Do You Know the Story of Kindergarten?
Most people attend kindergarten, yet few know its history. We still use the term without knowing why preschool has a strange German name. Established by Friedrich Froebel 180 years ago in Germany, Kindergarten was the first organized system of preschool education.
Initially outlawed by Germany, it quickly spread to America and around the world, but remains controversial today. Froebel Kindergarten impacted American culture through architecture (Frank Lloyd Wright, Buckminster Fuller), organizations (NEA, ACEI, National Louis University, Stanford University), celebrities (Charles Dickens, H.G. Wells, and Helen Keller), cultural icons like the song "Happy Birthday," and other ways too numerous to list here.
This series explains what Froebel originally intended Kindergarten to be, how that idea spread worldwide, and then mutated into our current preschool system. Our goal is to help parents and educators better understand the historical context of the current educational environment (standardized testing, homeschooling, Common Core) while highlighting those schools and teachers who are making a difference. More than simply a report card on the state of education, we show the decisions that led here and focus on the aspects still holding us back...