'Come let us live with our children' Friedrich Froebel, founder of the Kindergarten
The name of the German educationalist Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852) is indissolubly linked with the kindergarten - literally, the children's garden. This was his name for the system of education for young children he devised that incorporated what was then, in the early 19th century, the revolutionary idea that children learn best through play.
The use of play for learning had occurred to several other writers on education before him, notably the English philosopher John Locke, but no one had developed it to the extent that Froebel did. Not only did he invent objects for children to play with, which were called the Gifts and the Occupations, but he also justified their use by drawing upon philosophical ideas associated with German Romanticism and Idealism.
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