, the idea was abroad that education was mostly for boys, anyway.

And here Froebel stepped in and proved himself a law-breaker, just as
Ben Lindsey was when he inaugurated the juvenile court and waived the
entire established legal procedure, even to the omission of swearing his
witnesses, and believed in the little truant even though he lied.
Froebel told the little other-mothers to come to school anyway and bring
the babies with them.

And then he set to work showing these girls how to amuse, divert and
teach the babies. And he used to say the babies taught him.

Some of these half-grown girls showed a rare adaptability as teachers.
They combined mother-love and the teaching instinct.

Froebel utilized their services in teaching others in order that he
might teach them.

He saw that the teacher is the one who gets the most out of the lessons,
and that the true teacher is a learner. These girl teachers he called
school-mothers, and thus was evolved the word and the person.

Froebel founded the first normal and model school for the education of
women as teachers, and this was less than a hundred years ago.

The years went by and the little mothers had children of their own, and
these children were the ones that formed the first actual, genuine
kindergarten.

Also, these were the mothers who formed the first mothers' clubs.

And it was the success of these clubs that attracted the attention of
the authorities, who could not imagine any other purpose for a club than
to hatch a plot against the government.

Anyway, a system which taught that women were just as wise, just as good
and just as capable as men--just as well fitted by nature to
teach--would upset the clergy. If women can break into the school, they
will also break into the church. Moreover, the encouragement of play was
atrocious. Mein Gott, or words to that effect, play in a schoolroom!
Why, even a fool would know that that is the one thing that stood in
the way of education, the one fly in the pedagogic ointment. If Mynheer
Froebel would please invent a way to do away with play in schoolrooms,
he would be given a pension.

The idea that children were good by nature was rank heresy. Where does
the doctrine of regeneration come in, and how about being born again!
The natural man is at enmity toward God. We are conceived in sin and
born in iniquity. The Bible says it again and again.

And here comes a man who thinks he knows more than all the priests