The German Genius by Samantha

The German Genius by Samantha - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

When considering who I would love to have dinner with, a lot of possibilities ran through my head. J. R. R. Tolkein, Pope John Paul II, and Attila the Hun all came across my mind. But, after listening to my professor lecture us on the many people who helped to influence education, I decided on who I would really love to talk to over a nice German mahlzeit of lentils, frankfurters, and spätzle. And that inventive German teacher is Friedrich Froebel.
Friedrich Froebel was most famously known for his new ways of bringing education to children before they started school, when their minds are the most receptive. This period is now considered kindergarten. He brought imagination and relationships to children when they were very young, and his system resulted in many popular toys we have now, like blocks, play-doh, and Tinkertoys.
The reason I would love to have dinner with this man is to learn how he came up with his ideas of respecting and loving each individual child to further their educational growth. He managed to introduce children to the their environment and helped them to develop relationships with other people and nature. I would also ask how him how I could integrate his ideas into my own teaching styles for when I become a kindergarten or elementary teacher in my future. I would want to further his ideas, and to do so, I would talk to him about his many ideas and the personal relationships he had in life that influenced his teaching style.
Friedrich Froebel is someone who has influenced my ideas for teaching and has increased my future goals from “becoming a teacher” to “inspire in children the imagination and respect for the world needed to succeed.” I want the children that I teach to have the same chance the children Froebel taught at becoming amazing and inspirational to people throughout time. Having dinner and a conversation with this man for only a couple of hours could certainly help me to further my ideas as well as his own in the coming generation of children. Although J.R.R. Tolkein, Pope John Paul II, and Attila the Hun were all people who influenced history in remarkable ways, none of them inspired me quite like Friedrich Froebel did.