Froebel's Gifts
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Title: Froebel's Gifts
Author: Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin
Nora Archibald Smith
Release date: January 27, 2010 [eBook #31097]
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Language: English
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The Republic of Childhood
FROEBEL'S GIFTS
BY KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
AND NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH
THE
REPUBLIC OF CHILDHOOD
BY
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
AND
NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH
I
_FROEBEL'S GIFTS_
The Republic of Childhood
_The Kindergarten is the free republic of childhood._--FROEBEL
FROEBEL'S GIFTS
BY
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN
AND
NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH
The true teacher is a student of human
nature, and the student of human nature
is the pupil of God.--HORATIO STEBBINS
BOSTON AND NEW YORK
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY
The Riverside Press, Cambridge
1895
Copyright, 1895,
BY KATE DOUGLAS RIGGS
AND
NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH.
_All rights reserved._
_The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton and Company.
PREFACE
The three little volumes on that Republic of Childhood, the
kindergarten, of which this handbook, dealing with the gifts, forms
the initial number, might well be called Chips from a Kindergarten
Workshop. They are the outcome of talks and conferences on Froebel's
educational principles with successive groups of earnest young women
here, there, and everywhere, for fifteen years, and represent as much
practical work at the bench as a carpenter could show in a similar
length of time. They are the result of mutual give and take, of
question and answer, of effort and experience, of the friction of
minds against one another, of ideas struck out in the heat of
argument, and of varied experience with many hundred little children
of all nationalities and conditions. They are not theories, written in
the seclusion of the study; and if perchance they have the defects, so
should they have the virtues, too, of work corrected and revised at
every step by the "child in the midst." If it is objected that many
things in them have been heard before, we can but say with Montaigne:
"Truth and reason are common to every one, and are no more his who
spake them first than his who spake them after."
The various talks have been cut down here, enlarged there, condensed
in one place, amplified in another, from year to year, as knowledge
and experience have grown; many of the ideas which they advocated in
the beginning have been eliminated, as being completely reversed by
the passage of time, and much new matter has been added as the
kindergarten principle has developed. They are as much a growth as a
coral reef, though the authors have little hope that they will be as
enduring.
The kindergarten of 1895 is not the kindergarten of 1880, for the
science of education has made great strides in these past fifteen
years. Many things which were held to be vital principles when we
began our talks with kindergarten students, we now find were but
lifeless methods after all. It is not that time has reversed the
fundamental principles on which the kindergarten rests,--these are as
true as truth and as changeless; but the interpretation of them has
greatly changed and broadened with the passage of years, and many of
the instrumentalities of education which Froebel devised are destined
to further transformation in the future. For this reason, the last
book on the kindergarten is sometimes the best book, since it
naturally embodies the latest thought and discovery on the subject.
These talks on the kindergarten have purposely been divested of a
certain amount of technicality and detail, in the hope that they will
thus reach not only kindergarten students, but the many mothers and
teachers who really long to know what Froebel's system of education is
and what it aims to do. They will never of themselves make a
kindergartner, and are not intended to do so; but they certainly
should shed some light on Froebel's theories, and establish a basis on
which they can be worked out in the home and in the school.
We shall attempt no defense of the kindergarten here. It has passed
the experimental stage; it is no longer on trial for its life; and no
longer humbly begging, hat in hand, for a place to lay its head. As an
educational idea, it is a recognized part of the great system of
child-training; and to say, in this year of our Lord, one thousand
eight hundred and ninety-five, that one does not believe in the
kindergarten is as if one said, I do not believe in electricity, or, I
never saw much force in the law of gravitation.
True, Froebel's ideas are often misinterpreted and misapplied; often
espoused by ignorant and sentimental persons; often degraded in their
practical application; true, the ideal kindergarten and the ideal
kindergartner are seldom seen--(though they are worth traveling a
thousand miles _to_ see)--all this is true, and no one knows it better
than we; but that a divine idea is wrongly used does not invalidate
its divinity.
That kindergarten principles are gaining ground everywhere; that every
year more free and private kindergartens are established, more
training schools opened, more students applying for instruction, more
books written on the subject, more educational periodicals seeking for
kindergarten articles, more cities adding it to their school systems,
more normal schools giving courses in kindergarten training, more
mothers and teachers seeking for light on Froebel's principles,--all
these are matters of statistics which any one may verify by
consulting the Reports of the Commissioner of Education and the
various educational magazines.
Our modest volumes, of which the second will deal with the
occupations, the third with the educational theories of Froebel, do
not claim to be deeply philosophic, nor even to be exhaustive. They
are, in a sense, what is called a "popular" treatise on a scientific
subject; and though some scientists decry such treatises, yet there
are many persons to whom a simple message carries more conviction than
a purely philosophic one.
It is hoped that the psychologic principles on which the talks rest
are at least measurably correct, though when doctors disagree on vital
points, how shall the layman know the extent of his own ignorance?
The authors have always been of a humble and docile spirit, and in the
earlier years of their work with children, looking upon all treatises
on education as inspired, tried faithfully to make the child's mind
work according to the laws therein laid down. But sometimes the
child's mind obstinately declined to follow the prescribed route;
it refused to begin at the proper beginning of a subject and go on
logically to the end, as the books decreed, but flew into the middle
of it, and darted both ways, like a weaver's shuttle. If, then, any
one of the theories we enunciate does not coincide with your
particular educational creed, we can only say that ours, we fear,
has sometimes been a "rule of thumb" psychology, and that in our
experience it has occasionally been necessary to turn a psychologic
law the other end foremost before it could be made to fit the child.
We have endeavored not to be dogmatic in any of these talks, for we
do not claim to have seen and counted all the facets of the crystal
of truth. We humbly acknowledge that we have often been wrong in the
past, and no reason has latterly been given us to believe ourselves
infallible; but these disputed points in the kindergarten are, after
all, of no more vital importance than the old theologic controversy
as to how many angels can stand on the point of a needle. If the
occupations are found to be based on incorrect psychologic principles,
do not use them; if a similar objection is made to the gifts,
substitute others. These are all accessories,--they are of no more
importance than the leaves to the tree; if time and stress of weather
strip them off, the life current is still there, and new ones will
grow in their places.
KATE DOUGLAS WIGGIN.
NORA ARCHIBALD SMITH.
_August_, 1895.
CONTENTS
PAGE
THOUGHTS ON THE GIFTS OF FROEBEL 1
FROEBEL'S FIRST GIFT 6
FROEBEL'S SECOND GIFT 31
THE BUILDING GIFTS 54
FROEBEL'S THIRD GIFT 57
FROEBEL'S FOURTH GIFT 76
FROEBEL'S FIFTH GIFT 89
FROEBEL'S SIXTH GIFT 112
FROEBEL'S SEVENTH GIFT 124
FROEBEL'S EIGHTH GIFT 142
FROEBEL'S NINTH GIFT 159
FROEBEL'S TENTH GIFT 175
GENERAL REMARKS ON THE GIFTS 189
FROEBEL'S GIFTS
THOUGHTS ON THE GIFTS OF FROEBEL
"A correct comprehension of external, material things is a preliminary
to a just comprehension of intellectual relations."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"The A, B, C of things must precede the A, B, C of words, and give to
the words (abstractions) their true foundations. It is because these
foundations fail so often in the present time that there are so few
men who think independently and express skillfully their inborn divine
ideas."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Perception is the beginning and the preliminary condition for
thinking. One's own perceptions awaken one's own conceptions, and
these awaken one's own thinking in later stages of development. Let us
have no precocity, but natural, that is consecutive, development."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Every child brings with him into the world the natural disposition to
see correctly what is before him, or, in other words, the truth. If
things are shown to him in their connection, his soul perceives them
thus as a conception. But if, as often happens, things are brought
before his mind singly, or piecemeal, and in fragments, then the
natural disposition to see correctly is perverted to the opposite, and
the healthy mind is perplexed."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"The linking together which is everywhere seen, and which holds the
Universe in its wholeness and unity, the eye receives, and thereby
receives the representation, but without understanding it except as an
impression and an image. But these first impressions are the
root-fibres for the understanding that is developed later."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"The correct perception is a preparation for correct knowing and
thinking."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"No new subject of instruction should come to the scholar, of which he
does not at least conjecture that it is grounded in the former
subject, and how it is so grounded as its application shows, and
concerning which he does not, however dimly, feel it to be a need of
the human spirit."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"The sequences which the child builds, as well as the sequence of the
kindergarten gifts, point on the one hand to physical evolution,
wherein each form 'remembers the next inferior and predicts the next
higher,' and on the other to the process of historic development,
which magnifies the present by linking with it the past and the
future."
SUSAN E. BLOW.
"Let us educate the senses, train the faculty of speech, the art of
receiving, storing, and expressing impressions, which is the natural
gift of infants, and we shall not need books to fill up the emptiness
of our teaching until the child is at least seven years old."
E. SEGUIN.
"As soon as we, young or old, have taken to the habit of asking the
book for what it is in our power to learn from personal observation,
we dismiss our organs of perception and comprehension from their
righteous charge, and cover the emptiness of our own minds with the
patchwork of others."
E. SEGUIN.
"Natural geometry (taking the word in its limited sense of study of
form in space) is the object of a desire which generally precedes the
artificial curiosity for the meaning of letters."
E. SEGUIN.
"Without an accurate acquaintance with the visible and tangible
properties of things, our conceptions must be erroneous, our
inferences fallacious, and our operations unsuccessful."
HERBERT SPENCER.
"The truths of number, of form, of relationship in position, were all
originally drawn from objects; and to present these truths to the
child in the concrete is to let him learn them as the race learned
them."
HERBERT SPENCER.
"If we consider it, we shall find that exhaustive observation is an
element of all great success."
HERBERT SPENCER.
"Learn to comprehend each thing in its entire history. This is the
maxim of science guided by the reason."
WM. T. HARRIS.
"Geometrical facts and conceptions are easier to a child than those of
arithmetic."
THOMAS HILL.
"Instruction must begin with actual inspection, not with verbal
descriptions of things. From such inspection it is that certain
knowledge comes. What is actually seen remains faster in the memory
than description or enumeration a hundred times as often repeated."
COMENIUS.
"Observation is the absolute basis of all knowledge. The first object,
then, in education, must be to lead the child to observe with
accuracy; the second, to express with correctness the results of his
observation."
PESTALOZZI.
"If in the external universe any one constructive principle can be
detected, it is the geometrical."
BULWER-LYTTON.
"The education of the senses neglected, all after-education partakes
of a drowsiness, a haziness, an insufficiency, which it is impossible
to cure."
LORD BACON.
"Of this thing be certain: Wouldst thou plant for eternity? Then plant
into the deep infinite faculties of man, his fantasy and heart.
Wouldst thou plant for year and day? Then plant into his shallow,
superficial faculties, his self-love, and arithmetical understanding,
what will grow there."
THOS. CARLYLE.
FROEBEL'S FIRST GIFT
"I wish to find the right forms for awakening the higher
senses of the child: what symbol does my ball offer to him?
That of unity."
"The ball connects the child with nature as much as the
universe connects man with God." FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Line in nature is not found, Unit and Universe are round."
"Nature centres into balls." R. W. EMERSON.
"From thy hand
The worlds were cast; yet every leaflet claims
From that same hand its little shining sphere
Of starlit dew." O. W. HOLMES.
"The Small, a sphere as perfect as the Great
To the soul's absoluteness." ROBERT BROWNING.
1. The first gift consists of six soft woolen balls colored in the six
standard colors derived from the spectrum, namely, red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, and violet.
The balls should be provided with strings for use in the various
motions.[1]
[1] "The string unites the ball, symbol of the outer world,
with the child, and is the means by which it can act upon his
inner nature." (E. G. Seymour.)
2. Froebel chose the ball as the first gift because it is the simplest
shape, and the one from which all others may subsequently be derived;
the shape most easily grasped by the hand as well as by the mind. It
is an object which attracts by its pleasing color, and one which,
viewed from all directions, ever makes the same impression.[2]
[2] "The Egyptians and the Greeks hung geometrical forms over
their cradles, so as to strike the eyes of the child with
lawful relations. Froebel introduces colored balls for the
same purpose, which, considering the psychological and
emotional condition of the child, leads to the joyful
conception of motion, color, and life." (Emma Marwedel.)
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are Unity, Activity,
Color.
The various colors serve to distinguish these several playmates of the
child by special characteristics, and enable him to make his first
clear analyses or abstractions, since the color is the only point
wherein the objects differ. This contrast in color results in the
abstraction of color from form.
4. Since the ball is the most mobile of inanimate shapes, it may be
considered as the "opposite equal" of the living organism. The
quickness and ease of its motion as well as its elasticity cause the
child to regard it as instinct with life, while its softness renders
him able to grasp and handle it readily.
Its material is also of great advantage in that it lessens the
possibility of startling noises which would distract the child from
the contemplation of its qualities. By its use, he is first led to
observation, and then to self-expression. As the simplest type-form
as well as the most universal, it offers a satisfactory basis for the
classification of objects in general; while its indefiniteness and
adaptability make it a useful medium for the expression of the child's
vague ideas. With the ball we give first impressions of _Unity_,
_Form_, _Color_, _Material_, _Mobility_, _Motion_, _Direction_, and
_Position_. The ball songs and plays are used as the first exercises
in language, singing, and rhythm.
5. As the kindergarten gifts are designed to serve as an alphabet of
form, by whose use the child may learn to read all material objects,
it follows that they must form an organically connected sequence,
moving in logical order from an object which contains all qualities,
but directly emphasizes none, to objects more specialized in nature,
and therefore more definitely suggestive as to use.
"Each successive gift in the series must not only be implicit in, but
demanded by, its predecessor;" so Froebel selects the ball, with its
simplicity but great adaptability, for the starting-point of his
series.
6. Connected contrasts of Motion, Direction, and Position are shown in
the first gift. By the use of pigments, the so-called secondary
colors, purple, orange, and green, may be produced from the opposite
hues, red and blue, red and yellow, and blue and yellow.
"The mind is aroused to attention and led to comparison by contrasts;
on the groundwork of comparison, it is enabled to do the work of
classification, of clear abstraction, of the formation of definite
ideas by the connection of these contrasts."[3]
[3] "Suppose, e. g., that the child, by dint of repeated and
varied playing with the blue ball of the first gift, has
succeeded in getting a tolerably clear notion of the blue
ball. If then you bring the yellow ball to his notice, his
mind will be led to examine more closely and to compare the
two playthings, resembling each other so fully in every
respect, yet differing so widely in color. The other balls of
the gift are introduced in judicious succession, offering new
yet milder contrasts: these reconcile, combine, the contrasts
first offered; they are aided in this by the colors of
surrounding objects. The child begins to feel that these
color impressions, however widely they differ, have a similar
source; he is connecting the contrasts, and as he succeeds in
this, he succeeds, too, in separating, abstracting, the
_ball_ from its _color_." (W. N. Hailmann.)
* * * * *
The Ball a Universal Plaything.
"The presentiment of truth always goes before the recognition of it,"
says Froebel; and it would seem, indeed, as it, in selecting the first
gift, he looked far back into the past of humanity, and there sought
the thread which from the beginning connects all times and leads to
the farthest future.
"The ball is the last plaything of men, as well as the first with
children." In Kreutzer's "Symbolik" we read that the educators of the
young god Bacchus gave him golden balls to play with, and also that
the youthful princes of Persia played with them, and alone had this
privilege.
It is a significant fact that we find balls even among the remains of
the Lake Dwellers of Northern Italy and Switzerland, while small,
round balls, resembling marbles, have been found in the early Egyptian
tombs. The Teutons made ball-plays national, and built houses in which
to indulge in these exercises in all sections of Germany, as late as
the close of the sixteenth century. The ancient Aztecs used the game
of ball as a training in warfare for the young men of the nation; and
that it was considered of great importance is evident from the fact
that the tribute exacted by a certain Aztec monarch from some of the
cities conquered by him consisted of balls, and amounted to sixteen
thousand annually.
The ball entered into many of the favorite games alike of the Greeks
and the Romans, the former having a special place in their gymnasiums
and a special master for it. It may be noted also that nearly all our
modern sports are based upon the effort to get possession of a ball.
Froebel's Ideas of First Gift.
Froebel considered the ball as an external counterpart of the child in
the first stages of his development, its undivided unity corresponding
to his mental condition, and its movableness to his instinctive
activity. Through its recognition he is led to separate himself from
the external world, and the external world from himself.[4]
[4] "But as he grows he gathers much,
And learns the use of 'I' and 'me,'
And finds 'I am not that I see,
And other than the things I touch.'
"So rounds he to a separate mind
From whence clear memory may begin,
As through the frame that binds him in
His isolation grows defined."
Tennyson's _In Memoriam_.
Froebel's intention was that the first gift should be used in the
nursery,[5] but as this is for the most part neglected, or imperfectly
and unwisely done, we begin the series of kindergarten play-lessons
with it, illustrating its qualities and asking questions concerning
them, always diversifying the exercises with rhymes, games, and songs.
We must remember that to the young child, as to primitive man, the
activity of an object is more pleasing than its qualities, and we
should therefore devise a series of games with the fascinating
plaything which will lead the child to learn these qualities by
practical experience.
[5] Many suggestions for the use of the ball in the nursery
may be found in Froebel's _Pedagogics of the Kindergarten_,
translated by Josephine Jarvis.
Manner of Introduction.
Before beginning any exercise we should fully decide in our own minds
the main point or points to be brought out,--Color, Form, or
Direction, for example; then, and only then, will the child gain a
clear, definite impression, and have a distinct remembrance of what we
have been trying to teach. By way of diversion, every song or rhyme in
which the ball can play a symbolic part in action, and illustrate the
point we wish to make, is of use in the lessons.[6]
[6] See _Kindergarten Chimes_ (Kate D. Wiggin), pages 22-32,
Oliver Ditson Publishing Co.
With this dainty colored plaything we begin our first bit of
education,--not instruction, mere pouring in, but true education,
drawing out, developing. The balls should be kept in a pretty basket,
as the beautiful should be cultivated in every way in the true
kindergarten; and when they are given to the class, it should be with
some little song sung by the kindergartner or one of the older
children. At the close of the lesson, as the basket is passed, each
child may gently drop his ball into it, saying simply, "Thank you for
my ball," or naming its color. At other times they may be called by
the names of fruits or flowers, the child saying, "I will give you a
cherry," or, "I will give you a violet."
Method of Introduction.
The qualities of the ball must of course be brought before the child's
observation in some more or less definite order, and it will be
profitable to consider the relative claims of Form and Color to the
first place.
We might say, correctly, that to illustrate the ball, we should begin
with its essential qualities.[7] The essential quality is Unity. Unity
depends on Form, and the ball's form never changes; therefore we might
conclude that this should be the first subject under consideration,
since we always treat of the universal properties of objects before
special ones, proceeding from homogeneous to heterogeneous. This view
of the subject is supported by Ratich's important maxim, "First the
thing, and then its properties."
[8] "The infant begins to examine forms from the commencement
of his existence; for without this knowledge it is doubtful
if he could distinguish one object from another, or even be
aware of an external world. Gradually he begins to know
objects apart and to recognize them, and in time discerns
resemblances which cause him to classify them."--W. W.
Speer's _Form Lessons_.
Conrad Diehl.
On the other hand, Conrad Diehl says: "Color is the first sensation of
which an infant is capable. With the first ray of light that enters
the retina of the eye, the presence of color forces itself on the
mind.... When light is present, color is present. The first impression
which the eye receives of an object is its color; its form is revealed
by the action of light upon its surfaces. We recognize at a distance
the color of a leaf, an apple, a flower or berry, long before we are
able distinctly to make out their forms. In the absence of light,
neither the color nor the form of an object can be seen."[8]
[8] Conrad Diehl's _Elements of Ornamentation and Color_.
Herbert Spencer.
Spencer says:[9] "The earliest impressions which the mind can
assimilate are those given to it by the undecomposable sensations,
resistance, light, sound, etc. Manifestly decomposable states of
consciousness cannot exist before the states of consciousness out of
which they are composed. There can be no idea of form until some
familiarity with light in its gradations and qualities, or resistance
in its different intensities, has been acquired; for, as has long been
known, we recognize visible form by means of varieties of light, and
tangible form by means of varieties of resistance. Similarly, no
articulate sound is cognizable until the inarticulate sounds which go
to make it up have been learned. And thus must it be in every other
case."[10]
[9] _Education_, page 130.
[10] "That priority of color to form which, as already
pointed out, has a psychological basis, and in virtue of
which psychological basis arises this strong preference in
the child, should be recognized from the very
beginning."--Spencer's _Education_.
Froebel.
The balance of authority seems to be, on the whole, upon the side of
presenting color first to the young child, as we appeal to the
emotions at this age rather than to the intellect; and while the
senses revel in color, form follows more the law of use. Let us hear,
however, what the "great pioneer of child study" says upon this point.
Froebel says, as distinct and different as color and form may be in
themselves, they are to the young child indivisible, as inseparable as
body and life. Nay, the idea of color seems to come to the child, as
perhaps to mankind in general, through the forms; so, on the other
hand, the forms gain prominence and impressiveness by the colors.
Hence ideas of colors must at first be coupled with ideas of form, and
_vice versa_; color and form are in the beginning an undivided
unity.[11]
[11] "A person born blind, and suddenly enabled to see, would
at first have no conception of _in_ or _out_ (of eye), and
would be conscious of colors only, not of objects; when by
his sense of touch he became acquainted with objects, and had
time to associate mentally the objects he touched with the
colors he saw, then, and not till then, would he begin to see
objects."--Preyer's _Mind of the Child_, page 58.
"Color cannot be abstracted from that which gives it
vitality,--i. e., Form,--from which it cannot be abstracted
without rendering the color flat and meaningless." (Geo. L.
Schreiber.)
The color and form of the ball being indissolubly blended in the
child's eyes, we can scarcely teach them separately at first. We may,
however, consider each by itself, in order to present the subject more
clearly.
FORM.
To teach form in an interesting manner, to make it plain to the child
without giving him any terms, but rather coaxing him by ingenuity to
formulate his own knowledge, is a difficult thing to do, and should
not be attempted at all with very young children. It seems
unnecessary to say that Froebel did not intend the ball should be made
a medium of object lessons for babies, although this distorted view of
his idea seems to have entered the minds of some critics.
The child, when old enough to enter a kindergarten, will generally
know round objects, and be somewhat familiar with the ball already in
his home plays. We should let him roll and grasp it in his tiny
fingers, till gradually, in comparison with other objects handled in
the same way, he notices the absence of corners, edges, or any
obstructions which would meet his touch or eye. Then we may ask him if
he could make a ball out of a rough block of wood which we show. Some
bright little one will guess that a carpenter could do it with his
tools. "What would he have to do?" "Plane it off," will perhaps be the
answer. "Where and how is he to plane?" may be the next inquiry, and
the child often answers, "All the rough parts and the parts that stick
out." "Why does he like to play ball?" He does not know exactly.
"Would he like to play ball with the scissors?" "Why not?" "Then why
does he like to feel the ball in his hand?"
After such preliminary conversations upon the form of the ball, we may
lead the children first to note other round things in the room, and
then to recall what they have at home of a similar shape and what
they may have seen in the streets. These exercises are always
delightful to the little ones, and are invaluable to the
kindergartner, as they furnish a thorough test of the child's
comprehension of the subject she has been handling.[12] We should
notice slight divergences from the spherical form in the objects the
children name, and speak of them. They will soon be able to tell in
every case where the egg or cobblestone is not "just round."
[12] "Finding forms of the same general shape as those taken
as types is of the highest importance. Unless this is done,
pupils are not learning to pass from the particular to the
general. They are not taught to see many things through the
one, and the impression they gain is that the particular
forms observed are the only forms of this kind. Unless that
which the pupil observes aids him in interpreting something
else, it is of no value to him. Certain things are taught
that through them other things may be seen. Pupils should not
be trained to see for the sake of the seeing, but that they
may have the power to see." W. W. Speer, _Lessons in Form_.
They will of course mention stove-lids, dinner-plates, etc., as round
objects, and the attempt to give a clear and definite understanding of
the difference between solids and planes is difficult at first, but
they very soon discriminate between rounding objects that possess
thickness and those that are flat but have curved edges. A ball of
putty or one of dough is a good thing with which to illustrate this
difference.
We must remember that any abstract teaching on Form is too difficult
at this time, much more difficult than Color. Let the children, during
these first few weeks, draw circles on the blackboard and on paper,
and sew, and draw pictures of balls, peaches, or round fruits; they
may also make balls of wax, dough, or clay. Rousseau says, "A child
may forget what he sees, and sooner still what is said to him, but he
never forgets what he has made."
COLOR.
"The comprehension of the single tone of color gradually leads to the
comprehension of the full chord; the recognition of single colors
leads to the recognition of shades and their harmonious connections:
thus, step by step, the capacity of comprehending nature in its beauty
and with its treasures is developed."[13]
[13] Emma Marwedel, _Childhood's Poetry and Studies_, page 35.
Again, suppose the play-lesson for the day to be upon Color. Of
course, the subject may be handled in a dozen different ways and serve
for a dozen different lessons; a few hints only are here given, as in
matters of detail it is better that each teacher should be free and
unguided in the use of her own ingenuity.
We may take, perhaps, the red[14] ball, and, holding it high in the
air, ask, "Who has a ball exactly like mine? Look carefully, now, and
then show me." A volley of balls, comprising every color in the
rainbow, will be shot into the air, and then becomes necessary the
task of discrimination. We may find the red ones, and gratify the
children by naming those who possess them, as it seems a great honor
in their eyes. Now they should be led to find every bit of red in the
room,--Andrew's stockings, Mary's ribbon, the tiny pipings on Katie's
apron, Jim's necktie, your belt, the flowers on the wall, etc. The
scene will become intensely exciting; the bright eyes will begin
searching in every corner of the room, and the transport which will
greet us when anything far out of sight and of the right color is
discovered is truly refreshing.
[14] Professor Earl Barnes, of Stanford University, reports
that in his various color experiments on the Pacific Coast,
1000 children having been studied, a very large majority
selected red as their favorite color.
All the children, as far as possible, should be engaged in this
diversion, while the most timid and backward should be kept near and
encouraged with word and smile. The name of the color should not be
asked for, or given, till it can be matched by all, and found in
surrounding objects.
We may ask what flowers they have seen which were like the color they
are studying, and show them some of the more familiar kinds; also
speak of the action of the sun in making certain fruits red,--the
raspberries and strawberries, for instance. Some rosy-faced little
urchin in the class may be chosen and asked how he keeps such red
cheeks, and from this the idea of red as the color of warmth and life
may be developed. We may proceed with blue and yellow, then with
violet, orange, and green, in like manner, constantly diversifying the
exercises with plays, songs, and appropriate stories.
Hints on Additional Color Exercises.
The formation of the so-called secondary colors will not be very
obvious to the younger children, nor is the fact to be taught
scientifically or learned by them; they will, however, be greatly
interested in the mixing of paints in small dishes, or the blending of
different colored crayons on the blackboard.
_Red_ and _Yellow_ into _Orange_.
_Yellow_ and _Blue_ into _Green_.
_Blue_ and _Red_ into _Purple_.
Pieces of glass are serviceable objects with which to show the same
thing, or we can buy the "gelatine films" from any kindergarten supply
store. Holding the red and yellow, one on the other, for instance, the
piece nearer the eye will, of course, determine the shade; if the red
piece be next the eye, the orange color will be deeper than if the
yellow were in the same position. None of these experiments, however,
will produce pure colors, the green and purple being especially
unsatisfactory.
Among the devices with which to teach color may be recommended a color
quilt made of various shades and shapes of woolens and silks or
ribbons. This may be used as a sort of chart, to the great delight of
the children, and is one of the valuable aids in teaching, because it
calls out both individual and general action. We may also make a
clothes-line of twine and suspend it from door to door, or between any
two suitable points, attaching to it pieces of all colors, and, after
a while, of various tints and shades of worsted, letting the children
touch the ones designated, or find bits of the same color as their
balls.
Cards wound with different tints and shades of the same color are also
useful when the children have developed greater powers of
discrimination, and a chart or map may be made by pasting colored
squares, triangles, oblongs, or circles on a ground of gray Bristol
board.
Then, too, we may have a box of tablets of the simple geometrical
figures, and, giving a quantity to the children, let them arrange the
different colors in separate rows.
Children of all ages will be fascinated by the spectrum, "Nature's
palette of pure colors," which the sunlight streaming through a prism
shows upon the wall; and as it can be supplemented by a spectrum chart
for cloudy days, they will delight to arrange their colored papers to
imitate it. The older children will gain much valuable knowledge by
experimenting with the color tops, and if a color wheel with the
accompanying Maxwell disks can be obtained, the materials for color
education will be quite complete.
It must not be forgotten that the purpose of all these exercises is
that the child may learn to know the six standards, and subsequently
their intermediates, and may in time learn to use and combine them
harmoniously. It is, therefore, essential that the colors supplied him
shall be fresh and pure,[15] and that he not only have freedom to make
his own experiments, but materials to preserve them in permanent form
when they prove successful.
[15] "Care should be taken, in the selection of all materials
for color lessons, to get as perfect foundation colors as
possible; no faded or poor shades are allowable, as they lead
the child astray."
When the children are just making friends with the teacher and with
each other, it is very interesting and profitable for them to
formulate their mite of knowledge into a sentence, each one holding
his ball high in the air with the right hand, and saying:--
My ball is red like a cherry.
My ball is yellow like a lemon.
My ball is blue like the sky.
My ball is orange like a marigold.
My ball is green like the grass.
My ball is violet like a plum.
We should not, however, allow this to degenerate into mere recitation,
but let the child find his own objects of comparison, and change them
when he chooses for any others that occur to him. This prevents parrot
repetition, and gives room for individuality and real self-expression.
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 illustrating 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 balls 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 balls 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 balls to each
other in unison, or they may pass 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._
Coöperative 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 coöperative exercise, the work
with the balls 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 mass 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 assistant."
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-Bülow_. 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.
Hints to Teachers. _E. Marwedel_. 5, 6.
Froebel's Letters. Tr. by _Michaelis_ and _Moore_. 83-85, 98,
101-03, 107, 176, 220.
Conscious Motherhood. _E. Marwedel_. 106, 107, 118, 119, 153,
162-64, 170-74, 256-62, 291-96.
FROEBEL'S SECOND GIFT
"From the ball as a symbol of unity, we pass over in a
consecutive manner to the manifoldness of form in the cube."
"The child has an intimation in the cube of the unity which
lies at the foundation of all manifoldness, and from which
the latter proceeds." FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Notice has now become observation, and observation leads to
discrimination. He sees and is curious by nature, but it
belongs to us to lead him to observe and inquire."
EMILY SHIRREFF.
1. Froebel's second gift consists of a wooden sphere, cube, and
cylinder, two inches in diameter (as now made), with rods and
standards for revolution.[18]
[18] "The wooden sphere has no string like the balls of the
first gift, because the child no longer needs the outward
connection; he now realizes the spiritual connection between
himself and the outer world." (E. G. Seymour.)
2. In the first gift the child received objects of the same shape and
size but of different colors, thus learning to separate color from
form. In the second gift he receives unlike objects, and learns to
distinguish them from each other by their individual peculiarities.
The first gift suggests unity, and leads to the detection of
resemblances; the second suggests variety or manifoldness, and
emphasizes contrasts.
3. The most important characteristic of the gift is contrast of form,
leading to the distinction of different objects. The mediation of
contrasts here suggests the connection of all objects, however widely
separated.
4. The purpose of the gift is to stimulate observation and comparison
by presentation of striking contrasts, and to afford new bases for the
classification of objects. Spencer says that any systematic
ministrations to the perceptions ought to be based upon the general
truth that in the development of every faculty markedly contrasted
impressions are the first to be distinguished; that hence sounds
greatly differing in loudness and pitch, colors very remote from each
other, and substances widely removed in hardness or texture should be
the first supplied; and that in each case the progression must be by
slow degrees to impressions more nearly allied.[19]
[19] _Education_, page 132.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
{ Sphere.
{ Cube.
Solids. { Cylinder.
{ Double Cone. } Seen in motion.
{ Conoid. }
Planes. { Circles.
{ Squares.
6. The sphere and cube are sharply contrasting forms, and the cylinder
illustrates the connecting link between the two, possessing
characteristics of both.
"The cylinder is the first example Froebel gives of the intermediate
transition--forms connecting opposites, which he explains as the very
ground plan of Nature, and on which his fundamental law of contrasts
and connection of contrasts, the law of all harmonious development and
creative industry, is based."[20]
[20] E. Shirreff.
* * * * *
Points to be noted in each New Gift.
"That which follows is always conditioned upon that which goes
before,"[21] says Froebel, and he makes this apparent to children
through his educational processes; the gifts show this idea in
concrete form.
[21] "We cannot evolve what has not first been involved."
In entering upon a consideration of the second gift one thing cannot
fail to impress us, and that is the continuous development in each new
set of objects placed before the child; together with an increase of
difficulty or complexity which is never without a corresponding
forethought, careful arrangement, and attention to logical sequence;
thus the newly introduced objects can never seem unnatural to him.
We shall find that in every new gift or occupation there is always a
suggestion of the last, enough to make it a pleasant reminder of
knowledge gained and difficulties surmounted, and so the child sees
not everything painfully strange, but something which at least recalls
to his mind his former friend and familiar playfellow.[22]
[22] "Nothing charms us more than the recognition of the old
in the new. The man who hurries through a foreign city,
indifferent and inattentive to the passing crowd, feels a
quick thrill of pleasure when in the midst of all the
strangers he recognizes a familiar face." (E. Minhinnick.)
Method of Attack in First Exercise.
In the first lesson with the second gift the child will quickly see
the similarities between his former worsted ball and his new
companion, the wooden sphere. Let him take these two balls together,
and find out the similarities and dissimilarities, remembering that
before he compares objects _consciously_, experiences should
invariably be given him.
We should always draw attention to the universal properties of things
first and then proceed to the specific. The qualities common to all
objects are the universal ones: Form, Size, Color, Material, etc. The
invariable rule should be: simple before complex, concrete before
abstract, unity before variety, universal qualities before special
ones.
If we are in doubt as to whether we shall first direct attention to
the similarities or to the dissimilarities between the ball and
sphere, we may recall the educational maxim, "The child's eye always
at first seizes the analogous, the point of union, the whole
connection of things, and only after that begins to discern
differences and opposition."[23]
[23] "The infant mind is transparent to resemblance, but
opaque to difference."--Susan E. Blow, _Symbolic Education_,
page 83.
Ball and Sphere.
In comparing the ball and the sphere the child will observe, in the
first place that they are both round and both roll equally well, but
that one has color, one being without; one is soft, the other hard;
one quiet, one noisy; one a little rough to the touch, the other
velvet smooth. He should find for and by himself, aided by our
suggestive questioning, the reasons for these evident differences.
It is absolutely necessary that each child should have one of the
boxes containing the solids, or at least the three forms of the gift
without the box, rods, and standards, and examine them thoroughly and
often as he will be glad to do.
If the solids as ordinarily manufactured are too costly for a
kindergartner of limited means, she can substitute large marbles,
blocks, and linen thread spools; the material does not matter so long
as each child has the objects to handle.
Value of the Discriminative Power; Method by which it may be developed.
We need not be distressed if the lessons are a little noisy when the
children are making the acquaintance of these wonderful new friends.
To be sure they will pound the wooden forms heartily up and down on
the table (if they are three-year old babies, they certainly would and
should do so); but within bounds what does it matter? If it can be
arranged so that other classes shall not be disturbed, and each child
can have the same opportunity for experimenting as his neighbor, there
will be no great harm done.
We are endeavoring to rouse all the latent energies of the child by
the presentation of these objects to his observation, and he must have
full liberty to make the various experiments which suggest themselves
to him. His desire to hear the sound of the objects is so manifest
that it would be folly to try and thwart it. It is far better to use
the desire for educational purposes and divert it into the channel of
systematized noise. Let us suppose that we are carpenters today and
pound the wooden objects on the floor in exact time with a building
song; let us play we are drummer boys and tap with our drumsticks for
the soldiers to march; or shall we make believe that the sphere is a
woodpecker and let it tap on the trees while we recite some simple
little rhyme?[24]
[24] For second gift songs, see _Kindergarten Chimes_ (Kate D.
Wiggin), pages 32, 33, Oliver Ditson Publishing Co.
"This craving of young children for information," says Bernard Perez,
"is an emotional and intellectual absorbing power, as dominant as the
appetite for nutrition, and equally needing to be watched over and
regulated."
It is not alone the noise of the sphere which delights the child,[25]
though this is always pleasing,--it is the knowledge he is gaining,
the new ideas that dawn upon him for the first time in recognizable
form. It is, in fact, a knowledge of cause and effect. He has often
dropped the woolen ball and pounded it on the table, and it produced
no sound. He does the same with the sphere and recognizes the
difference. He will begin to experiment with other objects, by and by
to classify his knowledge, and finally, he will see and remember that
like causes produce like effects, and in progressing thus far will
have made a tremendous stride. The child will see all the more
clearly, in comparing the woolen ball and wooden sphere, the
difference between soft and hard, rough and smooth, light and heavy,
if he is allowed to perform his own experiments.
[25] "The sound is a yet higher sign of life to the child,
as he then, and also later, likes to lend speech to all dumb
things; therefore he also desires to hear sound and speech
from everything."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 72.
The Cube.
We will now turn to the investigation of the cube and open a new world
of information to the child, and here we seem to deviate a little from
the famous educational maxim, "Proceed from the known to the unknown,"
and almost to make a leap into the dark. However, we very soon give
the cylinder, and thus connect the opposites. Here he meets a dazzling
quantity of new appearances; the square sides or faces, and the many
edges and corners, all of which must be viewed in comparison with the
sphere. We can give him an experience of the faces of the cube without
conscious analysis, by letting the ball roll against them.
Mediation of Contrasts.
Of course we shall see the underlying idea of the gift to be the
connection of opposites. Not too much can be said of this law, so
all-important and significant in Froebel's system.[26] We should bear
it constantly in mind, and bring it in connection with every new phase
of our work. Froebel cannot be understood clearly unless this deep
principle, which lies at the very root of his system, is appreciated
and comprehended. At the same time it is, when formulated, an abstract
and metaphysical statement, which one cannot grasp at once, but to
which one must grow.
[26] "But each thing is recognized only when it is connected
with the opposite of its kind, and when the union, accord,
similitude with this object are found; and the connection
with the opposite, and the discovery of the uniting, renders
the recognition so much the more complete."--Froebel's
_Education of Man_, page 26.
It may be said that comparatively few kindergartners know its value;
nevertheless knowledge of this kind can never be useless or fruitless
to the person who is forming the mind of the child, and who should be
a perfect mistress of her science and her art.
Value of Contrasts.
These contrasts of the second gift, and all contrasts, arouse the mind
to attention. We can have no judgment without comparison. We should
have no idea of heat or darkness if we had not a conception of cold
and light; the quality of sweetness would have no meaning if its
opposite did not serve to stimulate comparison.
The sphere is sharply contrasted with the cube, so that there may be a
ready perception of the striking qualities of both. The more abrupt
the contrast the more readily noticed and described; for it takes a
more developed eye to discern the difference between a sphere and a
spheroid, for instance, than between a sphere and a cube.
The contrasts of the first gift were contrasts of color, mediations of
them being shown also, and contrasts of direction and position or
situation. Another point less readily seen in the first gift perhaps
was Froebel's thought that the ball, in its perfect simplicity and
unity, when first given to the young child, is regarded by him as
another contrasted individuality, almost as capable of life in its
varied movements as he is himself.
Mobility of Sphere.
The sphere is the symbol of motion, the cube the embodiment of rest,
and the fact should be illustrated in divers ways. We may, for
instance, place the sphere near the rim of a plate, and by inclining
the latter a little, the sphere will roll rapidly round its own axis
and round the rim. A few simple little rhymes may be taught, which the
children may say or sing together while the sphere is journeying
rapidly round and round the plate, for, as Froebel says, the thought
always grows clearer to the child when word and motion go hand in
hand.
Sphere and Cube.
The cube can only be moved, on the contrary, when force is exerted,
and then it merely slides, to stop when the force is removed. The
children will soon see why the cube is so lazily inclined, and why the
sphere is ever rolling, rolling about, scarcely to be kept still, for
by various experiments we may show that the sphere stands only on a
little part of its face, the cube on the whole.
The sphere is always the same in whatever way regarded, and to
whatever tests subjected. It is always an emblem of unity, and cannot
be robbed of its simplicity, its unity, its freedom from all that is
puzzling.
The cube, on the contrary, being made to revolve on any one of its
axes, constantly shows a different aspect, so that the child views it
as a very extraordinary little block, full of fascinating surprises
and whimsical apparitions.
It is put upon the string, and, when whirled rapidly, mysteriously
loses its identity, and appears to the little one's laughing gaze as
an entirely different object; and yet as the motion grows more sedate,
the new form fades away and the cube reappears so quickly as to make
him rub his eyes and wonder if he has been dreaming.
Counting Faces.
The square faces of the cube, in comparison with the one curved,
unbroken surface of the sphere, must now be noted, and may be counted
if we are using the gift as a means of instruction.
We must beware, however, of making this counting exercise into a
lesson, or requiring that the number of faces shall be learned and
recited. Every teacher of experience will corroborate Mr. W. N.
Hailmann when he says: "If the kindergartner sets the cube before the
child and counts the faces, edges, and corners, so that he may 'know
all about it,' the child's interest, if born at all, will soon die."
If the faces are counted, as they are all so exactly alike, the
children may sometimes be puzzled as to the number, by enumerating the
same one more than once. This difficulty may be obviated by pasting a
paper square of a different color on each face, and then submitting it
to examination, giving each child an opportunity to count, since
independent self-activity is to be more and more encouraged.
If the faces, edges, and corners be made the integral point of an
interesting story or play, the child will have little difficulty in
recalling their number and character, but we must remember that
"lively interest and steady progress come only from following and
feeding the child's purposes."
Cylinder.
We now proceed to the cylinder, the reconciliation of the two
opposites; an object which having qualities possessed by both occupies
a middle ground in which each has something in common.
Froebel originally took the doll[27] as the intermediate form "uniting
in itself the opposites of the sphere and cube," and thus showed that
he understood child nature well, for no toy follows the ball with
greater certainty than the doll.
[27] "But now as man both unites the single, which finds its
limits in itself, and the manifold, which is constantly
developing, and reconciles them within himself as opposites,
there results also to the child from both, from _sphere_ and
_cube_ outwardly united, the expression of the animate and
active, especially as embodied in the _doll_."--Froebel's
_Pedagogics_, page 106.
The cylinder, however, was subsequently selected, as being more in
line with the other geometrical forms shown in the sequence of gifts.
It is as easily moved as the sphere, upon one side; as prone to rest
as the cube, when placed upon the other; it has the curved surface of
the sphere and the flat faces of the cube; it has no corners but two
curved edges; more edges than the sphere, fewer than the cube; less
unity than the sphere, more than the cube.
Its importance as a mediation, or connecting link, is further shown by
suspending the cube on a string, by which it may be twisted rapidly
and caused to revolve; in this motion a cylinder being readily seen.
When the cylinder is spun in like manner a sphere suddenly appears,
and so the wonderful and subtle bond of union is complete.[28]
[28] "On revolving the cylinder on an axis parallel to the
circular faces, we find that it incloses a solid, opaque
sphere; teaching us the lesson, not only that each member of
the second gift contains each and all of the others, but that
whatever is in the universe is in every individual part of
it; that even the meanest holds the elements of the noblest;
that the highest life is even in what in short-sighted
conceit we call death."--W. N. Hailmann, _Law of Childhood_,
page 35.
Hints as to Manner and Method.
Let the children call the cylinder a "roller" or "barrel" if they
choose, and tell them the right name when it is needful. Each gift
must be thoroughly understood before we pass to the next, or there
will be no orderly development; but as the impressions have all been
made through the senses of the child, we must not expect him to voice
these impressions in logical phrases all at once, so beware of making
the lesson irksome or wearisome to him through a formal questioning
that does not properly belong to childhood.
When the keen appetite for knowledge disappears we may well despair.
If several children in our class express dislike of a certain exercise
or lesson, and seem to dread its appearance, we may be well assured
that the fault lies in our method of putting it before them, and
strive in all humility for a better understanding of them, of
ourselves, and of the subject.
We must not, however, be too hard in our self-judgments and lose
courage. We are not responsible for a child who is "born tired," and
who seems to have no interest in anything, either in heaven above or
in the earth beneath, until, by ingenuity and perseverance, we are
able to open the eyes and ears which see and hear not.
It will be remembered that in discussing the first play or lesson with
the second gift great freedom was advised; but let us note the
difference between liberty and lawlessness, between spontaneity and
the confusion of self-assertion which is sometimes mistaken for it.
No lesson or play amounts to anything unless conducted with order and
harmony, unless at its close, no matter how merry and hearty the
enjoyment, some quiet and lasting impression has been made on the
mind. Many teachers miss the happy medium, and in trying with the best
intentions to allow the individuality of the child proper development,
only succeed in gaining excitement and disorder.
Dangers of Object Lessons.
The second gift is, more than any other, too much used for mere object
lessons, and these are invariably dangerous because there is apt to be
too much impressing of the teacher's own ideas upon the mind, and too
little actual handling, perceiving, observing, comparing, judging,
concluding, on the child's part, and that is the only logical way in
which he is able to form a clearly crystallized idea.
We can have no higher authority than Dr. Alexander Bain, who says that
the object lesson more than anything else demands a careful handling;
there being "great danger lest an admirable device should settle down
into a plausible but vicious formality."
How to deal successfully with Second Gift.
It is not uncommon to hear students in kindergarten training classes
(and even some full-fledged kindergartners) express a distaste for the
second gift, and it is, unfortunately, even more common to find the
children dealing with it either sunk in deepest apathy, or mercifully
oblivious of the matter in hand and chatting with their neighbors. The
fact is that we have too commonly made the exercises dull, dreary
affairs; we have doled out the forms to the children and asked a
series of formal questions about them, giving no experiments, no
concerted work, and no opportunity for action. The children have been
intensely bored, therefore either stupid or wandering, and the
kindergartner has attributed her want of success to the gift, and not
to her method of dealing with it.
Let the light of imagination shine on the scene, and note the
answering sparkle in the children's eyes. Who cares for the names of
all the faces on a stupid block; but who doesn't care when it's a
house and Johnnie can't find his mother, though he looks in the front
door and the back door, the right-hand door, the left-hand door, the
cellar-door, and finally the trap-door leading to the roof? Nobody
knows, or wants to know, when questioned if the cylinder rolls better
on its flat circular face, or on its rounding face; but when it's a
log of wood in the forest, and must be taken home for winter fires,
then it is worth while to experiment and see how it may be moved most
easily.
The second gift, too, is delightful for groupwork in the sand table,
where the objects may be treated symbolically, and likened to a
hundred different things. With the second gift beads, which in the
natural wood color are admirable supplements to the larger forms, the
children are always charmed, assorting and stringing them according to
fancy or dictation, and with the addition of sticks making them into
rows of soldiers, trees in flowerpots, kitchen utensils, churns,
stoves, lamps, and divers other household objects.
The kindergartner may give many a lesson in the simple principles of
mechanics with the second gift and its rods and standards, allowing
the children to experiment freely as well as to follow her
suggestions. The pulley, the steelyard, the capstan, the pump, the
mechanical churn, the wheelbarrow, etc., may all be made, adding the
beads where necessary, and thus the child gain a real working
knowledge of simple machinery.
Treatment of Previous Gifts when passed over.
The preceding gift need not entirely disappear, but be used
occasionally for a pleasing review as a bond of friendly intercourse
between older and younger pupils.[29] This will convey an indirect
hint, perhaps, to the little ones that it is not well to neglect old
friends for new ones, but that they should still love and value the
playthings and playmates of former days.
[29] "The giving of a new play by no means precludes the
further use of the preceding and earlier plays. But, on the
contrary, the use of the preceding play for some time longer
with the new play, and alternating with it, makes the
application of the new play so much the easier and more
widely significant."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 145.
Second Gift Forms in Architecture and Cube in Ancient Times.
These three objects, the sphere, cylinder, and cube, constitute a
triad of forms united in architecture and sculpture producing the
column, which is made up of the pedestal or base (the cube), the shaft
(the cylinder), and the capital (the sphere).
In a book on Egyptian antiquities we find that, in the beginning of
the culture of that country, the three Graces, or goddesses of beauty,
were represented by three cubes leaning upon each other. The Egyptians
did not, of course, know that it was the first regular form of solid
bodies in nature or crystallization; but the significant fact again
brings us to the thought expressed in the first lecture: "It would
seem, indeed, as though Froebel, in selecting his gifts, looked far
back into the past of humanity, and there sought the thread which from
the beginning connects all times and leads to the farthest future."
Froebel's Monument.
And here we leave the second gift, that trinity of forms which,
wrought in marble, marks the place dear and sacred to all
kindergartners, the grave of Froebel,--a simple monument to one so
great, yet so connected with our study and the child's experience that
with all its simplicity it is strangely effective. A still more
enduring monument he has in the millions of happy children who have
found their way to knowledge through the door which he opened to them;
indeed, if half the children he has benefited could build a tower of
these tiny blocks to commemorate his life and death, its point would
reach higher than St. Peter's dome and draw the thoughts of men to
heaven.
Suggestions of the Gift.
This gift can hardly be studied but that an inner unity, born of these
reconciled contrasts, suggests itself to the imagination.
The cube seems to stand as the symbol of the inorganic, the mineral
kingdom, with its wonderful crystals; the cylinder as the type of
vegetable life, suggesting the roots, stems, and branches, with their
rounded sides, and forming a beautiful connection between the cube,
that emblem of "things in the earth beneath," and the sphere which
completes the trinity and speaks to us of a never-ending and perfect
whole having "Unity for its centre, Diversity for its circumference."
The cube seems to suggest rest, immobility; the cylinder, in this
connection, growth; and the sphere, perfection, completeness,--so
delicately poised it is,--only kept in its proper place by the most
exquisite adjustment. And so to us, sometimes, the things that are
visible become luminous with suggestions of greater realities which
are yet unseen; and in the least we discern a faint radiance of the
greatest.
Things that are small mirror things that are mighty. The tiny sphere
is an emblem of the "big round world" and the planetary systems. The
cube recalls the wonderful crystals, and shows the form that men
reflect in architecture and sculpture. As for the cylinder it is
Nature's special form, and God has taught man through Nature to use it
in a thousand ways, and indeed has himself fashioned man more or less
in its shape.
Mr. Hailmann says: "The second gift presents types of the principal
phases of human development; from the easy mobility of infancy and
childhood,--the ball,--we pass through the half-steady stages of
boyhood and girlhood, represented in the cylinder, to the firm
character of manhood and womanhood for which the cube furnishes the
formula."
Bishop Brooks, speaking from the words, "The length and the breadth of
it are equal," in his sermon on Symmetry of Life, uses the cube as a
symbol of perfect character: The personal push of a life forward, its
outreach laterally or the going out in sympathy to others, the upward
reach toward God,--these he considers the three life dimensions. But
such building must be done without nervous haste; the foundation must
hint solidly of the threefold purpose; length, breadth, and thickness
must be kept in proportion, if the perfect cube of life is ever to be
found.
NOTE ON SECOND GIFT. [30] "The second gift, even in the nursery, calls
for modifications from the form in which it comes to us from Froebel.
It is incomparable in its rich symbolism for illustrating Froebel's
thought to mature minds, and answers quite a useful purpose in the
nursery, where it may help mamma tell her stories. But in the
kindergarten the child wants to build with blocks. Hence, the third,
fourth, fifth, and sixth gifts are indicated; the second gift, as
such, is, to say the least, an anachronism. Only in the form of the
beads, or some similar expedient which gives many of these things for
control, will it satisfy the kindergarten child. When he is expected
to _study_ the cube, as an object lesson, to count the squares and
corners and tell where they are, it is wholly unpalatable to him and
entirely foreign to his plans."
[30] W. N. Hailmann.
THOUGHTS ON THE DISCRIMINATIVE POWER.
"Mind starts from Discrimination. The consciousness of
difference is the beginning of every intellectual exercise."
"Our intelligence is, therefore, absolutely limited by our
power of discrimination; the other functions of intellect,
the retentive power, for instance, are not called into play
until we have first discriminated a number of things."
"The minuteness or delicacy of the feeling of difference is
the measure of the variety and multitude of our primary
impressions and therefore of our stored-up recollections."
"Bear in mind the fact that until a difference is felt
between two things, intelligence has not yet made the first
step."
"The higher arts of comparison to impress difference are best
illustrated when both differences and agreements have to be
noted, i. e., similarities and dissimilarities."
"Discrimination is the necessary prelude of every
intellectual impression as the basis of our stored-up
knowledge or memory."
Definition of the state of mind significantly named
_Indifference_,--"the state where differing impressions fail
to be recognized as distinct."
"The retentive power works up to the height of the
discriminative power; it can do no more."
ALEX. BAIN.
"The most delightful and fruitful of all the intellectual
energies is the perception of similarity and agreement, by
which we rise from the individual to the general, trace
sameness in diversity, and master instead of being mastered
by the multiplicity of nature."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"It is by comparisons that we ascertain the difference which
exists between things, and it is by comparisons, also, that
we ascertain the general features of things, and it is by
comparisons that we reach general propositions. In fact,
comparisons are at the bottom of all philosophy."
LOUIS AGASSIZ.
READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.
From Cradle to School. _Bertha Meyer_. Pages 132, 133.
The Kindergarten. _Emily Shirreff_. 11, 12.
Lectures on Child-Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 26, 27.
Froebel and Education by Self-Activity. _H. Courthope Bowen_.
138-40.
Kindergarten Guide. _J_. and _B. Ronge_. 3-5.
Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 47-49.
Kindergarten at Home. _Emily Shirreff_. 47-49.
Kindergarten Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 46, 51, 54.
Childhood's Poetry and Studies. _E. Marwedel_. Part II. 16-42.
Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. _Fr. Froebel_. 69-107.
Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. 9-11.
Law of Childhood. _W. N. Hailmann_. 33-35.
Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte_. 15-27.
Education of Man. _Fr. Froebel_. 107-10.
Kindergarten Toys. _H. Hoffmann_. 12-17.
Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth. _W. K. Lethaby_. 50, 65.
Stories of Industry. Vols. i. and ii. _A. Chase_ and _E. Clow_.
Ethics of the Dust. _John Ruskin_.
Mme. A. de Portugall's Synoptical Table, as given in "Essays on the
Kindergarten."
THE BUILDING GIFTS
The Building Gifts meet two very strongly marked tendencies in the
child. _a._ The tendency to investigate. _b._ The tendency to
transform.
The first and second gifts consist of undivided units, each one of
which stands in relation to a larger whole, or to a class of objects.
The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth gifts are divided units, and their
significance lies in the relationship of the parts to one another, and
to the whole of which they are the parts.
The effect of the Building Gifts is to develop the constructive powers
of the child. Their secondary importance lies in the fact that they
afford striking fundamental perceptions of Form, Size, Number,
Relation, and Position.
The following rules should govern the dictation exercises:--
BUILDING RULES.
1. Use all material in order to keep the idea of relation of parts to
a whole, and because all unused material is wasted material.[31]
[31] "In each construction the whole of the materials must be
used; or at least each separate piece must be arranged so as
to stand in some actual relation to the whole. While this
awakens the thinking spirit, it also strengthens and elevates
the imagination; because amidst so much variety, the
underlying unity is made visibly apparent."--Froebel's
_Letters_, tr. by Michaelis and Moore, page 72.
2. Build on the squares of the table in order to develop accuracy and
symmetry.
3. "Induce the child to form other wholes gradually and systematically
from the various parts of the cube. In doing this the laws of contrast
and development must be your guide."
KOEHLER.
4. Give names to each object constructed, thereby bringing it into
relation with the child's experience; for the miniature model serves
to interpret more clearly to him the object which it represents.
5. Connect with the child's life and sympathy in order to increase his
interest and develop the tendency to view things in their right
relations.
6. "The younger the child, the more you should talk about the thing
which you intend to construct. You should intersperse passing
observations or short songs. As the children gain intelligence, this
conversation will be replaced by more formal descriptions of the
things represented."
KOEHLER.
7. Begin with Life forms and proceed from these to forms of Beauty and
Knowledge.
8. Allow no child to rely upon the blocks of his playmates in his
building,--thus he will learn economy, self-reliance, and independence
of action.
This should not be carried too far, or rather the necessity and beauty
of interdependence should also be taught. Herein, indeed, lies more
than at first appears. To make the most out of little is the great
work of life; to be contented with what one has, and to make the best
of it with happiness and contentment is surely no small lesson, and
one which is constantly, though indirectly, taught in the kindergarten
work and plays and lessons.
9. Group work, or united building, should frequently be introduced.
"Every direction given by the kindergartner should be followed by
spontaneous work (either in word or deed) by the child. This must not
only be individual, but synthesized for the community."
10. Often encourage the class to imitate some specially attractive
form which has been produced by a child, and named according to his
fancy.
11. Accustom the child to develop figures or forms by slight changes
rather than by rudely destroying each single one preparatory to
constructing another. From learning to be strictly methodical in his
actions, he will become so in his later reasoning.
12. "Let the child, if possible, correct his own mistakes, and do not
constantly interfere with his work. Whatever he is able to do for
himself, no one should do for him."
KOEHLER.
FROEBEL'S THIRD GIFT
"All children have the building instinct, and 'to make a
house' is a universal form of unguided play."
"It is not a mere pastime, but a key with which to open the
outer world, and a means of awakening the inner world."
"This gift includes in itself more outward manifoldness, and,
at the same time, makes the inward manifoldness yet more
perceptible and manifest."
"The plaything shows also the ultimate type of structures put
together by human hand which stand in their substantiality
around the child." FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"The definitely productive exercises begin with the third
gift." SUSAN E. BLOW.
1. The third gift is a wooden cube measuring two inches in each of its
dimensions. It is divided once in its height, breadth, and thickness,
according to the three dimensions which define a solid, and thus eight
smaller cubes are produced.
2. We pass from the undivided to the divided unit, emphasizing the
fact that unity still exists, though divisibility enters as a new
factor.
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are contrasts of
size resulting in the abstraction of form from size; increase of
material as a whole, decrease of size in parts; increase of facilities
in illustrating form and number.
The new experience to be found in this first divided body is the idea
of relativity; of the whole in its relation to the parts (each an
embryo whole), and of the parts in relation to the whole.
The form of the parts is like the form of the whole, but, in shape
alike, the dissimilarity is in size; the fact becoming more apparent
by a variety of combinations of a different number of parts: thus the
relations of numbers are introduced to the observation of the child
together with those of form and magnitude.
4. The third gift was intended by Froebel to meet the necessities of
the child at a period when, no longer satisfied with the external
appearances of things, he strives to penetrate their internal
conditions, and begins to realize the many different possibilities of
the same element.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
{Cube.
Solids. {Square Prism.
{Rectangular Parallelopiped.
Planes. {Square.
{Oblong.
6. Froebel intends the building exercise to be carried on in a certain
way with a view of establishing a law to regulate the child's
activity. The upper and lower parts of the figure--the contrasts--are
first brought into position, and the balance is established by the
intermediates--right and left.
The cube itself is divided according to the law of Mediation of
Contrasts. The contrasts of exterior and interior, whole and parts,
analysis and synthesis, are also brought into relation with each
other.
* * * * *
Hailmann on Third Gift.
Mr. W. N. Hailmann says that the third gift marks an important step in
the mental life of the child. Heretofore, he has had to do with
playthings indivisible, whole, complete in themselves. Every
impression, or, rather, every fact, came to him as a unit, a one, an
indivisible whole.
The analyses and syntheses that are presented to him in the first and
second gifts come ready-made as it were, so that the joyous exercise
of his instinctive activity, guided and directed by the judicious,
loving mother, is sufficient to give him control of them; indeed, the
first and second gifts hold to his mental development the same
relation that the mother's milk holds to his physical growth.
But the third gift satisfies the growing desire for independent
activity, for the exercise of his own power of analysis and synthesis,
of taking apart and putting together.[32]
[32] "The idea of separation gained here in concrete form
becomes typical of that condition which must always exist in
any growth--the seed breaks through its coverings, and seems
to divide itself into distinct parts, each having its
function in the growth of the whole plant." (Alice H.
Putnam.)
Simplicity but Adaptability of the Gifts.
Simple as this first building gift appears, it is capable of great
things. It lends itself to a hundred practical lessons and a hundred
charming transformations, but if it is not thoroughly comprehended it
will never be well or effectively used by the kindergartner, and will
be nothing more to her than to uninterested observers, who see in it
nothing more than eight commonplace little blocks in a wooden box.
Froebel says if his educational materials are found useful it cannot
be because of their exterior, which is as plain as possible and
contains nothing new, but that their worth is to be found exclusively
in their application.
How Children are to be reached.
Therefore these simple devices with which we carry on our education
should never seem trifling, for we are compelled in teaching very
young children to put forth all gentle allurements to the gaining of
knowledge.
They are to be reached chiefly by the charms of sense, novelty, and
variety, and consequently, to please such active and imaginative
little critics, our lessons must be fresh, vivid, vigorous, and to the
point.
What is Necessary on Part of Kindergartner.
To accomplish this, we can see that not only is absolute knowledge
necessary, but that a well developed sensibility and imagination are
needed in leading the child from the indefinite to the definite, from
universal to particular, and from concrete to abstract. The worth of
the gifts then, we repeat, lies exclusively in their application; the
rude little forms must be used so that the child's imagination and
sympathy will be reached.
Imagination in Child and Kindergartner.
We may be thankful that this heaven-born imaginative faculty is the
heritage of every child,--that it is hard to kill and lives on very
short rations. The little boy ties a string around a stone and drags
it through dust and mire with happy conviction that it is a go-cart.
The little girl wraps up a stocking or a towel with tender hands,
winds her shawl about it, and at once the God-given maternal instinct
leaps into life,--in an instant she has it in her arms. She kisses its
cotton head and sings it to sleep in divine unconsciousness of any
incompleteness, for love supplies many deficiencies. So let us cherish
the child heart in ourselves and never look with scorn upon the rude
suggestions of the forms the child has built, but rather enter into
the play, enriching it with our own imaginative power. The children
will rarely perceive any incongruities, and surely we need not hint
them, any more than we would remind a child needlessly that her doll
is stuffed with sawdust and has a plaster head, when she thinks it a
responsive and affectionate little daughter.
Middendorf said, "This is like a fresh bath for the human soul, when
we dare to be children again with children.[33] The burdens of life
could not be borne were it not for real gayety of heart."
[33] "If we want to educate children, we must be children with
them ourselves." (Martin Luther.)
"If it were only the play and the mere outward apparatus," says the
Baroness von Marenholtz-Bülow, "we might indeed find our daily
teaching monotonous, but the idea at the foundation of it and the
contemplation of the being of man and its development in the child is
an inexhaustible mine of interesting discovery."
Reasons for Choice of Third Gift.
This third gift satisfies the child's craving to take things to
pieces. Froebel did not choose it arbitrarily, for Nature, human and
physical, was an open handbook to him, and if we study deeply and
sympathetically the reasons for his choice they will always be
comprehended.[34] Fénelon says, "The curiosity of children is a natural
tendency, which goes in the van of instruction." Destruction after all
is only constructive faculty turned back upon itself. The child,
having no legitimate outlet for his creative instinct, pulls his
playthings to pieces, to see what is inside,--what they are made of
and how they are put together;[35] but to his chagrin he finds it not
so easy to reunite the tattered fragments.
[34] "What must we furnish to the child after the
self-contained ball, after the hard sphere, every part of
which is similar, and after the single solid cube? It must be
something firm which can be easily pulled apart by the
child's strength, and just as easily put together again.
Therefore it must also be something which is simple, yet
multiform; and what should this be, after what we have
perceived up to this point, and in view of what the
surrounding world affords us, but the cube divided through
the centre by three planes perpendicular to one
another."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_.
[35] "_Unmaking_ is as important as _making_ to the child. His
destructive energy is as essential to him as his power of
construction." (W. T. Harris.)
"The child wishes to discover the inside of the thing, being
urged to this by an impulse he has not given to himself,--the
impulse which, rightly recognized and rightly guided, seeks
to know God in all his works.... Where can the child seek for
satisfaction of his impulse to research but from the thing
itself?"--Friedrich Froebel, _Education of Man_.
In the divided cube, however, he can gratify his desires, and at the
same time possess the joy of doing right and destroying nothing, for
the eight little blocks can be quickly united into their original
form, and also into many other pleasing little forms, each one
complete in itself, so that every analysis ends as it should, in
synthesis.
Froebel calls this gift specifically "the children's delight," and
indeed it is, responding so generously to their spontaneous activity,
while at the same time it suits their small capabilities, for the
possibilities of an object used for form study should not be too
varied. "It must be suggestive through its limitations," says Miss
Blow, "for the young mind may be as easily crushed by excess as by
defect."[36]
[36] "An element which slumbers like a viper under roses is
that which is now so frequently provided as a plaything for
children; it is, in a word, the already too complex and
ornate, too finished toy. The child can begin no new thing
with it, cannot produce enough variety by means of it; his
power of creative imagination, his power of giving outward
form to his own idea, are thus actually deadened."--Froebel's
_Pedagogics_.
Froebel was left motherless at a very early age, and during his first
four years of life his father was entirely engrossed with parish
duties, and the child had only occasional supervision from a
hard-worked servant. Thus it happened that he was frequently alone
long hours at a time in a dusky room overshadowed by the neighboring
church, and naturally strayed often to the window, from whence he
might look down upon the busy world outside. He recalls that he was
greatly interested at one time in some workmen who were repairing the
church, and that he constantly turned from his post of observation to
try and imitate their labors, but his only building material was the
furniture of the room, and chairs and tables clumsily resisted his
efforts to pile them up into suitable form. He tells us that this
strong desire for building and the bitter disappointment of his
repeated failures were still keenly remembered when he was a grown
man, and thus suggested to him that children ought to be provided with
materials for building among their playthings. He often noticed also,
in later years, that all children seem to have the building instinct,
corresponding to what Dr. Seguin calls "the building mania in the
infancy of peoples," and that "to make a house is the universal form
of unguided play."[37]
[37] "One of the greatest and most universal delights of
children is to construct for themselves a habitation of some
sort, either in the garden or indoors, where chairs have
generally to serve their purpose. Instinct leads them, as it
does all animals, to procure shelter and protection for their
persons, individual outward self-existence and
independence."--Bertha von Marenholtz-Bülow, _Child and Child
Nature_.
We now understand the meaning of the gift, the reason for its
importance in Froebel's plan, and its capabilities as a vehicle for
delightful instruction.
Classes of Forms.
There are three different classes of forms for dictation and
invention, variously named by kindergartners.
1. Life forms, or upright forms, which are seen in the child's daily
life, as a pair of boots, a chair, table, bed, or sofa. Froebel calls
them also object forms, or forms of things.
("The child demands that the object constructed stand in connection
with himself, his life, or somebody or something in his
life."--Froebel.)
2. Mathematical forms, or various combinations of the blocks, upright
and supine, for mathematical exercises. They correspond to the forms
of knowledge in Logic.
(Also called by Froebel forms of truth, forms of instruction, forms of
learning.)
3. Symmetrical forms, or flat designs formed by opposites and their
intermediates. These are figures in which four of the blocks generally
revolve in order around the other four as a centre.
(Also called by Froebel picture forms, flower forms, star forms, dance
forms.)
LIFE FORMS.
Life forms should be given first, as the natural tendency of the young
child is to pile things up,[38] and these forms seem simpler for
dictation, are more readily grasped by the mind, and more fascinating
to the imagination. They are the images of things both dear and
familiar to him, and thus are particularly adapted to the beginning
since the "starting point of the child's development is the heart and
the emotions." It is easier for him to be an architect at first than
an artist, though each will be comprehended in the other after a
time.[39]
[38] "The building or piling up is with the child, as with the
development of the human race, and as with the fixed forms in
Nature, the first."--Froebel's _Education of Man_.
"Towers, pyramids, up, up, connecting themselves with
something high, voicing aspiration."
[39] "The representation of facts and circumstances of
history, of geography, and especially of every-day life, by
means of building, I hold to be in the highest degree
important for children, even if these representations are
imperfect and fall far short of their originals. The eye is
at all events aroused and stimulated to observe with greater
precision than before the object that has been
represented.... And thus, by means of perhaps a quite
imperfect outward representation, the inner perception is
made more perfect."--Froebel's _Letters_, tr. by Michaelis
and Moore, page 99.
The dictations should be given very simply, clearly, and slowly,
always using one set of terms to express a certain meaning, and having
those absolutely correct. We should never give dictations from a book,
but from memory, having prepared the lesson beforehand, and should
remember that every exercise we give should "incite and develop
self-activity." We must guard against mistakes or confusion in our own
minds; it is very easy to confuse the child, and he will become
inattentive and careless if he is unable to catch our meaning.
Brief stories should occasionally be told, just mere outlines to give
color and force to the child's building, and connect it with his
experience. If it is an armchair, grandmother may sit in it knitting
the baby's stocking. If it is a well, describe the digging of it, the
lining with stones or brick, the inflowing of the water, the letting
down of the bucket and long chain, the clear, cool water coming up
from the deep, dark hole in the ground on a hot summer's day. These,
of course, are but the merest suggestions which experience may be
trusted to develop.
It is better, perhaps, to give a bit of word-painting to each object
constructed than to wait till the end of the series for the day and
tell a longer story, as the interest is thus more easily sustained.
The children, too, should be encouraged to talk about the forms and
tell little stories concerning them. The form created should never be
destroyed, but transformed into the next in order by a few simple
movements.
SYMMETRICAL FORMS.
"These forms, in spite of their regularity, are called forms of
beauty. The mathematical forms which Froebel designates forms of
knowledge give only the skeleton from which the beautiful form
develops itself.
"Symmetry of the parts which make up these simple figures gives the
impression of beauty to the childish eye. He must have the elements of
the beautiful before he is in a condition to comprehend it in its
whole extent.
"Only what is simple gives light to the child at first. He can only
operate with a small number of materials, therefore Froebel gives only
eight cubes for this object at this time."
Of course these three classes of forms are not to be kept arbitrarily
separate, and the children finish and lay aside one set before
attempting another. There are many cases where the three may be
united, as indeed they are morally speaking in the life of every human
being.
When the distinctions are clear in our own minds, our knowledge and
tact will guide us to introduce the gift properly, and carry it on in
a natural, orderly, and rational manner, not restricting the child's
own productive powers.
If the children have had time to imbibe a love of symmetry and beauty,
and have been trained to observe and delight in them, then this second
class of forms will attract them as much, after a little, as the
first, though more difficult of execution.
Each sequence starts from a definite point, the four outside blocks
revolving round the central four, and going through or "dancing
through," as Froebel says, all the successive figures before returning
in the opposite direction.
All the dictations are most valuable intellectually, but should not be
long-continued at one time, as they require great concentration of
mind, and are consequently wearisome.
Hints from Ronge's "Guide."
Excellent exercises or suggestions for building can be found in
Ronge's "Kindergarten Guide." He mentions one pleasant little play
which I will quote. "When each in the class has produced a different
form, let the children rise and march round the table to observe the
variety." Let them sing in the ascending and descending scales:--
Many pretty forms I see,
Which one seems the best to me?
At another time let each child try to build the house he lives in,
and while this is being done, let them join in singing some song about
home. It is well to encourage singing during the building exercises,
as we have so many appropriate selections.[40]
[40] See _Kindergarten Chimes_ (Kate D. Wiggin), Oliver
Ditson Publishing Co.: "Building Song," pages 34, 35; "Trade
Game," page 70; "The Carpenter," page 92.
Group Work.
With the first of the Building Gifts enters a new variety of group
work, which was not adapted for the first and second gifts. The
children may now be seated at square tables, one at each side, and
build in unison in the centre, the form produced being of course four
times as large and fine as any one of the number could have produced
alone. All the suggestions or directions for building are necessarily
carried out together, and the success of the completed form is
obviously dependent on the coöperation of all four children. Forms of
Beauty are very easily constructed in this manner, as well as forms of
Life, having four uniform sides, and when the little ones are somewhat
more expert builders, Life forms having opposite sides alike, or even
four different sides, may be constructed.
The other various forms of coöperative work are of course never to be
neglected, that a social unity may be produced, in which "the might of
each individual may be reinforced by the might of the whole."
MATHEMATICAL FORMS.
A better idea of these may be obtained through a manipulation of the
blocks and an arrangement of the geometrical forms in their regular
order.
The child, if he were taught as Froebel intended, would make his first
acquaintance with numbers in the nursery, beginning in a very small
way and progressing slowly. The pupils of the kindergarten are a
little older, and having already a slight knowledge of numbers (though
not of course in their abstract relations) are able to accomplish
greater things.
The child can, with our guidance, make all possible combinations of
the parts of the number Eight. The principles of Addition,
Subtraction, even Multiplication and Fractions, can also be mastered
without one tear of misery or pang of torture. He grasps the whole
first, then by simple processes, building with his own hands, he finds
out and demonstrates for himself halves, fourths, and eighths,
sometimes in different positions, but always having the same contents.
Method and Manner of using the Gift.
Even yet we must not suffer this to become work. The exercises should
be repeated again and again, but we must learn to break off when the
play is still delightful, and study ways to endow the next one with
new life and charm, though it carry with it the same old facts. What
we want to secure is, not a formidable number of parrot-like
statements, but a firm foundation for future clearness of
understanding, depth of feeling, and firmness of purpose. So, at the
beginning of the exercise, we should not ask John if he remembers what
we talked about last time, and expect him to answer clearly at once.
Because he does not answer our formal questions which do not properly
belong to babyhood, we need not conclude he has learned nothing, for a
child can show to our dull eyes only a very tiny glimpse of his
wonderful inner world.
Let our aim be, that the child shall little by little receive
impressions so clearly that he will recognize them when they appear
again, and that he shall, after a time, know these impressions by
their names. It is nothing but play after all, but it is in this
childish play that deep meaning lies.
A child is far less interested in that which is given him complete
than in that which needs something from him to make it perfect. He
loves to employ all his energies in conceiving and constructing forms;
the less you do for him the better he enjoys it, if he has been
trained to independence.[41]
[41] "Probably the chief wish of children is to do things for
themselves, instead of to have things done for them. They
would gladly live in a Paradise of the Home-made. For
example, when we read how the 'prentices of London used to
skate on sharp bones of animals, which they bound about their
feet, we also wished, at least, to try that plan, rather than
to wear skates bought in shops." (Andrew Lang.)
"Complete toys hinder the activity of children, encourage
laziness and thoughtlessness, and do them more harm than can
be told. The active tendency in them turns to the distortion
of what is complete, and so becomes destructive."
"Any fusing together of lessons, work, and play, is possible
only when the objects with which the child plays allow room
for independent mental and bodily activity, i. e., when they
are not themselves complete in the child's hand. Had man
found everything in the world fixed and prepared for use; had
all means of culture, of satisfaction for the spiritual and
material wants of his nature, been ready to his hand, there
would have been no development, no civilization of the human
race."
Pedantry and dogmatism must be eliminated from all the dictations; the
life must not be shut out of the lessons in order that we may hear a
pin drop, nor should they be allowed to degenerate into a tedious
formalism and mechanical puppet-show, in which we pull the strings and
the poor little dummies move with one accord.
Yet most emphatically a certain order and harmony must prevail, the
forms must follow each other in natural sequence, the blocks must,
invariably, be taken carefully from the box, so as to present a whole
at the first glance, and at the close of the lesson should always be
neatly put together again into the original form and returned to the
box as a whole.[42]
[42] "In order to furnish to the child at once clearly and
definitely the _impression of the whole_, of _the
self-contained_, the plaything before it is given to the
child for his own free use must be opened as follows.... It
will thus appear before the observing child as a cube closely
united, yet easily separated and again restored."--Froebel's
_Pedagogics_, pages 123, 124.
And now one last word of warning about doing too much for the children
in these exercises, and even guiding too much, carrying system and
method too far in dictation. We must remember that an excess of
systematizing crushes instead of developing originality, and that it
is all too easy even in the kindergarten to turn children into
machines incapable of acting when the guiding hand is removed.
NOTE.
In opening the boxes, it is well to observe some simple form. It is
not irksome, but, on the contrary, rather pleasing to the children,
who delight in doing things in concert.
BOXES IN CENTRE OF TABLE.
1. Draw the cover out one half space.
2. Fingers of right hand placed on left-hand side of box.
3. Turn entirely over from left to right.
4. Withdraw lid and place on right-hand upper corner of table.
5. Lift box gently and place on top of cover mouth upwards.
READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.
Reminiscences of Froebel. _Von Marenholtz-Bülow_. Page 152.
Child and Child Nature. _Von Marenholtz-Bülow_. 145, 146.
Education. _E. Seguin_. 95, 96.
Lessons in Form. _W. W. Speer_. 23.
Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. _Fr. Froebel_. 108-44.
Education of Man. _Fr. Froebel_. Tr. by _Josephine Jarvis_. 40, 41.
Kindergarten at Home. _E. Shirreff_. 12-14.
Kindergarten Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 55-66.
Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. 11-16.
Law of Childhood. _W. N. Hailmann_. 35-38.
Kindergarten Guide. _J_. and _B. Ronge_. 5-13.
Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte_. 27-47.
Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 20-23.
Froebel and Education by Self-Activity. H. _Courthope Bowen_.
140-42.
Kindergarten Toys. _Heinrich Hoffmann_. 17-26.
Conscious Motherhood. _E. Marwedel_. 165, 166.
The Kindergarten. _H. Goldammer_. 49-70.
FROEBEL'S FOURTH GIFT
"A new gift is demanded--a gift wherein the length, breadth,
and thickness of a solid body shall be distinguished from
each other by difference of size. Such a gift will open the
child's eyes to the three dimensions of space, and will serve
also as a means of recognizing and interpreting the manifold
forms and structures with which he is constantly brought in
contact."
"The inner difference, intimated in the three perpendicular
axes of the cube (and the sphere), now becomes externally
visible and abiding in each of its building blocks as a
difference of size." FR. FROEBEL.
"The fourth gift incites the child to consider things in
their relations to space, and to the forces of nature, and in
his play with the bricks he is constantly engaged in efforts
to adapt himself to the laws of their nature, while rendering
them subservient to his ends." W. N. HAILMANN.
1. The fourth gift consists of a cube measuring two inches in each of
its dimensions. It is divided once vertically in its height, and three
times horizontally in its thickness, giving eight parallelopipeds or
bricks, each two inches long, one inch wide, and one half inch thick.
2. Like the third gift in form, size, material, and use, it is unlike
it in division. In the third gift the parts were like each other, and
like the whole, in the fourth they are like each other, but unlike the
whole.
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are:--
_a._ Approximation to surface in the symmetrical forms.
_b._ Greater height and greater extension, resulting in a
greater possible inclosure of space.
_c._ The illustration of two philosophical laws, viz., the
law of Equilibrium or Balance, and the law of Transmitted
Motion or Propagation of Force.
4. Progress is shown in this gift as follows:--
_a._ In the difficulty of dictation and manipulation arising
from the different character of the faces of the bricks, and
the many positions which each brick can assume.
_b._ In the necessity of perfect balance.
_c._ In a clearer illustration of dimension. In the third
gift the parts were equal in height, breadth, and thickness;
in the fourth they are unequal, and therefore each dimension
is emphasized.
As to progression, the increase of difficulty suits the increase in
the child's power of comprehension and receptivity. He is being
developed thus far, not by rapid changes in material or greater
exercise in number, but by practice with differing forms, each one
bringing with it new knowledge and experience. The organs of
perception are being constantly made to grow by exercise with
intention. We are forming the scientific eye which can detect
differences ever after at a glance.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
Solids. { Rectangular Parallelopipeds.
{ Square Prisms.
Planes. { Oblongs.
{ Squares.
6. The fourth gift presents contrasts of dimension and, as to the area
of its faces, contrasts of size and their mediation.
* * * * *
What the Child has gained from Third Gift.
The use of the third gift opened to the child quite a new world of
experiences, each one of which was pleasant and instructive, combining
all the delights of mental and physical activity, imagination,
practical industry, and coöperation.
He has gained an idea, distinct in proportion to the skill with which
it has been placed before him, of the cube as a solid body having
surfaces, corners, and edges; of a whole and its equal fractional
parts; of the power of combining those parts into new wholes; and of
the fact that form and size are two separate and distinct
characteristics of objects. He has also gained new dexterity.[43]
His ten little fingers that seemed "all thumbs" as they arranged so
carefully the clumsy little cubes of the Low Wall can now build the
Bunker Hill Monument with unerring skill, and can even, with the grave
concentration that it demands, drop the last difficult little block
cornerwise into the top of the church window.
[43] "A child trained for one year in a kindergarten would
acquire a skillful use of his hands and a habit of accurate
measurement of the eye which would be his possession through
life." (W. T. Harris.)
The child has counted his cubes from one to eight until he knows them
like the children of a family, and can divide them into sets of two
and four with equal ease.
These are the deeds. As to the new words the little box of blocks has
brought him, their number is legion, comprising many terms of
direction and position, names of tools and implements, buildings and
places.
Truly if the kindergartner has been wise and faithful, the child has
gained wonders from this simple unassuming toy, one which is almost
too plain and rude to fix the momentary attention of a modern spoiled
child, though even he will grow to appreciate its treasures if rightly
guided.
Differences between Third and Fourth Gifts.
And now we approach another cubical box, containing the fourth gift,
and, on opening it, see that it presents resemblances between and
differences when compared with that just left behind.
We notice at once the new method of division, and in separating it
find that the parts, evidently in number the same as before, are
entirely novel in form, though the whole was familiar in its aspect.
If the child is old enough to understand the process of comparison, he
will see that the parts of the two gifts have each six surfaces, eight
corners, and twelve edges; but that while edges and corners are alike,
the faces differ greatly on the new block, which he will probably call
the "brick," as it is a familiar form and name to him. This process of
comparison will be greatly facilitated if he models the two cubes in
clay, and divides them with string or wire, the one into inch cubes,
the other into bricks.
Dr. Seguin's Objections to the Cube as the Primary Figure in the
Kindergarten.
Dr. E. Seguin, in his celebrated "Report on Education," says, in
regard to the use of the cube as the primary block or figure in the
kindergarten: "Had the kindergartners chosen it with their senses, as
it must speak to the senses of the child, instead of with their mind,
they would certainly never have selected the cube, a form in which
similarity is everywhere, difference nowhere, a barren type incapable
by itself of instigating the child to active comparison. Had they, on
the contrary, from infantile reminiscences, or from more philosophical
indications, selected a block of brick-form, the child would soon have
discovered and made use of the similarity of the straight lines, and
of the difference of the three dimensions. For example: Put a cube on
your desk and let a pupil put one on his; you change the position of
yours, he, accordingly, of his. If you renew these moves till both of
you are tired, they will not make any perceptible change in the aspect
of the object. The movement has been barren of any modification
perceptible to the senses and appreciable to the mind. There has been
no lesson unless you have, by words speaking to the mind, succeeded in
making the child comprehend the idea of a cube derived from its
intrinsic properties; a body with six equal sides and eight equal
angles."
Answers to these Objections.
With all deference to Dr. Seguin, whose opinions and deductions are
generally indisputable, we cannot regard as unwise the choice of the
cube as the primary figure in the gifts.
In the first place, Froebel, having a sequence of forms in his mind,
undoubtedly wished to introduce, early in that sequence, the one which
would best serve him as a foundation for further division and
subdivision. This need is, beyond question, better met in the cube
than in the brick, which would lend itself awkwardly to regular
division.
Secondly, although there is in the cube "similarity everywhere,
difference nowhere," and therefore it might be called in truth a
"barren type, incapable by itself of instigating the child to
comparison and action," we do not introduce it, by itself, but in
contrast with the sphere and cylinder.
Then, when it appears again in the building gifts, "as the simplest
and most easily handled form element," the kindergartner has every
opportunity to use it so that it may lead the child to comparison and
action, and to develop the slowly dawning sense of difference and
agreement without which she well knows "knowledge has not yet made the
first step." But, if the cube is a form speaking little to the senses
of a child, and requiring description by words spoken to the mind, it
is evident that we should use great care in dealing with the second
gift, lest we run needlessly into abstractions, and strive to give the
child ideas of which he can have no comprehension.
Value of the Brick Form.
The "brick" is a form rich in impressions, for we find that every
position in which it is placed gives the child a new perception, and
the union of these perceptions furnishes him with a complete idea of
the object, and of its possible uses in relation to its form.
Dr. Seguin does not rate it too highly when he says: "What a spring of
effective movements, of perceptions and of ideas in the exercises with
this form, where analogy and difference, incessantly noted by the
touch and the view, challenge the mind to comparison and judgment!"
Dimension.
The fourth gift contains all that the three former gifts showed, and
introduces differences of dimension and equilibrium only hinted at
before. It also, as Froebel says, "throws into relief the perception
of size by showing similarity of size with dissimilarity of dimension
and position."
As to dimension, the child built the Shot-tower with the third gift,
and knew that it was high, the Platform and that it was broad, the
Well and that it was deep, the Wall and saw that it was thick, etc.,
so that he has a conception of height, length, breadth; but in the
fourth gift he is shown these dimensions in a single block. He is thus
led from the known to the unknown.[44] They are united and contrasted
in one object, and therefore emphasized.
[44] "The three principal dimensions of space, which in the
cube only make themselves known as differences of position,
in the fourth gift become more prominent and manifest
themselves as differences of size. These three relations of
size are in the fourth gift as abiding and changeless as the
position of the three principal directions was before and
still is."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 189.
Equilibrium.
As to the law of equilibrium, it is very forcibly brought to the
child's attention every time his forms fall to the table when
constructed without due regard to its principles.
He soon sees its practical significance, takes care to follow its
manifest expression, and to observe with more care the centre of
gravity. Great liberties could be taken with the stolid little cubes
and they seldom showed any resentment; they quietly settled down into
their places and resisted sturdily all the earthquake shocks which are
apt to visit a kindergarten table during the building hour. The bricks
on the other hand have to be humored and treated with deference. The
moment one is placed upon another, end to end, the struggle begins,
and in any of the high Life forms, the utmost delicacy of touch is
necessary as well as sure aim and steady hand.
Here comes in, too, a necessity of calculation not before required.
The cubes could be placed on any side and always occupy the same
space, but the building with the bricks will vary according as they
are placed on the broad, the narrow, or the short face. They must also
fit together and bear a certain relation to each other.
In the dictations it will be perceived that we now have to specify the
position which the brick must take as well as the place which it is to
occupy. We designate the three faces of the brick as the broad face,
the narrow face, and the short face or end.
Fourth Gift Building.
The symmetrical forms are much more interesting than before and
decidedly more artistic when viewed in comparison with the somewhat
thick and clumsy designs made with the cubes. The fourth gift forms
cover more space, approach nearer the surface, and the bricks slide
gracefully from one position to another, and slip in and out of the
different figures with a movement which seems like a swan's, compared
with the goose-step of the stubby little cubes.
It is a noteworthy fact that "the buds," as Froebel calls them, of all
the fourth gift Beauty forms were contained in those of the third
gift, and have here opened into fuller bloom.
The Life forms are much more artistic now, and begin to imitate a
little more nearly the objects they are intended to represent. We can
make more extensive buildings also since we have an additional height
or length of eight inches over that of the third gift, and thus can
cover double the amount of surface and inclose a much greater space.
In the first play with the gift, the children's eyes, so keen in
seeing play possibilities, quickly discover the value of the bricks in
furniture-making, and set to work at once on tables and chairs, or
bureaus and sofas and bedsteads.
They engage too in a lively contest with the law of equilibrium, and
experiment long and patiently until they comprehend its practical
workings.
When they understand the fourth gift fairly well, know the different
faces and can handle the bricks with some dexterity, the third gift
should be added and the two used together. They complement each other
admirably, and give variety and strength to the building, whether
forms of Life, Beauty, or Knowledge are constructed.
Froebel, however, is most emphatic in directing that each set of
blocks should be given to the child in its own box, opened so as to
present a whole at the first glance, and carefully rebuilt and packed
away when the play is over. The cubes and bricks should never be left
jumbled together at the close of the exercise, nor should they be kept
in and returned to a common receptacle.
"Unimportant as these little rules may appear," he says, "they are
essential to the clear and definite development of the child, to his
orderly apprehension of external objects, and to the logical unfolding
of his own concepts and judgments."
"The box of building blocks should be regarded by the child," he
concludes, "as a worthy, an appreciated, and a loved comrade."
The mathematical forms are constructed and applied in precisely the
same manner as before. The fourth gift, however, offers a far greater
number of these than its predecessor, while it is particularly adapted
to show that objects identical in form and size may be produced in
quite different ways.
Throughout all these guided plays, it should be remembered that time
is always to be allowed the child for free invention, that the
kindergartner should talk to him about what he has produced so that
his thought may be discovered to himself,[45] and that in all possible
ways Group work should be encouraged in order that his own strength
and attainments may be multiplied by that of his playfellows and swell
the common stock of power. Froebel, the great advocate of the
"Together" principle says, "Isolation and exclusion destroy life;
union and participation create life."[46]
[45] "The child is allowed the greatest possible freedom of
invention; the experience of the adult only accompanies and
explains."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 130.
[46] _Pedagogics_, page 180.
It is perhaps needless to say that the philosophical laws which govern
the outward manifestations of a moving force, as equilibrium or
self-propagating activity, are for personal study, and are never to be
spoken of abstractly to the child, but merely to be illustrated with
simple explanations.
Transmitted Motion.
To show simply the law of transmitted motion, for instance, let the
child place his eight bricks on end, in a row, one half inch apart,
with their broad faces toward each other. Then ask him to give the one
at the right a very gentle push towards the others and see what will
happen; the result is probably as great a delight as you could
reasonably wish to put within his reach.
When he asks, "What makes them do so?" as every thoughtful child is
apt to do, let us ask the class the same question and set them
thinking about it. "Which brick did it?" we may say familiarly, and
they will see it all in a moment,--where the force originated, how it
gave itself to the next brick in order, that one in turn doing the
same, and so on.
This law of transmitted motion, when so simply illustrated in the
fourth gift, easily suggests to the children the force of example, and
indeed every physical law seems to have its correlate in the moral
world. We may make the children see it very clearly through the seven
poor, weak little bricks that fell down because they were touched by
the first one. They really could not help it; now, how about seven
little boys or girls? They can help doing things, can they not?
By such simple exercises and appropriate comments the children may be
made to realize their moral free agency.
READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.
Kindergarten at Home. _Emily Shirreff_. Pages 58-61.
Kindergarten Culture. _W. N. Hailmann_. 66.
Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 23, 24.
Kindergarten Guide. _J_. and _B. Ronge_. 13-24.
Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. _Fr. Froebel_. 166-95.
Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. 17-19.
Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte_. 47-81.
Froebel and Education by Self-Activity. _H. Courthope Bowen_.
141, 142.
Kindergarten Toys. _H. Hoffmann_. 27-30.
FROEBEL'S FIFTH GIFT
"The material for making forms increases by degrees,
progressing according to law, as Nature prescribes. The
simple wild rose existed before the double one was formed by
careful culture. Children are too often overwhelmed with
quantity and variety of material that makes formation
impossible to them."
"The demand of the new gift, therefore, is that the oblique
line, hitherto only transiently indicated, shall become an
abiding feature of its material."
"In the forms made with the fifth gift there rules a living
spirit of unity. Even members and directions which are
apparently isolated are discovered to be related by
significant connecting members and links, and the whole shows
itself in all its parts as one and living,--therefore, also,
as a life-rousing, life-nurturing, and life-developing
totality." FR. FROEBEL.
1. The fifth gift is a three-inch cube, which, being divided equally
twice in each dimension, produces twenty-seven one-inch cubes. Three
of these are divided into halves by one diagonal cut, and three others
into quarters by two diagonal cuts crossing each other, making in all
thirty-nine pieces, twenty-one of which are whole cubes, the same size
as those of the third gift.
2. The fifth gift seems to be an extension of the third, from which it
differs in the following points:--
The third gift is a two-inch cube, the fifth a three-inch cube; the
third is divided once in each dimension, the fifth twice. In the third
all the parts are like each other and like the whole; in the fourth,
they are like each other but unlike the whole; and in the fifth they
are not only for the most part unlike each other, but eighteen of them
are unlike the whole.
The third gift emphasized vertical and horizontal divisions producing
entirely rectangular solids; the fifth, by introduction of the
slanting line and triangular prism, extends the element of form. In
the third gift, the slanting direction was merely implied in a
transitory way by the position of the blocks; in the fifth it is
definitely realized by their diagonal division.
In number, the third gift emphasized two and multiples of two; the
fifth is related to the fourth in its advance in complexity of form
and mathematical relations.
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are: introduction of
diagonal line and triangular form; division into thirds, ninths, and
twenty-sevenths; illustration of the inclined plane and cube-root. As
a result of these combined characteristics, it is specially adapted to
the production of symmetrical forms.
It includes not only multiplicity, but, for the first time, diversity
of material.
4. The fifth gift realizes a higher unity through a greater variety
than has been illustrated previously. It corresponds with the child's
increasing power of analysis; it offers increased complexity to
satisfy his growing powers of creation, and less definitely suggestive
material in order to keep pace with his developing individuality.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
{ Cube.
{ Rectangular Parallelopiped.
{ Square Prism.
{ Triangular Prism.
Solids. { Rhomboidal Prism.
{ Trapezoidal Prism.
{ Pentagonal Prism.
{ Hexagonal Prism.
{ Heptagonal Prism.
{ Octagonal Prism.
{ Square.
{ Oblong.
{ Right Isosceles Triangle.
{ Rhomboid.
Planes. { Trapezium.
{ Trapezoid.
{ Pentagon.
{ Hexagon.
{ Heptagon.
{ Octagon.
6. The fifth gift shows the following contrasts and mediations:--
The diagonal line a connection between the horizontal and vertical;
the right angle as a connection between the obtuse angle (largest) and
the acute angle (smallest); in size of parts the half cube standing
between the whole and quarter cubes.
* * * * *
We have thus far been proceeding from unity to variety, from the whole
to its parts, from the simple to the complex, from easily constructed
forms to those more difficult of manipulation and dictation, until we
have arrived at the fifth gift.
Effect of the Study of Froebel's Gifts on the Kindergartner.
How instructive and delightful have we found this orderly procedure;
this development of great from little things; this thoughtful
association of new and practical ideas with all that is familiar to
the child mind and heart. Every year the training teacher feels it
anew herself, and is sure of the growing interest and sympathy of her
pupils.
Many persons who fail to grasp the true meaning of the kindergarten
seem to consider the balls and blocks and sticks with which we work
most insignificant little objects; but we think, on the other hand,
that nothing in the universe is small or insignificant if viewed in
its right connection and undertaken with earnestness and enthusiasm.
Nothing in childhood is too slight for the notice, too trivial for the
sympathy of those on whom the Father of all has bestowed the holy
dignity of motherhood or teacherhood; and to the kindergartner
belongs the added dignity of approaching nearer the former than the
latter, for hers indeed is a sort of vice-motherhood.
We must always be impressed with the knowledge which we ourselves gain
in studying these gifts and preparing the exercises with them. In
concentration of thought; careful, distinct, precise, and expressive
language; logical arrangement of ideas; new love of order, beauty,
symmetry, fitness, and proportion; added ingenuity in adapting
material to various uses, æsthetic and practical,--in all these ways
every practical student of Froebel must constantly feel a decided
advance in ability.
Then, too, the simple rudiments of geometry have been reviewed in a
new light; we have dealt with solid bodies and planes, and studied
them critically so that we might draw the child's attention to all
points of resemblance or difference; we have found some beautifully
simple illustrations of familiar philosophical truths, and, best of
all, have simplified and crystallized our knowledge of the relations
of numbers so that the child's impressions of them may be easily and
clearly gained.
Why we are required to study deeply and to know more than we teach.
We have been required to look at each gift in its broadest aspect, and
to observe it patiently and minutely in all its possibilities, for the
larger the amount of knowledge the kindergartner possesses, the more
free from error will be her practice.
Unless we know more than we expect to teach, we shall find that our
lessons will be stiff, formal affairs, lacking variety, elasticity,
and freshness, and marred continually by lack of illustration and
spontaneity.
Lack of interest in the teacher is as fatal as lack of interest in the
child; in fact, the one follows directly upon the heels of the other.
For this reason, continued study is vitally necessary that new phases
of truth may continually be seen.
Above all other people the teacher should go through life with eyes
and ears open. Unless she is constantly accumulating new information
her mind will not only become like a stagnant pool, but she will find
out that what she possesses is gradually evaporating. There is no
state of equilibrium here; she who does not progress retrogresses.
It should be a comparatively simple matter to gain enough knowledge
for teaching,--the difficult thing is the art of imparting it. Said
Lord Bacon, "The art of well delivering the knowledge we possess to
others is among the secrets left to be discovered by future
generations."
Relation between Gifts, and their Relation to the Child's Mental and
Moral Growth.
These are a few of the technicalities which have been mastered up to
this time by a faithful study of the gifts of Froebel; and yet they
are only technicalities, and do not include the half of what has been
gained in ways more difficult to describe.
"To clearly comprehend the gifts either individually or collectively
we must clearly conceive their relation to and dependence on each
other, for it is only in this intimate connection that they gain
importance or value."
If the kindergartner does not recognize the relationship which exists
between them and their relation to the child's mental and moral
growth, she uses them with no power or intelligence. We conceive
nothing truly so long as we conceive it by itself; the individual
example must be referred to the universal law before we can rightly
apprehend its significance, and for a clear insight into anything
whatsoever we must view it in relation to the class to which it
belongs. We can never really know the part unless we know the whole,
neither can we know the whole unless we know the part.
Pleasure of Child at New Gift.
In the fifth gift, which, it may be said, can commonly only be used
with profit after the child has neared or attained his fifth year, we
find that we have not parted from our good old friend, the cube, that
has taught us so many valuable lessons. We always find contained in
each gift a reminder of the previous one, together with new elements
which may have been implied before, but not realized. So, therefore,
we have again the cube, but greatly enlarged, divided, and
diversified. When the child sees for the first time even the larger
box containing his new plaything, he feels joyful anticipation,
surmising that as he has grown more careful and capable, he has been
entrusted with something of considerable importance. If he has been
allowed to use the third and fourth gifts together frequently, he will
not be embarrassed by the amount of material in the new object.
Lest he be overwhelmed, however, by its variety as much as by its
quantity, it might be well before presenting the new material as a
whole to allow the child to play with a third gift in which one cube
cut in halves and one in quarters have been substituted for two whole
cubes. He will joyfully discover the new forms, study them carefully,
and find out their distinctive peculiarities and their value in
building. When he has used them successfully once or twice, and has
learned how to place the triangular prisms to form the cube, then the
mass of new material as a whole can have no terrors for him.
How great is his pleasure when he withdraws the cover and finds indeed
something full of immense possibilities; he feels, too, a command of
his faculties which leads him to regard the new materials, not with
doubt or misgiving, but with a conscious power of comprehension.
Its New Features.
At the first glance the most striking characteristics are its greater
size and greater number of divisions, into thirds, ninths, and
twenty-sevenths, instead of halves, quarters, and eighths.
These divisions open a new field in number lessons, while the
introduction of the slanting line and triangular prism makes a decided
advance in form and architectural possibilities.
Importance of Triangular Form.
The triangle, by the way, is a valuable addition in building
exercises, for as a fundamental form in architecture it occurs very
frequently in the formation of all familiar objects. Indeed, the new
form and its various uses in building constitute the most striking and
valuable feature of the gift.
We find it an interesting fact that all the grand divisions of the
earth's surface have a triangular form, and that the larger islands
assume this shape more or less.
The operation of dividing the earth's surface into greater and lesser
triangles is used in making a trigonometrical survey and in
ascertaining the length of a degree of latitude or longitude. The
triangle is also of great use in the various departments of mechanical
work, as will be noted hereafter in connection with the seventh gift.
Difficulties of the Fifth Gift.
The difficulties of the fifth gift are only apparent, for the
well-trained child of the kindergarten sees more than any other, and
he will grasp the small complexities with wonderful ease, smoothing
out a path for himself while we are wondering how we shall make it
plain to him.
Effect of Good Training.
But here let us note that we can only succeed in attaining
satisfactory results in kindergarten work by beginning intelligently
and never discontinuing our patient watchfulness, self-command, and
firmness of purpose,--firmness, remember, not stubbornness, for it is
a rare gift to be able to yield rightly and at the proper time.
If we help the little one too much in his first simple lessons or
dictations; if we supply the word he ought to give; if, to save time
and produce a symmetrical effect, we move a block here and there in
weariness at some child's apparent stupidity, we shall never fail to
reap the natural results. The effect of a rational conscientious and
consistent behavior to the child in all our dealings with him is very
great, and every little slip from the loving yet firm and
straightforward course brings its immediate fruit.
The perfectly developed child welcomes each new difficulty and invites
it; the imperfectly trained pupil shrinks in half-terror and
helplessness, feeling no hope of becoming master of these strange new
impressions.
Arrangement of Pieces.
To return to the specific consideration of the gift, there must be a
plan of arranging the various pieces which go to make up the whole
cube.
We have now for the first time the slanting line, the mediation of the
two opposites, vertical and horizontal, and by this three of the
small cubes are divided into halves and three into quarters. It is
advisable, when building the cube, to place nine whole cubes in each
of the two lower layers, keeping all the divided cubes in the upper or
third layer, halves in the middle row, quarters at the back. Then we
may slide the box gently over the cube as in the third and fourth
gifts, which enables us to have the blocks separated properly when
taken out again, and forms the only expedient way of handling the
pieces.[47]
[47] "This procedure is by no means intended merely to make
the withdrawal of the box easy for the child, but, on the
contrary, brings to him much inner profit. It is well for him
to receive his playthings in an orderly manner--not to have
them tossed to him as fodder is tossed to animals. It is good
for the child to begin his play with the perception of a
whole, a simple self-contained unit, and from this unity to
develop his representations. Finally, it is essential that
the playing child should receive his material so arranged
that its various elements are discernible, and that by seeing
them his mind may unconsciously form plans for using them.
Receiving his material thus arranged, the child will use it
with ever-recurrent and increasing satisfaction, and his play
will produce far more abiding results than the play of one
whose material lies before him like a heap of
cobblestones."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 205.
The exercises with this gift are like those which have preceded it.
Exercises of the Gift
1. Informal questions by the kindergartner and answers by the
children, on its introduction, that it may be well understood. This
should be made entirely conversational, familiar, and playful, but a
logical plan of development should be kept in mind. A consideration of
the various pieces of the gift may occupy a part of each building or
number lesson.
2. Dictation, building by suggestion, and cooperative plays in the
various forms. With all except advanced children the Life forms are
most useful and desirable.[48]
[48] "The child, in a word, follows the same path as the man,
and advances from use to beauty and from beauty to
truth."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 219.
3. Free invention with each lesson.
4. Number and form lessons. In number there will of course be some
repetition of what has been done before, but a sufficient amount of
new presentation to awaken interest. It is only by constant review and
repetition that we can assist children to remember these things and to
receive them among their natural experiences, and fortunately the
habit of repetition in childhood is a natural one, and therefore
seldom irksome.
Errors in Form Teaching.
As to the form lessons, we must remember that our method has nothing
to do with scientific geometry, but is based entirely on inspection
and practice. It lays the foundation of instruction in drawing, and
forms an admirable preparation for different trades, as carpentry,
cabinet-making, masonry, lock-smithing, pattern-making, etc. Even in
the primary schools, and how much more in the kindergarten, the form
or geometrical work should be essentially practical and given by
inspection. Even there all scientific demonstration should be
prohibited, and the teacher should be sparing in definitions.
It is enough if the children recognize the forms by their special
characteristics and by perceiving their relations, and can reproduce
the solids in modeling, and the planes and outlines in tablets,
sticks, rings, slats, drawing, and sewing.[49]
[49] "The Conference recommends that the child's geometrical
education should begin as early as possible; in the
kindergarten, if he attends a kindergarten, or if not, in the
primary school. He should at first gain familiarity through
the senses with simple geometrical figures and forms, plane
and solid; should handle, draw, measure, and model them; and
should gradually learn some of their simpler properties and
relations."--_Report of Committee of Ten_, page 110.
LIFE FORMS.
We can now be quite methodical and workman-like in our building, and
can learn to use all the parts economically and according to
principle. We can discuss ground plans, cellars, foundations,
basements, roofs, eaves, chimneys, entrances, and windows, and thus
can make almost habitable dwellings and miniature models of larger
objects.[50]
[50] "The child's life moves from the house and its
living-rooms, through kitchen and cellar, through yard and
garden, to the wider space and activity of street and market,
and this expansion of life is clearly reflected in the order
and development of his productions."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_,
page 221.
The child is a real carpenter now, and innocently happy in his labor.
Who can doubt that in these cheerful daily avocations he becomes in
love with industry and perseverance, and as character is nothing but
crystallized habit, he gets a decided bias in these directions which
affects him for many a year afterward.[51]
[51] "In some German kindergartens large building-logs are
supplied in one corner of the play garden. These logs are a
foot or more in length, three inches wide, and one inch
thick. Several hundred of these are kept neatly piled against
the fence, and the children are expected to leave them in
good order. This bit of voluntary discipline has its good
uses on the playground, and the free building allowed with
this larger material gives rise to individual effort, and
tests the power of the children in a way which makes the
later, more organized work at the tables far more full of
meaning."--_Kindergarten Magazine_, November, 1894.
Objects which he meets in his daily walks are to be constructed, and
also objects with which he is not so familiar,[52] so that by pleasant
conversation the realm of his knowledge may be extended, and the
sphere of his affections and fancies enlarged; for these exercises
when properly conducted address equally head, heart, and hand.
[52] "As these building gifts afford a means of clearing the
perceptions of the child, they give occasion for extending
these perceptions, and for representing in their essential
parts objects of which the child has only heard."--Froebel's
_Pedagogics_, page 222.
Froebel says of all this building, "It is essential to proceed from
the cube as a whole. In this way the conception of the whole, of
uniting, stamps itself upon the child's mind, and the evolution of the
particular, partial, and manifold from unity is illustrated."
Group Work.
Our opportunities for group work, or united building, are greatly
extended, and none of them should be neglected, as it is essential to
inculcate thus early the value of coöperation. We have material enough
to call into being many different things on the children's tables; the
house where they live, the church they see on Sunday, the factory
where their fathers or brothers work, the schoolhouse, the City Hall,
the public fountain, the stable, and the shops. Thus we may create an
entire village with united effort, and systematic, harmonious action.
Each object may be brought into intimate relation with the others by
telling a story in which every form is introduced. This always
increases the interest of the class, and the story itself seems to be
more distinctly remembered by the child when brought into connection
with what he has himself constructed.
The third gift may be used with the fifth if we wish to increase the
number of blocks for coöperative work, and is particularly adapted to
the laying of foundations for large buildings in the sand-table. A
large fifth gift, constructed on the scale of a foot instead of an
inch, is very useful for united building. One child or the
kindergartner may be the architect of the monument or other large
form which is to be erected in the centre of the circle. The various
children then bring the whole cubes, the halves, and quarters, and lay
them in their appropriate places, and the erection when complete is
the work of every member of the community.
SYMMETRICAL FORMS.
These are in number and variety almost endless, as we have thirty-nine
pieces of different characters. Edward Wiebe says: "He who is not a
stranger in mathematics knows that the number of combinations and
permutations of thirty-nine different bodies cannot be counted by
hundreds nor expressed by thousands, but that millions hardly suffice
to exhaust all possible combinations."
These forms naturally separate themselves, Froebel says, into two
distinct series, i. e., the series of squares and the series of
triangles, and move from these to the circle as the conclusion of the
whole series of representations. "From these forms approximating to
the circle there is an easy transition to the representation of the
different kinds of cog-wheels, and hence to a crude preliminary idea
of mechanics."
If the movements begin with the exterior part of the figure instead of
the interior, we should make all the changes we wish in that direction
before touching the centre, and _vice versa_.
Each definite beginning conditions a certain process of its own, and
however much liberty in regard to changes may be allowed, they are
always to be introduced within certain limits.[53]
We should leave ample room for the child's own powers of creation, but
never disregard Froebel's principle of connection of opposites; this
alone will furnish him with the "inward guide" which he needs.[54] It
is only by becoming accustomed to a logical mode of action that the
child can use this amount of material to good advantage.
[53] "With these forms of beauty it is above all important
that they be developed one from another. Each form in the
series should be a modification or transformation of its
predecessor. No form should be entirely destroyed. It is also
essential that the series should be developed so that each
step should show either an evolution into greater
manifoldness and variety, or a return to greater
simplicity."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 225.
[54] "This free activity ... is only possible when the law
of free creativeness is known and applied; for that a free
creativeness only can be a lawful one, we are taught by the
smallest blade of grass, whose development takes place only
according to immutable laws."--_Reminiscences of Froebel_,
page 133.
Dangers of Dictation.
The dictations should be made with great care and simplicity. The
child's mind must never be forced if it shows weariness, nor the more
difficult lessons given in too noisy a room, as the nervous strain is
very great under such circumstances. We should remember that great
concentration is needed for a young child to follow these dictations,
and we must be exceedingly careful in enforcing that strict attention
for too long a time. A well-known specialist says that such exercises
should not be allowed at first to take up more than a minute or two at
a time; then, that their duration should gradually extend to five and
ten minutes. The length of time which children closely and voluntarily
attend to an exercise is as follows: Children from five to seven
years, about fifteen minutes; from seven to ten years, twenty minutes;
from twelve to eighteen years, thirty minutes. A magnetic teacher can
obtain attention somewhat longer, but it will always be at the expense
of the succeeding lesson. "By teachers of high pretensions, lessons
are often carried on greatly and grievously in excess of the proper
limits; but when the results are examined they show that after a
certain time has been exceeded, everything forced upon the brain only
tends to drive out or to confuse what has been previously stored in
it."
We find, of course, that the mind can sustain more labor for a longer
time when all the faculties are employed than when a single faculty is
exerted, but the ambitious teacher needs to remind herself every day
that no error is more fatal than to overwork the brain of a young
child. Other errors may perhaps be corrected, but the effects of this
end only with life. To force upon him knowledge which is too advanced
for his present comprehension, or to demand from him greater
concentration, and for a longer period than he is physically fitted to
give, is to produce arrested development.[55]
[55] "Whoever sacrifices health to wisdom has generally
sacrificed wisdom, too." (Jean Paul.)
MATHEMATICAL FORMS.
We must beware of abstractions in these forms of knowledge, and let
the child see and build for himself, then lead him to express in
numbers what he has seen and built. He will not call it Arithmetic,
nor be troubled with any visions of mathematics as an abstract
science.[56]
[56] "Perceptions and recognitions which are with difficulty
gained from _words_ are easily gained from facts and deeds.
Through actual experience the child gains in a trice a total
concept, whereas the same concept expressed in words would be
only grasped in a partial manner. The rare merit, the
vivifying influence of this play-material is that, through
the representations it makes possible, concepts are
recognized at once in their wholeness and unity, whereas such
an idea of a whole can only very gradually be gained from its
verbal expression. It must, however, be added that later,
through words, the concept can be brought into higher and
clearer consciousness."--Froebel's _Pedagogics_, page 206.
The cube may be divided into thirds, ninths, and twenty-sevenths, and
the fact thus practically shown that whether the thirds are in one
form or another, in long lines or squares, upright or flat, the
contents remain the same. We may also illustrate by building, that
like forms may be produced which shall have different contents, or
different forms having the same contents.
Halves and quarters may be discussed and fully illustrated, and
addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division may be continued
as fully as the comprehension of the child will allow.
During the practice with the forms of knowledge we should frequently
illustrate the lawful evolution of one form from another, as in the
series moving from the parallelopiped to the hexagonal prism.
It should not be forgotten that whenever the cube is separated and
divided, recombination should follow, and that the gift plays should
always close with synthetic processes.
Some of the mathematical truths shown in the fifth gift were also seen
in the third, but "repeated experiences," as Froebel says, "are of
great profit to the child."[57]
We should allow no memorizing in any of these exercises or meaningless
and sing-song repetitions of words. We must always talk enough to make
the lesson a living one, but not too much, lest the child be deprived
of the use of his own thoughts and abilities.
[57] "It is through frequent return to a subject and intense
activity upon it for short periods, that it 'soaks in' and
becomes influential in the building of character. Especially
is this true if the principles of apperception and
concentration are not forgotten by the teacher in working
upon the disciplinary subjects." (Geo. P. Brown.)
THE FIFTH GIFT B.
There is a supplemental box of blocks called in Germany the fifth gift
B, which may be regarded as a combination of the second and fifth
gifts, and whose place in the regular line of material is between the
fifth and sixth. It was brought out in Berlin more than thirteen years
ago, but has not so far been used to any extent in this country.
It is a three-inch wooden cube divided into twelve one-inch cubes,
eight additional cubes from each of which one corner is removed and
which correspond in size to a quarter of a cylinder, six one-inch
cylinders divided in halves, and three one-inch cubes divided
diagonally into quarters like those of the fifth gift.
Hermann Goldammer argues its necessity in his book "The Gifts of the
Kindergarten" (Berlin, 1882), when he says that the curved line has
been kept too much in the background by kindergartners, and that the
new blocks will enable children to construct forms derived from the
sphere and cylinder, as well as from the cube.
Goldammer's remark in regard to the curved line is undoubtedly true,
but it would seem that he himself indicates that the place of the new
blocks (or of some gift containing curved lines) should be
supplemental to the third, rather than the fifth, as they would there
carry out more strictly the logical order of development and amplify
the suggestions of the sphere, cube, and cylinder.
It is possible that we need a third gift B and a fourth gift B, as
well as some modifications of the one already existing, all of which
should include forms dealing with the curve.
Goldammer says further: "In Froebel's building boxes there are two
series of development intended to render a child by his own researches
and personal activity familiar with the general properties of solid
bodies and the special properties of the cube and forms derived from
it. These two series hitherto had the sixth gift as their last stage,
although Froebel himself wished to see them continued by two new
boxes. He never constructed them, however, nor are the indications
which he has left us with regard to those intended additions
sufficiently clear to be followed by others."
The curved forms of the fifth gift B are, of course, of marked
advantage in building, especially in constructing entrances, wells,
vestibules, rose-windows, covered bridges, railroad stations,
viaducts, steam and horse cars, house-boats, fountains, lighthouses,
as well as familiar household furniture, such as pianos, tall clocks,
bookshelves, cradles, etc.
Though one may perhaps consider the fifth gift B as not entirely well
placed in point of sequence, and needing some modification of its
present form, yet no one can fail to enjoy its practical use, or to
recognize the validity of the arguments for its introduction.
READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.
Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. Pages 21-27.
Kindergarten Guide. _J._ and _B. Ronge_. 24-29.
Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte._ 81-113.
Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 25-31.
Froebel and Education by Self-Activity. _H. Courthope Bowen_.
142, 143.
Pedagogics of the Kindergarten. _Fr. Froebel_. 201-236.
Art and the Formation of Taste. _Walter Crane_. 152, 197-242.
Seven Lamps of Architecture. _John Ruskin_.
The Kindergarten. _H. Goldammer_. 85-104, 111-116.
Kindergarten Toys. _H. Hoffmann_. 31-36.
FROEBEL'S SIXTH GIFT
"The artistically cultivated senses of the new generation
will again restore pure, holy art." FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Life brings to each his task, and whatever art you select,
algebra, planting, architecture, poems, commerce,
politics,--all are attainable, even to the miraculous
triumphs, on the same terms, of selecting that for which you
are apt; begin at the beginning, proceed in order, step by
step." R. W. EMERSON.
"The sixth gift reveals the value of axial contrasts."
W. N. HAILMANN.
1. The sixth gift is a three-inch cube divided by various cuts into
thirty-six pieces, eighteen of which are rectangular parallelopipeds,
or bricks, the same size as those of the fourth gift, two inches long,
one inch wide, and one half inch thick. Twelve additional pieces are
formed by cutting six of these parallelopipeds or units of measure in
halves breadthwise, giving blocks with two square and four oblong
faces. The remaining six pieces are formed by cutting three
parallelopipeds or units of measure in halves, lengthwise, giving
square prisms, columns, or pillars.
2. The sixth is the last of the solid gifts, and is an extension of
the fourth, from which it differs in size and number of parts. It
deals with multiples of the number two and three also; with halves
rather than with quarters or thirds, the "half" being treated in a new
manner, i. e., by dividing the unit of measure both in its length and
breadth, giving two solids, different in form but alike in cubical
contents.
3. The most important characteristics of the gift are:--
_a._ Irregularity of division.
_b._ Introduction of column.
_c._ Extent of surface covered by symmetrical forms.
_d._ Greater inclosure of space in symmetrical forms.
_e._ Introduction of distinct style of architecture.
_f._ Greater height of Life forms.
_g._ Severe simplicity of Life forms produced by the
rectangular solids.
4. The sixth gift has no great increase of difficulty, and though new
forms are presented there is little complexity in dictation. The
building needs a somewhat more careful handling, inasmuch as the Life
forms rise to considerable height and need the most exact balance.
The child sees solids whose faces are all either squares or oblongs,
but of different sizes, viz., oblongs of three sizes, squares of two
sizes.
This is the last of the Building Gifts; the child having received
sufficient knowledge to be introduced step by step into the domain of
the abstract, the first step being the planes of the seventh gift.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
{ Rectangular parallelopipeds.
Solids. { Square prisms.
{ Cubes.
Planes. { Squares.
{ Oblongs.
6. The brick of the sixth gift is identical with that of the fourth,
therefore it presents the same contrasts and mediations.
In number the different classes of blocks stand to each other as
6:12:18.
We may add that the brick is the foundation form of the gift, and that
we gain the remaining two forms, the square block and pillar, by
dividing it in exactly opposite directions.
* * * * *
Introduction of the Gift.
The sixth gift is so evidently an enlarged and diversified fourth
gift, that it is well to compare it on its introduction with the
fourth, as well as with its immediate predecessor in the series. When
the fourth is placed beside it, and the contents of the two boxes
brought to view, it is evident at once to the child that a higher
round in the ladder of evolution has been reached, and a new and
highly specialized form developed. He is fired at once with creative
activity, and his eager hands so quiver with impatience to investigate
the possibilities of the new blocks that the wise kindergartner does
not detain him long with comparisons, only assuring herself that he
notes the relation of the new gift to the former ones, that he
compares the two new solids to the brick, or unit of measure, and to
each other, and discovers how each has been produced.
Difficulties of the New Gift.
The difficulties of the new gift are very slight, as has been said,
consisting neither in dictation, in mass of material, nor in new
forms, lines, or angles. Equilibrium alone presents novel problems,
but this law the child now understands fairly well in its practical
workings, while he has gained so much dexterity in his use of the
other blocks that the height and delicate poise of the new forms are
added attractions rather than obstacles.
Forms of Life.
The sixth gift far surpasses all the other building blocks in its
decided adaptation to the purely architectural forms. The bricks of
the fourth gift may be used as a foundation for the construction of
large and ambitious structures, and with this additional material, the
sixth gift may excel in producing elegant and graceful forms.
The bricks of course admit of a much greater superficial extension and
the inclosure of a more extensive space than has heretofore been
possible.
The children will unaided construct familiar objects, such as
household furniture and implements, churches, fences, walled
inclosures, and towers, with the new blocks, and seize with delight
upon the possibilities of the column, which is really the distinctive
feature of the gift.
So far, the building of object forms will closely resemble those of
the previous gifts, but a step in advance may be made by the children
if the kindergartner is complete mistress of the new forms and knows
their capabilities. The gift may serve as a primer of architecture if
its materials are thoroughly exploited, and may lead later on to a
healthy discontent with incorrect outline, with vulgar ornamentation,
and with crudity of form.[58]
[58] "The sense of beauty must be awakened in the soul
in childhood if in later life he is to create the
beautiful."--_Reminiscences of Froebel_, page 158.
Froebel himself, who had made exhaustive studies in architecture, and
obtained the training necessary to enable him to take it up as a
profession, has left us many examples of sixth gift building, which
are to be found in all the German "Guides." The structures are no
longer rude representations, but have a marked grace and symmetry, and
in their simplicity, clearness of outline, and fine proportion,
strongly resemble early Greek architecture. Colonnades, commemorative
columns, façades of palaces, belvederes, temples, arches, city gates,
monuments, fountains, portals, fonts, observatories,--all can be
constructed in miniature with due regard to law, fitness, and
proportion, and as the soft, creamy-white structures rise on the
various tables, we see borne out Froebel's saying that the order of
his Building Gifts was such that the child might be led in their use
through the world's great architectural epochs from Egypt to Rome.[59]
[59] "As the gifts proceed from the first to the sixth,
observation is demanded with increasing strictness,
relativity more and more appreciated, and the opportunity
afforded for endless manifestations of the constructive
faculty, while all the time impressions are forming in the
mind which in due time will bear rich fruits of mathematical
and practical knowledge as well as æsthetic culture, for the
dawning sense of the beautiful as well as of the true is
gaining consistency and power." (Karl Froebel.)
Forms of Symmetry.
Although with this gift we cannot produce symmetrical forms in as
great diversity as with the fifth, yet the materials are productive to
the inventive mind, and when the pieces are arranged with care and
taste, beautiful figures may always be developed, those having a
triangular centre being novel and especially pleasing. Although not as
diversified, however, they have the added advantage of approaching
nearer the plane; and that this progression may be more clearly shown,
it seems evident that the symmetrical forms should only be produced by
laying the columns, "square-faced blocks" and bricks, flat upon the
table, and that the practice, advised by some authorities, of changing
the figures by placing the blocks erect, or half erect, should be
discouraged.
Forms of Knowledge.
In the forms of knowledge we find again much less diversity than in
the fifth gift,--the rectilinear solids and consequent absence of
oblique angles limiting us in the construction of geometrical forms.
The blocks, however, offer excellent means for general arithmetical
instruction, for working out problems as to areas, for further
illustration of dimension, and for building many varieties of
parallelopipeds, square prisms, and cubes, and studying the
parallelograms which bound them. The elements of this knowledge, it is
true, were gained with the fourth gift, but we must remember that
interest in any subject is not necessarily decreased by repetition,
and that the value of review depends upon whether or not it is
mechanical.[60]
[60] "What makes Froebel's gifts particularly instructive is,
indeed, the fact that the most varied materials constantly
lead to the same observations, but always under different
conditions, so that we obtain the necessary repetitions
without the dryness, the tiresomeness, the fatigue
inseparable from constant unvaried iteration. But they also
accustom the child to discover similarity in things that
appear to differ, to find resemblance in contrasts, unity in
diversity, connection in what appears unconnected."--H.
Goldammer's _The Kindergarten_, page 109.
Coöperative Work.
The group work at the square tables is now especially beautiful, both
when forms of symmetry or object forms are constructed. The fourth
gift may be used, as has been said, if more material is needed, and of
course combines perfectly with the sixth gift blocks. A large sixth
gift made as was suggested for the fifth, on the scale of a foot
instead of an inch, is most useful for coöperative exercises in the
centre of the ring, and the slender, graceful columns, for instance,
which may thus be built in unison to commemorate some historic
birthday, are so many concrete evidences to the child's eyes of the
value of united effort.
The Gifts and their Treatment by the Kindergartner.
Every gift and occupation and exercise of the kindergarten has been
developed with infinite love and forethought to meet the child's
wishes and capabilities; every one of them has been so delicately
adjusted to meet the demands of the case, and so gently drawn into the
natural and legitimate channel of childlike play, that they never fail
to meet with an enthusiastic reception from the child, nor to awaken
the strongest interest in him.
The kindergartner should be careful that he never builds hastily or
lawlessly, and above all she should guide him to those forms which he
will be able to construct with perfection and accuracy. She should
always follow him in his work, answering his questions and suggesting
new ideas, letting him feel in every way that she is in sympathy with
him, and that none of his plans or experiments, however small they may
be, are indifferent to her. It is always a delight to the child if
his productions are understood by grown-up people, for he often feels
somewhat doubtful of the value of his work until the seal of approval
has been set upon it by a superior mind.
Underlying Idea of Froebel's Gifts.
If we have grasped the underlying idea which welds the mass of
material which forms the kindergarten gifts into a harmoniously
connected whole; if we have developed the analytical faculty
sufficiently to perceive their relation to the child, the child's
relation to them, and the reasons for their selection as mediums of
education; if we see clearly why each object is given, what connection
it has with the child's development, and what natural laws should
govern it in play, then we comprehend Froebel's own idea of their use.
Education _vs._ Cramming.
Certainly the ignorant and unsympathetic kindergartner may err in
dealing with them, and introduce the cramming process into her field
of labor as easily as the public school teacher, for it is as easy to
cram with objects as with books, and should this occur there is cause
for grave uneasiness, since the opportunity for injuring the brain of
the child is greater during these first years than at any other time.
If we force the child, or make the lesson seem work to him, his
faculties will rebel, he will be dull, inattentive, or restless,
according to his temperament or physical state; he will not be
interested in what we teach him, and therefore it will make no
impression on him.
The child has memory enough; he remembers the picnic in the woods, the
glorious sail across the bay, the white foam in the wake of the boat,
the very tint of the flowers that he gathered,--in fact, he remembers
everything in which he is interested. If we would have him remember
our teachings forever, we must make them worthy of being remembered
forever. And to this end it is essential that only the best teachers
be provided for little children. The ideal teacher should know her
subject thoroughly, but should be able to boil it down, to condense
it, so that the concentrated extract alone will remain, and this be
presented to her pupils.[61]
[61] "If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words
as with sunbeams,--the more they are condensed the deeper
they burn."
In leaving these first six gifts, we need finally to remember these
things:--
Suggestions as to Method.
First, that we must not be too anxious to resolve these plays into the
routine of lessons; with our younger pupils especially this is not
admissible, and we must guard against it in all exercises with the
kindergarten materials.
Second, we may assure ourselves, in all modesty, that it is a
difficult matter, indeed, to direct these plays properly; that is, to
have system and method enough to guard the children from all
lawlessness, idleness, and disorder, and yet to keep from falling into
a mechanical drill which will never produce the wished-for results.
Play is the natural, the appropriate business and occupation of the
child left to his own resources, and we must strive to turn our
lessons into that channel,--only thus shall we reach the highest
measure of true success.
Third, we must strive by constant study and thought, by entering into
the innermost chambers of the child-nature, and estimating its
cravings and necessities, to penetrate the secret, the soul of the
Froebel gifts, then we shall never more be satisfied with their
external appearances and superficial uses.
NOTE. In arranging the blocks of the sixth gift, place the
eighteen bricks erect, in three rows, with their broad faces
together. On top of these place nine of the square-faced
blocks, thus forming a second layer. The third layer is
formed by placing the remaining three blocks of this class on
the back row, and filling in the space in front with the six
pillars, placed side by side.
READINGS FOR THE STUDENT.
Paradise of Childhood. _Edward Wiebe_. Pages 27-29.
Kindergarten Guide. _J._ and _B. Ronge_. 20-31.
Kindergarten Guide. _Kraus-Boelte_. 113-145.
Koehler's Kindergarten Practice. Tr. by _Mary Gurney_. 31, 32.
The Kindergarten. _H. Goldammer_. 105-110.
Stones of Venice. _John Ruskin_.
Architecture, Mysticism, and Myth. _W. K. Lethaby_.
The Sources of Architectural Types. _Spencer's Essays_, vol. ii.
page 375.
The Two Paths. _John Ruskin_. (Chapter on Influence of Imagination
in Architecture.)
Discourses on Architecture. _E. E. Viollet-le-Duc_. Tr. by _Henry
Van Brunt_. (First and Second Discourses.)
FROEBEL'S SEVENTH GIFT
"The properties of number, form, and size, the knowledge of
space, the nature of powers, the effects of material, begin
to disclose themselves to him. Color, rhythm, tone, and
figure come forward at the budding-point and in their
individual value. The child begins already to distinguish
with precision nature and the world of art, and looks with
certainty upon the outer world as separate from himself."
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL.
"Froebel's thin colored planes correspond with the mosaic
wood or stone work of early man." H. POESCHE.
"There is nothing in the whole present system of education
more deserving of serious consideration than the sudden and
violent transition from the material to the abstract which
our children have to go through on quitting the parental
house to enter a school. Froebel therefore made it a point
to bridge over this transition by a whole series of
play-material, and in this series it is the laying-tablets
which occupy the first place." H. GOLDAMMER.
1. The seventh gift consists of variously colored square and
triangular tablets made of wood or pasteboard, the sides of the pieces
being about one inch in length. Circular and oblong pasteboard tablets
have lately been introduced, as well as whole and half circles in
polished woods.
2. The first six gifts illustrated solids, while the seventh, moving
from the concrete towards the abstract, makes the transition to the
surface.
The Building Gifts presented to the child divided units, from which
he constructed new wholes. Through these he became familiar with the
idea of a whole and parts, and was prepared for the seventh gift,
which offers him not an object to transform, but independent elements
to be combined into varied forms. These divided solids also offered
the child a certain fixed amount of material for his use; after the
introduction of the seventh gift, the amount to be used is optional
with the kindergartner.
3. The child up to this time has seen the surface in connection with
solids. He now receives the embodied surface separated from the solid,
and gradually abstracts the general idea of "surface," learning to
regard it not only as a part, but as an individual whole.
This gift also emphasizes color and the various triangular forms,
besides imparting the idea of pictorial representation, or the
representation of objects by means of plane surfaces.
4. The gift leads the child from the object itself towards the
representation of the object, thus sharpening the observation and
preparing the way for drawing.
It is also less definitely suggestive than previous gifts, and demands
more creative power for its proper use. It appeals to the sense of
form, sense of place, sense of color, and sense of number.
5. The geometrical forms illustrated in this gift are:--
Squares.
{ Right isosceles.
{ Obtuse isosceles.
Triangles. { Equilateral.
{ Right-angled scalene.
{ Oblong.
{ Rhombus.
{ Rhomboid.
{ Trapezoid.
In combination. { Trapezium.
{ Pentagon.
{ Hexagon.
{ Heptagon.
{ Octagon.
6. The law of Mediation of Contrasts is shown in the forms of the
gift. We have in the triangles, for instance, two lines running in
opposite directions, connected by a third, which serves as the
mediation. Contrasts and their mediations are also shown in the
squares and in the forms made by combination. This gift, representing
the plane, is a link between the divided solid and the line.
* * * * *
Step from Solid to Plane.
We have now left the solid and are approaching abstraction when we
begin the study of planes. All mental development has ever begun and
must begin with the concrete, and progress by successive stages toward
the abstract, and it was Froebel's idea that his play-material might
be used to form a series of steps up which the child might climb in
his journey toward the abstract.
Beginning with the ball, a perfect type of wholeness and unity, we are
led through diversity, as shown in the three solids of the second
gift, toward divisibility in the Building Gifts, and approximation to
surface in the sixth gift. The next move in advance is the partial
abstraction of surface, shown in the tablets of the seventh gift.
The tablets show two dimensions, length and breadth, the thickness
being so trifling relatively that it need not be considered, as it
does not mar the child's perception and idea of the plane. They are
intended to represent surfaces, and should be made as thin as is
consistent with durability.
Systematic Relation between the Tablets.
The various tablets as first introduced in Germany and in this country
were commonly quite different in size and degrees of angles in the
different kindergartens, as they were either cut out hastily by the
teachers themselves, or made by manufacturers who knew very little of
the subject. The former practice of dividing an oblong from corner to
corner to produce the right-angled scalene triangle was much to be
condemned, as it entirely set aside the law of systematic relation
between the tablets and rendered it impossible to produce the standard
angles, which are so valuable a feature of the gift.
"One of the principal advantages of the kindergarten system is that it
lays the foundation for a systematic, scientific education which will
help the masses to become expert and artistic workmen in whatever
occupation they may be engaged."[62]
[62] _Pamphlet on the Seventh Gift_. (Milton Bradley Co.)
In this direction the seventh gift has doubtless immense capabilities,
but much of its force and value has been lost, much of the work thrown
away which it has accomplished, for want of proper and systematic
relation between the tablets. The order in which these are now derived
and introduced is as follows:--
The square tablet is, of course, the type of quadrilaterals, and when
it is divided from corner to corner a three-sided figure is seen,--the
half square or right isosceles triangle; but one which is not the type
of three-sided figures. The typical and simplest triangle, the
equilateral, is next presented, and if this be divided by a line
bisecting one angle, the result will be two triangles of still
different shape, the right-angled scalene. If these two are placed
with shortest sides together, we have another form, the obtuse-angled
triangle, and this gives us all the five forms of the seventh gift.
The square educates the eye to judge correctly of a right angle, and
the division of the square gives the angle of 45°, or the mitre. The
equilateral has three angles of 60° each; the divided equilateral or
right-angled scalene has one angle of 90°, one of 60°, and one of 30°,
while the obtuse isosceles has one angle of 120°, and the remaining
two each 30°. These are the standard angles (90°, 45°, 60°, and 30°)
used by carpenter, joiner, cabinet-maker, blacksmith,--in fact, in all
the trades and many of the professions, and the child's eye should
become as familiar with them as with the size of the squares on his
table.
Possibilities of the Gift in Mathematical Instruction.
Edward Wiebe says in regard to the relation of the seventh gift to
geometry and general mathematical instruction: "Who can doubt that the
contemplation of these figures and the occupations with them must tend
to facilitate the understanding of geometrical axioms in the future,
and who can doubt that all mathematical instruction by means of
Froebel's system must needs be facilitated and better results
obtained? That such instruction will be rendered fruitful in practical
life is a fact which will be obvious to all who simply glance at the
sequence of figures even without a thorough explanation, for they
contain demonstratively the larger number of those axioms in
elementary geometry which relate to the conditions of the plane in
regular figures."
As the tablets are used in the kindergarten, they are intended only
"to increase the sum of general experience in regard to the qualities
of things," but they may be made the medium of really advanced
instruction in mathematics, such as would be suitable for a
connecting-class or a primary school. All this training, too, may be
given in the concrete, and so lay the foundation for future
mathematical work on the rock of practical observation.
The kindergarten child is expected only to know the different kinds of
triangles from each other, and to be familiar with their simple names,
to recognize the standard angles, and to know practically that all
right angles are equally large, obtuse angles greater, and acute less
than right angles. All this he will learn by means of play with the
tablets, by dictations and inventions, and by constant comparison and
use of the various forms.
How and when Tablets should be introduced.
As to the introduction of the tablets, the square is first of all of
course given to the child. A small cube of the third gift may be taken
and surrounded on all its faces by square tablets, and then each one
"peeled off," disclosing, as it were, the hidden solid. We may also
mould cubes of clay and have the children slice off one of the square
faces, as both processes show conclusively the relation the square
plane bears to the cube whose faces are squares. If the first tablets
introduced are of pasteboard, as probably will be the case, the new
material should be noted and some idea given of the manufacture of
paper.
There is a vast difference in opinion concerning the introduction of
this seventh gift, and it is used by the child in the various
kindergartens at all times, from the beginning of his ball plays up to
his laying aside of the fifth gift. It seems very clear, however, that
he should not use the square plane until after he has received some
impression of the three dimensions as they are shown in solid bodies,
and this Mr. Hailmann tells us he has no proper means of gaining, save
through the fourth gift.[63]
[63] "The perception of the difference between a
surface-extension and an extension in three dimensions begins
late and is established slowly."--W. Preyer, _The Mind of the
Child_, page 180.
As to the triangular tablets, it is evident enough they should not be
dealt with until after the child has seen the triangular plane on the
solid forms of the fifth gift. Mr. Hailmann says that a clear idea of
the extension of solids in three dimensions can only come from a
familiarity with the bricks, and again that the abstractions of the
tablet should not be obtruded on the child's notice until he has that
clear idea.
Though the six tablets which surround the cube may be given to the
child at the first exercise, it is better to dictate simple positions
of one or two squares first, and let him use the six in dictation and
many more in invention.
Order of introducing Triangles.
The first triangle given is the right isosceles, showing the angle of
forty-five degrees, and formed by bisecting the square with a diagonal
line. The child should be given a square of paper and scissors and
allowed to discover the new form for himself, letting him experiment
until the desired triangle is obtained. He should then study the new
form, its edges and angles, and then join his two right-angled
triangles into a square, a larger triangle, etc. Then let him observe
how many positions these triangles may assume by moving one round the
other. He will find them acting according to the law of opposites
already familiar to him, and if not comprehended,[64] yet furnishing
him with an infallible criterion for his inventive work.
[64] "With this law I give children a guide for creating, and
because it is the law according to which they, as creatures
of God, have themselves been created, they can easily apply
it. It is born with them."--_Reminiscences of Froebel_, page
73.
The equilateral is then taken up, is compared with the half-square,
and then studied by itself, its three equal sides and angles (each
sixty degrees) being noted as well as the obtuse angles made by all
possible combinations of the equilateral.
Next, as we have said, comes the right-angled scalene triangle, with
its inequality of sides and angles, which must be studied and compared
with the equilateral; and last of all, the obtuse isosceles triangle,
which is dealt with in the same way.
Here, again, it should be noted that the two last forms should always
be discovered by the child in his play with the equilateral, and that
he should cut them himself from paper before he is given the regular
pasteboard or wooden triangles for study. If presented for the first
time in this latter form, they can never mean as much to him as if he
had found them out for himself.
Dictations.
The dictations should invariably be given so that opposites and their
intermediates may be readily seen. The different triangles may be
studied each in the same way, introducing them one at a time in the
order named, afterwards allowing as free a combination as will produce
symmetrical figures. It is best always to study one of a new kind,
then two, then gradually give larger numbers.
Great possibilities undoubtedly lie in this gift, but it is well to
remember that with young children it must not be made the vehicle of
too abstract instruction. In order to make the dictations simple, the
child must be perfectly familiar with the terms of direction, up,
down, right, left, centre; with the simple names of the planes
(squares, half-squares, equal-sided, blunt and sharp-angled triangles,
etc.); and he must learn to know the longest edge of each triangle,
that he may be able to place it according to direction.
The children should be encouraged to invent, to give the dictation
exercises to one another, and to copy the simpler forms of the lesson
on blackboard or paper. Some duplicate copies in colored papers may be
made from their inventions, and the walls of the schoolroom ornamented
with them. It will be a pleasure to the little ones themselves, and
demonstrate to others how wonderful a gift this is and how charmingly
the children use it.
No exercise should be given without previous study, and in the first
year's teaching it is wiser to draw or make the figures before giving
the dictations. The materials, too, should be prepared beforehand, in
such a form that they can be given out readily and quietly by the
children at the opening of the exercise. To require a class of a dozen
or more pupils to wait while the kindergartner assorts and counts the
various colors and shapes of tablets to be used is positively to
invite loss of interest on the children's part, and to produce in the
teacher a hurry and worry and nervous tension which will infallibly
ruin the play.
Life Forms.
The Life forms are no longer absolute representations, but only more
or less suggestive images of certain objects, and thus show still more
clearly the orderly movement from concrete to abstract.
Hitherto in Life forms the child has produced more or less real
objects,--for instance, he built a miniature house, a fountain, a
chair, or a sofa. They were not absolutely real, and therefore in one
way merely images; but they were bodily images. He could place a
little dish on the table, a tiny cup on the edge of the fountain, a
doll could sit in the chair, and therefore they were all real for
purposes of play, at least.
With the tablets, however, the child can no longer make a chair,
though by a certain arrangement of them he can make an image of it.
The child will notice that many of the forms made with squares are
flat pictures of those made with the third gift, and with the addition
of the right isosceles triangles he can reproduce the façades of many
of the elaborate object forms of the fifth. The various triangles
differ greatly in their capabilities of producing Life forms, the
equilateral and the obtuse isosceles being especially deficient in
this regard and requiring to be combined with the other tablets. The
fact that both the right isosceles and right scalene triangles produce
Life forms in great variety seems to prove that, as Goldammer says,
"the right angle predominates in the products of human activity."
Symmetrical Forms.
The symmetrical forms are more varied and innumerable than those of
any other gift, and with the addition of the brilliant colors of the
pasteboard, or the soft shades of the wooden tablets, make figures
which are undeniably beautiful, and which are mosaic-like in their
effect.
The whirling figures are interesting and new, and the child with
developed eye and growing artistic taste will delight in their oddity,
and yet be able to find opposites and their intermediates and make
them as correctly as in the more methodical figures, where the exact
right and left balanced the upper and lower extremes. Here we note
that the equilateral and obtuse isosceles triangles, so ill fitted
to produce Life forms, lend themselves to forms of symmetry in great
variety. The various sequences of the latter in the third and fifth
gifts may of course be faithfully reproduced in surface-extension
with the tablets, and thus gain an added charm.
The amount of material given to the child is now a matter for the
decision of the kindergartner, and is dependent only on the ability of
the child to use it to advantage. This increase of material presents a
further difficulty, and it is time for us to add still another, that
is, to expect more of the child, and to require that he produce not
only something original, but something which shall, though simple, be
really beautiful.
Inventions in borders are a new and charming feature of this gift, and
the circular and oblong tablets as well as the squares and various
triangles are well adapted to produce them. The various borders laid
horizontally across the tablets may be divided by lines of sticks, and
thus make an effect altogether different from anything we have had
before.
Mathematical Forms.
The work with forms of knowledge, as has been fully shown, will be in
geometry than in arithmetic, to which indeed the gift is not
especially well adapted. In addition to the study and comparison of
the various forms, their lines and angles, we have a great variety of
figures to be produced by combination. We can make the nine regular
forms already mentioned in the introduction in a variety of ways, and
thus give new charm to the old truths. We must allow the child to
experiment by himself very frequently, and interpret to him his
discoveries when he makes them.
The Seventh Gift in Weaving.
The square tablets afford a valuable aid to the occupation of weaving,
as all the simple patterns can be formed with them, the child laying
them upon his table until
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