Maria Kraus-Boelté

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Maria Kraus-Boelté (born November 8, 1836 in Hagenow as Maria Bölte , † November 1, 1918 in Atlantic City (New Jersey) ) was a German-American educator. She is considered to be the pioneer of the Friedrich Froebel- inspired kindergarten movement in the United States .

life and work

Maria Bölte came from a respected family of lawyers in Mecklenburg-Schwerin . Her parents were (Johann) Ernst (Georg) Bölte and his wife Louise, b. Ehlers, daughter of the councilor and mayor of Neubukow August Ehlers. Ernst Bölte was a lawyer and notary as well as temporarily mayor in Hagenow.

Maria Bölte was raised privately at home. As a young woman, at the suggestion of her aunt, the writer Amely Bölte , she began to be interested in the thoughts of Friedrich Froebel and studied with Luise Froebel , his widow , in Hamburg for two years . She then taught for four years in England in the kindergarten founded by Johannes Ronge and his wife Bertha . Some of the work of her students was shown at the World Exhibition in London in 1862 . In 1867 she returned to Hamburg and shortly afterwards opened a kindergarten in Lübeck .

She began correspondence with the German-American John Kraus, who had set up a kindergarten in Washington, DC . In 1871 she was invited by Elizabeth Peabody to come to New York City and run a kindergarten there with Kraus. Bölte came to New York via London in 1872. The following year she married John Kraus. Financed by Elizabeth Peabody, the couple not only ran a model kindergarten from 1873 onwards, but also gave courses for mothers and a seminar for future educators. As the basis of their work, they published the two-volume The Kindergarten Guide in 1877 , which was reprinted in 1905 and is considered a classic of American kindergarten literature.

Her seminar became a center of Froebel's ideas in the USA and had a significant influence on the development of kindergartens, especially through Kraus-Boelté's personal connection with Luise Froebel. Several hundred kindergarten teachers were trained in a one-year course at the seminar, which was followed by a one-year internship , and generations of children went through the attached kindergarten.

John Kraus died in 1896, and Maria Kraus-Boelté initially continued the work alone. She was president of the Kindergarten division of the National Education Association from 1899 to 1900. Three years later, she persuaded the School of Education at New York University to create the very first college-level course as part of their summer program. She taught here until 1907.

In 1913 she retired. Maria Kraus-Boelté died in Atlantic City in November 1918 and was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

Fonts

Girl with building blocks from the kindergarten guide
  • Maria Kraus-Boelté and John Kraus: The kindergarten guide. An illustrated hand-book, designed for the self-instruction of kindergartners, mothers, and nurses.
    First Volume: The Gifts. New York: E. Steiger 1877 ( digitized version ); 2nd edition 1892 ( digitized version ); Reprint: Kindergarten Messenger (January, 2001)
    Second Volume: The Occupations.
  • Article in The kindergarten and its relation to elementary education. (Chicago 1907)
  • Characteristics of Froebel's Method, Kindergarten Training. In: Foster Wygant: Art in American Schools in the Nineteenth Century. (Cincinnati 1983) - facsimile of NEA Proceedings (1879)

Some of her writings can be found in the Archives of the Association of Childhood Education International :

  • The Kindergarten and the Mission of Woman. My experience as trainer of kindergarten teachers in this country. To address. Maria Kraus-Boelté, 1877 (published as a brochure by E. Steiger)
  • An Interpretation of Some of the Froebelian Kindergarten Principles. Maria Kraus-Boelté, 1907

Part of the estate is in the archives of the Cincinnati Kindergarten Association .

literature

  • Famous American Women: A Biographical Dictionary from Colonial Times to the Present ed. Robert McHenry (Dover 1980)
  • The Kindergarten at The Galaxy (October 1876)
  • Edward Wiebe, Paradise of Childhood: A Practical Guide to Kindergartners (1906)
  • Robert and Barbara Selig: Maria Kraus-Boelté , in: German Life ISSN  1075-2382 , April / May 2010, p. 50f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ see Grand Ducal Mecklenburg-Schwerin State Calendar 1834, 1836
  2. ↑ The first edition of the Kindergarten Guide contains an impressive list of families who had sent their children to kindergarten up to 1877. Maria Kraus-Boelte, John Kraus: The Kindergarten Guide: An Illustrated Hand-book, Designed for the Self-instruction of Kindergartners, Mothers, and Nurses. Volume 1. E. Steiger & Company, 1877 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  3. ^ National Education Association in the English language Wikipedia
  4. ^ Association of Childhood Education International
  5. ↑ Lesson drafts and other papers (PDF; 65 kB)
personal data
SURNAME Kraus-Boelté, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bölte, Maria (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American educator, pioneer of the kindergarten movement in the USA
DATE OF BIRTH November 8, 1836
PLACE OF BIRTH Hagenow
DATE OF DEATH November 1, 1918
Place of death Atlantic City, New Jersey