The Kindergarten in Germany and the United States, 1840–1914: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Kindergarten pedagogy, which was based on educational play and cognitive development, was designed by the German Friedrich Fröbel in the 1840s to train the future citizens of the new state that liberals aspired to create. It created a professional role for women, whom Fröbel believed were innately gifted teachers of young children. German kindergarten teachers were forced into exile in the US when the revolution of 1848 was suppressed. In the years from 1851 to 1914, the kindergarten had much greater success in the US than in its native Germany. In 1900, most German school authorities refused to incorporate the kindergarten into public school systems, but many American school systems included kindergarten classes. In order to account for this, the article compares three aspects of German and American society: the Church–State relationship, the evolution of women’s movements, and the political context in which public school systems developed.

Notes

¹ Fröbel, Friedrich. “Der Kindergarten in Amerika.” In Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, 1782–1852, edited by H. Heiland. Hohengehren: Schneider‐Verlag, 2002: 252–55.

² Friedrich Fröbel, quoted in Heiland, Helmut. Friedrich Fröbel in Selbstzeugnissen und Bilddokumenten, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1982: 122.

³ Heerwart, Eleonore. Fünfzig Jahre im Dienste Fröbels. 2 vols. Eisenach: Hofbuchdruckerei, 1904, vol. 2: 25.

⁴ Various aspects of this history are explored in these works: Allen, Ann Taylor. “Children between Public and Private Worlds: The Kindergarten and Public Policy in Germany.” In Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea, edited by R. Wollons. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000: 16–41; Allen, “American and German Women in the Kindergarten Movement, 1850–1914.” In German Influences on Education in the United States, edited by H. Geitz, J.Heideking and J. Herbst. New Haven:Yale University Press, 1995: 85–101; Allen, Öffentliche und private Mutterschaft: Die internationale Kindergartenbewegung 1840–1914.” In Frauen zwischen Familie und Schule: Professionalisierungsstrategien bürgerlicher Frauen im internationalen Vergleich, edited by J. Jacobi. Köln: Böhlau, 1994: 8–28, unknown translator; Allen, “Let us Live with our Children: Kindergarten Movements in Germany and the United States.” History of Education Quarterly 28 (Spring, 1988): 32–48; German translation “Kommt, lasst uns unsern Kindern leben: Kindergartenbewegungen in Deutschland und in den Vereinigten Staaten.” Zeitschrift für Pädagogik 35 (1989): 31–56 (translated by Beate Popkin); Allen, Spiritual Motherhood: German Feminists and the Kindergarten Movement.” History of Education Quarterly 22 (Fall 1982): 319–40; Allen, Feminism and Motherhood in Germany, 1800–1914. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1991, passim.

⁵ Dahrendorf, Ralf. Society and Democracy in Germany. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967: 285–314.

⁶ Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel, edited by H. Heiland, 54–70; Heiland, Friedrich Fröbel, 94–111.

⁷ Dekret vom 7.8.51, quoted in Paletschek, Sylvia. Frauen und Dissens: Frauen im Deutschkatholizismus und in den freien Gemeinden. Göttingen:Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht, 1990: 216. On the historical developments recounted above, see Prelinger, Catherine N. Charity, Challenge and Change: Religious Dimensions of the Mid‐Nineteenth‐Century Women’s Movement in Germany. New York: Greenwood Press, 1987: 55–157; Paletschek, Frauen und Dissens, 153–243; Baader, Meike Sophia. “Alle wahren Demokraten tun es: Die Fröbelschen Kindergärten und der Zusammenhang von Erziehung, Revolution, und Religion”. In Die Revolutionen von 1848/49: Erfahrung Verarbeitung Darstellung, edited by C. Jansen and T. Mergel. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Rupprecht 1998: 206–24; Allen, Feminism and Motherhood, 79–94; and the articles listed in note 3.

⁸ On the early history of the kindergarten in America, see Jenkins, Elizabeth. “Fröbel’s Disciples in America.” German‐American Review 3 (1936–37): 15–17; Shapiro, Michael Steven. Child’s Garden: The Kindergarten Movement from Fröbel to Dewey. University Park–London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983: 19–44; Ross, Elizabeth Dale. The Kindergarten Crusade: The Establishment of Preschool Education in the United States. Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1976: 1–18; Beatty, Barbara. Preschool Education in America: The Culture of Young Children from the Colonial Era to the Present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995: 52–71. On the dissemination of the kindergarten in Britain see Brehony, Kevin J. “The Kindergarten in England, 1851–1918.” In Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea, edited by Roberta Wollons. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000: 59–86.

⁹ See Allen, Feminism and Motherhood, 79–84.

¹⁰ Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Letters of Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, American Renaissance Woman, edited by B. A. Ronda. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1984: 1–46 and 307–91; Smith, Fletcher Harper. Emma Jacobina Christiana Marwedel. Pioneer of the Kindergarten. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1932; Kraus‐Boelte, Maria. “The Experience of a Kindergartner.” Kindergarten Messenger Jan–March, 1897: 34–37 and papers of Maria Kraus‐Boelte, National Archives, Washington. Also see entries for Marwedel and Kraus‐Boelte in American National Biography.

¹¹ See Allen, Ann Taylor. “Gardens of Children, Gardens of God: Kindergarten and Day‐Care in Nineteenth‐Century Germany.” Journal of Social History 19 (Spring, 1986): 433–50.

¹² Nathusius‐Ludom, Philip. Zur Frauenfrage. Halle: Verlag von R. Mühlmann, 1871.

¹³ Bericht des Berliner Fröbel‐Vereins, 1876 und 1877. Berlin: Hoffschläger, n.d.: 6–14.

¹⁴ Douglas, Ann. The Feminization of American Culture. New York: Avon Books, 1977.

¹⁵ Peabody, Elizabeth Palmer. Lectures in the Training Schools for Kindergartners. Boston: D.C.Heath, 1893: 14.

¹⁶ Cooper, Sarah. “The Kindergarten in its Development of Faculty. Abstract of an address before the International Council of Women, 1888.” In Mothers’ Portfolio: A Book for Every Mother, edited by C. L. Stockham and E. A. Kellogg. Chicago: Alice B. Stockham and Co., 1889: 139–43 (quotation 141).

¹⁷ Cf. Ross. The Kindergarten Crusade, 19–33.

¹⁸ Heiland, Helmut. Fröbel und die Nachwelt: Studien zur Wirkungsgeschichte Friedrich Fröbels. Bad Heilbrunn: Julius Klinckhardt, 1982: 69–76.

¹⁹ Allen, Feminism and Motherhood, 111–31; Schrader‐Breymann, Henriette. “Die Grundzüge der Ideen Friedrich Fröbels angewendet auf Kinderstube und Kindergarten.” In Schrader‐Breymann, Henriette. Kleine Pädagogische Schriften. Berlin, Langensalza, Leipzig: Verlag Julius Beetz, 1930: 19–44; Schrader–Breymann, Henriette. Der Volkskindergarten im Pestalozzi‐Fröbel‐Hause. Berlin: Verlag und Druck von Leonhard Simion, 1890; Arbeitsgruppe Geschichte des Pestalozzi‐Fröbel‐Hauses. Das Pestalozzi‐Fröbel‐Haus, Entwicklung eines Frauenberufes. Catalogue of an exhibition held May–June, 1991 at the Pestalozzi‐Fröbel‐Haus, Berlin.

²⁰ Schröder, Iris and Anja Schüler. “In Labor Alone Is Happiness: Women’s Work, Social Work and Feminist Reform Endeavors in Wilhelmine Germany. A Transatlantic Perspective.” Journal of Women’s History 16, no. 1 (2004): 127–47.

²¹ See Allen. Feminism and Motherhood, 111–33.

²² Bordin, Ruth. Women and Temperance: The Quest for Power and Liberty, 1873–1900. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981: 94.

²³ The Kindergarten. Union Signal, 27 March 1890: 8.

²⁴ Beatty. Preschool Education in America, 72–100.

²⁵ Hilyer, Andrew F. The 20th Century Union League Directory: A Historical, Biographical and Statistical Study of Colored Washington. Excerpted in Black Women in White America: A Documentary History, edited by G. Lerner. New York: Vintage, 1873: 451.

²⁶ Cf. Sklar, Kathryn Kish. “The Historical Foundations of Women’s Power in the Creation of the American Welfare State, 1830–1930.” In Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States, edited by S. Koven and S. Michel. New York and London: Routledge, 1993: 43–93. On similar developments in Britain, see Brehony, Kevin J. “The reception and obstacles to the implementation of the kindergarten in England, 1850–1900.” In Jaarboek voor de geschiedenis van opvoeding en onderwijs, edited by N. Bakker, H. van Crombrugge, and M. Rietveld‐van Wingerden. Assen: Van Gorcum, 2003: 21–42

²⁷ Salomon, Alice. “Social Work in America.” In Social Justice Feminists in the United States and Germany: A Dialogue in Documents, 1885–1933, edited by K. K. Sklar, A. Schüler and S. Strasser. Ithaca–London: Cornell University Press, 1998: 161.

²⁸ Schröder and Schüler. “In Labor Alone is Happiness.”

²⁹ Cf. Beatty. Preschool Education, 92–100.

³⁰ Hall, G. Stanley. Educational Problems. New York: Appleton Century, 1911: 16.

³¹ Hall. Educational Problems, 1–27.

³² Dewey, John. “Fröbel’s Educational Principles.” In Dewey, John. The Child and the Curriculum and The School and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902 (reprinted 1966): 116–31.

³³ Lyschinska, Mary. Henriette Schrader‐Breymann: Ihr Leben aus Briefen und Tagebüchern zusammengestellt. 2 vols. Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1920, vol. 1: 78.

³⁴ Bach, Wilhelm Karl. Die Lehrerinnenfrage. Elberfeld, 1905: 9.

³⁵ Bebel, August. Die Frau in der Vergangenheit, Gegenwart, und Zukunft. Zürich: Verlags‐Magazin, 1883: 182 (later editions were entitled Die Frau und der Sozialismus); Braun, Lily. Frauenarbeit und Hauswirtschaft. Berlin: Expedition der Buchhandlung Vorwärts, 1901: 17, 21–22.

³⁶ Bund deutscher Frauenvereine. “Die Petition des Bundes deutscher Frauenvereine an die deutschen Regierungen.” Reprinted in Goldschmidt, Henriette. Ist der Kindergarten eine Erziehungs‐ oder Zwangsanstalt? Wiesbaden: Emil Behrend, 1901: 33–35 (quotation 34).

³⁷ Beetz, K. O. Kindergartenzwang! Ein Weck‐ und Mahnruf an Deutschlands Eltern und Lehrer. Wiesbaden: Emil Behrend, 1900: 31–32 (quotation 32).

³⁸ Heerwart. Fünfzig Jahre im Dienste Fröbels, vol. 2: 111.

³⁹ Die Reichsschulkonferenz 1919: Ihre Vorgeschichte und Vorbereitung und ihre Verhandlungen. Leipzig: Quelle & Meyer, 1921: 691–95 and 938–45, 111.

⁴⁰ On Blow’s career and ideas, see Snyder, Agnes. Dauntless Women in Childhood Education, 1856–1931. Washington, DC: Association for Childhood International, 1972, 59–85; and Beatty. Preschool Education, 64–67; on the intellectual history of this period see Snider, Denton P. The St Louis Movement in Philosophy, Literature, Education, Psychology. St Louis, MO: Sigma, 1920; and Menand, Louis. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux, 2001.

⁴¹ Wiggin, Kate Douglas. Children’s Rights: A Book of Nursery Logic. Boston–New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1892, 209; on Wiggin’s career see Snyder. Dauntless Women, 89–123. On urban kindergartens see Lazerson, Marvin. Origins of the Urban School: Public Education in Massachusetts 1870–1915. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971: 24–55; and Troen, Selwyn K. The Public and the Schools: Shaping the St. Louis Public School System. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1975: 99–113.

⁴² Wesley, Edgar B. NEA: The First Hundred Years: The Building of the Teaching Profession. New York: Harper, 1857: 260.

⁴³ Hewes, Dorothy W. W.N. Hailmann: Defender of Fröbel. Grand Rapids: Fröbel Foundation, 2001: 63–80.

⁴⁴ Hewes. W.N. Hailmann, 70.

⁴⁵ Vandewalker, Nina. The Kindergarten in American Education. New York: Macmillan, 1908: 133; see also Hewes. W.N.Hailmann, 78.

⁴⁶ Hewes. W.N. Hailmann, 76.

⁴⁷ Hamminck‐Schepel, Annette. “Mittelungen aus Chicago an Frau Henriette Schrader.” Vereins‐Zeitschrift des Pestalozzi‐Fröbel Hauses 9 (April 1894): 1–13 (quotation 7).

⁴⁸ Beatty. Preschool Education, 102–31.

⁴⁹ Thornborough, Emma Lou. Eliza A. Blaker: Her Life and Work. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1956: 41.

⁵⁰ Beatty. Preschool Education, 107.

⁵¹ Wheelock, Lucy. “The Fröbel Pilgrimage.” Kindergarten Review 21 (1912): 430–95 (quotation 492).

⁵² Wheelock. “The Fröbel Pilgrimage”, 490.

⁵³ Dewey, John. “Fröbel’s Educational Principles.” In Dewey, The Child and the Curriculum and The School and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902 (reprinted 1966): 116–31 (quotations 122, 117).

⁵⁴ Mills, Helen K. “A Fröbel Birthday Celebration.” Kindergarten Magazine 8 (1895/96): 733.

⁵⁵ Beatty. Preschool Education, 102–31; Lazerson, Marvin. “Urban Reform and the Schools: Kindergartens in Massachusetts, 1970–1915.” History of Education Quarterly 11 (Summer 1971): 115–42.

⁵⁶ “Hard Lessons (Interview with Alice Ravitch).” The Atlantic Online, 11 November 2001: 1–12.

⁵⁷ Ravitch, Diane. Left Back: A Century of Battles over School Reform. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000: 51–87 and passim; Ravitch, “Hard Lessons: Diane Ravitch argues for a return to academic rigor in our nation’s public schools.” The Atlantic Online, 1 November 2000. Available from http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/ba2000‐11‐01.htm; INTERNET.

⁵⁸ Blow, Susan E. Educational Issues in the Kindergarten. New York: D. Appleton, 1908: 334.