On June 21, 1852 (the fourth day of the fifth lunar month), the founder of the kindergarten died.
Dreich Froepel, known as the "father of early childhood education", was born into a family of Lutheran priests in the German province of Schloss.
Fluebbels lost his mother at an early age, entered secondary school with the financial support of his uncle, and then entered the University of Jena with the financial support of the forest owners, but he was forced to drop out of school due to financial difficulties. After that, he also worked as a surveyor, clerk, etc., and changed many jobs. In 1805, he was recommended to become a teacher at the Frankfurt Model School, and began his educational career, writing a book on the education of children, "The Education of Man". After 1836, Froebel specialized in the education of preschool children, opening an educational institution for preschoolers near his hometown of Brandenburg, named "Kindergarten".
He also published a monograph on early childhood education, Motherly Songs and Singing Games. He believed that man and nature have the same laws of development. He regards children's growth as a whole development process, and believes that children's development is multifaceted, so the content of education should also be multifaceted. He divided the development of children into three periods, the first infancy, the second childhood, and the third adolescence. The main task of infancy education is to care for children and develop their external organs. The main task of childhood is the further development of external organs and the development of language, with an emphasis on children's play, artistic education and activities in nature. Adolescence is a period of school education, which is mainly to impart knowledge to teenagers and cultivate their will so that they can form good moral character.
He attached great importance to the early education of children, the role of maternal love and the family environment in children's development, and advocated the establishment of "kindergartens" through the organization of family alliances in order to educate children. The task of the kindergarten is to train the preschool children to do the necessary activities; to develop their physique, to exercise their external senses, to enable the children to know people and nature; to prepare the children for further education in the activities of play, playfulness and innocence. He also used fables, stories, and singing as a means of education in kindergartens, which had a great impact on future generations.
In terms of pedagogy, he attaches importance to the self-consciousness of students, emphasizes the role of practice in the learning process, and advocates that learning should be combined with appropriate physical activity. At the same time, he stressed the need for schools to have contact with families, believing that the consistency of school education with family education was an indispensable condition for achieving the purpose of education.
Flumpel is not only a preschool theorist but also a practitioner who has devoted his life to early childhood education. The theory of preschool education he established has had a significant impact on the theory and practice of preschool education in many countries. In his later years, he actively participated in progressive teachers' gatherings, calling for government funding to promote the development of kindergartens. His book on early childhood education was edited and published by a friend called Kindergarten Pedagogy.