The Education of Man

This work of Froebel admits us into his philosophy, and shows us the fundamental principles upon which he based the kindergarten system. His great word is inner connection. There must be an inner connection between the pupil's mind and the objects which he studies, and this shall determine what to study. There must be an inner connection in those objects among themselves which determines their succession and the order in which they are to be taken up in the course of instruction. Finally, there is an inner connection within the soul that unites the faculties of feeling, perception, phantasy, thought, and volition, and determines the law of their unfolding. Inner connection is in fact the law of development, the principle of evolution, and Froebel is the educational reformer who has done more than all the rest to make valid in education what the Germans call the "developing method."