ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some of the challenges and outlines what any meaningful analysis of Friedrich Frobel’s pedagogical thinking should consider. Frobel’s thinking is foreign and not always easy to relate to; one has to try to free oneself of familiar figures of thought. It is almost like immersing oneself into a foreign world and having the courage to abstain from translating his thinking into modern language, the latter always at risk of missing what H. Heiland likes to refer to as the “authentic” Frobel. Heiland has called such an approach as referring to the “authentic” Frobel. Translations need to consider the peculiarities and should be addressed openly in order to achieve the goal of translating Frobel’s thinking adequately. An approach, such as the one initiated by Heiland, means an immense challenge for anyone interested in Frobel. A remarkably widespread and persistent example of such a one-sided interpretation is that of Frobel being the “blossom of the Romantic pedagogy”.
