Post Office Reform: its Importance and Practicability was privately circulated in 1837 by Rowland Hill, a schoolmaster from Birmingham.
The report called for “low and uniform rates” according to weight, rather than distance. Most of the costs in the postal system were not for transport, but rather for laborious handling procedures at the origins and the destinations. At that time, letters were paid for by the recipient, not the sender. Costs could be reduced dramatically if postage were prepaid by the sender.
Hill proposed to lower the postage rate to a penny per half ounce, without regard to distance. His idea of prepayment facilitated the safe, speedy and cheap transfer of letters.
In the House of Lords the Postmaster denounced Hill’s “wild and visionary schemes”.
The penny post was a remarkable success with the number of letters posted rising from 90 million in 1839 to 679 million in 1864. This was more than enough to make up for the initial loss in tax revenue.
Another big idea in 1837 was nurturing the creativity of each child by “play and activity”. Friedrich Froebel taught children how to learn, observe, reason, express and create through play. Employing philosophies of unity and interconnectedness, the songs, games, playing with blocks and nature walks of Kindergarten become familiar throughout the world by the end of the 19th century.
“until fairly modern times there was a much higher degree of tolerance in most of the Islamic lands than prevailed in the Christian world” Bernard Lewis
The Third Choice provides a compelling introduction to Islam on the basis of its primary sources, the Qur’an and the life of Muhammad. Topics covered include: the sharia, interpretation of the Qur’an, women’s rights, and religious freedom.
After this introduction of Islam, there follows an explanation of Islam’s policy for non-Muslims living under Islamic conditions. The doctrine of the three choices (conversion, the sword, or the dhimma pact of surrender to Islam) is explained, including an analysis of the meaning of tribute payments (jizya) made by non-Muslims (dhimmis) to their Muslim conquerors.
Durie describes the impact of dhimmitude on the human rights of non-Muslims in Islamic contexts around the world today, including pressure being exerted through the United Nations for states to conform to sharia restrictions on freedom of speech.
The Third Choice offers indispensable keys for understanding current trends in global politics, interfaith dialogue initiatives, and the increasingly fraught relationship between migrant Muslim communities in the West and their host societies.
“It is well to call the attention of each child to one great law, which dominates in nature and thought. Between two things or two ideas relatively different there always exists a third which unites the two others in itself, and is found between them with a certain equilibrium.” Friedrich Froebel
Froebel selected the cylinder to unite the sphere and the cube.
Warning: CONTAINS STRONG MAGNETS. Keep away from sensitive devices such as credit cards, computers, magnetic media and medical devices like pacemakers.
Geomag’s Kor Eggs are 3D spherical magnetic playsets with 55 fully playable pieces, that quickly and firmly attach through the wondrous power of magnetism. The Kor Egg offers limitless creations.
Like all of Geomag’s award winning products, the Kor Egg is Swiss made to international safety standards.
Geomagworld SA has fostered simultaneous learning and creativity since 2008. All Geomag products are designed, developed, and produced in Switzerland and follow the highest European and American safety and quality standards.
At Geomag, their priority is designing toys that amuse and stimulate children’s sense of fantasy, curiosity, and creativity. Helping young minds hone their abstract problem solving and complex reasoning skills is crucial for their transition into functioning adults, and all Geomag products reflect that mentality.
Softened peas and sharpened sticks were used by Friedrich Froebel for children to make structures.
Praxis may be described as a form of critical thinking and comprises the combination of reflection and action.
Praxis can be viewed as a progression of cognitive and physical actions:
Taking the action
Considering the impacts of the action
Analysing the results of the action by reflecting upon it
Altering and revising conceptions and planning following reflection
Implementing these plans in further actions
This creates a cycle which can be viewed in terms of educational settings, learners and educational facilitators.
Praxis has been described as:
“doing something, and then only afterwards, finding out why you did it”
Few educators speak of praxis. While praxis may not be part of their vocabulary, practice, is. What is praxis and why should educators be concerned with it?
Praxis is not simply action based on reflection.
It is action which embodies certain qualities. These include a commitment to human well being and the search for truth, and respect for others. It is the action of people who are free, who are able to act for themselves.
Praxis is always risky. It requires that a person ‘makes a wise and prudent practical judgement about how to act in this situation’ (page 190, Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical. Education Knowledge and Action Research)
‘The cocoa is too hot, I cannot drink it!’, Charlotte exclaims during morning tea.
Emily, her teacher, smiles and responds ‘I am not sure what to do. Do you have an idea how you could cool it down as fast as possible?’
Ben suggests: ‘Why don’t you stir the cocoa really fast? This always helps when I do it.’
‘I have an even better idea!’, Ben’s friend Julia says, ‘You could blow into it!’
‘Well, I think these are some pretty good ideas!’, Emily says, ‘Charlotte, why don’t we ask the other children about their ideas and we try to find out what works best?’
Learning opportunities like this arise in early childhood settings every single day. Based on the strong belief that children need to have early opportunities to discover the world, the ‘Little Scientists’ professional development program supports education and care services in integrating inquiry and exploration into daily activities.
‘Little Scientists’ strongly advocates that every child should have access to hands on discovery in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – on a daily basis.
To enable a sustainable implementation, the initiative offers a professional development workshop program for early childhood educators. During the full day workshop, teachers and educators explore various opportunities to playfully address the many exciting questions that arise within a child’s experiential world.
Through hands on, practical experiments and group activities, the educators experience education on an age-appropriate level and learn how to support children in finding answers themselves. All workshops are built around using existing, everyday materials, to make experimenting and exploring at the education and care services as accessible as possible. Once completed, teachers can then – step-by-step – implement the activities with the children in their care.
The ‘Little Scientists’ program includes:
A long-term program of currently 9 different workshop topics.
Hands-on workshops with several rounds of practical experiments which are done with everyday materials and can easily be adjusted to the work in centres.
Having fun while exploring given materials in small groups. Participants experience the stages of surprise, asking questions, coming up with hypotheses, testing these in further experiments, documenting findings and discussing the outcomes, much like what the children will experience.
Getting to know and use the ‘Little Scientists’ Inquiry-Based Learning Cycle, a scientific method which helps to give structure and purpose to experimenting and lays the foundation for further investigation.
After every workshop, each participating centre receives a set of laminated cards with a wealth of ideas for experiments and scientific background information as well as a booklet with the educational content addressed in the workshop.
The holistic approach of the program not only encourages scientific exploration, but also aims at ensuring the development of basic competencies for sustained lifelong learning.
German educator Friedrich Froebel opened the world’s first kindergarten in 1837. Froebel’s method inspired and informed the work of Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, and others, who adopted his ideas and adapted his materials according to their own work.
Intimate Triangle: Architecture of Crystals, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Froebel Kindergarten
Motivated by Frank Lloyd Wright’s credit to the early childhood influence of Froebel Kindergarten on his architectural design, Rubin illuminates the evolution of the Froebel Kindergarten and the intriguing connections to some of the greatest talents in the arts and sciences of the twentieth century.
In his autobiography, Frank Lloyd Wright wrote about the significance of playing with these blocks designed by Friedrich Froebel.
“For several years I sat at the little Kindergarten table and played with the cube, the sphere and the triangle. These smooth wooden maple blocks . . . All are in my fingers to this day”
This book is for anyone interested in early childhood education or the creative forces behind the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright.
$4 million has been committed to the Little Scientists program in Australia to inspire three year old and four year old children, through active engagement with the world around them. Young Australians are becoming more numerate and scientifically literate by learning to count with little towers of wooden blocks and blowing bubbles. Nurturing the imagination of each child ensures they will go on to create the prosperity for Australia to remain a first world, generous social welfare net, high wage economy. read more
Activities start with familiar objects and experiences. Each child asks questions, which can be explored rationally. Making connections, drawing inferences, and creating new information are the building blocks for a culture of science and technology to create an innovation nation.
The curriculum encourages the autonomy, self confidence and self esteem of each child, based on the progressive ideas of Friedrich Fröbel, the renowned educator, who developed the Kindergarten concept 175 years ago. The program sparks interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics by encouraging teachers to implement ideas and concepts from workshops, while exploring together with the children in their care.
The five year olds agree: trees make the wind by shaking their branches. Their teacher does not correct them, but instead asks whether anyone has seen the wind in a place where there are no trees. One boy recalls a visit to the seashore, where the wind was whipping up water and sand with no trees in sight. Another child says that moving cars make fallen leaves twirl. Perhaps, they decide, trees are not the source of a breeze.
Little Scientists marks a departure, says a kindergarten teacher who participates in the programme. “You have to be willing to do something with the kids that might not lead to a result. They will not take something home that they can show their parents.” Teachers trained in the method encourage children to ask questions about natural phenomena and everyday objects. read more
Portrait of Johannes Arnold Barop, 1846-1848 by August Lieber
Barop married Emilie Dorothea Froebel, daughter of Johann Christian Ludwig Froebel on 11 Jul 1831 at Keilhau. Emilie Dorothea Froebel was born on 11 Jul 1804 at Osterode and died on 18 Aug 1860 at Keilhau
