The Philosophy of Freidrich Froebel Essay Example for Free

The Philosophy of Freidrich Froebel EssayFriedrich Froebel was born in 1782 in Oberweissbach, Germany. His mother died when he was 9 months old and his father was a representation on last(prenominal)oral duties quite frequently so he went and lived with his uncle when he was 10 years old. Froebel was not completely interested in instill but enjoyed forestry, geometry, and land surveying (Dunn 169). His upbringing and interests, along with his Christian faith strongly influenced his knowledgeal philosophy.Friedrich employ learner-centered, child-centered, experience-establish ideas to receive the worlds first kindergarten, a school for young children (Henson 8). The father of kindergarten was the title usu solelyy associated with Froebel and his philosophy. His methods allow children to bend and move on as they conquer new concepts not when educators or administrators decide. Froebels philosophy was influenced by the instruction methods of Pestalozzi (Dunn 169). He agreed with many of Pestalozzis ideas but thought that there was likewise much focus on memorization and direct instruction.Froebel balanced group activities with individual play, direction from t from each oneers was balanced with periods of freedom, and the studies of nature, mathematics, and art were balanced by exploring (Froebel Web). Through exploration by the child and observation by the teacher education could be distributed as was collected in the best interest of the child. He wanted students to underframe things out for themselves through discovery. If a child green goddess discover a concept on their own that child is more possible to grasp and clearly understand that concept because they were the means by which they learned the information.Play was a major(ip) aspect of his philosophy because it gave children a chance to externalize their inner nature and a chance to feign and try out various adult roles. Children had the chance to try on many faces and figures so that t hey could ad precisely out who they were and who they should be. Even today people try to find out who they be because in the shopping centre of each of us we feel that who were are or supposed to be is already in our souls we just have to discover who that is. Through play and role playing children could learn how to solve their own problems. more of what people learn comes through their experiences, if children are able to practice and experience certain problems they will fall apart the skills necessary to problem solve. If children could work through these situations there could be a decrease in mienal problems as children grow because they had the chance to develop their problem solving skills at a young age. agree to Froebel, the ultimate purpose of education is the realization of a faithful, pure, inviolate, and hence holy life (Dunn 170).Since Froebels philosophy was based on idealism he believed every soul had spiritual worth and dignity. If a person assumes that each individual they encounter has worth and thus should be treated so more people in life would be, simply put, happier. It comes down to respecting each individual for whoever they are. Thus like idealists he believed that children had within him all he was to be at birth. As Dunn states, practice in education should be designed to develop and discipline individuals toward attainment of their destiny (170).Starting children off in kindergarten gave them a chance to grown and be what they were destined to be, by partaking in play and role playing with plenty of space to develop properly. In todays society there is a lot of talk about finding yourself and taking space to figure out who they are. I think a lot of that is because people never had a chance to do so when they were young. Todays society just speeds through life trying to get one step onwards of the next person and later in life they stop to reexamine who they have become because they didnt charter the chance to discov er that person when they should have.Froebel stressed the importance of creating a happy, harmonious environment where the child can grow and where the value of self activity and play are foundation to the development of the whole person (Froebel Web). Teachers should observe students during play so that they know how and what to teach and gear toward each student because you need to cultivate the inner person in each. It isnt all about chaos because there is order and structure in play and free will.Play and freedom are structured through gifts and occupation. The gifts are used to table service children understand concepts and the occupations to make products. Froebel was trying to create a school that uses the childs imagination and creativity already in them to foster an education plan that fit their minds and souls. We have been taught in the bible to be like children because they are pure and clean, if more of us became like children then the world would be a emend place.Th e effect this theory has on the classroom can be positive and invalidating. The idea of a child-centered classroom is a terrific idea but can make the classroom seem very chaotic and willy-nilly which is difficult for or so teachers and parents. With a child-centered classroom the plan a teacher puts into her lessons must be pliant and follow the needs of each individual, which is difficult because each child has different needs so planning could be a lot of different activities and flexibility.This philosophy allows opportunity for all students to completely succeed because it whole kit and boodle with the childs strengths and educational pace. A problem with that is that children dont develop at the same rate so children will be going over different material at the same time. By allowing children to work on their own, the behavior they have will improve because they feel that they have more control over their own education and pace. As many positive effects as this free chil d-centered philosophy has, it also has in negative effects.Students may not reach their potential if they are not challenged by high expectations. in that respect are also fewer concrete assessments to gage child success and failure. The philosophy could be a huge success if employed by a highly committed teacher who is prepared to truly countenance individual growth. The teachers role in the classroom is not just as observer who watches children play and seek independently but to guide the children to make discoveries.Open ended questions are a great way for teachers to foster critical thinking because the teacher does not provide the student with opinions (Froebel Web). Teachers are guiders and helpers for children to explore who and what they are to become. There are a lot of great ideas that have come from this philosophy, one being the base of kindergarten into the educational system. Some people today even think that it is too early to start a child in school but when is i t really a great time to start?There are more people who are starting to embrace the idea of a child-centered approach because too much of education is focused on what we think children need to learn and not necessarily what they need to learn or are ready to learn. Teachers today need to stop and look at educators and philosophers of the past to recognize simple theories they employed. Todays education has become caught up in speed and necessity to be better than the next guy, we have forgotten to look at the people we are teaching and the fact that some are not ready for what we think they should be.There is a need for adults to get back to a simpler way of life so that we dont forget that children are precious gifts that must be treasured and fostered. works Cited Dunn, Shelia G. Philosophical Foundations of Education Connecting Philosophy to Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River NJ Merrill/Prentice-Hall, 2005. Froebel Web. Online Resource. 1998. http//www. froebelweb. org/web index. html. Henson, Kenneth T. (Fall 2003). Foundations for Learner-Based Education A noesis Base. Education, 1, Retrieved 10/28/06.