Using Blocks to Teach the World

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The gifts encourage students to think abstractly and to relate ideas objects and symbols. Frobel had children sitting at desks, little work stations with grids laid out. So it's not free play. The fact that the table has an underlying rid is very much at the root of the directed plate we follow instructions and as an underlying order. But even at this final stage, this wasn't the kind of creative free for all we tend to associate with childhood play.

In the late 1700s, a young man named Friedrich Froebel was on track to become an architect when a friend convinced him to pursue a path toward education instead. And in changing course, Froebel arguably ended up having more influence on the world of architecture and design than any single architect -- all because Friedrich Froebel created kindergarten.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s son, John, was an architect, but his most famous creation wasn’t a building. It was a toy set that kids have been playing with for over 100 years.

Inheriting Froebel's Gifts