The life and times of Friedrich Froebel Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The life and times of Friedrich Froebel - Essay Example Such an approach would make it impossible for a child to learn bad habits (Tasssoni & Hucker 2005, 19). Therefore, Froebel observed the entire education system as a moral system that has to shape a child morally in the society, impacting not only education, but also the right personality in children. With these thoughts, Froebel worked with three to seven year old children and later opened a kindergarten (literally meaning garden) in Prussia in 1837. Therefore, Froebel ideas about imparting the right education and quality in young children in form of a kindergarten spread to the entire world, making it necessary to train and give the right foundation to a child in moulding them to responsible adults. Froebel main ideas Froebel is best recognized as the inventor of the kindergarten system of education that is based on strong affinity for nature and strong Christian values were all included in his thinking and shaped his education theory (Smith, 2012). His main principle in education w as that education has to guide man as a conscious, perceiving, and thinking being to make him a pure representation of their inner divine law in accordance with their own choice; thus education is the main way and means through which man has to attain this goal (Froebel 1826, 2). Froebel main school system was based along the Pestalozzian principles, and mainly emphasized on play and holistic use of gifts in play materials and occupations (activities). Froebel believed that humans are by principle creative and productive; fulfillment of this may only be achieved by developing such ideas in harmony with God and the world in general (Smith, 2012). His education theory advocates for an environment that heavily involves direct use of materials and practical work. In his theory of pray as outlined in The Education of Man published in 1896, he noted that play truly fosters, recognizes, and unites the general maturing life of a child with the ripe life and experiences of an adult, â€Å"f ostering one through the other† (Curtis & O’Hanagan 2003, 104) In other words, Froebel explained that play has to be developed from within a child, by provision of the appropriate material, in the presence of an adult to nurture such development (Curtis & O’Hanagan 2003, 104). This made Froebel to devise and collect a rich set of play things for children in the belief that a child’s play is important in education. The popularity of his thoughts spread across Europe and Asia where Japan adopted the Kindergarten system in the late 19th century. Japan wanted to introduce itself as a country with equal structures to the western countries, and did not have enough ideas and systems for early child education (Wollons 2000, 123). Thus, despite being used as a political idea, in fostering uniformity in education systems, Froebel’s ideas were embraced due to their importance in child’ development across Asia, America, and Europe. Froebel’s ideas mainly influenced the Japanese Education and its curriculum making the country to make major changes in their education system, due his theory that were perceived as instrumental in the growth of a child (Yoneyama 2012, 40). The Froebelian kindergarten movement gained much root and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, more women started home based kindergartens to look after their children or a group of children in the neighborhood. They were attending classes on locally organized Froebel

The Cold War Era Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Cold War Era - Essay Example The telegram was based on the need to help introduce capitalism in USSR economies with a view that it would aid in addressing democracy and end the employment of socialism devices that serve interests of reactionary capital, despite conflicts-filled capitalistic economies which generate wars; intra-capitalistic between capitalists and wars of intervention by capitalists against socialists. The idea was to reduce the strength and influence of USSR and the socialist friends, introduction of revolutionary upheavals within capitalistic societies and enhance democratic progressivism to bear pressure on capitalistic societies but in line with soviet interests (Roberts pp.2-17). The justification was that majority of the citizens in the socialist economies did not enjoy fruits of their labor, the need to revolutionize urbanization and industrialization, the need to unify capitalistic economies with socialists for a peaceful coexistence and find equilibrium of Marxism in separation of both i nternal and international powers. The significance of this telegram can be traced on the importance of destabilizing the major political western powers who at some point were considered dangerous by their military prowess, the need to advance democracy and rule of law, to financially empower citizens in the socialist economies and promote international harmony between societies. As a witness of history, many questions arise on the implementation of the international policy as stated in the telegram; whether communism as illustrated in the telegram constituted the highlighted atrocities and whether the policies could apply to all other socialist economies apart from USSR considering the weak financial backing (Schumpeter, 9). The second document is a telegram from Walter Bedell Smith, Ambassador to the Soviet Union, to George Marshall, the secretary of state, named â€Å"Top Secret† that sought to notify the realization of United States’ economic plans in the Soviet Uni on as dangerous and that the Soviet government was not to pursue aggressive aims in their foreign policy, but would desire to rehabilitate and reconstruct its own internal economy. It stressed out on the Soviet trade agreements with England, Belgium, Switzerland and Scandinavian countries with which they were willing to incorporate the United States but agitated by the United States’ aggressive economic policies and the erroneous picture by the United States’ press and public officials. The major argument and justification was that dynamism of democratic forces ought to have been more vigilant, alert and aggressive to protect liberty and the fact that it was impossible for American government or citizens to believe that coup d’etat in Czechoslovakia could have been achieved without direct support of Soviet Union (Smith, pp.71-79). The major questions on this document is whether the foreign policy of the United States at the time can be measured with todayâ€℠¢s more so on the need to stabilize economic conditions and aspire for political development (McCann, 6) in the United States? The third document was from Charles Murphy to the secretary of state, Lloyd Bell, dated July 31, 1951 which stressed out the observations of the then American-soviet relations in a bid to achieve peaceful relations between the two economies; more so guided by the fact that Soviet Union was the guiding center of the communist world in relation to the United States’