Golden Jubilee Edition Of The Paradise Of Childhood A Practical Guide To Kindergartners

Author : Edward Wiebe
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781331314356
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (143 download)

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Download or read book Golden Jubilee Edition of the Paradise of Childhood written by Edward Wiebe and published by . This book was released on 2015-07-13 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Golden Jubilee Edition of the Paradise of Childhood: A Practical Guide to Kindergartners When I first heard the title of this book, "The Paradise of Childhood," applied to the kindergarten, verily, thought I, this name is well deserved and aptly chosen, for the original edition fell into my hands shortly after my first visit to the kindergarten of Madam Maria Kraus Boelte in New York city. The enlarged edition has held its own since 1896, proving a helpful guide to many teachers and mothers remote from training centers as well as an excellent text or reference book in training classes. The life of Froebel, written for the Quarter Century edition, by Henry W. Blake, A.M., has proved invaluable and will remain intact in this edition. The purpose of the present edition is to present some of the later results of kindergarten progress in comparison with the past. Certain changes have been introduced gradually under the beneficent criticism of psychologists and physicians, and the influence of general progress in the whole sphere of education. It should not be forgotten that this general progress is due in part to the study of Froebel's writings, especially "The Education of Man." This book has been and is now being studied by teachers in normal schools, colleges, and universities. It is recognized as one of the great educational classics touching, as its title suggests, education at all points. Kindergartners for many years neglected this book, confining themselves too closely to the details of kindergarten gifts and occupations, but with the general progress of educational thought they too are now studying Froebel's views on broader lines. Differences of opinion have arisen, as they always do when people really think and study instead of blindly following a leader. That for a season kindergartners must recognize a conservative and a progressive element in their ranks is not surprising. These two elements always work together in every line of human thought for the good of each other and of the whole. They simply represent two tendencies of the human intellect. "The kindergarten is so good," said a thoughtful mother to me, "that it is hard to spoil it very much." This response was given in reply to the particular kindergarten her children were attending. More recently, a professor of education in one of the great universities remarked to a friend, "My little boy attends a very conservative kindergarten, the very kind I disapprove, but there is no other near my home and he needs the companionship of children of his own age. Notwithstanding our differences in opinion, I could not repay the kindergartner for the excellent results in the training of my little son." Dr. John Dewey says in "The School and Curriculum," "It is easier to see the conditions in their separateness, to insist upon one at the expense of the other, to make antagonists of them, than to discover a reality to which each belongs. The easy thing is to seize upon something in the nature of the child, or upon something in the developed consciousness of the adult, and insist upon that as the key to the whole problem. When this happens a really serious practical problem - that of interaction - is transformed into an unreal and hence insoluble theoretic problem." In "Education of Man" Froebel speaks of the value of comparison. He says, "Only the study of the life of others can furnish such points of comparison with the life one himself has experienced." It is, after all, "the golden mean" which we are seeking. "Education is an art, the practice of which can become perfect only through many generations," said the great philosopher, Kant. Both conservatives and progressives unite in recognizing the kindergarten as the social center needed by children after the first three or four years of life have been nurtured in the home. The child begins at this age to show symptoms of needing more experi