Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • Free Issue
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Other Publications
    • UWP
    • Ecological Restoration
    • Land Economics
    • Native Plants Journal

User menu

  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Landscape Journal
  • Other Publications
    • UWP
    • Ecological Restoration
    • Land Economics
    • Native Plants Journal
  • Register
  • Subscribe
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
Landscape Journal

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Content
    • Current
    • Archive
  • Info for
    • Authors
    • Subscribers
    • Institutions
    • Advertisers
  • About Us
    • About Us
    • Editorial Board
  • Connect
    • Feedback
    • Help
  • Alerts
  • Free Issue
  • ASLA Research Grant
  • Follow uwp on Twitter
  • Visit uwp on Facebook
Research ArticleArticles

Kindergarten: Garden Pedagogy from Romanticism to Reform

Susan Herrington
Landscape Journal, March 2001, 20 (1) 30-47; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3368/lj.20.1.30
Susan Herrington
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Designed gardens and excursions into the outlying landscape were important educational components of the original kindergartens begun by Friedrich Fröbel in the early nineteenth century. Contact with nature via gardens and excursions provided vital keys to understanding Naturphilosphie, and would ultimately reveal a child's divine essence. A quintessential application of romantic thinking, kindergartens intertwined ethereal and material worlds in an educational endeavor that appealed to the rising middle class eager to overcome the absolute rule of the Prussian monarchy. By the early twentieth century, the incorporation of kindergartens into the pubic school systems of North America coincided with the rationalism of an emerging industrial society, a growing unskilled immigrant population, and deleterious urban conditions. Professionals, eager to enfranchise themselves in the world of science, elaborated Fröbel's garden work and excursions as a method of reform. Children's gardens were cultivated for economic profit and natural phenomena were identified, dissected, and consumed making children educationally “fit” for the burgeoning capitalist nation. The following essay traces the garden and excursion components of the kindergarten from its romantic origins to its reform application, illuminating how changes in garden pedagogy reflect and reinforce broader views held by society.

This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.

Log in using your username and password

Forgot your user name or password?

Purchase access

You may purchase access to this article. This will require you to create an account if you don't already have one.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Landscape Journal
Vol. 20, Issue 1
20 Mar 2001
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • Index by author
  • Advertising (PDF)
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Ed Board (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on Landscape Journal.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Kindergarten: Garden Pedagogy from Romanticism to Reform
(Your Name) has sent you a message from Landscape Journal
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the Landscape Journal web site.
Citation Tools
Kindergarten: Garden Pedagogy from Romanticism to Reform
Susan Herrington
Landscape Journal Mar 2001, 20 (1) 30-47; DOI: 10.3368/lj.20.1.30

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Share
Kindergarten: Garden Pedagogy from Romanticism to Reform
Susan Herrington
Landscape Journal Mar 2001, 20 (1) 30-47; DOI: 10.3368/lj.20.1.30
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
Bookmark this article

Jump to section

  • Article
  • Info & Metrics
  • References
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • A Tribute to Robert B. Riley 1931–2019
  • Drawing Online: A Comparative Analysis of an Online Basic Graphics Course
  • Core Knowledge Domains of Landscape Architecture
Show more Articles

Similar Articles

UW Press logo

© 2025 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System

Powered by HighWire