] Several very influential friends
of ours spoke to the Duke of Meiningen of our work. He summoned Froebel
to him, and made inquiries as to his plans for the future. Froebel
laid before him a plan for an educational institute,[129] complete in
every particular, which we had all worked at in common to draw up, in
which not only the ordinary "learned" branches of education but also
handicrafts, such as carpentering, weaving, bookbinding, tilling the
ground and so on were used as means of culture. During half the school
hours studies were to be pursued, and the other half was to be occupied
by handiwork of one kind or another. This work was to give opportunities
for direct instruction; and above all it was so planned as to excite in
the mind of the child a necessity for explanations as well as to gratify
his desire for creativeness and for practical usefulness. The awakening
of this eager desire for learning and creative activity, was one of the
fundamental thoughts of Friedrich Froebel's mind. The object-teaching
of Pestalozzi seemed to him not to go far enough; and he was always
seeking to regard man not only as a receptive being, but a creative, and
especially as a productive one. We never could work out our ideas in
Keilhau satisfactorily, because we could not procure efficient technical
teaching; and before all things we wanted the pupils themselves. But now
by the help of the Duke of Meiningen our keenest hopes seemed on the
point of gratification. The working out of the plan spoken of above, led
us to many practical constructions in which already lay the elements of
the future Kindergarten occupations. These models are now scattered far
and wide, and indeed are for the most part lost; but the written plan
has been preserved.

The Duke of Meiningen was much pleased with Froebel's explanations
of this plan, and with the complete and open-hearted way in which
everything was laid before him. A proposition was now made that Froebel
should receive the estate of Helba with thirty acres of land, and a
yearly subsidy of 1,000 florins.[130] In passing it may be noticed that
Froebel was consulted by the duke as to the education of the hereditary
prince. Froebel at once said outright that no good would be done for the
future ruler if he were not brought up in the society of other boys. The
duke came to his opinion, and the prince was actually so taught and
brought up.

When Froebel came back from Meiningen[131] the whole commu