ABSTRACT
Women were intended to have an educative mission. Friedrich Froebel had designed a 'women's science' especially for them. The 'mothers' power' to make better people and a better society lay in the 'power of first impressions'. This chapter analyzes the relationships between Froebel's theories about the education and development of young children, and the feminist theories about 'spiritual motherhood' and the emancipation of women. Froebel's method advocated learning through play. The children had to 'do' something, as opposed to J. H. Pestalozzi's method of only observing 'objects'. Froebel was of the opinion that a good training was necessary in order to understand the deeper meaning of his method. The most important women in the German Froebel movement came from a liberal background, where it was believed that education was the way to progress, freedom and a universal culture. Froebel's philosophy gave a point of departure for the study of children and a philosophy for their education.
