Influential Educators

Influential Educators

Friedrich Froebel (Friedrich Wilhelm August Frobel)

Friedrich was born on April 2, 1782, in Germany. When he was nine months old his mother passed away, and he was brought up by his father until he turned ten and moved in with his uncle. Five years later he became the apprentice to a forester. This was a good job, but it wasn’t what he wanted to be doing, so in 1799 when he was 17 he left the apprenticeship and began his studies in Mathematics and Botany. From this time on he studied many things and in 1840 he came up with the word kindergarten, for the Play and Activity Institute he had founded in 1837, which is considered to be the first kindergarten. Froebel believed that activity for young children was of high importance. In his classrooms children would sing, dance, garden, and play with his Froebel Gifts. Froebel Gifts were things that he came up with, such as wooden blocks and balls, to help the children learn. He taught women and men what he thought was important and showed them how to work with the young children. In fact, he died in the place where he taught many of the teachers. It was after his death, on June 21, 1852, that the kindergarten idea went throughout the world. It was brought to England, France and the Netherlands first, and then to many other countries including the United States, where it received its best success. One of the first in the United States was opened by Elizabeth Palmer Peabody in 1861, in Boston Massachusetts. The idea of a Kindergarten and activity based learning is still used today, in most countries.

Emma Willard (Emma C. Hart Willard)

Emma was born on February 23, 1787, in Connecticut. She grew up in the United States, with a father who was liberal minded and taught her to believe that girls really aren’t intellectually inferior to boys. Emma was a women’s rights advocate but she is most remembered for founding the first women’s school of higher education. She began teaching at the age of 17, and she moved to Vermont when she was 20 to continue her teaching. In 1809 she married Dr. John Willard, and in 1814 she made her first attempt at a school, by opening the Middlebury Female Seminary in her home. Shortly thereafter she moved to New York and in 1819, she opened the Waterford Academy, which was closed in 1821, due to having a lack of continued funding. Luckily, Troy, New York wanted this school in their town, so in September 1821, she opened/Founded the Troy Female Seminary, which had great success, and is now still running, except under a new name. In 1825 her husband died, but she continued running the school for 18 years, when she handed it down to her son and daughter in-law. In 1830 she started a tour of Europe, and she published a book called Journals and Letters from Great Britain. She was so generous as to give all of the proceeds from her book to a women’s school in Athens, Greece that she helped to found. After one more marriage, and a divorce after nine months, she spent the rest of her life writing, and living the life she wanted. She died on April 15, 1870, at the age of 83. She died in Troy, New York, the town of her school, which is now called the Emma Willard School.


Print Sources

Downs, Robert B. Friedrich Froebel. Boston: G.K. Hall & Co., 1978
Lutz, Alma. Emma Willard Pioneer educator of American women. Boston: Beacon Press, 1964

Bibliography

Friedrich Froebel. 2007. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. Nov 8, 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Wilhelm_August_Froebel

Friedrich Froebel. 2002. Nov 8, 2007. http://www.friedrichfroebel.com/

Friedrich Froebel. 1997. Mark K Smith. Nov 8, 2007. http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-froeb.htm

Friedrich Froebel. 2007. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc. Nov 8, 2007. http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-903547/Friedrich-Froebel

Kindergarten. Unknown. Nov 8, 2007. http://froebelweb.tripod.com/surfkinder.html

Emma Willard. 2007. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. Nov 8, 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Willard

Emma Willard School. 2007. Wikipedia Foundation Inc. Nov 8, 2007. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Willard_School

Emma Willard. 2005. The Library Company of Philadelphia. Nov 8, 2007. http://www.librarycompany.org/women/portraits/willard.htm