Froebel's Gifts Part 3

MOTION; DIRECTION; POSITION.

The child of three or four years has seldom any conception of the terms:--

Right----Left. Here ----There.

Up ----Down. Near ----Far.

Over ----Under. Front----Back.

Even if he has a dim idea of direction, he cannot express himself regarding it, nor is he certain enough of his knowledge to be able to move or place the ball according to dictation.

Motion is always easy and delightful to the child, and therefore he will move his ball in different directions, as the words and music suggest, when he would be too timid to express a thought, and is willing and happy to do in unison what he would hesitate to do by himself.

The ball may be made a starting-point in giving the child an idea of various simple facts about objects in general, and in ill.u.s.trating in movements the many terms with which we wish him to become familiar.

The meaning of the terms to _swing_, _hop_, _jump_, _roll_, _spring_, _run away_, _come back_, _fall_, _draw_, _bounce,_ and _push_ may be taught by a like movement of the ball, urging the child to give his own interpretation of the motions in words. All the children may then make their b.a.l.l.s hop, spring, roll, or swing at the same time, accompanying the movements by appropriate rhymes.

The ball is more purely a plaything than anything which the child receives in the kindergarten, and its mobility is so charming, it so easily slips from his hands and travels so delightfully far when dropped, that exercises with it soon become riotous if not carefully guided. Every play-lesson on the ball should close with some active exercise in which the children may indulge their wish for a game with their dear playfellow, and in which they may also gain greater skill and learn practically the laws of motion.

When sitting at their tables, each pair of children may roll a ball to and fro, all beginning at the same moment; or the first pair may begin, the second and third follow, and so on until all are rolling.

They may throw b.a.l.l.s against the wall, or toss them in the air, or throw them alternately first in the air, then against the wall; they may toss them to each other at increasing distances. The whole company of children may be arranged in two rows and throw the b.a.l.l.s to each other in unison, or they may pa.s.s them from hand to hand as in a Wandering Game,--all the exercises being accompanied with appropriate songs or rhymes.

The laws of incidence and reflection may be simply taught by leading the children to note that if they strike the ball straight against the wall it will bound straight back, and then asking them to see if it returns when thrown in a slanting direction.

Symbolic Stage of Child's Development.

In order to present the ball in a more attractive light in the kindergarten, to suit it to the symbolic stage of the child's development, and to bring it nearer to his sympathies, we constantly, in our play, suppose it to be something which it resembles in certain of its characteristics. By its color, it may represent a fruit, a flower, or a gayly dressed child; by its form, an egg, a downy chicken, a tiny duckling; by its mobility, a bird, a squirrel, a baby; or when fastened to its string, a bucket in the well, a toy wagon, a pendulum, or a pet lamb tethered by the roadside.

The child is always at home in the world of "make-believe," and delights in the stories and the many charming songs to which this imaginative use of the ball gives rise.

Perhaps we may wisely remind ourselves, however, that though the child's fancy is most vivid, and though the ball is well adapted to represent many objects, yet if it resemble in no single point the thing to which we liken it, we are indulging in empty imaginings which will only hinder the child's comprehension of truth.[16]

[16] "The resemblance of the symbol to the thing signified is a very important matter in education, especially in kindergarten education."--Geo. P. Brown, _Essentials of Educational Psychology._

Cooperative Exercises.

The teacher who truly understands the great principles on which Froebel built the kindergarten will ever be mindful of one of the highest of these,--"the brotherly union of those who are like-minded."

Even in the simple plays with the first gift, group work is easily possible. The stringing of the first gift beads or the supplementary modeling in clay may be made into a cooperative exercise, the work with the b.a.l.l.s at the sand-table may have a similar aim, and many of the ball games are well fitted to unite the whole community of children, older and younger, in a common aim, a common purpose.[17]

[17] "If, therefore, genuine brotherliness, ... consideration and respect for playmates and fellow-men, are again to become prevalent, they can become so only by being connected with the feeling of community abiding in each man (however much or little of it may be found), and by fostering this feeling with the greatest care."--Friedrich Froebel, _Education of Man_, page 74.

What we should strive for.

We must remember that on a carefully prepared plan of procedure depends much of the value of any system of education; therefore we must decide, when the child comes under our tutelage, what we wish to accomplish and what shall be our method of accomplishing it; and yet as the first gift is not the last, as it is but the first link in a chain of related objects, it is obvious that it must be chiefly useful as a starting-point. Each lesson should be carefully studied by the teacher, for the foundation is being laid for all future acquisition.

The kindergarten gifts are designed to lead to the mastery of material objects, but at the same time they are always connected with the child's experience and affection by being often transported into the region of fancy and feeling in a blending of realism and symbolism.

Omitting everything which has reference to the moral and physical development, and speaking now only of that which is intellectual, what we should strive for at the beginning is that the child may acquire a habit of quick observation, with clear and precise expression; that in due time he may see not only quickly, but accurately; in short, that a slight degree of judgment may begin to attend his perceptions, so that he may know as well as observe. It is not enough to awaken the curiosity of a child, and to heap up in his memory a ma.s.s of good materials which will combine of themselves in due time, and which the brain when more highly developed will arrange in systematic groups; we should endeavor as far as possible to control the first impressions which sink unconsciously into a child's mind, but still more careful should we be in the selection of those later ones which we try to inculcate, and of the links which we wish to establish between such and such perceptions, sentiments, or actions.

We should seek to develop, side by side with the perceptions, the faculty of judging and acting rightly.

To give a child very little to observe at a time, but to make him observe that little well and rightly, is the true way of forming and storing his mind.

The process of receiving an idea must be through sensation, attention, and perception, conception and judgment being later processes. The curiosity to know must be kept alive, for it is our greatest ally, and the imagination must be fed, for the child remembers only what interests him.

Recognizing what is to be accomplished, we say, then:--

_a._ The ball is one of the first means used in awakening and developing the dawning consciousness and growing faculties of the child.

_b._ The beginning must be well made, or no later step will seem clear.

_c._ If the first opportunity which occurs of dealing with the gift (or with any instrumentality of education) is wasted, interest on the part of the child is permanently lessened.

_d._ The mind retains clear impressions in proportion to the degree of spontaneous interest and attention with which they are received.

_e._ The law of diminishing interest decrees that each point in a successful exercise shall be more interesting than the previous one.

_f._ The lessons must not be confined to so narrow a channel that they become monotonous, and they must leave room for the child to develop and not attempt to prescribe his mental action.

Tiedemann says: "Liberty of action even in imitated actions is one of the conditions of a child's happiness; besides that, it has the effect of exercising and developing all his faculties. Example is the first tutor, and liberty the second, in the order of evolution; but the second is the better one, for it has inclination for its a.s.sistant."

READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.

From Cradle to School. _Bertha Meyer_. Pages 118-20.

Education. _Herbert Spencer_. 128-40.

Kindergarten Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 41-46.

Education. _E. Seguin_. 7, 8.

The Kindergarten. _Emily Shirreff_. 10.

Kindergarten at Home. _Emily Shirreff_. 46.

Reminiscences of Froebel. _Von Marenholtz-Bulow_. 208, 209.

Lectures on Child-Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 24.

Kindergarten Guide. _J._ and _B. Ronge_. 1-3.

Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 5-12.

Child-Culture. _Henry Barnard_. 567, 568, 570-75.

Education of Man. _Fr. Froebel_. Tr. by _J. Jarvis_. 105, 106, 206.

Lectures to Kindergartners. _E. P. Peabody_. 30, 31, 38, 39, 44-51.

Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. _Fr. Froebel_. Tr. by _J. Jarvis_.

31-69.

Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. 7-9.

Law of Childhood. _W. N. Hailmann_. 31-33.

Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte_. 1-15.

Froebel and Education by Self-Activity. _H. Courthope Bowen_.

136-38.

Childhood's Poetry and Studies. _E. Marwedel_. Part I. 7-15.

Childhood's Poetry and Studies. _E. Marwedel_. Part II. 6-17.

A System of Child-Culture. _E. Marwedel_. 1-5.

The Dawn of History. _A. Keary_. 44-47.