Friedrich Froebel - 1851

Prussian ban of kindergarten

Friedrich Froebel's letter to the King of Prussia

Your Majesty, the matter of childhood cannot belong to a particular party, this is the reason why my work is unprotected by any of the parties. I cannot exclude anyone who is prepared to take what I have to offer, because the children of parents from any party need the right kind of education. But if the Kindergarten idea is rejected by the conservative party, it will follow that the oppostion party will come to its defence and thus make it a party issue. Yet it is never that!

Your Majesty, an old man of seventy who does not ask favours for himself, pleads with you in the name of childhood: do not allow the seed of a new education for morality, law and religion to be trampled on. Take it under your all powerful protection, so that it may fluorish and and contribute to the, so much needed, rebirth of humanity. Do not allow the matter of childhood to become a tool of political parties . . .

Therefore I beg you again: have the theory and practice of the Kindergarten examined and you will be convinced of its harmlessness if not of its benefits.

Karl Froebel's pamphlet

A nephew of Friedrich Froebel, Karl was headmaster of a High school for Women in Hamburg and wrote a pamphlet which was cited by the Prussian Government in the ban of Kindergarten

"As illuminated in Karl Froebel's brochure Women, High Schools and Kindergartens, the Kindergartens are part of Froebel's socialist system for the education of young people to atheism. Schools etc which have been created on Froebel's or similar principles can therefore not be tolerated in the Prussian State.

source: page 30 A Child's Work: Freedom and Guidance in Froebel's Educational Theory and Practice by Joachim Liebschner

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