Religiosity and Faith...

One of the hazards of formal education comes when teachers or administrators use education as an authoritarian means to attempt to control the beliefs of small children. Froebel had grown up as the neglected son of a Lutheran minister, and discovered his own faith by wandering the Thuringen forest. 

By observing nature and life directly rather than by merely assimilating what is told to us by others, we develop faith. When there's real faith, belief becomes a distraction from the accuracy of observation. 

Froebel's faith led him to examine the role of mothers in the education of their children and led him then to devise a method of schooling that trusted the sensory engagement of the child to guide learning and growth through self-activity. 

The teacher's efforts were not to be directed toward shaping the child's beliefs, but rather to facilitate and encourage the child's creative expression and interconnectedness with all things.

There is a difference between religiosity and faith. Religious beliefs may require a teacher to demand something from her children. Faith allows the teacher to set up learning experiences for her pupils all the while clear in her trust that the children will draw what they need from real life, just as thousands of generations of children have done before. Faith requires freedom of consciousness while religion demands conformity. 

Creative craftsmanship, pure and simple, is a means through which children and adults can come to a better understanding of reality and find a clear basis for belief, faith and trust. Froebel had faith that given constructive learning experiences, the child would grow in harmony with family and community. That was similar to what Matti Bergström called black games and white games and the consideration that children need to engage both certainty and possibility... allowing human culture to arise fresh within each subsequent generation. 

Make, fix, create, and assist others in learning lifewise.