Each year on April 21st, National Kindergarten Day honors the birthday of Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel (born 1782) who started the first Kindergarten in Germany in 1837. Froebel was a German teacher who believed that children learn through play and experience. German immigrants brought Froebel’s ideas to the US in the 1840s. The first kindergarten in a public school in the US was started in 1873, in St. Louis, Missouri.
I started kindergarten at age 4 in the fall of 1960 at First Presbyterian Church School in Winston-Salem. I was born just after the cut-off (mid-October, I believe) but my mother thought I was ready. I was thrilled! I loved every minute of kindergarten as you can tell by my smile in the class photo. I'm seated on the front row, 5th from the left.
Kindergarten class, 1960-1961
First Presbyterian Church School, Winston-Salem, NC
This was before public kindergarten in North Carolina. My mother figured that if I had to drop out or repeat the class in private school, it wouldn’t be on my permanent record. Not to worry - I loved every single thing about kindergarten!
- I loved going somewhere every day!
- I loved being around other children, who wanted to play and be silly like I did!
- I loved singing songs and listening to stories!
- I loved playing outside and racing around!
- I loved learning colors and letters and numbers!
For nap time, we had to bring a bath towel from home and lay on it on the floor. We didn’t have to go to sleep, but we had to lie down and be quiet. I distinctly remember lying there thinking what fun I was having at kindergarten!
The only problem was that I was very envious of another little girl’s hair. I had short blond wavy hair. She had very long, smooth, dark brown hair. And she sometimes wore it plaited into two pigtails. I was so envious; my little 5-year-old self couldn’t stand it! So one day, I dipped her pigtails in paint. She swung her head, the pigtails went flying, and so did the paint!
Despite that incident, the next year, I started first grade. School was not nearly as much fun. It was work!
It's hard to believe that I graduated from kindergarten 60 years ago!
Sources:
https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-kindergarten-day-april-21/
https://genealogybargains.com/
