ABSTRACT
Play, said Froebel, was not trivial; it was serious and highly significant. Play was vital to that spontaneous development which he called ‘self-activity’; for the activity of a child, who learns by doing, expresses itself in play. He devised special pieces of apparatus to encourage this activity; and he allocated to the teacher a role which, though largely supervisory, did not imply that children were to be left entirely to their own devices. Froebel gave the name kindergarten to his invention; for he looked on the children as plants in a garden which the gardener-the teacher helps to develop along the lines laid down for them by nature.
