Reading Norman Brosterman's new book Inventing Kindergarten, about the the influence of the Froebel kindergarten on modern art and architecture, I was fascinated by the conceptual similaries shared by Alfred Adler, Friedrich Froebel, and Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wright claimed in his later years that as a child he was deeply influenced by the Froebel "gifts," a set of geometric wooden shapes and colored tiles that were part of a sensory/conceptual/spiritual educational process. Brosterman suggests that artists like Braque, Klee, Kandinsky, and Mondrian, as well as the architect Le Corbusier, may have been strongly influenced as children in the Froebel kindergartens. Considering that many of Adler's principles resonate with those of Froebel as well as Wright, it is possbile that Adler, as a very young child, like many other creative individuals of his generation, was also deeply influenced by Froebel's ideas, materials, and philosophy of living. I see no specific reference to Froebel in any of the Adlerian literature; however, considering time and place, (Adler was born in 1870 in Vienna) it is probable that he attended a Froebel kindergarten.

According to Brosterman:

(page 96) "By 1872, kindergarten had become compulsory throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire for all children under six years of age, and instruction in the Froebel method was made obligatory for all students of normal schools and teacher-training classes. In 1909, there were seventy-two kindergartens in Vienna alone."

(page 13) "The gifts were intended to be nothing less than a model of universal perfection and the key to recognizing one's place in the natural continuum. Froebel believed that learning the sacred language of geometry in youth would provide a common ground for all people, and advance each individual, and society in general, into a realm of fundamental unity."

(page 32) "One universal law upon which Froebel based all of his principles was unity or inner connection. The interconnectedness of all things was the governing force in Froebel's philosophy and pedagogy and the broad foundation for all of his developmental concepts."

(page 32) "...more than any teacher before him, he recognized the unity of an individual's physical, intellectual, and spiritual powers..."

(page 34) "The study of nature sensitized children to the underlying logic of the structures and symmetries in the plan and mineral kingdoms so that they might recognize perfection within themselves and learn to appreciate the interdependence of all things."

(page 35) "The habit of pointing out "the moral of the story" that was traditional in education, and particularly in Sunday school, was anethema to Froebel, as it robbed the child of the opportunity of drawing his or her own conclusions..." This style of education may have contributed to the Socratic flavor of Adler's therapeutic technique. All of these principles (unity, perfection, interconnectedness, interdependence) promoted by Froebel in his kindergartens could be viewed as precursors to Adler's theory and philosophy of living.

It is tempting to trace the roots of the finest modern art, architecture, and psychology back to the aesthetically, conceptually, and spiritually rich Froebel kindergarten.

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