I had doubts listening to this episode - for something as intractable as the artistic/architectural zeitgeist of modernism, could we really attribute as much cause-and-effect to Froebel's invention of kindergarten as Roman Mars seems to? Yet seeing the images of Froebel's exercises side-by-side with architects' and artists' work convinced me. The resemblances between the Gifts and some of these sketches are really uncanny.
Ah, so that's why they were selling a few of the Gifts at Gordon House (a Frank Lloyd Wright Usonian home in Oregon). Wright cherished the Gifts he got from his mother, saying "The smooth cardboard triangles and maple-wood blocks were most important. All are in my fingers to this day."
Are Froebel's theories still taught in education degrees? Are his ideas still valid? If I have kids, should I buy them a set of Froebel's gifts and take them through some of the teaching (perhaps without the infant sized desks with a grid)?
As always a great story. The part about Milton Bradley mass producing and eventually exploiting Froebel’s gifts will stick with me.
I never thought a podcast host from half around the word would utter the words "Friedrich Fröbel" and "Bad Blankenburg" (a small town I live close to). That was quite a surprise. I had no idea his school of thought had even spread across the pond.