Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel

Autobiography of Friedrich
Froebel

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Title: Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel
Author: Friedrich Froebel
Translator: Emilie Michaelis H. Keatley Moore
Release Date: August 4, 2005 [EBook #16434]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRIEDRICH FROEBEL ***

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AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL

TRANSLATED AND ANNOTATED BY
EMILIE MICHAELIS,
Head Mistress of the Croydon Kindergarten and Preparatory School,
AND
H. KEATLEY MOORE, MUS. BAC., B.A.,
_Examiner in Music to the Froebel Society and Vice-Chairman of the
Croydon Kindergarten Company._
*"Come, let us live for our children."*
SYRACUSE, N.Y.: C.W. BARDEEN, PUBLISHER. 1889.

German Books on Pedagogy.
1. _Comenius. Grosse Unterrichtslehre._ Mit einer Einleitung, "J.
Comenius, sein Leben und Werken," von LINDNER. Price $1.50.
2. _Helvetius. Von Menschen, seinen Geisteskraften und seiner
Erziehung._ Mit einer Einleitung, "Cl. Adr. Helvetius, 1715-1771. Ein
Zeit- und Lebensbild," von LINDNER. 12mo, pp. 339. Price $1.50.
3. _Pestalozzi. Wie Gertrud ihre Kinder lehrt._ Mit einer Einleitung,
"J.H. Pestalozzi's Leben, Werke, und Grundsätze," von RIEDEL. Price
$1.25.
4. _Niemeyer. Grundsätze die Erziehung und des Unterrichtes._ Mit
einer Einleitung "Aug. Herm. Niemeyer, sein Leben und Werken," von
LINDNER. 2 vols. Price $3.00.
5. _Diesterweg. Rhenische Blätter._ Mit einer Einleitung, "F.A.W.
Diesterweg," von JESSEN. Price $1.25.
6. _Jacotot. Universal Unterricht._ Mit einer "Darstellung des Lebens

und der Lehre Jacotot's," von GOERING. 12mo, pp. 364. Price $3.75.
7. _Fröbel._ Pädagogische Schriften. Herausgegeben von SEIDEL. 3
vols. Price $7.00.
8. _Fichte._ Pädagogisch Schriften und Ideen. Mit "biographischer
Einleitung und gedrängter Darstellung von Fichte's Pädagogik," von
KEFERSTEIN. Price $2.00.
9. _Martin Luther._ Pädagogische Schrifte. Mit Einleitung von
SCHUMANN. Price $1.50.
10. _Herder als Pädagog._ Von MORRES. Price 75 cts.
11. _Geschichte der Pädagogik._ in Biographen, Uebersichten, und
Proben aus pädagogischen Hauptwerken. Von NIEDERGESAESS.
Price $2.50.
11. _Lexikon der Pädagogik._ Von SANDER. Price $3.50.
For sale by
*C.W. BARDEEN, Publisher, Syracuse, N.Y.*

PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.
It will be long before we have a biography of Froebel to compare with
DeGuimp's Pestalozzi, of which an English translation has just
appeared. Meantime we must content ourselves with two long
autobiographical letters contained in this volume, which, though
incomplete, have yet the peculiar charm that comes from the candid
record of genuine impressions.
The first of these letters, that to the Duke of Meiningen, has already
appeared in English, in a translation by Miss Lucy Wheelock for
Barnard's American Journal of Education, since reprinted in pp. 21-48
of his Kindergarten and Child Culture, (see p. 146), and in a small

volume under the title Autobiography of Froebel (see p. 146). While a
faithful attempt to reproduce the original, this translation struggled in
vain to transform Froebel's rugged and sometimes seemingly
incoherent sentences into adequate and attractive English, so that the
long letter has proved to most English readers formidable and repellant.
But in the original it is one of the most charming productions in
literature, candid and confidential in tone, and detailing those inner
gropings for ideas that became convictions which only an
autobiography can reveal. These qualities are so admirably preserved in
the translation by Miss Emily Michaelis and H. Keatley Moore that it
seemed to leave nothing to be desired. They have not only given a
faithful rendering, but they have impressed upon it the loving touch of
faithful disciples. Accordingly I purchased from the English publishers
the American rights to this translation; and have reproduced not only
this letter, but that to the philosopher Krause, with Barop's "Critical
Moments," and the "Chronological Abstract," all from duplicates of the
English plates.
The rest of the volume appears for the first time. The Bibliography
seemed desirable, and is confined to attainable books likely to be of
value to American teachers. The Index is full, but not fuller than the
fragmentary character of the material seemed to require. The Table of
Contents will also serve to make reference easy to the principal evens
of Froebel's history.
In the lives of Pestalozzi and of Froebel many resemblances may be
traced. Both were sons of clergymen. Both were half-orphans from
their earliest recollections. Both were unhappy in childhood, were
misunderstood, companionless, awkward, clumsy, ridiculed. Both were
as boys thrown into the almost exclusive society of women, and both
retained to the last strongly feminine characteristics. Both were
throughout life lacking in executive ability; both were financially
improvident. Both were dependent for what they did accomplish upon
friends, and both had the