Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel | Page 4

84
Goes to the University of Göttingen 84, 111
Goes to Berlin 89, 111
Enters the army 91, 111, 120
Becomes curator in Berlin 96, 111, 121
Enlists in the army again 100, 121
SUPPLEMENTARY REMARKS BY THE TRANSLATORS 102, 103
LETTER TO KRAUSE 104-125
Begins at Griesheim his ideal work 113, 121
Undertakes education of his nephews 121
Moves to Keilhau 122, 127
NOTE BY THE TRANSLATORS 126
CRITICAL MOMENTS IN THE FROEBEL COMMUNITY 127-137

Froebel goes to the Wartensee 131
Then to Willisau 132, 136
Then to the Orphanage at Burgdorf 135, 136
Visits Berlin 137
NOTES BY THE TRANSLATORS 138, 139
Death of Froebel 138
CHRONOLOGICAL ABSTRACT OF FROEBEL'S LIFE AND
MOVEMENT 140-144
BIBLIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL 145-152
INDEX 153-167

INTRODUCTORY.
The year 1882 was the centenary of Froebel's birth, and in the present
"plentiful lack" of faithful translations of Froebel's own words we
proposed to the Froebel Society to issue a translation of the "Education
of Man," which we would undertake to make at our own cost, that the
occasion might be marked in a manner worthy of the English branch of
the Kindergarten movement. But various reasons prevented the Society
from accepting our offer, and the lamentable deficiency still continues.
We have therefore endeavoured to make a beginning by the present
work, consisting of Froebel's own words done into English as faithfully
as we know how to render them, and accompanied with any brief
explanation of our own that may be essential to the clear understanding
of the passages given. We have not attempted to rewrite our author, the
better to suit the practical, clear-headed, common-sense English
character, but have preferred simply to present him in an English dress
with his national and personal peculiarities untouched.

In so doing we are quite aware that we have sacrificed interest, for in
many passages, if not in most, a careful paraphrase of Froebel would be
much more intelligible and pithy to English readers than a true
rendering, since he probably possesses every fault of style except
over-conciseness; but we feel that it is better to let Froebel speak for
himself.
For the faithfulness of translation we hope our respective nationalities
may have stood us in good stead. We would, however, add that a
faithful translation is not a verbal translation. The translator should
rather strive to write each sentence as the author would have written it
in English.
Froebel's opinions, character, and work grow so directly out of his life,
that we feel the best of his writing that a student of the Kindergarten
system could begin with is the important autobiographical "Letter to the
Duke of Meiningen," written in the year 1827, but never completed,
and in all probability never sent to the sovereign whose name it bears.
That this is the course Froebel would himself have preferred will, we
think, become quickly apparent to the reader. Besides, in the boyhood
and the earliest experiences of Froebel's life, we find the sources of his
whole educational system. That other children might be better
understood than he was, that other children might have the means to
live the true child-life that was denied to himself, and that by their
powers being directed into the right channels, these children might
become a blessing to themselves and to others, was undoubtedly in
great part the motive which induced Froebel to describe so fully all the
circumstances of his peculiar childhood. We should undoubtedly have a
clearer comprehension of many a great reformer if he had taken the
trouble to write out at length the impressions of his life's dawn, as
Froebel has done. In Froebel's particular case, moreover, it is evident
that although his account of himself is unfinished, we fortunately
possess all that is most important for the understanding of the origin of
the Kindergarten system. After the "Letter to the Duke of Meiningen,"
we have placed the shorter account of his life which Froebel included
in a letter to the philosopher Krause. A sketch of Barop's, which varies
the point of view by regarding the whole movement more in its outer

aspect than even Froebel himself is able to do, seemed to us also
desirable to translate; and finally we have added also a carefully
prepared "chronology" extended from Lange's list. Our translation is
made from the edition of Froebel's works published by Dr. Wichard
Lange at Berlin in 1862.
EMILIE MICHAELIS. H. KEATLEY MOORE. THE CROYDON
KINDERGARTEN, _January 1886_.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FROEBEL.
(A LETTER TO THE DUKE OF MEININGEN.)
I was born at Oberweissbach, a village in the Thuringian Forest, in the
small principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, on the 21st April, 1782.
My father was the principal clergyman, or pastor, there.[1] (He died in
1802.) I was early initiated into the conflict of life amidst painful and
narrowing circumstances;