Friedrich Froebel, Inventor of Kindergarten

Seventh Gift: Triangular and Quadrangular tablets of colored paper.

The Los Angeles-based Institute for Figuring just completed a brilliant exhibit titled "Inventing Kindergarten." It traces the 19th century origins of this revolutionary education system back to a scientist named Friedrich Froebel, a visionary guy whose influence extended beyond pure pedagogy and into art and architecture.

Froebel's unique, holistic approach to educating children was based on the model of the crystal. And as curator of the Mineralogical Museum at the University of Berlin, he had a professional (some might say multidimensional) grasp of the crystal concept. From the Institute's site:

"Philosophically, kindergarten was grounded in Froebel’s belief in the Unity of all things and in the existence of simple laws and principles underlying nature’s apparent complexity. As Froebel saw it, the crystal was the archetypal form from which we could derive a model for all of nature. The child herself could be seen as a crystal... Froebel wrote that the role of education was to guide the development of the nascent, crystalline mind from “one-sidedness, individuality and incompleteness” toward “all-sidedness, harmony and completeness."

Part of his trailblazing efforts was the creation of "occupational gifts," known as "educational toys" in today's parlance. Made of paper, blocks, and string, the gifts were tools to encourage the "exploration of form." Check out this beautiful gallery of Froebel's gifts. Incredible, hand-made stuff that any kid would be excited to get (no batteries necessary).

Many more artifacts can be found at the Institute's gallery of archival materials. The students' paper weavings and geometric patterns oddly resemble modern designs and digital art. I can't wait to try some of these exercises with my own kids.