2834: The Spread of Kindergartens Sep 23, 2024

The term ‘kindergarten’ is widely used—sometimes directly borrowed but usually calqued—across many languages across the world, stemming from the German concept developed by Friedrich Froebel in the 19th century. His idea of a "children's garden", literally, emphasizing play-based learning, resonated globally as societies recognized the importance of early childhood education. The spread of this term was facilitated by influential educators who traveled and shared Froebel's methods, but the reason it is so usually calqued into each native language is due international conferences that promoted his educational philosophies. For example, in French, it is translated as "jardin d'enfants" while in Danish its ‘børnehave’. Even outside of Europe, in Armenian, it’s բալիկների պարտեզ (balikneri partez), in Japanese, it’s 幼稚園 (yōchien), and in Hebrew there is a shortened version גן (gan), just ‘garden’.