nurturing children to be inquisitive and open to the world
My dear friend took her adorable young children to the local aquarium recently.
I heard later that an adult in the crowd was so frustrated by their lot in life that they felt justified in bullying her six year old daughter. When my friend came to her daughter’s defense this woman tried to pick a fight with her!
“We are here to lift and enlighten the world. We can and should be a positive force for good. Our children are watching and learning from our behavior.”
The pulpit, with pictures of Jesus and the evangelists, in the church of St. Eckard at Stedten was given in 1711 by Schultheiß Fröbel, who was a carpenter and glazier.
This village church stood before the Reformation, which was introduced to Stedten in 1529. The Gothic construction is from the 15th century, and may be as early as the 12th century.
The baptismal font of 1575 is decorated with lilies, which are a symbol of purity of heart.
Baptismal fonts were symbolically placed prominently at the entry of a church. It is through the gift of this sacrament that God miraculously washes away our sins, works faith in our hearts and brings us into the family of believers. The baptismal font is a symbol of God’s love, and a comfort and assurance.
The use of natural light has been a critical design element in Lutheran churches, because natural light spilling in from clear glass or stained windows is used to symbolize God’s presence and enhance the natural, earthy qualities of places of worship.
The ancestry of Friedrich Froebel, the inventor of Kindergarten, has been traced to Caspar Froebel, who died on 14 June 1640 at Großgölitz.
Caspar was appointed to the office of Schultheiß (a village magistrate or sherrif). A Schultheiß (Middle High German: Schultheize, Latinised: Scultetus or Sculteus; also: Schulthies, Schulte or Schulze ) was the head of an administrative district, an executive official of the ruler. It was his duty to order his assigned village or county to pay the taxes and perform the services due to the ruler. The name “Schultheiß” originates from this function: “Schuld” (debt) and “heißen” (to order).
Source: Caspar Froebel
Caspar Fröbel was a farmer and Schultheiß in Großgölitz. His great grandson, Nicolaus Fröbel was born in 1684 in Leutnitz. Nicolaus was Schultheiß in Leutnitz, where he died in 1755.
Basina of Thuringia is an ancestress of many Frankish noble lines.
Basina was the mother of Clovis, who is remembered as the founder of the Frankish realm and modern France. Clovis is the Latin form of his name, Chlodovech.
Basina was a daughter of the Thuringian king Basin and Basina, a Saxon princess. She is reported to have left her first husband, and proposed marriage to the Frankish king Childeric.
Their daughter Audofleda married the Ostrogoth king, Theodoric the Great. Audofleda’s daughter was Amalasuntha, who ruled as Queen of the Ostrogoths.
A major source for the history of these women is the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, a bishop who lived at the same time.
Source: Merovingian Frankish Queens
Through the ages historians have been intrigued by the story of Basina. She was an active participant rather than a bystander, which is not uncommon for the women of the Franks.
Source: Basina of Thuringia – Polyvore
The International Year of Light 2015 celebrates light and light based technologies in business, education, arts and science.
The future of light technologies is dependent upon understanding how to apply light technologies to new solutions and creations, from mobile phones to laser shows, that enhance our everyday life.
The empowerment of girls and women starts on the benches of school, with quality education and access to culture and information.
Gender equality means literacy. It means access to science. It means genuine possibilities for girls to become everything they wish for. And to make their own informed choices. This is essential for human rights, for health, for sustainable development, for the fabric of societies as a whole.
Development is not sustainable if it is unequal. This is why we must do far more together to uphold the human rights and potential of every girl and women.
Gender equality is a global priority of UNESCO.
via UNESCO
UNESCO launched the Global Partnership for Girls’ and Women’s Education, known as ‘Better Life, Better Future’, in 2011 guided by the conviction that educating girls and women can break the cycle of poverty and foster greater social justice. The Partnership seeks to increase learning opportunities for adolescent girls and women and to find solutions to some of the biggest challenges and obstacles to their education. Particular emphasis is given to expanding and improving the quality of education for girls and women at the secondary level and in the area of literacy, to take successful initiatives to scale, to replicate good practice and to engage new actors.
“There is no justification – be it cultural, economic or social – for denying girls and women an education. It is a basic right and an absolute condition for reaching all the internationally agreed development goals. It is through education that girls and women can gain the freedom to make choices, to shape their future and to build more inclusive and just societies. “
Qualities such as humility, forbearance, respect and self discipline helped to sustain people through terrible times.
The Road to Character considers moral values and social ideas once assumed to be central but rarely discussed today.
“We live in a culture that teaches us to promote and advertise ourselves and to master skills required for success but that gives little encouragement to humility, sympathy, and honest self confrontation, which are necessary for building character”
People with character are quiet achievers.
“They radiate a sort of moral joy. They answer softly when challenged harshly. They are silent when criticised or unfairly abused. They are dignified when others try to humiliate them, restrained when others try to provoke them. But they get things done.”
We seem to focus on what people are in terms of looks and money rather than who they are as people, serving others and trying to do some good in the world.
The Road to Character makes a case for the worth of people’s ideas to be linked to the way they conduct themselves.
Self effacement rather than self promotion, humility rather than arrogance, modesty rather than pride are some of the exacting life choices that Brooks thinks more of us should be making.
The foundation stone for the Fröbelhaus in Bad Blankenburg was laid on June 28, 1900, sixty years after Kindergarten was named by Friedrich Froebel.
This building was used as a kindergarten and a recreational facility for kindergarten teachers. The first Fröbel Museum was located here from 1910 to 1946.
Today the Fröbelhaus is home to the Kindergarten in Bad Blankenburg. The Kindergarten features a wide variety of activities and games, and contains a large room for social, musical, manual, conceptual and creative learning and doing. The focus is on teaching young children through play.
The Thüringia Fröbel Seminary training facility is also located in the kindergarten complex and features annual courses for kindergarten teachers. The courses include the use of Fröbel’s play gifts, early childhood education through play, the stimulation of a child’s creative powers, and the opportunity to implement these concepts under today’s conditions.
Contact Kindergarten:
AWO Kindergarten Fröbelhaus
Bähringstr. 6-8
07422 Bad Blankenburg
The city council provided land on the condition that construction would begin within 2 years. Donations were so successful that on 28 June 1900 the foundation could be laid. Most funds came from the Kindergarten Union of North America.
Despite best efforts, it was not possible until 1902 to raise enough money to start construction of the Art Nouveau building, that was opened on 6 August 1908.
The kindergarten was on the ground floor and several guest rooms were on the second floor. The museum was opened in 1910, on the first floor. source
Support diversity, inclusion and harmony. Everyone has the right to be included.
Australia is made stronger by the diversity of its people.
People today look remarkably diverse on the outside. There is variation among individual human beings, from size and shape to skin tone and eye color. But we are much more alike than we are different. We are, in fact, remarkably similar. There is no reason to assume that “races” represent any units of relevance for understanding human genetic diversity.
Early studies on human diversity showed that most genetic diversity was found between individuals rather than between populations or continents.
Gradual variation and isolation by distance on a worldwide scale are better representations of global genetic diversity than are discontinuities among continents or “races.” The pattern seen is one of gradients, that extend over the entire world, rather than discrete clusters. There is no reason to assume that major genetic discontinuities exist between different continents or “races.”
An understanding of how genetic diversity is structured in the human species is not only of anthropological and political importance, but also of medical relevance.
read more: Evidence for Gradients of Human Genetic Diversity Within and Among Continents
Music and the arts are being recognized as crucial intellectual building blocks in the early years, closely linked to such cognitive functions as verbal linguistic development, spatial reasoning, complex problem solving in math and science, and the development of emotional intelligence.
Mounting evidence from the fields of education, cognitive neuroscience, and brain imaging has challenged our previous assumptions about intelligence and brain development in children.
This holds especially true in the early years of a child’s development.
The Marilyn Thomson Early Childhood Education Centre is developing and delivering innovative early childhood education programs, and digital early childhood education products for use in the home and classroom by parents, children and teachers.
The Marilyn Thomson Centre is focused on providing parents, caregivers and teachers with the tools to give children an enhanced, educational experience and promote cognitive and social development through music and the arts.
The Marilyn Thomson Early Childhood Education Centre has been launched thanks to a generous gift from David, Peter, and Taylor Thomson, reflecting her lifelong involvement in music and her commitment to music education.
The Marilyn Thomson Centre is poised to significantly advance the reach and impact of early childhood development in Canada, and to be at the heart of one of today’s greatest opportunities: helping every child succeed through the power of music.
