whole history of the practice of education.
The significant remark quoted in Froebel's "Reminiscences" is this:
"He who understands what I mean by these songs knows my inmost
secret." You will find people who say the music in the book is poor,
which is largely true, and that the versification is weak, which is
often, not always, true, and is sometimes to be attributed to faulty
translation; but the idea, the spirit, the continuity of the plan, are
matchless, and critics who call it trifling or silly are those who
have not the seeing eye nor the understanding heart. Froebel's wife
said of it,--

"A superficial mind does not grasp it,
A gentle mind does not hate it,
A coarse mind makes fun of it,
A thoughtful mind alone tries to get at it."

"Froebel[1] considers it his duty to picture the home as it ought to
be, not by writing a book of theories and of rules which are easily
forgotten, but by accompanying a mother in her daily rounds through
house, garden, and field, and by following her to workshop, market,
and church. He does not represent a woman of fashion, but prefers one
of humbler station, whom he clothes in the old German housewife style.
It may be a small sphere she occupies, but there she is the centre,
and she completely fills her place. She rejoices in the dignity of
her position as educator of a human being whom she has to bring into
harmony with God, nature, and man. She thinks nothing too trifling
that concerns her child. She watches, clothes, feeds, and trains it in
good habits, and when her darling is asleep, her prayers finish the
day. She may not have read much about education, but her sympathy
with the child suggests means of doing her duty. Love has made her
inventive; she discovers means of amusement, for play; she talks and
sings, sometimes in poetry and sometimes in prose. From mothers in his
circle of relations and friends, Froebel has learned what a mother can
do, and although he had no children of his own, his heart vibrated
instinctively with the feelings of a mother's joy, hope, and fear. He
did not care about the scorn of others, when he felt he must speak
with an almost womanly heart to a mother. His own loss of a mother's
tender care made him the more appreciate the importance of a mother's
love in early infancy. The mother in his book makes use of all the
impressions, influences, and agencies with which the child comes in
contact: she protects from evil; she stimulates for good