The First Kindergarten
The first kindergarten formed in America in 1856 in Watertown, WI. It was created by a woman by the name of Margarethe Meyer Schurz. Her and her husband had moved over from London where they met, and he worked in politics while she did housekeeping. Yet, she yearned for something in her life to make her feel like she had purpose. As a young woman she was taught the principals of the kindergarten from its creator Friedrich Froebel in Germany. This led to her forming her own kindergarten in her family home. The word kindergarten comes from the german language. Kinder means children and garten means garden.
“Children are like tiny flowers; they are varied and need care, but each is beautiful alone and glorious when seen in the community of peers.”
-Friedrich Froebel
The goal of kindergarten was to create an environment that allows children at young ages to gain own individual help in learning and developing and also to be involved in a community where they can begin to enter the world on a social basis. They get the opportunity to work with peers their age to improve their social and language development along with their cognitive abilities.
Schurz’s class was very successful in reaching these goals and had felt like she had finally found her purpose. The original class only had 5 students and the numbers increased rapidly over time in regards to student numbers. Eventually, they created more and more kindergartens and it is still a part of our education systems today!
This is a shock to me because I never would have thought that kindergarten was created separate from other grades. Changing the age range in when education is started in the education systems is very important because that would change curriculum today and the way children’s brains develop and retain information. When they are introduced to a classroom setting and at what age has a lot of impact on their development overall.
