What if the ideal early childhood method was the very first one, established over 180 years ago? Why haven’t most educators even heard about it? More importantly, what ended the original play-based, child-centered, nature-based, STEM-focused, project method that inspired the Progressives, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Reggio Emilia, and countless others?

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Our 72-minute documentary pilot episode, Garden of Children, examines the forces which led to the academic preschool model currently dominating American education. The intended audience for this is:

PARENTS: Understand the different early education methods currently available in the USA to make more informed decisions for your children.

TEACHERS: Learn the origin of kindergarten, and why attempts to return play-based learning to all early childhood classrooms have failed.

DESIGNERS: Follow the threads of design education from Froebel to the Bauhaus, Buckminster Fuller, Frank Lloyd Wright, Charles Eames, and today.

"Children should not be raised according to the current standards, but to possibly a better future condition of the human race." ~ Friedrich Froebel, Inventor of Kindergarten