Friedrich Froebel, Founder of Kindergarten
Friedrich Froebel was a German educator of the nineteenth century who developed an Idealist philosophy of early childhood education. He established kindergarten and education for four and five-year-old children. Kindergarten is now a part of education worldwide.
Friedrich Froebel was born in the small town of Oberwiessbach, Germany in 1782. His mother died when he was a baby. His father remarried, but Froebel never liked his stepmother. His feeling of rejection and isolation remained with him for life. This had a strong effect on his theory of early childhood education. He believed the kindergarten teacher should be loving, kind and motherly.
Froebel also had an unsatisfactory relationship with his father which, along with his shyness, caused him to be “introspective and socially inept” (Gutek, 2005, p. 261). Therefore, he wanted his kindergarten to “foster a sense of emotional security and self-esteem in children” (Gutek, 2005, p. 261).
At the age of ten, Froebel went to live with his uncle. As a young child, Froebel spent a lot of time playing in the garden around his home. This led to his love of nature and had a profound effect on his educational philosophy.
When he was fifteen years old, Froebel apprenticed with a forester and surveyor and studied forestry, geometry and surveying in school. He briefly attended the University of Jena from 1800-1802. Then he studied architecture at Frankfurt University. Although he ended his studies without receiving a degree, Froebel gained a sense of artistic perspective and symmetry he later used to design his kindergarten “gifts” and “occupations.”
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