Maria Kraus-Boelté

Maria Kraus- Bölte, born Bölte ( born November 8, 1836 in Hagenow, † November 1, 1918 in Atlantic City (New Jersey) ) was a German -American educator. It is considered a pioneer of inspired by Friedrich Froebel kindergarten movement in the United States.

Life and work

Maria Bölte came from a respected family of lawyers in Mecklenburg -Schwerin. Her parents were Dr. iur. (Johann) Ernst ( George) Bölte and Louise Bölte, née Ehlers, daughter of the mayor of Neubukow and Privy Councillor August Ehlers. Ernst Bölte was a lawyer and notary, as well as temporary mayor in Hagenow. Maria Bölte was privately educated at home. As a young woman she began at the suggestion of her aunt, the writer Amely Bölte, to be interested in the thoughts of Friedrich Froebel and learned two years in Hamburg with Luise Froebel, his widow. Then she taught for four years in England in the kindergarten founded by Johannes Ronge and his wife Bertha. Some of the work of their students were shown at the Great Exhibition London 1862. In 1867 they returned to Hamburg and opened shortly thereafter a kindergarten in Lübeck.

She began a correspondence with the German - American John Kraus, a nursery in Washington DC had set up. In 1871 she was invited by Elizabeth Peabody to come to New York City and operate there with Kraus a kindergarten. Bölte came in 1872 to London to New York. The following year she married John Kraus. Funded by Elizabeth Peabody, the pair operation from 1873 not only a model kindergarten, but also gave classes for mothers and a seminar for prospective teachers. The basis of her work published in 1877 the two-volume The Kindergarten Guide, which was reissued in 1905 and is considered a classic of American literature kindergarten.

Your seminar was a center of Froebel 's ideas in the United States and had a significant influence on the development of kindergartens, in particular by Kraus- Boeltés personal connection with Luise Froebel. Hundreds of kindergarten teachers were trained in a one-year course at the seminar, on the one-year internship followed, and generations of children went through the connected kindergarten.

John Kraus died in 1896, and Maria Kraus- Bölte continued to work alone at first continued. She was president of the kindergarten department of the National Education Association from 1899 to 1900. Three years later she convinced the education department ( School of Education ) at New York University to set up the very first college-level course as part of their summer program. They even taught here until 1907.

In 1913 she retired. Maria Kraus- Bölte died in November 1918 in Atlantic City and was buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in New York.

Writings

• Maria Kraus- Bölte and John Kraus: The kindergarten guide: An illustrated hand -book, designed for the self -instruction of kindergartners, mothers, and nurses First Volume: The Gifts. New York: E. Steiger 1877 ( digitized ); 2nd edition 1892 ( digitized ); Reprints: Kindergarten Messenger ( January, 2001) Second Volume: The Occupations.
• Article in The kindergarten and its relation to elementary education (Chicago 1907)
• Characteristics of Froebel 's Method, Kindergarten Training in Foster Wygant, Art in American Schools in the Nineteenth Century ( Cincinnati, 1983) - facsimile of NEA Proceedings (1879 )

Some of her writings can be found in the archives of the Association of Childhood Education International:

• The kindergarten and the mission of Woman: my experience as coach of kindergarten -teachers in this country. An address. , Maria Kraus- Bölte, 1877 ( As a brochure published by E.Steiger )
• An Interpretation of Some of the Froebelian Kindergarten Principles, Maria Kraus- Bölte, 1907

A partial estate is located in the archives of the Cincinnati Kindergarten Association.