For Friedrich Froebel, a large part of the purpose of education was to lead the child beyond him or her self, into the matrix of greater reality, Interconnectedness. Who am I, where am it, and how are we connected to each other are important concerns.
These days in education, the assumption is made that if a child can read, distinguish between words, and add up the numbers of separate things, all is done. I assert that a child's education is only half baked if he or she is not brought full circle. Froebel used the songs and finger games of "Mother Play" to bring children into a full understanding and appreciation of community life.
The image in this post is an example. The lowly charcoal maker in a 19th century German town would have been a person children would be frightened of. He looked different and dirty and may have come from a lower class than the gentile folk. And yet Froebel celebrated the charcoal maker in heroic terms.
Yesterday I met with members of our local Democratic Party to finalize our preliminary documents for the local Democratic Party Platform. Having completed that task, we began brainstorming about ideals... not those things that are attainable at the present time, but those things that we might strive for as goals for humanity. We discussed the ways that we may serve each other through the instrument we call government. A very first step is what we're missing. To discover that we are interconnected parts of a single being is not something that some may ever be willing to admit. But returning Kindergarten to its proper place in our educational endeavors might lead us forward.
Today I will be working in my own shop on small jewelry chests of drawers that I set aside to do other things.
Make, fix, create and assist others in learning lifewise.
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