The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond.

  • Drummond, W. B. (William Blackley), 1868-1937.
Date:
1901
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The child, his nature and nurture / by W.B. Drummond. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    be out of place to attempt to describe any of these individually, for Froebel’s educational ideas as applied in the kindergarten can only be grasped by studying the various materials in their proper order of succession, in their connection with one another, and in their application to the developing faculties of the child. The “Gifts” are especially intended to be used in such a way as to attract his attention and stimulate his curiosity, to train his powers of observation, and so to develop his intellectual faculties. The “ Occupations” are designed to train the active application of the intellectual faculties to practical uses. ‘I'he games are of some value as physical education, but, used in conjunction with songs and stories, are specially designed to assist the child’s ethical development by training him to sympathy and kindness, and to a sense of social relationships through play with other children of his own age. ‘Take the simplest circle game; it illustrates the whole duty of a good citizen in a republic. Anybody can spoil it, yet nobody can play it alone ; anybody can hinder its success, yet no one can get credit for making it succeed.” As to religious culture, the spirit of the kindergarten, so far as it is true to the spirit of Froebel’s teaching, fosters the development of the religious mood, and helps to prepare the soil in which alone true religion can grow. Religion and morality are never separate in Froebel’s teaching. Religion, in his belief, must be the foundation of all true education, but “religion is not an emotion or a dogma but a service.” Hence he objected to any formal teaching of either religion or morality to young children, whose spiritual nature can only be injured by indoctrination in maxims and creeds in advance of the understanding and experience which alone can give them life. In place of trying to impress the forms of religion on the minds of the children, he sought to awaken the spirit of love and wonder and reverence in their hearts. Far from believing that there can be no real religious teaching which is not doctrinal, he strove to frame in his system, by symbol and parable, a presentation of religion from which the child