KINDERGARTEN, kĭn'dẽr-gär'ten (Ger., children's garden). A school for children from the third or fourth to the seventh year, suggested and organized by Friedrich Fröbel (q.v.), through which the natural activity of the child in play is so organized as to assist in the physical, mental, and moral development. Fröbel first grasped the significance of the idea of evolution in its application to education, and saw the importance of the earlier stages. To him education was a setting free of the powers inherent in the individual. By an organization of the child's instinctive tendency to action, through gradual, continuous exercises, his best tendencies can be strengthened, and at the same time he can acquire a certain preliminary knowledge of the world of nature and man around him. Thus the child gains control over his own being, develops power of thought, self-control, accuracy of sense-perception, and a tendency toward an active intellectual life.
Fröbel was a close student of child life. Hence
his suggestion of means and methods for the
kindergarten work were based on accurate knowledge
of child nature, and have been of permanent
value. The mere play instinct alone would not
suffice, but the plays and games must be
selected and organized. Fröbel classified the
material to be so used as gifts and occupations.
The kindergarten is a new social institution for
the child, in which he has free scope to be
himself while being also one of a community of
equals toward whom he must observe his duties
and accept the responsibility of his part in the
whole. The gifts and the occupations are there
introduced gradually and in a logical order. As
he becomes familiar with the properties of the
one he is led on to the next, which properly
grows out of the first, each introducing new
impressions and repeating the old.
The first gift is composed of six rubber or
woolen balls, three of the primary and three of
the secondary colors. The ball is chosen as the
simplest type form, from which may be derived
all other forms, as embodying the element of
constancy and unity. Through the balls the idea
of comparison is introduced, and sensation and
perception become clearer and stronger through
the similarity, contrast, and discrimination made
possible by the almost innumerable exercises and
games. The second gift, comprising a wooden
ball, cylinder, and cube, carries impressions
further, and offers not only in itself, but also
with the first gift, a strong illustration of
contrasts and their connections. In shape, in
material, in hardness, in color, etc., it contrasts
with its predecessor, but is like it in the common
shape of the balls. With the third gift, consisting of a wooden cube cut once in each dimension to form eight smaller cubes, begins the first impression of a whole divisible into similar parts. Here, too, are the first steps in number, in analysis of construction, the first suggestion, in the gifts, of the relation of the individual to the whole, and of the need of every perfect part to form a perfect unit. With the use of this gift the child accustoms himself to regularity, care, precision, beauty. The fourth gift, a cube like that of the third, but cut once horizontally and twice vertically into eight rectangular parallelograms, introduces especially the new element of a whole composed of parts unlike itself. The fifth and sixth gifts are but extensions of the third and fourth, with more material and differing forms of solids. The seventh gift consists of quadrangular and triangular tablets of cardboard or thin wood, giving a basis for studies in surfaces and colors. The eighth and ninth gifts are introductory to drawing, and consist of small strips of laths and of rings and circles in cardboard, which can be arranged into all sorts of patterns.