This book offers a comprehensive history of the parent cooperative preschool movement, a unique educational system that attained its peak in the 1950s and 1960s. The book uses interviews with pioneers and current members of parent cooperatives, official documents, periodicals, and scholarly publications to offer a history that weaves the…

A wide variety of kindergarten teacher training programs existed in America during the 50-year period between 1920 and 1970 after Froebel's system was introduced. The most significant reasons for this variety were the sources of knowledge about the system, the ability of its advocates to read idiomatic German, and the basic personality…

Organic education, which was introduced into the United States during the last third of the 19th century, was based upon Froebel's ideal of life as a connected whole. The late 19th century was a favorable period for innovation, for its economic prosperity made leaders feel that with the use of scientific methods anything was possible, and its…

An extensive survey was made of personal papers, textbooks, periodicals, and other printed material from the last decades of the nineteenth century to the early years of the twentieth, when the kindergarten movement rose and declined, to answer several questions concerning American Froebelians' cognizance of the influence of Comenius on Friedrich…

The controversy over the contrast between early childhood principles and the commercial exhibits at the 1990 annual meeting of the National Association for the Education of Young Children prompted a search for historical antecedents. Research disclosed that the first popular linking of Froebelian kindergarten curriculum and manufactured equipment…

Early childhood professional organizations in Canada and the United States have evolved since leaders of the Kindergarten Department of the National Educational Association (NEA) met in Toronto in 1891. This meeting led to the creation of the International Kindergarten Union (IKU), now known as the Association for Childhood Education International…

Describes the history and development of parent cooperative preschools in 20th-century America. Traces the beginnings of the movement, the opening of the first American cooperative in 1915, and subsequent characteristics of cooperatives. Notes that throughout the century, cooperative preschools provided direct parental contribution, involvement,…

During the final years of the nineteenth century, among the leaders of the American Froebelian kindergarten movement were three dual-career couples who exemplified the concept of egalitarian marriage: John Kraus and Maria Kraus-Boelte, William and Eudora Hailmann, and Ada Morean Hughes and John Hughes. This paper focuses on the way these six…

The history of early childhood education is woven with inaccuracies in popular textbooks and biographies, common erroneous beliefs in the field, fantasies about the nature of the family in the late 1800s, and egregious prevarication--deliberately misleading statements in the field. For example, many fallacious beliefs are held concerning the…

In tracing the spread of the educational philosophy of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi, it is useful to understand educators' emphasis on an internal or external locus of control. Pestalozzi was an individual with an internal locus of control, and this trait was reflected in his educational philosophy of self-learning and free investigation. However,…

This paper presents an overview of the educational principles of Friedrich Froebel and indicates how the Froebelian approach was introduced into Israel. The modern aspects of Froebel's ideas are emphasized as well as scientistic distortions in their implementation. Recommendations to practitioners for improving early childhood education are…

Certain economic theories can help explain the rise to prominence of parent participation preschools in the 1950s and help to make predictions about their future. Specifically, the long-wave cycle of economic behavior and its explanation of social systems and innovations can be useful. One popular approach is that of the Soviet economist Nikolai…

As Superintendent of Indian Schools from 1894 through 1897, William Hailmann incorporated into the curriculum his "New Education," a system based on the philosophy of Friedrich Froebel and similar to modern "open education" and to some current model programs in Indian education. (CM)

Describes the content of the International Standing Working Conference for the History of Education which took place in Joensuu, Finland, in July 1988. The conference included 30 participants from 12 countries who presented papers on the history of the professional preparation of preschool teachers. (RJC)

Froebelian kindergartens, popular in the United States during the late 1800's, were widely accepted as an effective way to assimilate immigrant children and their parents into the mainstream of the nation's culture. This paper focuses on the immigration patterns that led to an emphasis upon the educational system of Froebel, upon the effectiveness…