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| Format | Dissertation |
|---|---|
| Creator | Shapiro, Michael Steven |
| Title | Froebel in America: A Social and Intellectual History of the Kindergarten Movement, 1848-1918. |
| Dissertation Note (type -- academic institution) | Dissertation -- Brown University (Providence, RI) |
| Date | 1980 |
| Extent of Work | 545 pp. |
| Abstract | This is the study of a nineteenth century social-educational movement--a collective attempt to bring about change in the educational institutions of America in order to reform society. It is the story of the men and women who believed that they had special insight into the development and early education of children between the ages of three and six. Having studied the ideas of the German romantic reformer Friedrich Froebel, they attempted to establish a new educational institution, the kindergarten, or child's garden, in America. Since their efforts met with strong, initial resistance from a conservative society whose child-rearing notions derived from evangelical Protestantism rather than from romantic poetry, the American Froebelians were forced to mount an organized campaign for the acceptance of the kindergarten. This study is a record of their accomplishments and failures, their contributions and their shortcomings. Since most Froebelians believed that the success of the kindergarten movement depended upon changing the fundamental attitudes of Americans toward child-rearing and early education, this study is also an interpretation of American social and intellectual history between 1865 and 1917 viewed through the lens of early childhood education. Though the European origins of social-educational reform movements are not the subject of this inquiry, several broad generalizations at the outset may be helpful. The Enlightenment of the eighteenth century produced a new philosophical tradition which not only provided a critique of western society and values but also, for the first time, made childhood a symbol of human potential and the corruption of adult society. In attacking (or defending) the social order, writers like Jean Jacques Rousseau and John Locke, therefore, focused upon the educational systems which perpetuated the society. The educational tracts of the Enlightenment, however, remained largely philosophical disputations. By the beginning of the nineteenth century social-educational reform movements arose to propel the educational ideas of these philosophies. In England the utopian programs of Robert Owen and, in Europe, the ideas of Johann Pestalozzi and Friedrich Froebel began to attract groups of devoted followers. The reformers held in common their desire to perfect the child, improve the adult, and regenerate the social order. By the mid-nineteenth century social educational movements were already undergoing a marked transformation. When the Froebelian kindergarten reached the United States in 1860, the European movement was already in the second stage of development. An international, organizational structure had replaced the bands of loyal disciples while the educational writings of Froebel were crystallized into an ideology of childhood education. The strategy of the American Froebelians, moreover, changed from educational innovation to the establishment of kindergartens and normal training schools. During the nineteenth century Froebelianism entered other American social institutions including the family, school, social settlement, normal school and the university. Inevitably the growth of the Froebelian movement set into motion the very forces which defeated the ideals that gave birth to it. Factionalization, bureaucratization and professionalization were the prices of rapid growth. In part, this study traces the gradual absorption (and rejection) of Froebelian institutions by the larger educational community and society which surrounded it. Since the Froebelians were perhaps more successful in their attempt to influence ideas than to change educational institutions in America, I have devoted much of the study to the competing ideologies of early childhood education in America. For the purpose of this study Lawrence Kohlberg's definition of an educational ideology as a set of concepts which define the desirable aims, content, and method of education is employed (Harvard Educational Review, November 1972). Educational ideologies, in turn, are grounded in moral positions and surrounded by an epistemology and psychology. They are the sources to which American parents have turned in periods of significant changes in the economic, political, demographic or social conditions of the society. It is the thesis of this study that new theories or ideologies of education, often introduced by social-educational movements, may be adopted, in whole or in part, during such periods of social and intellectual reorientation. Throughout American history the dominant ideology of early childhood education has been family government. Rooted in Calvinist theology, family government stressed the orderly transmission of skills, knowledge and the rules of society from one generation to the next. The success of this educational system was measured by the ability of the individual to find a vocational or spiritual calling on the one hand and the stability of society on the other. Based on a rational epistemology and associational psychology, knowledge was assumed to be repetitive and objective in nature and absorbed through the senses. As a moral system family government was so firmly rooted in American culture that it was not challenged until the mid-nineteenth century and was never entirely displaced. In part this study traces the search for a new ideology of early childhood education in the afterglow of Calvinism. By the 1830s American parents and teachers were introduced to a radically different theory of early childhood education. Initially associated with New England Transcendentalism, romantic educational ideology stressed that what comes from within the child was the most important aspect of development. Therefore, the task of the educator was to unfold the "inner good" of the child and restrain the "inner evil." To romantics the child was neither totally depraved nor totally innocent; he was flawed but perfectible. Knowledge was defined as an immediate awareness while the objective of education remained self-insight. In the process of self-exploration the child's mental faculties were nourished and unfolded like those of a plant. Transcendentalism, neverertheless, remained a minority report on child-rearing and early education in the early nineteenth century. It was not until the Froebelian movement reached its peak of popularity in the Gilded Age that most Americans understood or accepted parts of European romantic educational ideology. The third and final ideology of childhood education was introduced during the 1890s. As the chief spokesman for progressive educational ideology, John Dewey defined education as the natural interaction of the child with his environment and the society by which the child progresses through a series of stages to a higher level. Grounded in a pragmatic epistemology, progressive childhood education was an attempt to resolve the relationship between an inquiring mind and a problematic situation. Influenced by the Froebelian movement, Dewey's theory of progressive childhood education was, in part, a hybrid of earlier theories of education. Endowed with values derived from the mainstream of evangelical Protestantism, Dewey's brand of childhood education at least temporarily attracted a wider following among American parents than Froebelianism. The purpose of this study is not merely to build new bridges between the ideological peaks of periods of social-educational reform in American history. Wherever possible I have attempted to connect the Froebelian movement to a larger cycle of ideological crisis and social reform. I have attempted to show how American parents and educators have periodically come to redefine their own basic values and beliefs and the means by which they will transmit them to the next generation. Such periods of reform in childhood education have often closely followed periods of cultural renewal which usually begins with broad awakenings of religious feeling. Significantly, the Froebelian movement reached the peak of its popularity between the Second Great Awakening (1800-1830) and the Third Great Awakening (1890-1920). Today American culture is again in a period of cultural revitalization which some historians have called the Fourth Great Awakening. Parents and teachers are again concerned and confused about the guidance and early education of their children; some have turned toward the romantic theories of Maria Montessori and A. S. Neill for answers. It is toward the solution of this larger historical problem of cultural renewal and cultural transmission that this study of the Froebelian kindergarten movement is aimed. |
| Notes | UMI, printed in 1988. Book, in MadCat. |
| Call Number | MKI LB1205 S526; shelved with MKI dissertations |
| MKI Terms | Kindergarten/ Education |