“More important than age and school education, however, is the girlish love of childhood…” (Froebel, letter to von Arnswald Keilhau, Oct. 30, 1847). Froebelian views of the Kindergärtnerin and their training.Professor Kevin J, Brehony, Froebel College, University of Roehampton

The Mother Made Conscious (Steedman, 1985)

The natural mother does all this instinctively, without instruction and direction ; but this is not enough : it is needful that she should do it consciously, as a conscious being acting upon another being which is growing into consciousness, and consciously tending toward the continuous development of the human being, in a certain inner living connection (Froebel, The Education of Man p. 64) .

Inadequate Mothers?

The primordial union of womanly life and motherly life with childhood can only be won back again by a carefully planned mediation between the external relations of women's lives, the civic and social demands upon them…

children's nurses, maids, nursery-governesses, and teachers (as well as male teachers and attendants upon children of a somewhat more advanced age)

their function is to be, to attain, and to give, for the children's benefit, that which the mother, even with the best will in the world, can neither be, attain, nor give.

(Froebel Letters)

Mothers’ Failings

the shameful ill-management of the early years of childhood ; a mismanagement proceeding partly from ignorance and perversity, partly from carelessness, partly from the distortion, or even the total absence of womanly, child-loving sensibility. In place of development of the child-life we see restraint and repression; in place of encouragement of the innocent and free activity inherited in every child, we see the intentional crippling of its energies… true watchful care over their little lives we miss altogether ; and, in fact, true culture of the child-life and of the incessant childish longing for activity, can be given to the children only with great difficulty ; for the most part, therefore, it is not given at all by the poor mothers, harassed as they are by the many conflicting claims of their own life.

(Froebel, Letters)

Volkskindergarten, Rostock 1893

Aptitudes

It is very desirable that young ladies entering the institution should have had a good school education.

More important than age and school education, however, is the girlish love of childhood, and an ability to occupy herself with children, as well as a serene and joyful view taken of life in general. There ought also to be a love of play and playful occupations, a love and capacity for singing. It goes without saying that purity of intentions and a lovely, womanly disposition are essential requisites.

(Froebel to von Answald 1847)

Unfit Persons

The kindergarten removes the children ‘at least for the best part of the day, from persons unfit for infant-training. All persons are unfit to educate who are themselves not educated, or educated badly, which, with grown-up persons, comes nearly to the same thing. Therefore all domestic servants are unfit company for children…’ as Locke pointed out.

‘Many of them are abusive in language, vulgar in sentiment, in behaviour, in everything. Their moral standard is generally low; their opinions and notions are disfigured by prejudices, ignorance, and superstition.’

(Karl Froebel Museum 1864, p. 183)

Qualities of a Kindergartner

The person who conducts the children’s occupations must be

… naturally fond of children and inclined to enter into their feelings; who easily perceive their wants, and are rich in resources to supply them; persons of a pure loving heart, a cultivated mind, and possessed of the accomplishments which grace our educated females; - for they must be able to sing songs, invent games, tell stories, and draw pictures to illustrate them; know something of natural history; have a distinct notion of the powers of the human mind and the general laws of their development and understand the principles of moral philosophy, - at all events sufficiently to know that a child must not be treated as a responsible agent, and can hardly deserve punishment any more than an animal or a table.

(Karl Froebel Museum 1864, p. 184)

Volkskindergarten, Berlin 1897

Differentiation

nurses, nursery governesses, and Kindergarten mistresses ; masters and superintendents of both sexes for the service of the beneficent institutions

Nurses and Nursery Governesses

must … be competent in household work, and must on the other be properly qualified to care for and guide the child. This last condition necessitates the nursery governesses (and, indeed, children's teachers of both sexes) being well grounded in the nature and the course of development of the child…must at the same time be receiving their necessary instruction in the care of all housewifely and domestic affairs, and must have suitable opportunities afforded them for the needful practice of these things. The general domestic concerns of the institution itself would furnish excellent materials and subjects too for these studies, which would be under the care of a firm and enlightened principal, thoroughly skilled in all housewifely matters. And the most accomplished teachers for woman's handiwork, needlework, etc., would also be required, as within the general scope of the educational curriculum…(Froebel, Letters)

Training: Nurses

So the training of nursery maids and nurses (or rather, as they should be called, child fosterers and educational helpers) differs from that of the child directors and child educators, properly so-called, merely in this, that the training of the first aims more at mere practice and knowledge of the particulars and their true application, while the training of the second has in view more the insight into and the survey over the whole, and not only the freer appropriation resulting from these, but also the later fulfillment of the vocation, more full of life, and more freely active.

Training Kindergarteners

A complete preparation for bringing up and educating children ought to make the pupil theoretically and practically conversant with all the requirements of the child concerning its bodily (dietetic) and mental (pedagogic) needs from the cradle to school age. But that is not enough …

efficient preliminary preparation alone will enable the pupil to avail herself of all the suggestions offered during the course, and, after leaving the school, to continue to study, reflect, and labor for the purpose of finishing her own education.

(Froebel, Letters)

Froebel’s Training Course (1)

I always associate actual work in a Kindergarten with my Training Course …The practical working of my training course is as follows : — (a) The working day for students generally begins at 7 o'clock in the morning ; and they attend from 7 to 8 the various classes of the usual morning's religious instruction given in the elder boys' school, so that they may be guided to the right method of imparting religious instruction to children, and may be trained to the care and observation of the earliest germs of the religious instinct in man.

(b) From 8 to 9, breakfast and recreation.

Froebel’s Training Course (2)

(c) From 9 to 10, explanation and observation of the development of child-life, of the nature of the child thereby unfolded, and of the laws and corresponding needs of the culture and education of children ; as well as demonstration that these laws are at the same lime essentially those of every satisfactory scheme of education.

(d) The rest of the various weekdays up till 7 o'clock in the evening, except for two breaks (for dinner and tea) is devoted by the students to the study and practice of practical efficiency in my methods for children's education.

(Froebel, Letters)

Student Loans?

The establishment first of the German Kindergarten and then the general growth of local Kindergartens which will follow on, can alone bridge this difficulty ; first, by rendering it possible for girls without means, even for quite poor girls, if they are thoroughly modest and religious, to qualify themselves for the care of young children by the simple plan of giving them credit for the fees of their education in the Institution, which they would have to repay from the proceeds of their first earnings, by installments covering a specified number of years. (Froebel Letter 1839)

St Saviour’s Child Garden, Edinburgh

1912

Low Esteem

Concerning educational institutions for children's maids, I would say that I should have had one going long ago but for the obstacles offered by society in general, the greatest of which is the low esteem in which such maids are held. Even after having graduated from such an institution, a girl will prefer a situation as cook or house-maid to that of nursery maid, because the former are esteemed so much higher and paid so much better, that accepting a place with children would be considered a drop in position. (Froebel to von Arnswald. Keilhau, June, 1847).

Contempt and Disrespect

But here they are, first, among the servants themselves, who look upon their period of nursery time as their novitiate of service, to be shortened as much as possible. This contempt felt by the servants themselves, is the natural consequence of the second factor in the dilemma, which is the disrespect with which mothers will treat their children's maids.

(Froebel to von Arnswald. Keilhau, June, 1847)

Contemporary Esteem

“We demand that students need a relevant level 2 qualification before they are able to handle animals independently on our animal care courses at Solihull College. Nobody demands the same level of qualification before you can be left alone with a baby.”

Helen Perkins, Solihull College

(Nutbrown Review Interim 2012 p. 29 )

Contemporary Salaries

Nursery Manager, Caleeda Limited

£30000-£35000, London, Richmond

Nursery Manager, Caleeda Limited

£30000-£35000, South East of England, Surrey, Woking

Nursery Manager, Caleeda Limited

£28000-£30000, North West of Englad, Cheshire, Chester

Average primary head teacher earns around £55,000 per year.