A letter to the Duke of Meiningen

If you are interested in knowing how Friedrich Froebel became a teacher and about his relationship with Pestalozzi you can read about his early biography in a letter he wrote to the Duke of Meiningen. He wrote the letter in hopes of getting the Duke to support a school he hoped to open. It was written years before the invention of Kindergarten, but helps to illustrate the origins of the ideas that came to fruition in the Kindergarten concept. You can find it on Project Gutenberg, available for your choice of reading devices.

I am interested in this book as it helps to illustrate how Froebel's gifts of childhood were drawn from the experiences of his own life, just as our own lives are fabricated upon the diverse experiences we build and encounter.

One thing that is of particular interest was the investment Froebel made in what he hoped would be a possible career as an architect. He had even gone so far as to design a large manor home as a demonstration of his potential. Unfortunately, the plans for this manor house and all the work he had prepared along the architectural line were lost at a crucial time when he hoped to make some necessary steps in furtherance of that career.  Froebel launched himself into teaching instead. Had he become an architect instead instead of a teacher and inventor of Kindergarten, we would not have had Frank Lloyd Wright.

Make, fix and create...