(German for children's garden) is used in many parts of the world for the first stages of a child's classroom education. In some places kindergarten is part of the formal school system; in others it may refer to pre-school or daycare.

History

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Friedrich Wilhelm August Fröbel invented the concept and founded the first kindergarten (called a Play and Activity Institute) in 1837 in Bad Blankenburg, Thuringia, in the small principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, Germany. He coined the term Kindergarten in 1840 to mark the four hundredth anniversary of the invention of movable type by Gutenberg. The first kindergarten in the United States was founded in Watertown, Dodge County, Wisconsin by Margarethe (Margaretta) Meyer Schurz (wife of activist/statesman Carl Schurz ). Margaretta Schurz’s older sister Bertha Meyer von Rönge (wife of Johannes von Rönge) had been founding kindergarten's in Germany from 1849—the Meyer sisters were pioneers of the kindergarten movement in Germany and the United States, and in England, where they also founded the first three kindergartens in London (1851), Manchester (1859) and Leeds (1860). They followed the precepts of Friedrich Froebel. Margarethe Schurz initially taught five children in her home (including her own daughter Agatha) in Watertown, Wisconsin, but was so successful that she opened the her first kindergarten in America in 1856. Her kindergarten became publicly financed in 1873 (the first publicly financed kindergarten was established in St. Louis in the same year byBoth Bertha and Margarethe were students of Froebel and his wife Luise, and became two of their most prominent acolytes Louise Frankenberg tried to start a School of her own in Ohio in 1838. However, despite her dreams and her dedication, Miss Frankenberg's school did not succeed, as she had hoped. Her difficulty with speaking English was one problem. She may have had trouble explaining this new type of school. Even parents who understood may have been slow to accept this revolutionary approach to education. Whatever the reasons, Caroline was disheartened. She left the United States in 1840 and returned to Keilhau, Germany. For a period of six years, 1840–1846, she taught at Keilhau under Froebel's direction. It was in 1840 that Froebel had given the name of "Kindergarten" to his school for young children. She obtained a Kindergarten teaching position in Dresden in 1847. By 1852, she opened her own kindergarten in Bautzen. Perhaps Caroline was strengthened by her additional years with Froebel and her experiences as a Kindergartener. Somehow, she decided to return to the United States. In 1858 she was in Columbus, Ohio, again. Once more Miss Frankenberg set up a school. While her first school had all the elements of Froebel's educational program, this time it was established as a Kindergarten. The term was foreign to the local citizens. Her request for an ad in the newspaper was delayed when the staff encountered difficulty in translating the word "Kindergarten".

(The first publicly financed kindergarten was established in St. Louis in the same year 1873 by Susan Blow, who had been trained by a teacher who had been trained by Bertha), but was closed during WWI because it was a German-language kindergarten. While Schurz's first kindergarten was German-language, she also advocated the establishment of English-language kindergartens. The first English-language kindergarten in America was founded in 1859 in Boston by Elizabeth Peabody, who received her first exposure to a kindergarten from Margaretta Schurz in Watertown.

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"Zwergenburg": Förderverein sammelt Unterschriften: Metelen - Der Förderverein des DRK-Kindergartens "Zwergenbu.. http://bit.ly/7lCIje
Metelen (Metelen) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:20:04 -0000
"Zwergenburg": Förderverein sammelt Unterschriften: Metelen - Der Förderverein des DRK-Kindergartens "Zwergenbu.. http://bit.ly/7lCIje
RT: @amolmathur: RT @sriharsha73: Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought http://bit.ly/6JpEvm #GrimTweets
GrimTweets (GrimTweets) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:10:52 -0000
RT: @amolmathur: RT @sriharsha73: Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought http://bit.ly/6JpEvm #GrimTweets
RT @sriharsha73: Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought
amolmathur (Amol Mathur) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:55:34 -0000
RT @sriharsha73: Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought
Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought
sriharsha73 (sriharsha73) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 13:53:51 -0000
Isn’t kidnapping normal in kindergartens? #afterthought
American Heritage Center Academy http://www.lahispanicpages.com/education/American-Heritage-Center-Academy-Kindergartens-18-28.html
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American Heritage Center Academy http://www.lahispanicpages.com/education/American-Heritage-Center-Academy-Kindergartens-18-28.html
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lahispanicpages (LAHispanic Pages) Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:16:56 -0000
Montessori at the Park at Rancho Santa Margarita http://www.lahispanicpages.com/education/Montessori-at-the-Park-Kindergartens-58-28.html

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