In short, let him mirror in
his play all the different aspects of universal life, and his thought
will begin to grasp their significance.
Thus kindergarten play may be defined as a "systematized sequence of
experiences through which the child grows into self-knowledge,
clear observation, and conscious perception of the whole circle of
relationships," and the symbols of his play become at length the truth
itself, bound fast and deep in heart knowledge, which is deeper and
rarer than head knowledge, after all.
To the class occupied exclusively with material things, this phase of
Froebel's idea may perhaps seem mystical. There is nothing mystical
to children, however; all is real, for their visions have not been
dispelled.
"Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day,
The things which I have seen, I now can see no more."
As soon as the child begins to be conscious of his own activities and
his power of regulating them, he desires to imitate the actions of his
future life.
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