Education in the Home, the Kindergarten, and the Primary School

Elizabeth Palmer Peabody treats early education as the formation of understanding and character through attentive relationships with children. These lectures for kindergarten teachers explain Froebel's principles, connecting the home, preschool classroom and primary school. E. Adelaide Manning's introduction describes Peabody's work in establishing and improving American kindergartens and argues that classroom care should extend the training begun at home.

The lectures ask teachers to study children's play, feelings and questions with the same seriousness they bring to older pupils' lessons. In one passage, Peabody recalls engaging a child through flowers, music, sunlight and an improvised story about a small worm. Such examples link imagination and affection with learning. Christian belief shapes her account of childhood and the teacher's responsibilities. Readers interested in the history of early schooling can examine how practical observation, moral education and religious ideas come together in this account of Froebel's approach.