Froebel himself says if his educational materials are found useful, it
cannot be because of their exterior, which is as simple as possible,
and contains nothing new; but their worth is to be found exclusively
in their application. If you can work out his principles (or better
ones still when we find better ones) by other means, pray do it if you
prefer; since the object of the kindergartner is not to make Froebel
an _idol_, but an _ideal_. He seems to have found type-forms admirable
for awaking the higher senses of the child, and unlike the usual
scheme of object lessons, they tell a continued story. When the
object-method first burst upon the enraptured sight of the teacher,
this list of subjects appeared in a printed catalogue, showing the
ground of study in a certain school for six months:--
"_Tea, spiders, apple, hippopotamus, cow, cotton, duck, sugar,
rabbits, rice, lighthouse, candle, lead-pencil, pins, tiger, clothing,
silver, butter-making, giraffe, onion, soda_!"
Such reckless heterogeneity as this is impossible with Froebel's
educational materials, for even if they are given to the child without
a single word, they carry something of their own logic with them.
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