Kindergarten changed our world, and will again.

Wiltheis Kindergarten in Seattle

 

What if the ideal early childhood method was the very first one, established over 180 years ago? Why haven’t most educators even heard about it? More importantly, what ended the original play-based, child-centered, nature-based, STEM-focused, project method that inspired the Progressives, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Reggio Emilia, and countless others?

Find Answers Here

Our documentary series, The Garden of Children, examines the forces which led to the academic preschool model currently dominating American education. Who is the audience for this series?

PARENTS: Understand the different early education methods currently available in the USA to make more informed decisions for your children.

TEACHERS: Learn the origin of kindergarten, and why attempts to return play to early childhood education have failed.

DESIGNERS: Follow the threads of design education from Froebel to the Bauhaus, Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Eames, and today.

Children should not be raised according to the current standards, but to possibly a better future condition of the human race.
Friedrich Froebel, inventor of Kindergarten