The awakening
of this eager desire for learning and creative activity, was one of the
fundamental thoughts of Friedrich Froebel's mind. The object-teaching
of Pestalozzi seemed to him not to go far enough; and he was always
seeking to regard man not only as a receptive being, but a creative, and
especially as a productive one. We never could work out our ideas in
Keilhau satisfactorily, because we could not procure efficient technical
teaching; and before all things we wanted the pupils themselves. But now
by the help of the Duke of Meiningen our keenest hopes seemed on the
point of gratification. The working out of the plan spoken of above, led
us to many practical constructions in which already lay the elements of
the future Kindergarten occupations. These models are now scattered far
and wide, and indeed are for the most part lost; but the written plan
has been preserved.
The Duke of Meiningen was much pleased with Froebel's explanations
of this plan, and with the complete and open-hearted way in which
everything was laid before him. A proposition was now made that Froebel
should receive the estate of Helba with thirty acres of land, and a
yearly subsidy of 1,000 florins.
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