Froebel Training

The second important element in Wright's childhood development was in the education his mother provided for him through the teachings of Fredrich Froebel.

It seems that before Wright's birth his mother had decided on her son's future profession, possibly due to the respect and success within the family of her brother Thomas who had made it himself as architect and builder. Anna Lloyd-Jones Wright started her son on the course at the age of nine using the instructions laid down in Froebel's kindergarten educational system handbooks.

What then, did the Froebel training involve?
One of the main principles was the emphasis on the child learning from nature. At its core the training developed analytical thinking through teaching the child to observe the patterns and geometric forms of individual aspects of nature but equally to evaluate them as, "a whole both in its organic unity and in its component parts." (1) This was applied to the child through creative play using toys, utilising colours, textures, objects, and the application of cause and effect. These were applied in a sequence that increased in difficulty as the child grew and learnt. The child was being taught to observe and develop an inquisatve mind, dissembling and reconstructing things. From this it was hoped that the child's natural inclination would be create shape and form.
Froebel's hope from this work was that the child would learn from his own actions, arriving at an idea of an inner coherence to all things and that the spheres of the material and spiritual were one.
The influence of this on Wright is not mere conjecture as parallels between Froebel's illustrations in his manuals and Wright's own designs have been located on many occasions by the critic Richard McCormac. What the application of Froebel methods did to Wright's natural penchant for design was give it expression, allowing Wright to interpret natural and architectural forms. Robert McCarter sums up this influence best as making Wright, "far more interested in designing the world than in representing it." (2)

(1)Fredrich Froebel Selected Writings, ed.I.M.Milley,
New York, 1898.
(2)Robert McCarter, Frank Lloyd Wright: Architect, Phaidon Press Limited, 1997. p12.


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