I. Before you read the passage, talk about these questions. 1. Did you attend a kindergarten when you were a child?

1. Did you attend a kindergarten when you were a child?

2. What did you like most in the kindergarten?

3. What is a preschool educational approach traditionally based on?

A kindergarten is a preschool educational approach traditionally based around playing, singing, practical activities, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. The first such institutions were created in the late eighteenth century in Strassbourg and Bayern to serve children both of whose parents worked out of the home.

The name kindergarten was coined by Friedrich Fröbel, whose approach greatly influenced early-years education around the world. The term is used in many countries to describe a variety of educational institutions for children ranging from the ages of two to seven based on a variety of teaching methods.

In an age when school was restricted to children who had already learned to read and write at home, many attempts were made to make school accessible to the children of women who worked in factories or were orphans.

In 1779, Johann Friedrich Oberlin and Louise Scheppler founded in Strassbourg an early establishment for caring for and educating pre-school children whose parents were absent during the day. At about the same time, in 1780, similar infant establishments were established in Bayern In 1802, Pauline zur Lippe established a preschool center in Detmold.

In 1816, Robert Owen, a philosopher and pedagogue, opened the first British and probably globally the first infant school in New Lanark, Scotland. In conjunction with his venture for cooperative mills Owen wanted the children to be given a good moral education so that they would be fit for work. His system was successful in producing obedient children with basic literacy and numeracy.

Samuel Wilderspin opened his first infant school in London in 1819, and went on to establish hundreds more. He published many works on the subject, and his work became the model for infant schools throughout England and further afield. Play was an important part of Wilderspin's system of education. He is credited with inventing the playground. In 1823, Wilderspin published On the Importance of Educating the Infant Poor, based on the school.