebel has not explained, at least, he has not entirely -explained that charming John, the Professor’s own creation and type -of all our children. Who has? Still, by his efforts as a pioneer in -genetic psychology--the result of his belief that “only by the study -of development in ourselves and others, can we learn to understand the -child”--and by the two sketches so full of insight into child-life and -into boy life, which he has given us in “The Education of Man,” surely -Froebel has done at least his share even in explaining John. - -No doubt he learnt much from “loving observation.” Nor does he undervalue -it, but, in his case, the observation was induced by the Philosophy, as -well as by the love. For, as he tells us, “it is a necessary part of -me to be irresistibly driven to search out the ultimate cause of every -fact in life, to discover its roots.” He learned much from watching both -mothers and children, but he says: - - “What natural mother wit and human common sense left to - themselves, have been doing by chance and piece-meal, ought now - to be brought forward by a thoughtful mind, its foundation, - connections and deeper meaning recognized, that it may be - improved upon by clever and kindly thought.”--_M., p. 147._ - -An education which “follows” needs shown by the child, which “follows” -the laws of development, physical and mental, as far as these can be -discovered from history, from introspection, and from observation -of children in general and of “each individual child,” that is the -“patiently following” education which Froebel puts before us as an ideal. -“For,” he says: - - “By the full application of the latter method of education, the - prescribing and interfering, we should wholly lose the sure, - steady and progressive development of mankind, which is the - ultimate aim and object of all education.”--_E., p. 10._ - - NOTE.--The foregoing chapter was written some years ago, but in - 1912 there appeared a fresh criticism of Froebel and his work - in many ways more adequate than certain others. It appeared - as an Introduction to a new translation of “The Education of - Man” and of some of Froebel’s lesser writings, by Dr. Fletcher - and Professor Welton. In this introduction, important points - are granted, for example, that Froebel had “grasped the vital - principle that all true development, and consequently all true - education, is a self-directed process--that purpose is the - key-note of human culture and advance. It was the emphasis - which he laid upon this which makes Froebel one of the princes - of education and gives him an enduring place in the history - of thought.” Or again, that Froebel’s teaching is “not the - negation of all human constraint,” but that he sees clearly - that “constraint is necessary to train the will to resist - impulse and follow purpose”; that with Froebel “Discipline must - direct instinctive impulse, not simply oppose and thwart it.” - Unfortunately, however, the writers of the book do not seem to - have grasped the idea of the Kindergarten as an Institution - which had this very end in view, and the second part of the - book which is called “The Kindergarten,” never mentions its - essential features. So we have the familiar statement that - between the Kindergarten and “The Education of Man” a gulf is - fixed, a statement which has been already discussed. And we are - also told that Froebel attracts us “by his very vagueness.” - But Keilhau and Helba and the real Kindergarten are none of - them vague. That Froebel attributed too much importance to his - Gifts and occupations most of us will readily allow, but that - the forms of expression set forth in the Helba plan are to be - regarded as merely additions to the Gifts is impossible seeing - that the plan for Helba is dated 1829. Besides, all such work - had already been very much in evidence at Keilhau (See _p. v_, - Preface), and the Gifts and Occupations were an attempt to - provide in a similar manner for children very much younger, and - as materials are only such as children find for themselves. We - claim that Froebel himself is the best interpreter of his own - invention, the Kindergarten, and we are content to abide by his - own definition of it: _An Institution for the cultivation of - the life of mankind through fostering the impulse to activity, - investigation and construction in the child; an institution - for the self-instruction, for self-education of mankind - through play, that is creative self-activity and spontaneous - self-instruction_. - - - - -APPENDIX I - -ON THE MEANING OF THE WORD “ACTIVITY” - - -Professor Stout is particularly definite in his use of the word -“activity,” and as he agrees with Mr. Bradley, from whom he quotes “that -the current use of the word activity in the literature of philosophy is -a scandal,” it may be well to inquire here whether Froebel used the word -loosely or with some degree of definiteness. - -Professor Stout considers the word “activity” specially appropriate to -cases “in which the return of a causal process upon itself is especially -prominent or important.” He quotes from Mr. Bradley again that “Activity -seems to be self-caused change. A transition that begins with, and comes -out of the thing itself is the process where we feel that it is active.” -“Thus,” Mr. Stout comments, “the life and growth of organisms are -specially appropriate examples of activity; for such processes are in a -large measure immanent or self-determining.” - -The first point that suggests itself is that in the majority of cases, -Froebel may perhaps be said to have avoided the difficulty by his -constant reference not only to activity but to “self-activity,” a word -associated with the name of Froebel closely as his very shadow. - -In the second place, we do find Froebel very markedly referring to the -self-determining activity of organisms, in a passage where he is trying -to show that all instruction should start from the child’s own desire -and power of will. He says that the mother--grounding her instruction -in her child’s desire to write to the absent father--acts like the -sun, “whose warmth awakens in every grain of seed, life, impulse, -power, self-activity, self-determination” (die Triebe, die Kraft, die -Selbstthätigkeit und Selbstbestimmung).[60] - -It is Froebel’s peculiarity that he brings his philosophical conceptions -into the veriest details, and so even in speaking of how the mother may -make a ball represent a springing kitten, etc., and saying that to the -child the ball is “the uniting object,” yet, he says, considering the -plays as proceeding from the child (vom Kinde aus), “all activity, though -mediated (vermittelt) by the ball, proceeds definitely from the child, -and though going through the ball, refers back again to the child, who is -himself a unit.” - -There is a particular passage which suggests that there existed a special -definite idea in Froebel’s mind in regard to the word “activity,” and it -is one which presents a difficulty to an ordinary and unphilosophical -mind, though a possible light is thrown upon it by Mr. Bradley’s -definition. In this passage activity (Thätigkeit) is very distinctly -given as something higher than impulse (Triebe). - -The working of the primeval Cause, “the uniting,” is called, Froebel -says, “according to the different stages in development, Force, Impulse, -Life, Life-impulse, Activity” (Wirken, Trieb, Leben, Lebenstrieb, -Thätigkeit). - -This placing of activity so high in the scale is at least no accident, -and conscious self-determination is constantly attributed to man as “the -most perfect earthly being,” and to man alone. - -Mr. Stout proceeds to examine the conception of self-determining process, -with special reference to changes within the sphere of an individual -consciousness, taking as the most convenient point of departure, such -illustrative analogies as come from the physical world, and beginning -with the simplest form of self-determination, the law of inertia.[61] - -“Conscious life,” he says, “is always in some degree self-sustaining, -this indeed is an indispensable part of the connotation of all such words -as activity, endeavour, conation, effort, striving, will, attention. -All such terms imply that the process to which they refer, tends by its -intrinsic nature in a certain direction, or toward a certain end.” - -Now the word “endeavour” or “effort” (Streben) is a word Froebel -constantly uses in speaking of a child’s activity, and he does more than -merely “imply” that this process “tends in a certain direction, or toward -a certain end” when he affirms that “In every activity, in every deed of -man, and of the smallest child, an aim is expressed.” - -Professor Stout goes on to say that in conscious states we can always -distinguish between determination from within and from without, and -“it is a point of vital significance that this distinction coincides -with that between mental activity and mental passivity.”[62] With -mental passivity Froebel has but few dealings, if indeed he has any. -There is one passage in which he uses the word passive (passiv); this, -however, merely states that the child, in accommodating himself to his -surroundings, may outwardly appear inactive or passive, but only in -order to have more scope for his inner activity (wo es äusserlich als -unthätig, leidend [passiv] erscheint … um so seiner innern Thätigkeit -mehr Spielraum zu verschaffen). - -From what he does say there is little doubt but that Froebel would -willingly have subscribed to Professor Stout’s dictum, “that to be -mentally active is identical with being mentally alive or awake,[63] -though in degree the activity may shade off gradually from that -“involving a sense of strain, to that of almost passivity.” But just as -Professor Stout rejects the idea of purely passive consciousness, so, -too, does he reject “pure” mental activity. “It is impossible to find -any bit of mental process which is determined purely from within.”[64]… -“At the same time it is equally true that no change within is entirely -determined from without.”[65] Mr. Stout does not say that pure -activity--a purely self-determined process--cannot exist, for “we should, -by parity of reasoning, be bound to reject the second law of motion.”[66] -“But it rests,” he says, “with the advocates of pure activity, if there -are such, to adduce a case of it, and until such a case is brought -forward we must assume that there is none.… No portion of matter can be, -even for a moment, outside the sphere of influence of other portions.” - -We have seen that Mr. O’Shea practically accuses Froebel of being an -“advocate of pure activity,”[67] nor is he the only one of Froebel’s -critics who does so. If, however, it be considered an accident that -Froebel should in one passage put “conscious self-determination” at the -highest point of life development, and in another passage give this place -to “activity” which Mr. Bradley and Mr. Stout tell us is to be regarded -as self-determined, is it also an accident that in the very same passage -Froebel should state that “everything in Nature develops and forms itself -under the total collective influence of all other things”? - -If these correspondences are not accidental, then it must be allowed in -the first place that Froebel attached a fairly definite meaning to the -word “activity,” including self-determination in its connotation; and in -the second place that the grounds on which he is charged with being a -believer in “pure activity” are very insufficient. When Mr. Stout says -that even if it is allowable “as an illustrative hypothesis” to regard -the physical universe as an internally complete system,[68] it is clear -that “the stream of individual consciousness is no such self-contained -unit,” but “the merest fragment of universal reality, as its correlated -brain process is the merest fragment of the material world[69]”; is -this anything but a statement of that unity, on which Froebel insists -in season and out of season--which appears on almost every page of -his writings, so that the word has become the veriest “cant” of the -half-trained Kindergarten teacher[70]. - -The philosophic conception of unity, the belief that there is no -separation in either world, physical or psychical, or between either -world, was always present to Froebel’s mind. “In Nature,” he writes, -“every phenomenon has its sufficient foundation and its necessary -consequence.” But as every philosopher would say, so Froebel said, -“Separation is permitted for the observing, thinking and comparing -intellect, and the outwardly representing life, and is indeed required by -it, but must by no means on that account be permitted to appear in the -mind which is intended to grasp and constantly to retain in its original -inner union, that which is outwardly apparently separated by the thinking -intellect, the reason and the life.”[71] So Professor Münsterberg, -writing as a professed scientist, says, “Science is to me, not a mass -of disconnected information, … but the certainty that nothing can exist -outside the gigantic mechanism of causes and effects, but Science is not -and cannot be, and ought never to try to be, an expression of ultimate -reality.”[72] - -It would never have dawned on Froebel, nor would it have appealed to -him, to separate his philosophy from his science, but there is no -more contradiction in Froebel’s “self-activity” which is influenced -from without, than there is in Professor Stout when he speaks of -self-determination as included in the connotation of “activity,” and adds -that until a case of “pure activity” is brought forward, we must assume -that there is none. - -Of all his “means of play,” Froebel says: - - “In order, therefore, on the one hand to introduce the child - to the handling of his play material, we gave him the ball, … - but each of these means of play summons the child in return - to self-activity, to free self-activity; to movement, to - free independent movement” (zur Selbsthätigkeit, zur freien - Selbsthätigkeit; zur Bewegung, zur freien, inabhängigen - Bewegung).[73] - - - - -APPENDIX II - -COMPARISON OF PLAYS NOTED BY FROEBEL WITH THE ENUMERATION GIVEN BY GROOS - - -Much that is given in Groos’ more elaborate classification can also be -found in Froebel’s suggestions, particularly where younger children are -concerned. For plays coming under the heading of Playful Activity of the -Sensory Apparatus, Froebel has a parallel for every kind except that of -Temperature, and for this Groos has not himself found anything that can -fairly be called play. - -For Sensations of Contact there is the Kicking Play, and Taste and Smell -are also represented in the Mother Play book. For Hearing play we have -the wooden ball, “a plaything for the child liable to produce noise by -its movement,” as well as the Tic-tac and Finger Piano plays, and for -receptive play, the mother is told to speak, rhythmically if possible, -or to sing with every play. For Sensations of Brightness we have “Mother -you want to foster this delight in all things that are sparkling clear -and bright” of the “Fish in the Brook,” as well as “The Lightbird,” which -Froebel has “found over and over again in all grades of the culture that -makes up social life in village and in town.” - -Sensations of colour are well provided for. In “The Two Windows” we have: -“See the beautiful coloured circles and rays, just like rainbow and -dew-drops, see how beautifully the colours play through each other.” -Colour is a feature in Gift I, in beadwork, in the tablets, in paper -folding, cutting and plaiting, and besides these there are crayons and -paints, and frequent reference is made to the child’s pleasure in the -colour of flowers. - -Froebel also makes much play depend on perception of form: “Attention to -the form and figure of the object can also be utilized for the child in -play,” or, again, “Early in life the child delights in round and varied -pebbles, he seeks and collects them, he takes pleasure in the straight -edged and right angled.” He has found “The Target” play very widely -spread, “plainly because it contains, as I see it, the first trace of an -endeavour to make a child notice position and form.” - -For perception of movement, to which Froebel would have added perception -of change of position, there are many plays with the ball as well as -“Tic-tac,” “The Child and the Pigeons,” “The Lightbird,” “The Fish in the -Brook,” etc. - -Groos’ next class is Play with the Motor Apparatus and under this comes -first Playful movement of the Bodily Organs. Here we have Froebel saying: -“The first toys and occupations of the child come from himself: he plays -with his own limbs.”--_L., p. 108._ “The child at this stage begins to -play with his limbs--his hands, his fingers, his lips, his tongue, his -feet, as well as with the expression of his eyes and face.”--_E., p. 48._ - -Under playful locomotion, Groos actually quotes Froebel’s description -of the child learning to walk, and we have also marching, running, and -racing games; “the large majority,” says Froebel, “I have created simply -by watching the children at play.… Thus I have prepared a limping-game -because I see my boys always limping and hopping.” - -Next comes Playful Movement of Foreign Bodies, and under this heading -Groos gives “Hustling things about, pushing, pulling, shaking, seizing -and pushing away, dabbling in water, handling sand and clay, kite-flying, -and capture of insects.” Of these Froebel mentions pushing of carriages, -kite-flying, hobby-horse riding; he makes much of play with water, sand -and clay, and he speaks of the catching of insects, etc., desiring that -it should be wisely checked by directing the activity into other channels. - -As to Destructive or Analytic Movement Play, Froebel notes that: “The -child wishes to know all the properties of the thing, for this reason he -examines it on all sides; for this reason he tears and breaks it; for -this reason he puts it in his mouth and bites it.”--_E., p. 73._ “The -cruel treatment of insects and other animals originates in the little -boy’s desire to obtain an insight into the life of the animal.”--_E., p. -164._ - -Of Constructive or Synthetic Movement Play, so much has been said -already, that it is not necessary to dwell on it. Froebel, in fact, gives -a far more inclusive account of this than Groos himself, not omitting -his “simplest form,” viz. moulding new forms with sand, etc., nor the -collecting and arranging in rows which to Groos and to Froebel is a more -primitive form of construction. Of Exercise of Endurance, too, we have -spoken, in quoting passages where Froebel shows the boyish desire to -measure and to increase strength. Throwing and Catching Plays have their -place in the “Apprentice and Master Workman” game. - -The important third class, the Playful Use of the Higher Mental Powers, -includes according to Groos a good deal that he has dealt with under -other heads, e.g. Memory Play includes (_a_) Recognition and (_b_) -Reflective Memory. Under the former comes that pleasure in recognition -of form which has already been dealt with, the pleasure given by -pictures, often, says Groos, greater than is given by the reality. -Froebel, too, says that if the father makes a sketch, “this man of lines, -this horse of lines, will give the child more joy than an actual man, an -actual horse will do.”--_E., p. 77._ Froebel, too, notes the pleasure it -will give a child to name flowers through recognition of a form: “Spurred -like a rider, circled like a snail, umbrellas, wheels, he’ll find the -names.”--_M., p. 181._ There is also the recognition of animal and other -noises, as in Froebel’s Yard Gate. Rote learning as a play Froebel hardly -mentions. - -As to the two groups which Groos brings under the heading of Imagination, -viz. “Illusion either playful or serious,” and “the voluntary or -involuntary transformation of our mental content,” these receive full -recognition. Froebel notes how the stick becomes a horse or the knotted -handkerchief the baby, as well as the play of listening to and inventing -stories. - -Under the head of Attention comes such games as Hide and Seek, because -of the alternate stress and relaxation, and Froebel noted before Darwin -did the pleasure of the baby in Bo-peep. Groos also brings curiosity -under this heading, and we have seen that Froebel deals fully with such -play as the outcome of the instinct of investigation, or the instinct for -self-teaching. - -Froebel would certainly not draw the line where Groos does, when he says -“the true characteristics of play are in inverse ratio to the intensity -of the desire for knowledge,” and if this rule were strictly adhered to, -a good deal of what Groos does call play might have to come out. - -The plays which fall under the head of Reason have two bearings, says -Groos, first causality, and second inherence. There are various -references to the “joy of being a cause” from the child “whose capacity -for speech is as yet undeveloped,” but who draws away the support and -as the cube falls “turns to his mother in joyous triumph,” up to the -pride of Keilhau boys, who “might not have accomplished their fortresses -without the sapper,” but “who believed that if cast on a desert island, -each could build a hut of his own.” Froebel also brings in intellectual -games such as draughts, and he notes how children will invent their own -words and their own alphabets in play. Of the making and solving of -riddles I think Froebel never speaks. - -As to what Groos says of Experimentation with the feelings, the parallels -in Froebel are surprise plays such as Hide and Seek, adventure and -hunting games where there may be play with fear, and the legends and -stories. - -Under the Impulse of the Second or Socionomic order, come the Fighting -Plays, Love Play, Imitative Play, and Social Play. Of Love Play, Froebel -has none, but the hunting and fighting were allowed abundant scope at -Keilhau. Of Imitative Play there is much that can be cited from the -playful imitation of simple movements and sounds in the Mother Songs and -the Kindergarten Games, to the “classic dramas” of the Keilhau boys. -Plastic and constructive play, too, goes from the simplest sand play, -through the Kindergarten handwork, not only up to the fortress making, -but also to the “boxes with locks and hinges, so neatly finished, -veneered, and polished that many a trained cabinet-maker’s apprentice -could have done no better,” which were made at Keilhau. - -Of the Social Plays Groos says with feeling that, however advisable, it -is wellnigh impossible to make a distinct class. He starts, however, with -the “need of bodily association or the herding instinct.” He brings in -the child’s eager desire to be with his fellows, and the importance in -adult life of festivals, religious or otherwise. He mentions the child’s -voluntary submission to a leader, and speaks of play as instrumental in -teaching children submission to law. We have noticed Froebel speaking -of the “combined games, which will train the child, by his very nature -eager for companionship, in the habit of association with comrades, in -good fellowship and all that this implies.” He also wants the child to -take alternately some special part in the game and to be merely one of -the crowd: “Each child should have a chance to lead, for it is especially -developing to a child to recognize himself as independent as well as a -member of the whole.” Among the older boys, the Bergwachts for instance -were carefully organized under separate leaders and the captain of -the first band was director of the whole. Froebel, too, made much of -festivals at Keilhau, and this has always been a recognized feature of -the Kindergarten. - -Enjoyment of the comic never, I think, makes its appearance at all. -Froebel had many gifts, but the saving sense of humour does not appear to -have been among them. - - - - -FOOTNOTES - - -[1] See Chapter IX. - -[2] See Chapter X. - -[3] “Froebel’s Educational Principles,” Elementary School Record, Vol. I, -No. 5, or “The Dewey School,” published by the Froebel Society. - -[4] See Chapter VI, _p. 79_. - -[5] The Philosophy and Psychology of the Kindergarten.--“Teachers’ -College Record,” Nov., 1903. - -[6] It is true that Froebel was pre-Darwinian, but see _p. 198_. - -[7] All this is said in connection with the infant’s play with a woollen -ball, with quaint suggestions that the singing tone accompanying the -swinging like a ball affects the feelings, while the recognition of a -change of position is a thing of “dawning thought,” and that by tic-tac -the movement is expressed. See _p. 176_. - -[8] Dies fesselt die Sinnen- und Geistesthätigkeit des Kindes und gibt -_ihm_ mehrseitige Nahrung. - -[9] In der Mitte seiner wahrnehmenden (empfindenden) seiner wirkenden und -schaffenden, seiner vergleichenden (denkenden) Thätigkeit. - -[10] Die Ausbildung der verschiedenen Richtungen der Geisteskraft des -Kindes. - -[11] “Journal of Education.” Reprinted in “Child Life,” January, 1901. - -[12] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 152_ _et seq._ - -[13] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 153_. - -[14] It is true that Professor Stout complains of the loose way in which -the word “activity” has been used, and that he is careful to define his -own meaning, but Froebel too is careful. See Appendix I. - -[15] See also _p. 82_. - -[16] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. II, _p. 82_. - -[17] “The Conception of Immortality,” _p. 58_. - -[18] Froebel is comparing the child with other young animals, and -somewhat scornfully refers to those who, “notwithstanding the early -manifestation of the instinct to employ himself,” regard the human infant -as inferior to the young of other animals. - -[19] See chapter on Instinct. - -[20] “In dem ersten Sinnenspiele, kommen also dem Kinde durch Wahrnehmen -u. Schauen, durch Kommen, Bleiben u. Schwinden, durch Wechsel, also auch -in gewisser Hinsicht durch frühes dunkles auffassen … somit von dunkler -Vergleichung, die ersten Eindrücke der Seele, gleichsam die ersten -Erkenntnisse zugleich durch Selbst-thätigkeit, wie durch die sein Leben -und dessen Forderungen in sich tragende Mutterliebe.”--_P., p. 66._ - -[21] It does not, however, follow that this outer object, or this manner -of presenting it, is so important as Froebel supposed; see Chapter IX. - -[22] See _p. 66_. - -[23] See Chapter II. - -[24] “Principles of Psychology,” Vol. II, _p. 884_. - -[25] Froebel is too often ignorantly accused of being “soft,” but it is a -mistake to think that he leaves fear out of count. What he insists on is, -that rightly used authority should produce self-control, not servility. - -[26] See _p. 90_. - -[27] Macmillan, 1906. - -[28] _P. 53._ - -[29] “Social Psychology,” _p. 61_. - -[30] Mr. McDougall allows (_p. 60_) that in the case of an unprovoked -blow, the impulse, the thwarting of which provokes anger, is the impulse -of self-assertion. - -[31] For example, on _p. 46_, “Hence language provides special names -for such modes of affective experience, names such as anger, fear, -curiosity”; and on _p. 94_, in connection with the sympathetic induction -of emotion, we have, “Later still, fear, curiosity, and, I think, anger -are communicated readily from one child to another”; and there are other -examples. - -[32] _P. 51._ - -[33] This is all that can be said, for the passage seems incomplete; -after “entwickelt … der Trieb die Neigung,” comes only “sie führen zur -Gemüths- und Herzensbildung; und aus ihr geht in dem Knaben Geistes- und -Willensthätigkeit hervor.” - -[34] For a fuller account of these “Gifts,” see Chap. VIII., _p. 148_. - -[35] In the well-known translation by F. and E. Lord: - - “You wonder why a game at hide-and-seek - Brings a glad flush of joy to baby’s cheek? - The sense of his own personality - Is causing all this joy that you can see - When people call him, say, ‘Where’s Baby been?’ - He feels that it is he, himself, they mean.” - -[36] “Social Psychology,” _p. 89_. - -[37] “The Play of Man,” _p. 400_. - -[38] “The Play of Man,” _p. 382_. - -[39] See _p. 194_. - -[40] In another place Froebel does say that, “Only on condition that -the genuine spirit of play--i.e. the true spirit of life--lives in the -teacher, can he call it forth in the child.” - -[41] See Appendix II. - -[42] See _pp. 93, 94_. - -[43] See _p. 43_. - -[44] Froebel goes on to say: “I believe, that after progressing through -the vast orbit of almost two generations (he was nearly fifty-nine) I -have been carried round to the point of commencement, to the fountain -head of the education of mankind, but _with the significant addition of a -full consciousness of my task_.” - -[45] The material can of course be used at any age provided it conveys -suitable ideas in a suitable manner. Some of it is even now found useful -in helping senior classes to realize problems in area and in volume. - -[46] Many years ago, a young teacher came to me for help. She had been -told to give her class number lessons, for a whole term, from Gift III, -which consists of eight little cubes, and the children had long since -grasped 4 + 4, 6 + 2, 5 + 3, and 8 - 4, 8 - 2, etc. I suggested that she -should leave the number out and let the children play with the blocks. -“Oh! I mayn’t do that,” was the answer, “they have building with Gift IV.” - -[47] A really pathetic story has been told me of an earnest teacher in -far Australia, whose educational opportunities had been very limited, -but whose desire for knowledge was most sincere. She had been listening -without comprehension to some glib user of phrases, and was bewailing her -ignorance to an enlightened teacher who knew there had been little of -real value, and who said with a laugh “Never mind, Miss ----, it is only -a case of ‘Mind and Matter glide swift into the vortex of immensity.’” -And the listener said, “Oh please, would you say that slowly, and I’ll -write it down.” - -[48] These objections were embodied in a paper entitled “A Criticism -of Froebelian Pedagogy,” which Mr. Graham Wallas read at a Conference -of the Froebel Society in January 1901, and which was published in the -Conference Supplement for Child Life, July 1901. - -[49] See _p. 200_. - -[50] Few critics are likely to go so far as Mr. Winch, who gave as a -Froebelian conception “that the true destiny of man is to be obtained by -gratifying every youthful impulse.” But, Mr. Winch is perhaps not to be -taken seriously, for in the same paper he took _one sentence out of a -passage on the importance of continuity extending over four pages_, and -says of it, “This jerky discontinuity (!) has not the slightest support -in biological science, and never had.” (See Memorandum written for Mr. -Graham Wallas in “Problems of Education.”) - -[51] Deshalb sollen Erziehung, Unterricht und Lehre ursprünglich und in -ihren ersten Grundzügen nothwendig leidend, nachgehend (nur behütend -schützend), nicht vorschreibend, bestimmend, eingreifend sein. - -[52] Mr. Graham Wallas said: “The educational task for us is not to find -out how completely we can stand aside, but how far we can so influence -the environment of the child, as to cause those tendencies in it which we -think best, to become permanent.” - -[53] Mr. Graham Wallas said: “From the beginning of the Darwinian -reconstruction of the moral sciences, it was absurd, while speaking -of ‘environment,’ to ignore the fact that the deliberate care and -contrivance of the parent must form a large part of the environment of -the child.” The passage quoted shows that Froebel was guilty of no such -absurdity. - -[54] “Is Development from Within?” “Child Life,” October, 1904, and -January, 1905. - -[55] See _p. 192_. - -[56] “Second Review of Plays: A Fragment,” but part of this has been -omitted in the English translation. - -[57] Those who desire a full and scholarly account of Froebel’s -philosophy are referred to that given by Professor Angus MacVannel, -Ph.D., “Teachers’ College Record,” Vol. IV, No. 5. The Macmillan Co., New -York. - -[58] In Gottes Welt, eben weil es die Welt Gottes, durch Gott Gewordenes -ist, spricht sich ein Stetiges, das heisst ungetrennt Fortgehendes der -Entwickelung in Allem und durch Alles aus. - -[59] See Appendix, _p. 216_. - -[60] “Das Pedagogik des Kindergartens,” _p. 329_. - -[61] According to this principle, the mere fact that a particle is moving -with a certain velocity in a certain direction, is in itself a reason why -it should continue to move with the same velocity in the same direction.… -Now, in so far as continuance of change in a certain direction is -traceable to the pre-existence of change in that direction, this whole -process may be regarded as being in a perfectly intelligible sense, -self-determining (“Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 146_). - -[62] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 147_. - -[63] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 168_. - -[64] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 155_. - -[65] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 156_. - -[66] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 156_. - -[67] _P. 191._ - -[68] And so to regard “each successive moment of the world-process as -issuing out of the preceding by purely immanent casuality.” - -[69] “Analytic Psychology,” Vol. I, _p. 156_. - -[70] “Unity and Froebel are synonymous terms,” is one “howler” from a -student’s examination paper. - -[71] Ed. by Development, _p. 212_. - -[72] “The Eternal Life,” _p. 14_. - -[73] “Das Kindergartenwesen,” _p. 330_. - - - - -INDEX - - - A - - Acquisition, Instinct of, 96, 109 - - Activity, Spontaneous, 132 - Differentiation, 90 - Earliest Activity, 1, 9, 34, 126 - Consciousness and Self-Consciousness, Development of, 48, 81, 84, 85 - Nature of First Voluntary Employments, 135 - Expression, _see_ that title - Foundation of Education, 6, 84, 142, 210 - Fundamental Tendency, 47, 85, 88, 90 - Meaning of, in Froebel’s Writings, 213 _et seq._ - Self-determination included in connotation, 217 - Universal Impulse, 90, 126 - - Adams, Prof., quoted, 190, 210 - - Amusement, Distinction from Play, 134 - - Analysis of Mind - Observation and Introspection, 12 - Order of Investigation of Laws of Mental Process, 3, 4 - Sense and Understanding, Inseparability, 17, 20 - Tri-une Character, 13 - - Animal Instincts, 72 - - Anticipations of Modern Psychology, 2 _et seq._--Summary, 10 - - Anthropological Aspect of Psychological Inquiry, 4, 8, 206 - - Approbation, Love of, 114, 115 - - Arrangement and Comparison, 101, 166 - - Artistic Tendencies of Children, 105 - - Associationists, Fallacy of, 38 - - “Atomistic View,” 38, 39 - - Attacks on Froebel, 2, 190-1 - - - B - - Baer referred to, 206 - - Baldwin, Prof., quoted, 50, 52 - - Ball-Play--Ideas to be gained, etc., 40, 150, 151, 155, 156, 159 - - Batch, Froebel’s connection with, 199 - - Biological Studies, Influence on Froebel’s Views, connection with - stress laid on Development, etc., 13, 40, 67, 138, 192, 199, 210 - - Blow, Miss Susan--Froebel’s Symbolism, 179, 189 - - Bradley, Mr., quoted, 213 - - - C - - Cause, Early Notice of, 160 - - Change--Use in fixing Impressions, 43, 152 - - Collecting or Acquiring Instinct, 96, 109 - - Colour, Sense of, 165, 166 - - Community, Feeling of, _refer to_ Social Instinct - - Comte referred to, 206 - - Conation, _refer to_ Will - - Connection or Unification, Law of, 204 - - Conscience, references to, 116, 117 - - Consciousness - Development by Action, 48 - --Movement stopped by Something, 49, 52 - Earliest Consciousness - Absolute Beginnings--Beyond the pale of Science, 41 - Indefiniteness, 39, 49, 91--Undifferentiated, unorganized Unity, - 91, 201 - Process of Differentiation, 40, 42, 47 - Reasoning and Constructive Imagination, 36, 38 - Unity of, 26 - _See also_ title Self-Consciousness - - Construction, Instinct of, 90 - “Sense of Power,” i.e., Self-Consciousness resulting, 109, 133 - Subserving Instinct of Investigation, 92, 94 - - Continuous Development, _see_ Development - - Cooke, Mr. Ebenezer, quoted, 102, 199, 202 - - Counting, Development of Capacity for, 101, 102 - - Criticisms of Froebel, 2, 190 - - “Culture Epochs” Theory, 129 - - - D - - Darwin, references to, 67, 201 - - Development--Froebel’s Theory of Continuous Development, 10, 128, 140, - 178, 179, 206, 207, 209 - Biological Studies, Connection with, 13 - Development from within, 136, 192, 195, 196 - “Harmonious Development,” 14-16 - Individual development of, following that of the Race, 206 - Law of--Unlimited to Limited, Whole to Part, Indefinite to Definite, - 40, 130, 150, 151, 155, 201, 202 - Possibilities and Conditions in place of Faculties, 18-20 - Reconciliation of Opposites, Result of, 204 - Self-directed Process, 212 _note_ - Three Stages, 71 - - Development of Species, Modernness of Froebel’s View, 205 - - Dewey, Prof. - Experimental Work at Chicago, 129 - Summary of Froebel’s Educational Principles, 6 - - Discipline - Adjusting Claims of Freedom and Authority, 197 - Direction of Impulse, not Opposition, 212 _note_ - Non-Interference Theory, 190, 191, 192 _note_, 193-5 - - Doll-Play, 167 - - Drawing - Counting Capacity, Means of developing, 101 - Origin of Earliest Drawing, 103 - Process of discovering “Linear Phenomena,” 103, 166 - - Duties as a means of realizing Kinship, 61, 114, 118 - - - E - - Ebers--Account of Life at Keilhau, 123, 147, 168 - - Eby, Mr., quoted, 7, 79 - - Emotion, _see_ Feeling - - Employment, Instinct of, _refer to_ Activity - - Environment, Alleged Neglect by Froebel, 190, 196 - --Reply to Critics, 197, 199, 200-4, 208, 210 - - Evolution--Froebel’s Post-Darwinianism, 198, 205 - - Experimenting--Mode of Investigation, 102 - - Exploring Tendency, 94-5 - - Expression - Art as, 105 - Feeling, Importance in Development of, 57-62 - Need for, 50, 99, 133 - Play, Definition of, 124, 125 - Understanding, Means of, 92 - - - F - - Faculty Psychology, Criticism of, 13, 17 _et seq._ - - Fairy Tales, 108, 182 - - Family Bonds, 61, 113 - - Fear, Froebel’s attitude towards, 78 and _note_ - - Feeling, Development of, etc., 130 - Action, Importance of, 57-62 - Family Bonds and Service for the Family, 61, 113 - Fundamental Importance, 63 - Starting Point of Education, 117 - Want of Good Feeling in Children, Cause, 63-4, 112 - - Fichte, Reference to, 204 - - Fletcher, Dr., quoted, 212 _note_ - - Following and Tolerating--Character of True Education, 160, 195 - - - G - - Games, _refer to_ Play - - Genetic Psychology preceded by Analytic, 3 - - “Gifts” and “Gift Plays” - Description of the Series, 159-166 - Excessive Importance attached to, 170 - Hailmann’s, Mr., distinction between “Gifts” and “Occupations,” 164, - 165 - Psychological Aim or Meaning, 40, 149, 150, 164, 169, 178 - Selection following Natural Instinct, 169, 170 - Tri-Unity of Child-Nature, Relation of Gift Plays to, 14 - Weakness of the Series, 166 - Two Mistakes, and the Psychological Errors underlying them, 170-6 - - Groos, Karl, quoted, 90, 125, 126, 130, 132, 136, 137, 145, 147, 219 - - Grüner, reference to, 200 - - - H - - Habit - Instinct, Proof of existence of, 76 - Outcome of Impulse of Activity, 88 - - Hailmann, Mr., quoted, 164, 193 - - Hall, Stanley, quoted, 206 - - “Harmonious Development,” 14-16 - - Hegel, Froebel’s knowledge of, 205 - - Helba Plan, 26, 84, 212 _note_ - - Herbartians--“Culture Epochs” Theory, 129 - - Horne, Prof., quoted, 17 - - - I - - Imitation - McDougall’s, Mr., Three Classes of Imitative Actions, 89 - Outcome of Activity and Means of Expression, 47, 88, 126 - Results gained, 50, 51, 91 - - Instincts - Classifications - Eby, 79, 80 - Froebel, 83 _et seq._ - Kirkpatrick, 79, 80, 81 - McDougall, 79, 81 - Direction and Training needed, 71, 121 - Divergent Views a matter of Definition, 67-8 - Froebel’s belief in Instinct, 67, 69, 70, 74, 125 - Froebel’s Terminology, 68, 69 - Habit and Instinct, Interaction between, 76 - Indefinite in Man--Proof of Superiority and Capacity for Progressive - Development, 66, 72, 75 - Specific and General Tendencies, Distinction between, 68 - Specifically Human Instincts only dealt with by Froebel, 82 - Transitory Nature, 75, 77, 78 - Two Main Lines of Instinctive Action, 83 - - Interdependence of Life, 62 - - Intuition of Things--Dr. Ward’s Points, 154-5 - - Investigation, Instinct of, 88, 90-2, 94-7, 102, 107 - - - J - - James, Prof., quoted, 39, 57, 59, 65, 68, 69, 73-5 - - Jarvis, Miss--Translation of passage _re_ Self-Consciousness, 54 - - Joy in Activity, 136-7, 139, 143, 145 - - - K - - Keilhau, Life at, 111, 123, 143, 147, 168, 212 _note_, 223, 224 - - Kindergarten - Associated Games, Social Training, etc., 114, 146, 147 - Defined, 90, 114, 142 - Disregard of Froebel’s instructions by his disciples, 147, 170 - End and Aim of, 90, 142, 208, 210 - Gifts and Occupations, _refer to_ title Gifts - No gulf between Kindergarten and “The Education of Man,” 210, - 212 _note_ - - King, Mr. Irving, quoted, 8, 26, 48, 49, 50-2, 54 - - Kirkpatrick, Mr., quoted, 79-80, 114, 115, 117, 134 - - - L - - Lamarck, reference to, 201 - - Language - Development of capacity for Speech, 97-101 - Earliest Training, Use in--Names the beginning of Organization, 21, - 29, 45, 46, 98, 100 - Feeling, Development of, 58 - - Location, Sense of, 152, 153 - Source of questioning Activity, 97 - - Lodge, Sir Oliver, quoted, 32 - - - M - - McDougall, Mr., quoted, 68, 76, 86, 89, 117 - - MacVannel, Dr. J. A., quoted, 10 - - Marenholz, Madame von, 205 - - Material of Instruction and Manner of Teaching--Conditioned by stage - of Development, 129 - - Maternal Instinct, 119, 120 - - Mathematical Perceptions--Over-estimate of Children’s Capacity, 170-4 - - Memory--Froebel’s Description, 19 - - Mental Activity, 3, 4, 13, 23-7 - Earlier and later Forms, 30 - Possibilities--Difference between Child and Animal, 49 - Sense and Understanding, Close connection, 17, 20, 207 - - Mental Analysis, _see_ Analysis of Mind - - Metaphor, Froebel’s delight in, 187-8 - - Moral Faculty, 116, 118, 207 - - Morgan, Prof. Lloyd, quoted, 33, 67, 72 - - Mother Wit--Need for Thought and Training, 120, 211 - - Movement, _see_ Activity - - Münsterberg, Prof., quoted, 218 - - Music--Importance of early Training, 106 - - Mysticism, _see_ Symbolism - - - N - - Naming, _refer to_ Language - - Natural Instincts, _see_ Instincts - - Non-Interference, Froebel’s Theory of, 190-5 - - Number, Discovery of, 101, 102 - - - O - - Observation of Children, 4-6, 8, 9, 29, 74, 87, 92, 94, 96, 103, 104, - 109, 111, 133, 162, 165 - - Order, Sense of, and the Instinct of Rhythm, 115, 116 - - Organization and Language, 21, 29, 45-6, 100 - - Outer Factor in Perception, over-emphasized by Froebel, 171, 173, 174 - - O’Shea, Prof., quoted, 97, 191, 200, 207, 216 - - - P - - Parental Instinct, 119, 120 - - Personality, Consciousness of, _see_ Self-Consciousness - - Philosophy, Froebel’s, 10 - - Physical and Psychical, Close connection between, 17, 20, 207 - - Play - Amusement, Distinction from, 134 - Biological View, 138 - Classifications (Froebel and Groos), 145, 219 - Earliest Childhood, Play in, 124, 125, 128, 130, 147 - Educative Value, Originality of Froebel’s View, 122 - Groos’ Criteria, 130 - Guidance needed, 143, 145 and _note_ - Imitative Play, 88 - Joy in Games, 133, 136, 139 - Recreative Play, 122 - Self-Consciousness, Development of, in Boyhood, 56 - Social Virtues, Development by Games, 111, 144, 146 - Surplus Energy Theory, 123, 144 - Theories of Play--Recapitulation and Preparation, 138, 140, 141, 142 - Work and Play - Distinction between--Froebel’s definition, 124, 128 - Earliest Activity--No Differentiation, 130, 131 - Early Boyhood, Differentiation in, 131, 132 - - Playgrounds, Importance of, 143 - - Play-Material - Definite prescription impossible, 167 - First Playthings, 153 - Importance in relation to Development, 148, 149 - Mistake of giving expensive and complex toys, 164 - Number and variety of games noted, 147 - Object of Froebel’s play-material, 93 - _See_ also title Gifts - - Poems and Songs, Use in Development of Feeling, 58, 130 - - Preyer quoted, 52 - - Psychological Basis for Educational Theories, 2 - - Pugnacity, Instinct of, 86 - - Purpose of Education, 200 - _Refer also to_ Self-Consciousness - - - Q - - Quantity, Relations of, 101 - - Questioning Activity, 97 - - - R - - Reflection, Development of, 75 - - Religious Instincts - Foundation in Social Instincts, 115, 117 - Morality and Religion, 118 - Work and Religion, 127 - - Religious Convictions of Froebel, 205-6 - - Repetition, Impressions fixed by, 43, 152 - - Representation (Darstellung), _see_ Expression - - Rhythm--Importance of early development of Instinct, 106, 160, 187 - Order, Sense of, Connection with, 115, 116 - - Ribot quoted, 90, 126 - - Romanes quoted, 68 - - Royce, Prof., quoted, 31 - - - S - - Seele, Ida, 209 - - Self-Abasement and Self-Assertion, Instincts of, 86 - - Self-Consciousness, Development of, 52, 53, 56, 84, 109, 116, 117, 153 - Early Developments, 54, 55 - Indefiniteness of Instinct rendering development possible, 82 - Purpose of Education and “End of Man,” 30-5, 53, 178 - Tales, Craving for, due to nascent idea of Self, 57, 107 - - Self-Determination, _refer to_ Will - - Self-Employment, _refer to_ Activity - - Self-Instruction, Instinct of, _refer to_ Investigation - - Sense and Movement, Connection of, 48 - - Sense and Understanding, Close connection of, 17, 20, 207 - - Separation attempted in use of “Gifts”--Psychological error, 175-6 - - Service as Expression of Feeling, 59, 60 - - Social Instinct - Development from the “Feeling of Community,” 91, 110-12 - Early Training essential, 63-4, 112 - Games, Education in, 111-12, 144, 146 - Religious Instincts, Foundation of, 115, 117 - - Speech, _refer to_ Language - - Spencer, Herbert, quoted, 206 - - Sphere and Cube (Gift II)--Material for Comparison, 41, 159, 161 - - Spontaneous Activity, _see_ Activity - - Stories, Interest in, 57, 107 - - Stout, Prof., quoted, 3, 4, 12, 22, 23, 24, 26, 36, 37, 38, 48, 73, - 135, 213, 215, 216 - - Summary of Froebel’s Educational Principles, 6 - - “Surplus Energy” Theory, 123, 144 - - Symbolism--Froebel’s alleged excessive and far-fetched Symbolism, 169, - 179-82 - Exaggeration by disciples and translators, 183-6, 188 - Instances--Practical application usually harmless, 186-7 - - - T - - Tales, Craving for, 57, 107 - - Thorndyke, Prof., quoted, 180 - - Time-Relations, 155 - - Toys, _refer to_ titles Gifts and Play-Material - - Tri-une Nature of Man, 10, 32, 34, 89, 116, 126 - - - U - - Unfoldment, Doctrine of, _see_ Development - - Unification or Connection, Law of, 204-5 - - Unity and Complexity, 155, 157, 158 - Froebel’s yearning for Unity, 199, 217 - - - W - - Wallas, Mr. Graham--Criticisms of Froebel, 190, 196, 197, 198, 199, 201, - 208 - - Ward, Dr., quoted, 17, 20, 36, 37, 38, 149, 151, 152, 154, 155, 157, 158 - - Welton, Prof., quoted, 212 _note_ - - Will - Definitions (Froebel and Stout), 22 - Development - Action and Feeling, Development through, 35 - Bound up with Intellectual Development, 26, 27 - Parallel Accounts (Froebel and Stout), 27, 28 - Self-Consciousness involving true volition, 30 - - Winch, Mr.--Criticism of Froebel, 192 _note_, 207 - - Women’s Work in Education--Intelligent knowledge needed in addition to - natural Instinct, 120, 211 - - Work - Condition of best work, 127, 128 - Play, Relation to, _see_ title Play - Religion and Work, 118, 119 - - Wundt, Prof., quoted, 68 - -GEORGE PHILIP & SON, LTD., LONDON - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Froebel as a pioneer in modern -psychology, by Elsie Riach Murray - 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