More on Diversity and Moral Character

Norman Brosterman in Inventing Kindergarten

No two days in the kindergarten week were exactly the same. Gifts and occupations changed, music and games were varied, nature walks and gardening were included, and daily themes rotated — unity in diversity was the basis of Froebel's system.

The intended result of this all-encompassing instruction was the creation of a sensitive, inquisitive child with an uninhibited curiosity and genuine respect for nature, family, and society; a reasoning and creative child who would later have few problems learning the three Rs or anything else, while gracefully incorporating all manner of diverse knowledge and experience into a unified and supply life. Equivalence and balance were kindergarten's foundation, expressed in all things and at all times [...] the ultimate lesson of kindergarten was straightforward: the world (nature), mathematics (knowledge), and art (beauty) were interchangeable, and their perceived borders were misleading, artificial constructs. A chair might become numbers, numbers act, and art either or both.

I remember being encouraged by my parents to count, recount and enchant.

And so for day 122
15.04.2007