Abstract
Somewhere in the United States right now, a child is sitting beneath fluorescent lights while the world outside continues without her. This paper argues that her confinement is not accidental, but rather theoretical. Examining the divergent frameworks of Friedrich Fröbel and Jean Piaget, it traces how American public schooling absorbed a vision of learning organized around cognitive individualism while displacing Fröbel's relational vision of child and nature. Drawing on reflection, historical analysis, and research, this paper contends that lasting reform requires confronting the foundational assumptions that built the classroom in the first place.
Recommended Citation
Moroney-Fernandez, Mary
(2026)
"Nature as the Foundation: A Shift in Pedagogy,"
The Cicadian: Vol. 1:
Iss.
2, Article 5.
Available at:
https://commons.und.edu/cicadian/vol1/iss2/5
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