Kindergartens and Cultures: The Global Diffusion of an Idea

Multicultural Education, Fall 2001 by Trautman, Barbara A

KINDERGARTENS AND CULTURES: THE GLOBAL DIFFUSION OF AN IDEA By Roberta Wollons, Editor. New Haven, CT. Yale University Press, 2000; ISBN 0-300-07788-2; 289 pages; $40.00.

One might think that kindergarten is just a simple thing-a place where small children meet in play groups while getting ready for the real thing: first grade. The name translates from German as "a child's garden," a happy place to play.

Roberta Wollons pulls together the defining concepts of international diffusion, politics, and kindergarten transformations in her introductory chapter. In a thorough treatment of the subject, each of the eleven contributing authors presents the historical, political and sociological aspects of a different nation's kindergarten movement, briefly highlighting the significant biographies of those who molded their country's education for the very young. Each chapter describes the kindergarten's impact on the national educational system and the needs of families, specifically in Germany, United States, England, Australia, China, Poland, Russia, Vietnam, Turkish Republic, and Ottoman Empire, ending with Israel. Each nation adopted the concept, then formed and reformed the kindergarten to shape their needs.

Friedrich Froebel's theories of child development weave throughout most of the chapters. A German educator and visionary, Froebel saw the "essential goodness of children," believing that childhood was. a period of innocence, not one with overtones of original sin. "A child's will should not be broken, but shaped." Initially, his kindergarten movement in Germany was considered socialistic and revolutionary. Nevertheless, Froebel's ideas, beliefs, writings, and practices spread steadily throughout the eleven countries reported in this slim volume.

Froebel's niece tossed out most of his other games, replacing them with activities involving observation of nature, grown-up's work, and everyday skills like tying shoelaces and being polite. Her suggestions added to, but did not eclipse her uncle's ideas.

New programs emerged in the Nineteenth Century. Kindergarten training institutes provided professional education, a real breakthrough for women. Also, the after-school centers and school lunch programs are not so recent as one might think.

The German model, transported and reborn, changed in the U.S. melting pot. Attending to the needs of immigrant families, many kindergarten teachers became the front runners of multicultural and Americanization education in a noncoercive movement. Nevertheless, periods of war spurred U.S. nationalism. The curriculum in city kindergartens shifted from country curriculum to the reality of urban experience.

England's first kindergarten, a private institution, opened in 1851. Twenty years later the nation's Education Act adopted the kindergarten program. The Froebelian movement encouraged feminists to open the door into higher educational institutions, some later serving in kindergartens. The 1871 Code initiated the Standard I exam. Schools for infants weren't affected, but pressure for student success was keyed to the Standard I class and teacher pay was based upon that success. As in the United States, curriculum shifted from German rural life to the realities of the big city. Activities trained children to enter the industrial world of work based on Froebel's idea: "God works and therefore, so should we." From Froebel's concept of "gifts" to Maria Montessori's concept of science, schools were busy providing reading instruction for slum children.

In each of Australia's states, different decisions met the needs of young children through philanthropic groups, churches, and state governments. In 1803, children without families began attending Anglican and Catholic government-funded residential schools which applied a rote learning curriculum. Thirty-five years later, government and private agencies got involved. Convicted mothers barely survived on very low wages as servants or prostitutes.

Australian kindergarten programs finally emerged in the late 19th century. Froebels' principles were poorly reported. When an English-trained teacher applied Froebel's system, the government stubbornly focused on memorization and skill development. Finally at a Jubilee Celebration in Sydney, the public glimpsed Froebel's principles in action. Early in the Twentieth Century, the government's position indicated a very low priority, considering it as "merely a welfare activity for the children of the poor and destitute." However, kindergarten training became "invaluable to all women."

Japan's Nineteenth Century Ministry of Education introduced the first kindergarten-a deliberately adopted institution. What was considered foreign, was translated into Japanese culture even before the predictable arrival of Christian missionaries. The concept developed into Christian vs. Japanese morality, centralization of Japan's educational system and standards set by Japanese educators. Moral education shared Confucianism with national learning.