
Froebel’s Gifts - golanggeek
https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/froebels-gifts/
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tropdrop
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.

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hcs
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."

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Niksko
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)?

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nwhatt
As always a great story. The part about Milton Bradley mass producing and
eventually exploiting Froebel’s gifts will stick with me.

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codemusings
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.

