KINDERGARTEN, The, a system of edu cation for young children from four to six years of age, which came into existence in Germany about the year 1837. Frederic Froebel, the originator of the movement, had grown more interested in the neglect, and the unde veloped possibilities of this period of child hood, from his extraordinary success as a leacher of older boys in the elementary and high school period, and at his school for boys at Keilhau which had won the interest of progres sive thinkers in Germany. But, because of its radical innovations in education and the atmos phere of freedom which prevailed in the school, his work was under the constant inspection o Prussian officials, which finally resulted in the prohibition of kindergartens just before Froe bet's death in 1851.
Froebel was a remarkably close student of child life, searching eagerly for the causes of difficulty in their early learning and instruction. As he lived, worked and played with boys of school age, he was convinced that much of the difficulty in later education was due to starting children wrong in the first place. As he traced these difficulties back into the earlier years of instruction, his interest in the pre-school period increased. Thus began his study of the pre-school period, which finally resulted in the establishment of kindergartens for the education of the child at this period.
He thought first of remedying the neglect of children at this pre-school period through educating mothers. It was not until this scheme failed that he decided to try an ex periment with a group of young children under his care in an orphanage in Switzerland where he had been called because of his success in teaching in his native land. He accepted this opportunity, because Switzerland offered a freer field for experiments in education than Germany. After having convinced himself through this short experiment that many powers go to wzi,te by postponing the education of the child to the sixth year, he returned to Germany to make an investigation as to what was being done for children of this age in any institutions where children o E this age were to be found. When he returned to Ber
lin he found that the creche, or day nursery, had been founded—one as early 1801. He found that these were opened to give relief to mothers engaged in bread-winning for their families. He also discovered that the day nurseries and orphan homes were the only in stitutions iutt.rested i;1 the pre-school age. When he visited them for suggestion he was impressed with the fact that no effort was being made to develop the intellectual interests and powers of children at this period of de velopment. The care given was almost exclu sively along physical lines, and poor care at that.
Had this been a day of international inter eg and intercourse Froebel would have found a greater interest in young children in Great Britain and France, where some interesting efforts had been made to rescue young chil dren from neglect and crime. - This disin tegrating influence on home life was caused by the introduction of steam into industries, transforming the small shop into the factory. In England especially the rural populations had moved into the cities in large numbers in order to secure work in the factories and mines. The lack of proper housing conditions, the crowding of families into limited areas and quarters, due to limited space, higher rentals and the higher cost of food and fuel, soon drove the mothers and older children out of the homes into the mines and factories, and the younger children in the families were de serted and neglected. Disease, filth and crime resulted, and society had to meet this new social problem by some effort to care for, pro tect and develop the young children who were too young for the school or the factory. Among those philanthropists and religious leaders who made initial efforts to rescue these pitiful specimens of humanity in Great Britain were Robert Owen, James Buchanan, David Stow, Samuel Wilderspin and Joseph Wilson.